For the pre­sent an­ni­versa­ry ex­hi­bi­ti­on Je­wels in the Rhein­gold, a selec­tion has be­en ma­de ac­cor­ding to the prin­ci­ple of the ex­qui­si­te, which ex­clu­des the above works from the part­nerships, but, as a “best-of,” gat­hers ple­nty of high­lights.

The si­de-lit hall of the Kunst­hal­le stands un­der the ra­ther his­to­ri­cal port­ent of the clas­sics, the collection sup­p­lies pri­or to 2002―which ha­ve be­en ac­qui­red from Rainer Speck as a group from the Co­lo­gne collec­tion, and ha­ve ge­ne­rous­ly re­mained in the Rhi­ne­land.

The Rhein­gold pre­do­mi­nant­ly collects ar­tists which, as stu­dents or teachers, show an af­fi­ni­ty to Düs­sel­dorf’s Art Aca­de­my and the Rhe­nish art sce­ne. This in­ven­to­ry is able to be mea­ningful­ly and mar­ve­lous­ly com­ple­men­ted by ad­di­tio­nal purcha­ses of works by Ge­org He­rold, Hu­bert Kie­col, Tho­mas Schüt­te, and Ro­se­ma­rie Tro­ckel as well as by ma­ny of the youn­ger ge­ne­ra­ti­on; al­so, the ar­te po­vera of Kou­n­el­lis and Ma­rio Merz.

Jo­seph Beuys, Mar­cel Broodtha­ers, and Ja­mes Lee By­ars are im­portant fi­gu­res who all had their first
ma­jor so­lo ex­hi­bi­ti­ons at the Rheingold. Ad­di­tio­nal­ly, Carl And­re, who first opened in 1967 at Kon­rad Fi­scher Galerie, Sig­mar Pol­ke, and Wal­ter Dahn’s works from the wild Co­lo­gne ni­n­e­teen-eigh­ties, along wi­th Mar­tin Kip­pen­ber­ger, who­se work had to wait for so­me ti­me to achie­ve mu­se­um re­co­gni­ti­on, and last but not least, Al­bert Oeh­len.

In the ci­ne­ma hall, af­ter Mar­tin Kip­pen­ber­ger’s and Sig­mar Pol­ke’s over­tu­res, lar­ge and gre­at works from the Rhein­gold Collec­tion await: Man­fred Per­nice wi­th the hu­ge sculp­tu­re Bi­bet­te Head­land from 1999, an un­tit­led ab­strac­tion of An­dré But­zer, Hans­jo­erg Dobli­ar’s Re­turn of the Mo­thership, Jörg Im­men­dorff’s fi­gu­ri­ne, Corin­ne Was­m­uht’s Pa­th­fin­der as well as Neo Rauch’s See­wind (Sea bre­e­ze). They are flan­ked by crea­ti­ons by di­ver­se ar­tists such as Pe­ter Doig, Eber­hard Ha­vekost, Jo­an­ne Green­baum, and a joint work by Al­bert Oeh­len and Jo­na­than Mee­se.

Their love of pain­ting and their re­flec­tion or cri­ti­cal dis­tan­ce is cle­ar in all the work. Co­lor­ful pain­tings are va­riega­ted in a com­bi­na­ti­on that evo­kes wild thoughts. Fur­ther up on the up­per le­vel of the gal­le­ry hall, very co­lor­ful crea­ti­ons of pu­re joy are con­vey­ed wi­th the “film ima­ges” by Pe­ter Doig that we­re ma­de for his mo­vie thea­ter in Tri­ni­dad. Doig’s film pos­ters form a pil­lar to the top and are caught by Imi Knoe­bel’s works from the se­ries “Pu­re Freu­de” (Pu­re joy).

Pho­to­gra­phy do­mi­na­tes the first floor. Beat Streu­li’s peop­le in ci­ties as well as Pe­ter Doig’s ima­ges me­dia­te bet­ween the up­per and lo­wer ex­hi­bi­ti­on spaces. On the walls, works by Can­di­da Hö­fer, Tho­mas Ruff, and Tho­mas Struth pre­sen­t in ma­ny fa­cets the cle­ar view of con­tem­pora­ry new ob­jec­tivi­ty. Mo­re fa­mous ex­po­n­ents of to­day’s pho­to­gra­phy con­ti­nue as an ex­amp­le of di­s­cus­sion: Lois Ren­ner, Wolf­gang Till­mans, and Jeff Wall. In cor­re­spon­dence or sup­ple­ment to the­se works, on the outside of the cen­ter block are works by An­dy Ho­pe (1930), Gre­gor Schnei­der and Pe­ter Pil­ler, with drawings by Ro­se­ma­rie Tro­ckel and Tho­mas Schüt­te shown inside. Other sculp­tu­ral pie­ces by Tro­ckel, Ge­org He­rold, and Hu­bert Kie­col di­vi­de the space and ha­ve an axi­al re­la­ti­ons­hip to the spaces down­stairs. Over eigh­ty works by thir­ty-fi­ve ar­tists of the Rhein­gold Collec­tion are an ex­qui­si­te selec­tion, and are, in a cer­tain but de­fi­ni­te­ly sub­jec­tive way, the je­wels in the Rhein­gold.

Curator: Gregor Jansen

Ex­hi­bi­ti­on and ca­ta­lo­gue are sup­por­ted by the Rhein­gold Collec­tion.