Heiner Pietzsch

Heiner Pietzsch (born June 4, 1930 in Dresden ; † September 7, 2021 in Berlin ) was a German entrepreneur , art collector and patron .

Life

Pietzsch completed an apprenticeship as an electrician. In the mid-1950s, he moved from the eastern part of Berlin to the western part of the city. There he built up an international plastics trade and was active as an investor. From the mid-1960s onwards, together with his wife Ulla , he built up an extensive collection of works by well-known painters of Classical Modernism, including Balthus , Hans Bellmer , Salvador Dalí , Paul Delvaux , Max Ernst , René Magritte , André Masson , Joan Miró and Yves Tanguy. A second focus of the collection is on early paper works of American abstract expressionism. The collection "is one of the outstanding German private collections of classical modernism".

In 1977 he was a founding member of the Association of Friends of the National Gallery and for many years its treasurer and member of the board of trustees. From summer 2009, large parts of the collection were open to the public as part of the exhibition Picture Dreams in the Neue Nationalgalerie , including Max Ernst's fragments of his cement sculpture Capricorn from 1948. After the exhibition ended, the Pietzsch couple decided to display 60 works from the Neue Nationalgalerie To be given to the Nationalgalerie as a donation.

On June 12, 2012, by resolution of the Bundestag, 10 million euros were made available for the renovation of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie at the Kulturforum . This guarantees the foundation for permanent storage of the collection in a future “ Museum of the 20th Century ”. In November 2014, the Bundestag approved 200 million euros for the construction of the new museum at the Kulturforum. In the obituaries of Pietzsch, the extent of the donation is given as around 150 paintings, drawings and sculptures of the classical modern age.

Pietzsch died at the age of 91 after a long illness in a Berlin clinic.

Honors

• October 1, 2010: Order of Merit of the State of Berlin

Exhibitions

• 2009: Image Dreams , Neue Nationalgalerie , Berlin
• 2016/17: Dalí, Ernst, Miró, Magritte ... Surreal encounters from the collections Edward James , Roland Penrose , Gabrielle Keiller, Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch , Hamburger Kunsthalle , Galerie der Gegenwart (basement), October 7, 2016 to January 22, 2017

literature

• Udo Kittelmann (Ed.): Pictures, dreams. The Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection. Prestel, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7913-4370-9 .

Web links

• André Chahil, Christian Speelmanns: A New Museum for Berlin * Interview with Heiner Pietzsch. In: andrechahil.com. July 8, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bilderträume: The Collection Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch: June 19, 2009 to 10 January 2010. In: smb.museum . Retrieved September 9, 2021 . 
2. ↑ Christiane Meixner: 80th birthday: Heiner Pietzsch: "The pictures are my children". In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 4, 2010, accessed September 9, 2021 . 
3. ↑ Henrike von Spesshardt: The Pietzsch Collection is donated to the State of Berlin: Presents for Berlin. In: artnet.de. December 17, 2010, archived from the original on October 17, 2014 ; accessed on September 9, 2021 . 
4. ↑ Berlin's museum landscape: the Pietzsch collection moves to the Kulturforum. In: bundesregierung.de. June 12, 2012, archived from the original on June 19, 2012 ; accessed on September 9, 2021 . 
5. ^ Hermann Parzinger : An art lover with a vision - Heiner Pietzsch is 85. In: Berliner Morgenpost . June 4, 2015, archived from the original on July 28, 2015 ; accessed on September 9, 2021 . 
6. ^ Christian Walther: Berlin art patron Heiner Pietzsch has died. In: rbb24 . September 8, 2021, accessed September 8, 2021 .