The Daimler Art Collection and Education Program

comtemporary art from the Daimler Art Collection -
a comprehensive portrait of the collection

South African National Gallery Cape Town
3 October - 6 November 2004

Collection's Programme of the Year

 

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Informations to the collection

The Daimler art collection has come into being over the last 25 years. It started with an interest in the art of south-western Germany, and has established itself as one of the most important international corporate collections as it has grown.

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Josef Albers
Change Directions; 1942
60 x 74,5 cm

The collection concentrates on art from 1940 to the present day.

Particular interest has been taken in the following movements: Concrete and Constructive art, Minimalism, Zero, Concept Art and various trends in the 80s and 90s.

The Daimler Art Collection has come into being over the last 25 years. It started with an interest in the art of south-western Germany, and has established itself as one of the most important international corporate collections as it has grown. The collection concentrates on art from 1940 to the present day. Particular interest has been taken in the following movements: Concrete and Constructive art, Minimalism, Zero, Concept Art and various trends in the 80s and 90s.

 

Classical Modern Art and ZERO

The group of Classical Modern works in the Daimler Art Collection, started in 1977 by the purchase of a painting by Willi Baumeister in 1977, includes mainly painting, but also sculpture, wall objects and graphics. They present an image of the development of art to the 1960s, relating mainly to South-West Germany. ›Zero‹ and ›Neue Tendenzen‹ (New Tendencies) as European movements connected to international Minimalism are represented in the Daimler Art Collection by names like Enrico Castellani, Getulio Alviani, Jan Henderikse, Almir Mavignier, Francois Morellet, Jan Schoonhoven and Klaus Staudt.

Minimalism in Europe and America

The major abstract movements from the 50s to the 70s are characterized by going back to the origins of a concrete, constructive and minimalist art, though with different stresses in Europe and America. Connections between European structural-constructive painting with American tendencies - Minimal Art, Color Field Painting. Hard Edge, Op Art - are clearly shown in the collection in works by Adolf Fleischmann, Hartmut Böhm, Andreas Brandt, Ulrich Erben, Gottfried Honegger, Günther Fruhtrunk, Karl Gerstner, Manfred Mohr, Anton Stankowski.

Ugo Rondinone
Nr. 214 VIERUNDZWANZIGSTERJULIZWEITAUSEND; 2000
60'

Simone Westerwinter
from: 60 Name water-colors, 2001
15' x 22'

One point of reference for reductionist painting in the USA is a picture painted by Robert Ryman from 1969. In parallel with this focal point that has established itself the collection has addressed predecessors - practically unknown in Europe - of American Minimalist painting with acquisitions of work by artists including Jo Baer, Gene Davis, John McLaughlin, David Novros, Karl Benjamin, Ilya Bolotowsky and Frederick Hammersley, Oli Sihvonen.

Contemporary Art

The Daimler Art Collection holds prestigious high-calibre works by figures involved in major artistic trends and groupings within the 20th century's abstract movements. The aim in the field of contemporary art is on the one hand to make it possible to look at one focal point of the collection - the reduced, constructive-concrete and minimalist directions in contemporary art - and to show how it operated in distinct areas and continues to make an impact in the present.

The connection from the non-representational positions of post-war Modernism to the multi-media field of contemporary art in the Daimler Art Collection is made largely by a group of artists born around 1930/45: Charlotte Posenenske, Nam June Paik, Walter de Maria, Ulrich Rückriem, Auke de Vries, Daniel Buren, Roman Signer, Franz Erhard Walther, Imi Knoebel, Hanne Darboven, Olivier Mosset, Giulio Paolini, Peter Roehr and Joseph Kosuth. They all work on a new definition of the concept of the work, go against the traditional genre boandaries, view the viewers' mental and/or physical activity as part of the work process and assert.
Further Informations on our Website

List of Participating Artists

Doug Aitken Josef Albers Jane Alexander Jan Anüll John M Armleder Richard Artschwager Willi Baumeister Max Bill Hartmut Böhm Daniele Buetti Daniel Buren Mbongeni Buthelezi Andre Cadere Enrico Castellani Dadamaino Hanne Darboven Gia Edzgveradze Ulrich Erben Sylvie Fleury Günter Fruhtrunk Rupprecht Geiger Camille Graeser HAP Grieshaber Kay Hassan Jan Henderikse Ester Hiepler David Hockney Oskar Holweck David Koloane

Joseph Kosuth Robert Longo François Morellet Kirsten Mosher Olivier Mosset Zweluthu Mthetwa Herbert Oehm Giulio Paolini Henk Peeters Charlotte Posenenske Lothar Quinte Martial Raysse Robert Ryman Karin Sander Pietro Sanguineti Eckhard Schene Oskar Schlemmer Claudette Schreuders Jesus Rafael Soto Klaus Staudt Jean Tinguely Jef Verheyen Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart Franz Erhard Walther Andy Warhol Simone Westerwinter Ben Willikens Georg Winter

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