The Walther Collection
The Walther Collection is an international private collection that focuses on researching, collecting, exhibiting and publishing modern and contemporary photography and video art. The collection is supported by the non-profit Walther Family Foundation and has two exhibition locations: “The Walther Collection” in Neu-Ulm / Burlafingen and “The Walther Collection Project Space” in New York City.
history
Artur Walther (* 1948 in Ulm) was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York. In 1994 he retired from professional life and has since devoted himself to his interests in architecture, art and design.
The cornerstone of the collection was formed by works by German New Objectivity photographers from the 1920s, such as August Sander's Face of Time and Karl Blossfeldt's Urformen der Kunst . The collection later expanded beyond European and American photography.
On June 12, 2010 the new exhibition complex was opened in Burlafingen, a district of Neu-Ulm ( Bavaria ). It consists of three buildings with a total of 1000 m² of exhibition space. The Walther Collection Project Space, a branch of the collection with 160 square meters of exhibition space, opened its doors on April 15, 2011 in the West Chelsea Arts Building in New York City .
The exhibition building
The headquarters are located in the Neu-Ulm district of Burlafingen, the Walther Collection Project Space was set up in the West Chelsea Arts Building in New York's Chelsea district.
In Burlafingen, three neighboring houses form the exhibition complex. The ensemble is organized in such a way that it blends inconspicuously into the neighborhood, only the new building catches the eye due to its strict form.
White cube
This is the main exhibition building and the only new building in the collection that was built in 2010 by the Ulm office of Braunger Wörtz Architects. A three-storey white cube appears very light and transparent in the above-ground part thanks to several large square wall openings; in the underground part, which is much larger in size, there is 500 m² of exhibition space available, some of which can also be viewed from the ground floor.
Green house
A typical two-family house from the fifties, which is overgrown with ivy and has a natural green color. Inside, the rooms have been gutted and their cabinet-like atmosphere makes them suitable for the presentation of small-format photography.
Black house
A prefabricated house that opens onto the garden with a large window front, while opposite the street side it has no windows. The outside of the building was completely redesigned in black; inside, in addition to a private area, it offers rooms for the presentation of serial works.
Gray house
The fourth building, in gray, has no exhibition function; the office, a library and a guest apartment are housed here.
The Walther Collection Project Space
In 2011 The Walther Collection opened an exhibition space in New York, in which exhibitions have since been realized and public programs for art education have been offered. The Walther Collection Project Space is located in New York's gallery district Chelsea and comprises around 160 m² of exhibition space. The exhibitions of The Walther Collection Project Space change quarterly and complement the longer-term exhibition program of the museum in Neu-Ulm / Burlafingen.
Walther Family Foundation
The Walther Family Foundation is a US non-profit foundation that aims to promote interest in contemporary photography and art. It carries the exhibitions and programs of the Walther Collection.
Exhibitions
The exhibitions are intended to present the collection and new acquisitions with a specific thematic focus. International curators are invited for their conception.
Exhibition history
Since 2010, The Walther Collection has dedicated itself to a multi-year study of African photography and video art with a focus on portraits, landscapes and historical archives. The opening exhibition Events of the Self. Portraiture and Social Identity , curated by Okwui Enwezor, featured three generations of African photographers from the 1940s to the present day.
Appropriated Landscapes (2011–2013), curated by Corinne Diserens, followed the traces that colonialism, war, migration and industrialization have left in the African landscape and asked how architecture and spatial planning influenced the social order and ideology of apartheid South Africa to this day.
Distance and desire. Encounters with the historical archive (2013–2014), curated by Tamar Garb, established a dialogue between ethnographic photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and works by contemporary African photographers who deal with this image archive. The exhibition was the culmination of a multi-part series of events and exhibitions that began in 2012 at the Walther Collection Project Space in New York. It was accompanied by an international symposium organized by The Walther Collection in conjunction with New York University and University College London.
Important works in the collection
- Bernd and Hilla Becher : Typologies (blast furnaces, gravel works)
- JD 'Okhai Ojeikere: Hairstyles
- Seydou Keita : Portraits
- August Sander : Face of Time - People of the 20th Century
- Samuel Fosso: Self-Portraits of the 70ies, African Spirits
- Zanele Muholi : Work blocks from "Faces and Phases", "Beulahs", "Only Half the Picture"
- David Goldblatt : Work blocks from "Some Afrikaners Photographed", "Soweto", "In Boksburg", "South Africa the Structures of Things then"
- Santu Mofokeng: Work blocks from "Townships", "Train Church", "Bloemof", "Chasing Shadows", "Trauma Landscapes"
- Jo Ractliffe: Work blocks from "As Terras do Fom do Mundo", "Terreno Ocupado", "Diana", "Johannesburg-Inner City"
- Guy Tillim : Works from the series "Avenue Patrice Lumumba", "Jo 'burg"
- Mikhael Subotzky: Works from the series "Die Vier Hoeke", "Ponte City"
literature
- Okwui Enwezor (Ed.): Moments of the Self: Portrait Photography and Social Identity. Contemporary African photography from the Walther Collection. Steidl, Göttingen, 2010.
- Corinne Diserens (Ed.): Appropriated Landscapes. Contemporary African photography from the Walther Collection. Steidl, Göttingen, 2011.
- Claudia Fenkart-Njie and Ulrike Geist (Eds.): Private Art Collections in Baden-Württemberg , Stuttgart 2011. ISBN 9783000358357
- Chantal Pontbriand (ed.): Artur Walther: Beyond Form and History. Chantal Pontbriand in conversation with Artur Walther. in: mutation. Perspectives on Photography , Göttingen, Steidl, 2011. ISBN 3869303565 (English)
- Rania Gaafar: Migrating Forms: Contemporary African photography at The Walther Collection , in: Third Text 25 (2) , March 2011, pp. 241–247.
(English) - Peter Kunitzky: The Walther Collection - A new chapter. in: EIKON , September 2010, pp. 57–50.
- Kerstin Stremmel: Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection. In: Camera Austria No. 111/2010, p. 82f.
Web links
- The Walther Collection
- The Walther Collection by Artur Walther at Studio5555
- Barbara Kutscher, The Wall Street Banker as Museum Director, Handelsblatt online, accessed January 28, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adrienne Braun: In Nigeria, hairstyles are also political. Private museum In Burlafingen, of all places, you can see a top-class collection of photographs from Africa. (No longer available online.) Stuttgarter Zeitung , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 20, 2011 . ( 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.
- ↑ Johannes Vogt: A conceptual mind. Collecting with a concept Museum opening in Burlafingen. (No longer available online.) Weltkunst Online, archived from the original on February 15, 2011 ; Retrieved March 20, 2011 . 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.
Coordinates: 48 ° 24 '50.5 " N , 10 ° 3' 53.7" E