Harald Falckenberg

Harald Falckenberg, born in 1943, is an attorney who began buying art in the 1990s. Following an increasingly international trend, the Falckenberg collection has gradually broadened and progressed from its concentration on Californian and German artists of recent years, to encompass works by the up-and-coming generation. Within a decade, the number of individual acquisitions has risen to more than 1600.

The increasing size of the collection made the search for a home mandatory. In 1996 the works were housed in an historic building near Hamburg’s airport, which was converted, step by step, in collaboration with artists. It became a functioning art warehouse with presentation facilities, which fully represented the intentions of the collector: he did not want to create a museum, but a kind of ‘artistic workshop’, a place that would be flexible to change and the debate surrounding ideas driving contemporary art. In 2001, due to the extension of the airport, the building became scheduled for demolition and the search for a home for the collection started anew. A fortuitous agreement was reached with the former Phoenix-Werke in the district of Harburg, on the other side of the river Elbe. They granted use of their large and disused production halls (with a floor area of about 5,000 square metres), which now serve as an exhibition and storage space for the collection.

For Falckenberg, collecting is a reflexive process, including mistakes and errors. The artists represented in Falckenberg´s collection achieve the expression in the maingling of art and life by real experience of the heterogenous. As a collector of recent, nonconformist art and as a critical observer of both the contemporary art scene and art market, Falckenberg concentrates on artists such as Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Gilbert & George, and John Baldessari, as well as new names such as Nicole Eisenmann, Manuel Ocampo, Dirk Skreber, Albert Oehlen, John Bock and Ena Swansea. According to Falckenberg, art should be ‘subversive, grotesque, playful,’ but also ‘socio-politically infiltrative and poetic’. He once said: ‘My aim is to protect this particular aspect of art and communicate it to the visitor.’ Falckenberg sees the works as a whole, which, beyond the subjective view inherent in any collection, also raises the question of an interpretation of art today. He explained: ‘Traditional concepts of the fine arts are a means of reconciliation with the reality of an unsatisfactory life, or in the case of political art, as utopia and promise. But art can also attempt to concern itself quite simply with what is quite separate from any ideologies and questions of meaning. I tend towards this position; deconstruction and scatter art are intrinsic elements of our daily life, or at least they are an important part of our consumer-oriented society.’

Hence, Falckenberg is not interested in aesthetic standards, but in anti-authoritarian elements and in pushing boundaries, and he is quite prepared to offer his premises as a site for works that are provocative, even to the point of destruction. Martin Kippenberger is particularly well represented (many of his works in the collection are currently on show in the Kippenberger exhibition at the Tate Modern in London). Albert Oehlen’s paintings expose the failure of art and revel in self-styled retardation. For him the canvas is a rudimentary plan and by denying conventional modes of critique, Oehlen questions how the value and function of painting might be developed outside of historical aesthetics and form. Falckenberg also owns works such as What Has Come Out of Here Can Only Be Seen Over There (2002) by Manuel Ocampo, who was born in the Philippines and makes religious and inter-cultural paintings that confront the viewer with moral dilemmas. He is also a staunch supporter of the young German artist Jonathan Meese. In installations in the collection such as, Meese creates an encompassing world of photos, 70s posters, objects, writings and massive details suggestive of a religion or cult, which are fuelled by historical events as well as the artist’s own life, and which reflect an unbridled joy in playing and a pleasure in incorrectness. These extraordinary works are scheduled to be shown from April to September 2006 at Deichtorhallen (museum for photography and contemporary art) in Hamburg.

Falckenberg not only considers it his mission to display his own collection, but also artworks not belonging to him. At the Phoenix-Hallen, he has presented Öyvind Fahlström, Arthur Köpcke, Hanne Darboven and Klaus Staeck. In 2006 there will be shows by the artists Peter Weibel and Paul Thek. The factory space of the Phoenix Kulturstiftung is also available as a forum for private collections and in 2007 the collections of Wilhelm Schürmann and Anton and Annick Herbert will be exhibited here. The current presentation is entitled ‘Goetz meets Falckenberg’, showing works from Falckenberg’s own collection alongside those of Ingvild Goetz of Munich. Harald Falckenberg is considered an established name on the international artistic scene, and certainly the scope and ambition of his collection ranks him among the leading international art collectors.


2006 Contemporary Magazine, London

Temple of Sublime Beauty

Temple of Sublime Beauty Emerson Wang

In Venice, the Sala S. Tomaso, part of the chiesa S Giovanni e Paolo, has been transformed into a temple of this pantheon of superheroes. Especially in the case of film heroes such as King Kong (1933), Godzilla (1954), and Superman (1933/1938), one could argue that there is a strong link between their emergence and the growing paranoia. The classic example is nuclear technology: albeit its known benefits, its use entails dangers that can potentially put an end to human life on the globe.

