DZ BANK art collection

The DZ BANK art collection is a corporate collection of DZ Bank AG based in Frankfurt am Main . The focus of the collection is on contemporary art on the photographic image. The collection includes more than 8000 works of art by over 800 international artists and is one of the largest of its kind.

Logo of the DZ Bank art collection

Focus and strategy

Since it was founded in 1994, DZ Bank's collection activities have focused on the medium of photography . The main focus is on photographic works of contemporary art. This includes all works of art that have gone through a photo-technical process in the course of their creation. Collages are just as much a part of this as overpainted photographs, photograms or image material edited on the computer. The classic art-historical genres such as portrait, still life, landscape, interior etc. have always served as selection criteria. Photographic works by artists from other areas of art such as painting or sculpture who have a different approach to photography and the viewer are always of particular interest can offer a new perspective on the medium.

The collection prefers complexes of works in order to adequately represent diverse aspects of an artistic development. Photographic works from the Düsseldorf School from the 1980s and 1990s by Bernd and Hilla Becher , as well as their students, Andreas Gursky , Axel Hütte , Candida Höfer , Thomas Ruff and Jörg Sasse form a focal point of the collection . The tension in photography between documentary and artistic quality is represented in the DZ Bank art collection by a number of artists. While the pictures by Barbara Klemm , Sebastião Salgado and Michael Schmidt stand for the documentarism of classic photojournalism , the photographs by Sascha Weidner , Angela Grauerholz and Tracey Moffat show painterly and subjective perspectives. The pictures by Thomas Florschuetz and Rodney Graham , on the other hand, testify to media-reflective approaches, whereas the works of Jochen Gerz , Mario Merz , Alex Hartley and Jean-Marc Bustamante address conceptual and spatial imagery. Body images and the representation of milieus become visible in the works of Andy Warhol , Nan Goldin , Will McBride and Wolfgang Tillmans . The topics of gender and self-presentation occupy a central position in the works of Bettina Rheims , Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman . The works of Dan Graham , Katharina Sieverding and Lorna Simpson, in turn, reflect socio-political aspects.

In the multitude of artistic positions, DZ BANK would like to refer to the multi-layered and paradoxical possibilities of the photographic image. With this fundamental collection concept of DZ BANK, on the one hand, the emancipation of the medium of photography as a self-determined art form is to be demonstrated, and on the other, its cross-genre and inter-media character in contemporary art is to be confirmed.

history

The art collection of DZ Bank (DG Bank until 2001) was founded in 1994 by Luminita Sabau. In 2001 DG Bank merged with GZ Bank to form DZ Bank. The merger led to a temporary break in collecting activity, during which the collection was initially only managed. Active collection activity was resumed in 2003. Christina Leber has been in charge since 2011.

motivation

DZ Bank sees art as an element of its corporate culture . In addition to collecting and promoting art, DZ Bank has set itself the task of conveying art internally and externally. One of the driving forces behind the creation of the collection was the idea of art as an internal communication tool. Today almost all fifty floors of the Westend-1 tower are decorated with art. On the one hand, it creates an inspiring work space, and on the other hand, engaging with art promotes communication among employees. In a democratic selection process, they can decide for themselves from eight curated floor exhibitions per year which works of art hang in their corridor. The aesthetic design of the work space is not only in the service of the employees, but is made accessible to a wide audience through public art tours. In the in-house public exhibition space, the Art Foyer, which opened in 2006, exhibitions are regularly curated that show selected items from the art collection.

Art foyer

The Art Foyer of the DZ Bank Art Collection was created in 2006 as an exhibition space for the in-house art collection. With the creation of a publicly accessible exhibition space, DZ Bank realized the idea of allowing a broader public to participate in and convey its works of art. As part of the renovation of Cityhaus I , one of the three office towers of the DZ Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, a 300 square meter exhibition hall opened at the beginning of 2009. Four exhibitions per year are shown in the Art Foyer.

Cooperation with the Städel Museum Frankfurt

In 2009, as part of its 125th anniversary, DZ Bank presented the Städel Museum in Frankfurt with a bundle from its art collection. The bundle contains over 200 works of contemporary art by 76 artists from the art collection (including Richard Avedon , Sibylle Bergemann , Will McBride , Hanne Darboven , Pietro Donzelli , Gilbert & George , Nan Goldin , Andreas Gursky , Seïdou Keita, Barbara Klemm , Les Levine , Robert Mapplethorpe , Boris Mikhailov , Sigmar Polke , Richard Prince , Robert Rauschenberg , Peter Roehr , Thomas Ruff , Cindy Sherman , Katharina Sieverding , Thomas Struth , Hiroshi Sugimoto and Andy Warhol ). The selection was made in coordination between DZ Bank and the Städel Museum. Both parties jointly founded a GmbH that owns the works of art. This is to prevent the bank from claiming repayment or sales by the museum. Some of these works of art are shown in changing collections in the garden hall of the Städel Museum. The bundle forms the basis of a previously non-existent photography collection at the Städel. DZ Bank is thus continuing its cultural commitment in the sense of corporate citizenship and making highly respected works of contemporary art accessible to the public. The donation documents the transition from a corporate collection to a museum collection.

Exhibitions

2018/2019: "LAND__SCOPE. Photo works by Roni Horn to Thomas Ruff from the DZ BANK art collection “Münchner Stadtmuseum
2017: "MOVEMENT IN THE PICTURE - informal painting meets gesture in photography" in the Märkisches Museum Witten
2015: “Power and Violence - Powerlessness and Resistance” in the Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg
2012–14: “Heimat - Photographs from the DZ Bank Art Collection” at Kunstverein Springhornhof, Neuenkirchen; Kunsthalle HGN, Duderstadt; NRW Forum, Düsseldorf
2012: “There is still room for cats and dogs - photographs from the DZ Bank art collection” in Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
2011–14: “Road Atlas: Street Photography from the DZ Bank Art Collection” in Opelvillen Rüsselsheim; Dieselkraftwerk art museum, Cottbus; Kunsthalle Erfurt; Art Foyer DZ Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt am Main
2008: “Real - From the DZ Bank Collection” in the Städel Museum Frankfurt am Main
2007: “Dialogues & Attitudes” in the Ludwig Museum Budapest
2005–1998: “The Promise of Photography” - exhibition tour in Frankfurt, Hanover, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Tokyo, New York and Moscow.

literature

Ulrich Pohlmann, Christina Leber, Katharina Zimmermann, Erec Gellautz (Eds.): LAND__SCOPE. Photo works by Roni Horn to Thomas Ruff from the DZ BANK art collection , Cologne 2018.
Christina Leber: FOTOFINISH. Triumphant advance of photography as an artistic genre , Cologne 2018.
Christina Leber, Beate Kempfert (Ed.): Road Atlas: Street photographs from Helen Levitt to Pieter Hugo , Munich 2011.
Luminita Sabau (Ed.): Concept: Photography . Real, Osterfilden 2008.
Luminita Sabau (Ed.): Index: Photography . Inventory catalog for the bundle “DZ Bank Collection in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt”, Osterfilden 2008.
Luminita Sabau (Ed.): Concept: Photography. Dialogues & Attitudes . Osterfilden 2007.
Luminita Sabau (ed.): The promise of photography. The DG Bank Collection . Munich / London / New York 1998.