Reinhard & Sonja Ernst Foundation
The non-profit Reinhard & Sonja Ernst Foundation was founded in 2004. Reinhard Ernst grew up in Eppstein and built up two companies in Limburg: Harmonic Drive AG and OVALO GmbH. The married couple Reinhard and Sonja Ernst have lived in Wiesbaden since 2000 .
Foundation purposes
In their work, the founders concentrate exclusively on their own projects that benefit the general public: For example, the promotion of art and culture, the education and support of children and young people in need, but also help for old people worldwide as well as support in development aid and the Promotion of monument preservation.
Board of Directors and Management
The board of directors of the foundation is Reinhard Ernst. Oliver Ickstadt is the managing director. He is responsible to the board of directors and is bound by its instructions. The managing director is determined jointly by the board of trustees and the executive board.
Foundation assets
The foundation's assets consist of a high double-digit million amount, including a. from various properties.
Funded and financed projects
The foundation's goals have been realized in two larger projects. After the tsunami disaster in 2011, the “House of Hope” in Natori became a meeting place for children and old people.
Since 2016, the Eppstein Music School has enabled over 400 music students to take lessons under better conditions. Before that, the young musicians had to study in sometimes difficult rooms that were spread over several districts.
The current and currently largest project of the foundation is the “museum reinhard ernst”. In this museum, which is in the planning phase, abstract pictures and sculptures, among others from the "Collection of Abstracts - RE Wiesbaden" are to be exhibited. The museum should be completed in 2021/2022.
Reinhard Ernst Collection
At the beginning of 2018, the collection comprised around 700 works, of which almost 500 were museum quality (see Christoph Zusatz, “Expert opinion for the city of Wiesbaden: About the art collection of Reinhard Ernst (Wiesbaden)”, Landau and Heidelberg, June 2017). The collection consists mainly of paintings and 37 sculptures.
Abstract Expressionism, Informel and color field painting, especially American, are the focus of the collection. There were also some examples of these art movements in Germany.
One of Reinhard Ernst's goals is to use the Reinhard Ernst Collection to give these post-war artists, to whom hardly any attention was paid, a higher priority by showing the collection.
The collection includes works by international artists. The French artists form the largest European group after the Germans. Artists from Italy, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria and Scandinavia are also represented with their works in the Reinhard Ernst Collection.
Reinhard Ernst came across the artists of the “Gutai” group as early as the 1980s. At the end of the 1980s, Reinhard Ernst acquired the first informal pictures by Japanese artists. The collection has some works that can be described as masterpieces by the Japanese “Gutai” group.
The third focus of the collection, after European and Japanese, is American painting. Reinhard Ernst's favorite artist is Helen Frankenthaler . Through the collaboration with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, it is known that the Reinhard Ernst Collection owns the largest number of works by this artist outside the USA. In February 2018 there were over 30 works, some of them large-format.
In addition, works by Robert Motherwell , Morris Louis , Frank Stella , Jackson Pollock , Adolf Gottlieb and Hans Hofmann complete the collection.
Reinhard Ernst Museum
The collector's philosophy makes it clear that works of art in one's own possession must also be made available to the public. The construction of a museum enables the collector to show his works as a coherent unit of abstract post-war art.
In a public participation process in 2016/2017 about the use of the Wiesbaden property at Wilhelmstrasse 1, a majority voted in favor of the art museum. The Reinhard & Sonja Ernst Foundation had offered the city of Wiesbaden to build and operate a museum for abstract art on the property. In December 2017, an inheritance lease agreement was signed with the city. The planning and preparations for the construction of the museum are ongoing. The groundbreaking ceremony for the museum for abstract art took place on August 30, 2019.
The Reinhard Ernst Museum is planned by the Japanese star architect Fumihiko Maki , who has been friends with Reinhard Ernst for many years. Reinhard Ernst and Fumihiko Maki also built the “House of Hope” in Natori (Japan) together.
The opening is planned for summer 2022. The foundation bears the construction costs, which are estimated at 50 million euros, as well as the maintenance and operation of the museum.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ House of Hope
- ↑ Sonja Fouraté: Interview with art patron Reinhard Ernst: A million gift for Wiesbaden | hessenschau.de | Culture . In: hessenschau.de . March 4, 2017 ( hessenschau.de [accessed February 28, 2018]). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Project Reinhard Ernst Museum | State capital Wiesbaden. Retrieved February 28, 2018 .
- ^ Friends of the Wiesbaden Museum. Retrieved February 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Wiesbadener Kurier, August 30, 2019: Groundbreaking ceremony for the Reinhard Ernst Museum
- ↑ Brochure 3.0 museum reinhard ernst of the state capital Wiesbaden from January 20, 2020