Yang Maolin, from Taiwan, transforms him and other superheroes such as King Kong, Godzilla and Peter Pan into buddhist deities, assigning each a position in his new pantheon, by placing them like door- guardians on top of ferocious beast, or let them stand on animals and lotus flowers like bodhisatvas, or collocates them on a throne with a big halo on the back like a buddha.

Gerhard Richter

光影下的色彩--
李希特的科隆大教堂彩繪玻璃

8月25日一場莊嚴隆重的彌撒於德國科隆大教堂（Kölner Dom）舉行，教堂唱詩班指揮與管風琴手共同譜寫新曲，德國最重要的當代藝術家李希特（Gerhard Richter）也給了這座已經列為世界文化遺產的科隆大教堂一份大禮－彩繪玻璃。

時間要回朔到五年前，建築師夏克威娜（Barbara Schock-Werne）擔任教堂的整修工程，她詢問藝術家李希特是否有意願接下教堂走廊南側的玻璃設計，李希特毫不考慮便答應了這個邀請，而且開始抽象繪畫的設計。其實這個構想與教堂執事原來希望描繪聖經故事的初衷不同，李希特卻不願意再依循前人的創作形式，取而代之的是在120平方公尺的玻璃以不同花色組合而成的彩繪。

而李希特的這個創意構思其實還要再回朔更早至1970年代，藝術家曾為他的一件作品命名《4096種顏色》（4096 Farben），畫中僅僅是單純的小色塊排列堆疊，色彩成了作品中唯一的媒材與主題，藝術家成了感性與理性的集成者。

從八百多個玻璃色澤中，李希特選擇了將近100個基本色開始試驗，因為太多色澤透過光線後減低了整件作品的統一性，最終藝術家以72個顏色定調，每塊單色為9.6平方公分，以此主基調安排位置，每種顏色平均出現並精心安排以達到整件玻璃的色彩平衡並能襯托出這座歌德式教堂的莊嚴與華麗。除了玻璃色彩的挑選與配置是一項大工程外，玻璃的材質與質感也透過藝術家與玻璃工廠討論設計，最後完成的作品由11,250塊玻璃組合而成，光線透射後的彩繪玻璃超越傳統聖經故事的說教，也沒有當代藝術深奧難懂的主題，李希特以單純的色彩拼貼與光線的交融成就了這件作品。當光源穿透彩繪玻璃，隨著不同的時間光線變化，教堂內的氛圍也不斷的在改變，觀眾莫不讚嘆。

幾世紀以來藝術家為教堂創作，如今除了宗教的信仰之外，這些藝術品更成就了教堂的藝術價值，最好的例子莫過於義大利的羅馬、佛羅倫斯等地的教堂，米開朗基羅、貝利尼、卡拉瓦喬等人的繪畫雕塑讓巷間的小教堂光芒耀眼。而今李希特也加入了這個行列，當代藝術家在全世界第三大教堂內留下了他的作品，一十之間藝術家將時間的歷史壓縮在教堂裡，古典與現代、宗教與藝術在此相遇。

位於教堂旁的科隆路德維希美術館（Museum Ludwig in Köln）同時展出藝術家為彩繪玻璃所設計的手稿與素描，展出至2008年元月。未能親臨現場的李希特迷或是曾經到過科隆大教堂的遊客也能透過已經出版的畫冊「李希特－機會，科隆教堂彩繪玻璃與4900色彩」（Gerhard Richter – Zufall. Das Kölner DOMFENSTER und 4900 FARBEN）一探究竟。

Fat Beauties come to Berlin

WHAT
Colombian neo-figurative artist, Fernado Botero, creates “fat people” as his subject to present sculpture and painting. There are 15 huge bronze sculptures, each over 3 meters high, by Botero presenting from September to November 2007 in Berlin.
The artist was born in Colombia in 1932 with 19 brothers and sisters. The human and animal figures in his sculpture and painting are always noted for the exaggerated proportion and corpulence.


WHY
Berlin, a historical and changing city, Lustgarten (pleasure garden) in Museumsinsel (Museum Island) beside Unter den Linden and Berliner Dom, was frequently used for political demonstrations during the years of the Weimar Republic.
The city atmosphere changes suddenly due to the prodigious sculptures. New and old, disturbance and ease are mixed up together.
It is the power of the art work and the charm of the city…..