MIX & MATCH. REDISCOVERING THE COLLECTION

Curator's Statements

The curators of the Sammlung Moderne Kunst at the Pinakothek der Moderne (from left to right): Franziska Kunze, Tatjana Schäfer, Oliver Kase, Judith Csiki, Bernhart Schwenk and Simone Förster (Photo: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Elisabeth Greil)

Oliver Kase, Chief Curator of Modern Art / Director of Collections Pinakothek der Moderne / Sammlung Moderne Kunst:

The form of exhibition previously customary for masterpieces from the collection of Modernism, generally celebrated as collection highlights in over a dozen rooms of the Pinakothek der Moderne, is now giving way to an experimental dialogue with other media and epochs from a twenty-first-century perspective. I hope and anticipate that breaking down these barriers will spark surprise, curiosity, and passion among our visitors, and inspire a readiness to embrace reflection and criticism. The method of presentation is more akin to the current multimedia-driven reception habits of our era than room after room of paintings in predictable sequence could ever be.

Simone Förster, Chief Curator Stiftung Ann und Jürgen Wilde:

Since the 1960s, collectors and gallerists Ann and Jürgen Wilde have dedicated their work and commitment to achieving the recognition of photography as art. This was one of the factors resulting in the affiliation of their foundation to the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in 2010. The involvement of the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation in the rehanging of the Sammlung Moderne Kunst, an experiment crossing genres and epochs, is the fulfillment of a longstanding vision. I look forward to photography taking its place as a further voice in the many-languaged dialogue between the artworks. In some spaces it may merely interpose a quiet comment, in others toss a loud thesis into the debate of the arts.

Tatjana Schaefer, Assistant curator for Art since 1945, focus on American art:

Unlike pictorial works, which throw open a window onto an illusory space, works of minimal art are located in the same physical space as their viewers. This discrepancy engenders a challenge when minimal art is combined with works based on a different method of perception. However, the spatial experience of minimal art is neither limited nor impeded thereby. Quite the opposite, in fact; the works of minimal art placed at various points throughout the exhibition help spectators to repeatedly ground themselves in the here and now, allowing them to consciously move between immersion in visual worlds and the realization of their own presence within the museum space.

Bernhart Schwenk, Chief Curator of Contemporary Art:

Every epoch reflects the present in its art. For one thing, every work was contemporary at the time of its creation; for another, even older art cannot be understood from any other perspective than that of our own age. In my view, the embrace of that now in every work of art is the great attraction of a non-chronological and transgenerational exhibition drawn from our collection. Furthermore, there are connecting themes which have always held unbroken significance for artists, irrespective of the historical, social, or political situation of the time, and which will continue to do so. Art always strives to render conflicts tangible, establish balance, or find metaphors for existential questions, albeit in a different way in each different age.

Franziska Kunze, Chief Curator of Photography and Time-Based Media:

It is naturally a challenge to plan the conservationally necessary changes to photographic works at specific scheduled intervals, constantly reevaluating the focal theme of the room by making powerful choices, yet always mindful of the adjacent works. At the same time, I regard this as a great opportunity. Museums can only ever display an average of three percent of the works they own; visitors see only the tip of the iceberg while countless more works lie slumbering in the storages. Here I can draw on unlimited resources, activate ever-varying aspects of our inventory, and rediscover my own collection area through the eyes of the other curators during our joint planning.

Judith Csiki, Curator Written Art Collection:

As a public art collection, we are inevitably involved in shaping the canon of a particular epoch. This canon formation necessarily generates weightings in favor of specific artists, artistic movements, media, and cultural groups on the one hand and desiderata on the other. The Sammlung Moderne Kunst is dominated by a focus on outstanding and internationally known Western artists; over the past several years this focus has been broadened by the acquisition of works from non-Western cultures, in addition to a major contribution made by a partnership with the Written Art Collection. The focal theme of the Written Art Collection, which takes in calligraphic, gestural and informal art, parallels the museum’s inventory in diverse ways and thus constantly opens up new perspectives on the individual categories of the collection.