Since 1846, since the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe became a collection for public showing, the works exhibited and assembled here have been regularly published. This volume of the new acquisitions since 1995 has not only succeeded in showing the most important currents of contemporary art in examples of outstanding works. Works by Georg Baselitz, Jakob Broder, Rolf-Gunter Dienst, Bogomir Ecker, Günther Förg, Sabine Funke, Hubert Kiecol, Wolfgang Laib, Günther Uecker, Claude Wall, Franz Erhard Walther, and others successfully assert the place of “material art” – painting and sculpture – in the age of media art.
Beyond that, the significance of collecting is revealed in exemplary form, not merely as increasing inventory, but as an impetus-providing investigation of standpoints. “If one takes the volume Die Sammlung der Moderne [The Modernist Collection] in hand, the broad arc of the collecting concept is revealed in the contextual view of the existing stores. Then, for example, the great increase of the early Baselitz painting becomes recognizable as a counter-voice to Walter Stöhrer and Gerhard Richter; the two recently acquired works from Palermo relate to his already present material picture; and – for the specially selected block of color painting by a Günter Umberg or Jerry Zeniuk – Geiger, Girke, Fruhtrunk, and Graubner reveal a broad foundation based on Josef Albers.

Editor: Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
Authors: Klaus Schrenk, Sigmar Holsten

Hardcover
25 x 31 cm
123 pages
78 color illustrations
German
available
ISBN 978-3-936636-40-6
25 Euro
2004