Gustav Adolf Baum

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Gustav Adolf Baum (born October 30, 1914 in Elberfeld ; † November 14, 2004 in Wuppertal ) was a German businessman, art collector and honorary citizen of the university - later renamed the Bergische Universität Wuppertal .

Live and act

Commercial activity

After graduating from high school, Baum completed a commercial apprenticeship in the clothing trade from 1932 to 1934 and then attended the textile school in Krefeld until 1942. From 1936 to 1937 he did military service and then worked until 1942 as export manager in the family-owned textile printing company Schlieper und Baum. Until the sale of the company in 1954, he was a member of its board of directors. From 1954 to 1956 he worked as an industrial consultant and exporter of fabrics. From 1956 he worked as a freelance consultant for Igedo , the interest group for women's clothing in Düsseldorf. From 1961 to 1965 he was its managing director and then director until 1981. Baum played a major role in making Igedo the most important fashion market in the world.

Gustav Adolf and Stella Baum collection

Gustav Adolf Baum and his wife Stella Baum (1921-2006), whom he had married in Elberfeld on 16 September 1944 began in 1945 initially with acquisitions of contemporary art by representatives of informal painting as Bernard Schultze and Georges Mathieu before since Acquired works by Joseph Beuys , Wolf Vostell , Gerhard Richter , Konrad Fischer and Klaus Rinke at the end of the 1950s . For their collection, Baums frequented the Parnass Gallery, founded by Rolf Jahresling in 1949 , with works by Horst Egon Kalinowski , Bernard Schultze, Frédéric Benrath and the Schmela Gallery , founded in Düsseldorf in 1957 , with works by Yves Klein , Arman , Christo , Beuys , Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Fischer-Lueg . One of the first acquisitions was a work by the artist Mary Bauermeister , dated 1959 and in 1961 in the Parnass Gallery, exhibited in a specially made darkroom , who some time later bequeathed it to Stella Baum through the Wuppertal collector Dieter Rosenkranz. It was untitled, red, and one of her pictures painted with phosphorescent colors that charged during the day and slowly went out at night.

In 1963, Baums bought Stuhl mit Fett (1963), a functional chair with a fat corner on the seat, directly from the artist Joseph Beuys . A few years later, at the artist's request, the collector couple had to part with this work, which had become a central work for the collection, because Beuys wanted the work to be integrated into the ensemble of the Ströher Collection in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt.

On the opening evening of the Fraser Gallery in London, the Baum couple acquired a flock of sheep - Flock of Sheep , 41 life-size - from the exhibition "Prospect" - Current Art in the international avant-garde galleries, organized by Konrad Fischer and Hans Strelow , which took place in Düsseldorf in 1968 Fiberglass sheep by the English sculptor Nicholas Monro, a work that gives food for thought, especially in the age of industrial livestock farming. Significantly, the work was later acquired by the entrepreneur and animal breeder Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth von den Baums. From the "Prospect" exhibition, the collectors also acquired a photo work by Dennis Oppenheim , which refers to an action by the artist near Finsterwolde, a place in the Netherlands, and was used as an artistic material for the grain sowing and accordingly a bag with 2, 5 kg of Finsterwolde grain seeds are included.

Other artists in the collection were Stanley Brouwn , Peter Roehr , Laura Grisi , Reiner Ruthenbeck , Franz Erhard Walther , Salvo , Piero Gilardi , Dieter Roth , Terry Atkinson , Will Insley , Barry Le Va , Peter Hutchinson , Richard Long , Les Levine and others.

Appreciation

After the establishment of the comprehensive university in Wuppertal in 1972, Gustav Adolf and Stella Baum were made the first honorary citizens of this university on November 24, 1976. In the founding years, the couple had made an outstanding contribution to the development of Wuppertal into a university city, because they offered the founding rectorate and university members a forum in their private home to establish contacts between influential public figures in the city and the country. Gustav Adolf Baum and his wife remained closely connected to the university throughout their lives.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b B. Haunfelder: Nordrhein-Westfalen, Land und Menschen, 1946–2006, A biographical handbook, Münster 2006 ", p. 52
  2. ^ Gustav Grote: Johann Peter Baum and Juliane Bockmühl - Your ancestors and descendants , Wuppertal-Elberfeld, 1950, p. 61.
  3. ↑ a b Antje Birthälmer: The radicalism of collecting. Artistic positions in the collection of Gustav Adolf and Stella Baum . In: Gerhard Finckh (Vorw.): »Private«. Contemporary Wuppertal collectors in the Von der Heydt Museum . Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal 2009, p. 107
  4. ↑ Von der Heydt-Museum shows contemporary art from Wuppertal's private collections : Frank Becker and Andreas Rehnolt in Musenblätter.de, accessed on July 16, 2009.
  5. ↑ Antje Birthälmer: The radicalism of collecting. Artistic positions in the collection of Gustav Adolf and Stella Baum . In: Gerhard Finckh (Vorw.): »Private«. Contemporary Wuppertal collectors in the Von der Heydt Museum , p. 109
  6. ^ Antje Birthälmer, in: Gerhard Finckh (Vorw.), P. 110
  7. ^ Antje Birthälmer, in: Gerhard Finckh (Vorw.), P. 115 f.
  8. ^ " Our first honorary citizen " in: Wuppertaler Unimagazin. No. 34 - winter semester 2006/2007
  9. ^ Bergische Universität Wuppertal: University honorary citizen Gustav Adolf Baum turned 90 on November 4, 2004.
  10. ↑ Bergische Universität Wuppertal: The university mourns its honorary citizen Gustav Adolf Baum , from November 15, 2004.
personal data
SURNAME Baum, Gustav Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art collector
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 2004
Place of death Wuppertal