BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors
esc
Art and Architecture – Attractive Allies
by Nicole Büsing and Heiko Klaas
We’re back for another dosage of Shorties! These little snippets of art world wisdom cover topics ranging from art fairs, auctions, to the relationship between artist and collector, written by leading journalists from around the world.
Up for discussion today; we look at how art and architecture work in synergy around the world.
Many private collectors take great pains to find the appropriate architectural framework for their art. Some of them commission the careful renovation of historical buildings; others erect brand new ones. The documenta-tested Berlin architect-trio Kuehn Malvezzi, for example, transformed a former picture-frame factory in Düsseldorf into a multi-functional enclosure for Julia Stoschek’s media-art collection. The Norwegian collector couple Venke and Rolf A. Hoff, on the other hand, discovered a former caviar factory, enveloped in ocean mist at the Lofoten, for their art, commissioning the art-aficionado Oslo architecture firm Element for its striking remodeling. Some collectors even open their private homes and apartments by appointment. For visitors, it’s interesting to see how the living environment engages in a dialogue with art. Munich-based Karsten Schmitz, of Stiftung Federkiel, commissioned the artist group Famed to transform his office apartment on the premises of the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, with minimal intervention, into a habitable Gesamtkunstwerk. Art collectors frequently have a clear preference for good design: Alexander Ramselaar lives with his art collection and avant-garde furniture in a historic townhouse in Rotterdam, where well-stocked bookshelves serve as a room divider. It is ideal, of course, when collectors are able to commission their favorite architects to create new spaces for their art. This is the case with the collection of Bernard Arnault, who hired star architect Frank O. Gehry to create a spectacular building with interlaced glass-facade elements located in the middle of the Bois de Bologne, providing a new landmark for Paris. With the honeycomb-shaped building The Broad, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which opens in Los Angeles in 2015, the American billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad leaves a similarly extravagant monument to posterity.
The journalist couple Nicole Büsing and Heiko Klaas have been writing freelance art journalism and art criticism since 1997 for a variety of national and international art magazines and newspapers.