Leseprobe

36 His first significant acquisition was Emil Nolde’s water­ colour Kopf einer jungen Frau (Head of a Young Woman) ( FIG. 12, P. 29 ) in 1988. This can thus be seen as the beginning of the collection. My husband then quickly focused on building up a Picasso collection, supple- mented by works by Picasso’s contemporaries, such as Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. We continued to expand the collection together from 1994 on, by which time we were a couple. My preference for Expressionist works, especially those by the Brücke artists, had an influence over time. We acquired the first Kirchner in 2002, the oil painting Rothaarige nackte Frau (Nude with Red Hair) ( FIG. 13, P. 29 ) for the collection. We developed an expanded profile for the collection together and have systematically pursued it ever since. MNK: Your collection focuses on portraits of women from the Classical Modernism period. Big names besides the ones you mentioned, such as Alexej von Jawlensky, but also Brücke artists such as Erich Heckel, Max Pechstein as well as Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Otto Mueller are repre- sented. How did this thematic direction emerge? Who was particularly enthusiastic about what and how did you influence each other? What connected you in the process? GS: The development into the collection’s overriding topos emerged from the outset: depictions of women and maternity. Against the background of the collection’s aim to depict works from the artists’ different creative periods as retrospectively as possible, a thematic limitation was obvious. At the same time, it was a reflection and expres- sion of Horst’s respect for women, whom he was wont to call the “crown of creation”. We were able to inspire one another, after all, our preferences coincided to a significant degree. We shared an unbridled fascination for Picasso and all his different creative periods. We were united by our enthusiasm for the beauty of art and the closeness we felt to the respec- tive artist when we stood in front of an artwork. We were interested in learning a great deal about the artists, their lives and their views from different perspectives. We also agreed that our privilege in being able to acquire such artworks is commensurate with an obligation on our part to make them accessible to the general public. MNK: Your husband was a seventh-generation entrepreneur, you were a director in a bank before you took over the management of the company. Two individuals who were accustomed to taking tough, calculated decisions, to arguing and asserting themselves. How did collecting art function as a joint endeavour? How did you both decide to make a purchase? Who called the shots and how did you find out about the artworks? GS: Being able to make tough, calculated decisions, to argue and to assert oneself are not necessarily bad qualities when it comes to buying art and especially when it comes to counteracting the collector’s passion. On the contrary – they can indeed be useful attributes when it comes to self-protection. Since the emphasis of the collection was basically defined, we focused on artworks that would make mean- ingful additions. We informed and oriented ourselves by visiting art fairs and auctions and keeping in touch with a smaller circle of gallery owners who were familiar with our interests. In addition, our friend, Prof. Roland Doschka, who has connections to the Picasso and Chagall families, sorted out a number of interesting works for us. For instance, Roland was instrumental in the fact that today our collection is representative of almost all of Picasso’s creative periods. There were, of course, situations in which the collector’s passion becomes a desperate compulsion to have a given artwork by any means, but reason says: “too expensive – inappropriate – so desist from buying!”. We were able to rely on each other in such cases. The attributes mentioned above came into play. As a rule, I had taken on the role of the handbrake in the partner- ship. Especially when I thought I saw a tell-tale glint in my husband’s eye, I became increasingly forthright from time to time – which didn’t always exactly make me the “darling” of the gallery owners. I comforted my husband with the words: “Dearest, the things that belong in our collection will come along eventually.” And that’s what often happened – at some point the works actually came to us. Or engaging the handbrake immediately led to price reductions in the negotiations that made a purchase justifiable or made us doubt the seriousness of the offer and withdraw altogether. I would say we had a positive distribution of roles and were thus always able to acquire art at reasonable prices. Above all, we didn’t buy into each and every hype. W e als o a g re e d th a t o u r p r ivile g e in b e i n g able to a c q uir e s u ch ar t w o rks i s co m m e n s ur a t e w it h an o b l igati o n o n o u r p a r t to ma k e t h em a cc e s si b l e to t h e g e ne r a l p u bli c.