Beyeler Collection / Cooperations October 18, 2017 - January 1, 2018
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Media release, October 17, 2017 Beyeler Collection / Cooperations October 18, 2017 - January 1, 2018 “Cooperations” is the third and final presentation in this year’s series of three exhibitions marking the twentieth anniversary of the Fondation Beyeler. It focuses on the possible ways in which the Beyeler Collection could be extended in the future through permanent loans, acquisitions and donations. Artists closely associated with the museum have been invited, together with collectors and representatives of artists’ estates, to temporarily exhibit masterpieces from their holdings alongside works from the Beyeler Collection. This idea of the museum collection as dynamic and open to change is linked to the exploration of possibilities for presenting the collection. The forms of presentation in the first three rooms have a traditional character, in terms of the arrangement of the individual objects and works and of the exhibition environment. The itinerary begins with a unique presentation in the first room—like a museum within a museum—which is based on the historical model of the Wunderkammer, the origins of the museum. Works from the collection are combined with other loans, above all those of a Basel private collection, in a way that celebrates the great tradition of collecting and the collecting instinct, fostered by an interest in the distinctive, the aesthetically stimulating, the unusual, and the curious. Thus, we find on display the tooth of a narwhal, formerly assumed to be the horn of a unicorn. A particular highlight is provided by works of African and Oceanic art from the Beyeler Collection, augmented by outstanding loans, such as a Malagan mask from the Musée Barbier-Mueller in Geneva and other important exhibits from a New York private collection. The second room, containing works by Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh, pays tribute to the salon in the tradition of Gertrude Stein and other pioneering collectors of modern art. The salon, as a meeting place for artists, collectors, and art aficionados, is a model for the activities of the Fondation Beyeler in providing a focal point for the art world. The third room is devoted to Surrealism, with the artists Max Ernst, René Magritte, Balthus and Joan Miró. Loans of important works by Magritte supplement the collection of the Fondation Beyeler with a further central position. Recalling the Surrealists’ revolutionary exhibitions of their own art, the pictures in this section of the exhibition are displayed with dramatic lighting on a black ground. In subsequent rooms, German and Swiss private collections are represented by masterpieces from protagonists of Abstract Expressionism such as Morris Louis and Willem de Kooning, and by key examples of Pop Art. Key works by Roy Lichtenstein are juxtaposed with those by Andy Warhol. On display, among other things, is Andy Warhol’s portrait Joseph Beuys, from 1980 – one of the very few the artist decorated with a fine layer of diamond dust. The painting was cleaned over a period lasting several months as part of an elaborate restoration project involving thorough analyses and tests. For the first time since being restored, it can now be viewed once again in an exhibition. Especially worth mentioning are those rooms in which two artists enter into dialogue. Thus, Yves Klein encounters Lucio Fontana, and Claude Monet Marina Abramović. Among the special highlights, and on exhibit for the first time ever in Switzerland, is Yves Klein’s Anthropométrie sans titre from 1960, a monumental painting on canvas. Separate artists’ spaces are dedicated to the artists Gerhard Richter, Peter Doig and Louise Bourgeois. Louise Bourgeois’ remarkable multi-part work on paper The Hours of the Day, 2006 is to be given a premier public showing. The exhibition “Cooperations” concludes with Félix González-Torres‘ pearl curtain “Untitled” (Beginning), 1994, – a metaphor for the end of the collection’s three presentations celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Fondation Beyeler, and – as the title suggests – as anticipation of the coming years. The exhibition “Cooperations” follows an art-historical chronology of the exhibition as such: it starts with the Wunderkammer as origin of the museum, followed by the modern salon before then culminating in the contemporary White Cube. Approximately 170 works from eight countries constitute a temporal arch extending from the late Renaissance through to the twenty-first century. The loans were drawn from a dozen or more private collections and other renowned institutes, such as the Musée Barbier-Mueller in Geneva, the Easton Foundation in New York, or the Daros Collection in Zurich. “Cooperations” concludes, with a perspective on the future, the 2017 series