Bouquet, a 2009 oil on canvas by Gerhard Richter is part of the Heiner Bastian Art Donation to the public art collection of Chemnitz, a city in southeast Germany. Image:  Photo: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/PUNCTUM/Bertram Kober.

ART NEWS

After years of collaborations, the Bastian family has made an important art donation that will considerably widen the Chemnitz Art Collections.

BY KAZAD

GERMANY- Two prints by Pablo Picasso, a Diasec print by Gerhard Richter, and works by Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys are part of more than 200 works of Modern art donated by the Berlin art dealer Heiner Bastian and his family to the public art collection of Chemnitz, a city in southeast Germany. The donation includes paintings, sculptures, installations, collages, watercolors, drawings, photographs, and various print techniques.

Heiner Bastian Art Donation

One of the centerpieces of the art donation is Narcissus/ROCI USA (1990) by Robert Rauschenberg. The piece is from the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange series. Another important artwork in this donation is Gerhard Richter’s Bouquet (2014). The Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum measures 60 x 88.5 cm. Three Views of the Hofgarten, Munich (2008) by Cy Twombly is another important part of the art donation.  The work exemplifies the artist’s incursion and devotion to art photography. Although well-known for his paintings, Cy Twombly was also celebrated for his art photography.

There is also Joseph Beuys’s Iphigenie (1973), a print based on a photograph taken during one of Joseph Beuys’s most compelling performances, Titus/Iphigenie at Experimenta III in Frankfurt in May 1969. The performance featured a white horse eating hay while a microphone amplified the noise of its hooves.

Although the art donation is dominated by artworks by old masters, there are also works by younger artists. Some of the younger artists in the collection include Anna Genger, Olaf Holzapfel, Wilhelm Sasnal, and 99 prints by Eberhard Havekost.

Chemnitz Art Collections Grow

There is a great appreciation for the amazing art donation by the  Heiner Bastian and his family, which has further, expands the Chemnitz Art Collections. The donation of artworks by old masters and young artists by the Bastian family has considerably widened the Chemnitz Art Collections stock of contemporary art.

The Heiner Bastian and his family art donation is the result of many years of cooperation between the two institutions. The collaboration between Chemnitz Art Collections and the Bastian family began in 2002 with the exhibition Picasso and Women. Since then, the relationship has grown into a formidable partnership. Both institutions have also cooperated on other projects, including those dedicated to Picasso, Beuys, and Warhol.

In celebration of the art donation, Chemnitz will host an exhibition of the donated works in an exhibition from November 12 through February 2018. To bring an in-depth perspective to the collection, the exhibition will be accompanied by a lecture titled Pablo Picasso, the Revolutionary by Aeneas Bastian, an art historian, collector and dealer, and the son of Heiner and Céline Bastian.

Robert Rauschenberg, Narcissus/ROCI USA (Wax Fire Works), 1990. Acrylic, lacquer, fire wax on stainless steel, 243 x 183 cm. Donation Céline, Heiner and Aeneas Bastian. Photo: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/
PUNCTUM/Bertram Kober

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