Adam, Eve, and the Serpent

With a selection of some 150 outstanding works spanning painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, installation and video art, the Bundeskunsthalle presents a unique overview of modern and contemporary art drawn from the important private collection put together by Erika and Rolf Hoffmann. The exhibition also traces the collectors’ remarkable relationship to their collection, which they always conceived of as flexible and which they approached in a singularly free, dialogue-driven manner.

The Hoffmanns made their first discoveries in the 1960s at exhibitions such as the documenta in Kassel, at art fairs, in museums and in the many kunsthalles and kunstvereins of the Rhineland. The first purchases soon followed—primarily directly from artists, with whom the couple maintained a close dialogue right from the start. The engagement with contemporary art heightened their awareness of pressing social and societal issues. The Hoffmanns were enthusiastic about the rich diversity of artistic expression, which they saw as a key characteristic of contemporary art, and they were looking for innovation. Over the years, they expanded their private collection. Now numbering some 1200 works, it is second to none, both nationally and internationally. In 2018, it was donated to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

The exhibition offers deep insights into the collection in all its individuality, subjectivity and intensely private nature. The focus is on the relevance and impact of the works today.

The presentation sheds light on surprising correspondences, offers intellectual and emotional stimuli and reflects fundamental existential and philosophical questions that have a timeless validity in our society. The dialogical and synergetic principle of the collection is made manifest in its open and cross-media display. Further to autonomous or corresponding positions, an impressive wall piece by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and the thematic density of politically and socially oriented works, the exhibition reconstructs four different installations of the Hoffmann Collection from the early years in Berlin.

Concepts such as physicality, transparency, communication or interaction are compellingly brought to life in works by artists such as Carla Accardi, Yael Bartana, Christian Boltanski, Monica Bonvicini, Isa Genzken, Georg Herold, Astrid Klein, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, François Morellet, Ernesto Neto, Julian Rosefeldt & Piero Steinle, Fred Sandback, Chiharu Shiota, Frank Stella, Wolfgang Tillmans and Andy Warhol.

A cooperation between the Bundeskunsthalle and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann


Symposium
“The role of private collections for the public”
Friday, November 19, 7–9pm and Saturday, November 20, 12–7pm

With:
–Erika Hoffmann-Koenige, collector
–Marion Ackermann, general director Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
–Eva Kraus, director Bundeskunsthalle
–Stephan Berg, director Kunstmuseum Bonn
–Dirk Boll, president of Christie's London
–Dorothée Brill, director donation Hoffmann Collection
–Jiří Fajt,  Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden
–Fabrice Hergott, director Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Palais de Tokyo
–Susanne Kleine, curator Bundeskunsthalle
–Bernhard Maaz, general director Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
–Petr Pudil, collector from Prague
–Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann, Aachen and Berlin
–Julia Stoschek, collector, Düsseldorf and Berlin
–Julia Voss, author and curator
among others

In German and English
Registration: symposium [​at​] bundeskunsthalle.de
For the most up to date schedule, please go here.

and subsequently:
Studio Bonn
The Bundeskunsthalle Discourse Format
To Whom Does Art Belong?
Saturday, November 20, 7pm

What connects Renaissance princely portraits with digital art and NFTs? How do forms of collecting differ in different forms of society? How do decentralized collectives challenge museums, and what new concepts of art do they make conceivable? Is the accumulation of art treasures still in keeping with the times?  Studio Bonn moderator Kolja Reichert discusses these questions with Eike Schmidt, Director of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, and the artist Harm van den Dorpel, founder of Left Gallery.

Watch it live at Bundeskunsthalle or online on studiobonn.io

Director: Eva Kraus
Managing Director: Oliver Hölken
Curators: Eva Kraus and Susanne Kleine
Press Officer: Sven Bergmann, kommunikation [​at​] bundeskunsthalle.de