SPIELER

The exhibition “Private Collection” propose a case study of the pioneering role of the private collector who, with passion and perseverance, puts together a collection of master works or reveals new approaches.

Paris Photo invited this year one of the most important contemporary art collectors in Europe: HARALD FALCKENBERG.

The collection of Harald Falckenberg comprises over 2000 works of contemporary art which are shown – as part of the prestigious exhibition house Deichtorhallen Hamburg – on 6,000 square feet in a former factory building. The focus of the collection, in which photography plays an important role, is on multimedia art.

Paris Photo presented a selection of photographic works both traditional and painterly by artists such as Lewis Baltz, Jerry Berndt, Victor Burgin, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Mike Mandel/Larry Sultan on the one hand and Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Phil Collins, Ray Johnson, Astrid Klein, Urs Lüthi, Albert Oehlen, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Gerhard Rühm and Walid Raad on the other hand. The famous archive detections „Evidence“ by Mandel/Sultan and „The Little Screens“ by Lee Friedlander as documents and symbols of today’s life were flanked by an androgynous self portrait from 1973 by Swiss artist Urs Lüthi or Albert Ohelen’s collages of crudest found German magazine photography from the 80s. Phil Collins’ graffiti littered Britney Spears portrait was shown alongside Richard Prince’s cigarette in seemingly praying hands besides Lewis Baltz’ report „The Deaths in Newport“ and Gerhard Rühm’s ironic comments to photos from a medical book on malformed people.

The selected works have given iconic evidence for the wide spectrum of modern visual culture from documentation of social reality up to positions of the counter culture. They range from political correctness to ironic, satirical, even cynical comments. Photography as the apparently materialistic base of modern iconology has been the perfect supplement to painting as the classical medium for the subjective expression of artists.


Fotos: © Marc Domage, Paris Photo