Essl Collection
The Essl Collection is a collection of works of contemporary art compiled by the Austrian entrepreneur Karlheinz Essl senior (* 1939) and his wife Agnes . The collection has been located in the Albertina (Vienna) since 2017 .
history
For the Essl Collection, the Essl Museum was opened in Klosterneuburg near Vienna on November 5, 1999 and closed on June 30, 2016.
The private collection was almost 7,000 works (February 2011) one of the largest in Austria. It includes works of art from the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. Austrian art after 1945 occupies a particularly large area.
Represented include Arnulf Rainer , Sam Francis , Maria Lassnig , Antoni Tàpies , Hermann Nitsch , Günter Brus , Georg Baselitz , Markus Lüpertz , Valie Export , Markus Oehlen , Daniel Richter , Gerhard Richter , Hubert Schmalix , Siegfried Anzinger , Jonathan Meese , Sean Scully , Per Kirkeby , Oskar Kokoschka , Lois Renner , Gottfried Helnwein , Günther Förg , Karel Appel and Elke Krystufek .
The photography, video and sculpture collection is supplemented by works by Franz West , Nam June Paik , Shirin Neshat , Cindy Sherman , Jannis Kounellis and Barbara Szüts .
In addition to the exhibits with a focus on painting and sculpture, sound installations and concerts also formed part of the museum program curated by the composer Karlheinz Essl - a son of the couple.
Since 2005, the Essl Art Award CEE has been presented every two years as part of the museum for artists from those countries in Central and Eastern Europe in which the Essls bauMax company was represented. Some of the previous winners are now internationally known artists, such as Katharina Sedá or Jakub Nepras .
On May 1, 2011, Österreichische Post AG issued a postage stamp for the property as part of the Kunsthäuser definitive stamp series . The Post issued a self-adhesive postage as early as 2007 and a single postage stamp in 2009 to mark the museum's 10th anniversary.
At the beginning of 2014, Karlheinz Essl surprisingly offered the collection, which is said to be worth 86 million euros, to the Republic of Austria for sale in order to help the troubled Baumax DIY chain . In September 2014, the Handelsblatt reported that the collection, which allegedly comprises 5,000 objects valued at 100 million euros, will soon be auctioned in London .
On September 2, 2014, vienna.at reported that the collection was largely taken over by the industrialist Hans Peter Haselsteiner . The SE-Sammlung Essl GmbH , registered as of September 1, 2014, belongs to 60 percent of the ZMH GmbH, behind which the Haselsteiner private foundation stands. 40 percent hold two Essl family foundations, the Essl couple retained the artistic direction. 44 of around 1700 works were auctioned on October 13, 2014 at Christies's in London to recapitalize the museum and to finance its operation and maintenance.
In the sense of a “more economical museum operation”, says Haselsteiner, the shuttle bus from the Albertina in Vienna's city center , which had been operated free of charge for many years , was discontinued on June 30, 2015.
As Essl announced at the beginning of April 2016, the exhibition was closed on June 30, 2016: the financing was no longer possible. The museum building is to be retained as a depot.
On February 16, 2017, the Minister of Culture Thomas Drozda , Karlheinz Essl and the Albertina Director Klaus Albrecht Schröder announced that the Essl Collection was on permanent loan to the Albertina. The permanent loan is set until 2044. The Albertina will also take over the depot for the next ten years. In autumn 2017 it became known that numerous works from the Essl Collection had again been sold in order to reduce the debt level.
In 2018, Prof. Karlheinz Essl decided, together with his wife Agnes and son Martin, to donate their remaining shares in the Essl Collection to the Albertina. The donation comprised 1,323 works of art. The entirety of the Essl Collection will be shown in various exhibitions at the Albertina's second location, Albertina Modern , in the Künstlerhaus on Karlsplatz in Vienna.
Web links
- Essl Museum / Essl Collection
- Entry on "Museum Sammlung Essl" on the website of architekturlandschaft.niederösterreich
- Stefan May: Built on art: The Austrian patron Karlheinz Essl and his museum , Deutschlandradio Kultur , August 1, 2011
Individual evidence
- ↑ Exhibition with 22 artists from Central Eastern Europe ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Kultura.hu from December 5, 2009, accessed on January 11, 2010
- ↑ Entry on the Essl Collection in the Austria Forum (as a stamp illustration)
- ↑ Entry on the Essl Collection in the Austria Forum (as a stamp illustration)
- ↑ Entry on the Essl Collection in the Austria Forum (as a stamp illustration)
- ↑ Essl wants to sell art to the republic , ORF of March 24, 2014, accessed on March 24, 2014
- ↑ The Essl Collection goes under the hammer , in: Die Welt , August 30, 2014, p. 25
- ↑ Essl Collection: Haselsteiner buys art collection through Foundation , vienna.at, September 2, 2014 1:43 p.m., accessed on June 4, 2015.
- ↑ Essl Museum puts a free shuttle from Albertina to Klosterneuburg on hold, vienna.at, June 3, 2015, accessed on June 4, 2015
- ↑ Essl Museum ceases exhibition , orf.at from April 5, 2016, accessed on April 5, 2016.
- ↑ Essl Collection goes to Albertina , orf.at , February 16, 2017
- ^ The Essl Collection goes to the Albertina , Die Presse , February 16, 2017