of special exhibitions presenting the collection from different angles. The first show, “The Original” was based on the opening exhibition in 1997, with a reconstruction of the original hanging as envisaged by the museum’s founder Ernst Beyeler. The second special exhibition, “Remix”, provided a platform for the dialogue between newly acquired works and the existing collection. Curators of the exhibition are Sam Keller and Ulf Küster, Fondation Beyeler. Scenographic design, graphic design and exhibition architecture by Martina Nievergelt, Thorsten Romanus, and Dieter Thiel. Conservation project supported by the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation. The exhibitions of the Beyeler Collection marking the Fondation Beyeler’s 20th anniversary are generously supported by: Beyeler-Stiftung Hansjörg Wyss, Wyss Foundation Dr. Christoph M. Müller and Sibylla M. Müller Basler Kantonalbank Bayer Fondation Coromandel ISS Facility Services Press images: are available for download at www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/media/press-images Further information: Silke Kellner-Mergenthaler Head of Communications Tel. + 41 (0)61 645 97 21, [email protected], www.fondationbeyeler.ch Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Museum AG, Baselstrasse 77, CH-4125 Riehen Fondation Beyeler opening hours: 10 am – 6 pm daily, Wednesdays until 8 pm Twentieth Anniversary Exhibitions of the Beyeler Collection February 5, 2017 – January 1, 2018 The Fondation Beyeler was inaugurated on October 18, 1997. The collection of major works of modern and contemporary art was assembled with meticulous care from the 1950s onwards by art dealers and collectors Ernst and Hildy Beyeler and was given a home in the new museum building, designed by Renzo Piano, in Riehen/Basel. Here the collection remains on permanent public display, in varying presentations, together with works subsequently donated by the founders. The collection of the Fondation Beyeler is constantly extended with carefully chosen purchases, donations, partnerships and long-term loans. In 2017 the Fondation Beyeler is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a sequence of three special exhibitions that present the collection from three different viewpoints: a look back, a look at the present, and a look into the future. Beyeler Collection / The Original February 5 – May 7, 2017 The first show of the year, conceived as an homage to the museum’s founders Ernst and Hildy Beyeler, is based on the opening exhibition of 1997. Thanks to a number of visual documents and contemporary testimonies, a reconstruction of the original hanging was possible. Despite certain changes in the collection over the past decades, the original presentation has been largely recreated. Works by the main protagonists of modern art – van Gogh, Cézanne and Monet, through Picasso, Matisse, Léger and Klee, down to Giacometti, Rothko and Bacon – are represented in striking ensembles that illustrate the outstanding quality of the Beyeler Collection. The exhibition reflects the special interplay among individual works as envisaged by its founders, and accordingly the point of departure for numerous past and future presentations of the Beyeler Collection. It will also recall the credo Ernst Beyeler stated in the speech he gave at the inaugural press conference twenty years ago: “We have always been deeply moved by works of art which we have often not been able to let go, and later [came] the realization that we wished to pass on this art and the profits made from it. Also, and above all, as an homage to the great artists of a period, a period we must likely count among the great moments in art history.” The curator of the exhibition is Raphaël Bouvier. Beyeler Collection / Remix June 10 – September 3, 2017 With works by Andy Warhol from the Daros Collection “Remix”, the second exhibition devoted to the Beyeler collection as a whole, provides an overview of its current activities and holdings. New acquisitions in recent years have augmented the previous collection with an additional focus on contemporary developments. Facilitating a dialogue between newly acquired works and the existing collection is a major criterion in decisions on purchases and the acceptance of loans. “Remix” seeks to provide a varied platform for this dialogue. To mark the twentieth anniversary of the Daros Collection, the partnership between Daros and the Fondation Beyeler is celebrated with a presentation of outstanding works by Andy Warhol from the Daros Collection. The exhibition is curated by Theodora Vischer, Senior Curator of the Fondation Beyeler. Beyeler Collection / Cooperations October 18, 2017 - January 1, 2018 The third exhibition of the series will show possible ways in which the Fondation Beyeler’s collection could be extended through loans from certain private collections closely associated