Entering the lobby of 60 Wall Street, plasma screens flank
the reception area. The screens, currently showing the bank'scommercial
campaign, will in the future feature digital or video art that will be
part of a changing program. What is immediately striking is the massive
and powerful
Gerhard Richter abstract painting, Abstraktes Bild (Faust), 1981
that anchors the lobby waiting area while providing a powerful sense of
movement and energy. The painting seems to expand outward while firmly
engaging visitors at the same time. The painting was initially located in
a conference room in the Bank's Dusseldorf office, but now makes its new
home downtown. Downstairs, a small scale
Christo print exhibition can be found, titled Forty Years of Public Art
. The exhibition traces projects created by this husband and wife duo over
four decades, juxtaposing the artist's conceptual drawings next to site
photographs of realized projects. The show also references
The Gates Project for Central Park, which has been a conceptual dream
of the artists since 1979 and has recently been approved for New York
City. The Central Park Christo installation debuts in February 2005 under
the auspices of the Public Private Alliance for the Gates Project.
Deutsche Bank is the founding corporate partner. Proceeds from the sale of
the Gates Project products will benefit the
city's natural environment and the arts. As part of the Public Private
Alliance, Deutsche Bank is working closely with the artists to maximize
this unique gift to New York City.
Louise Nevelson: Maquette for SunDisc / Moon Shadow V, 1976-78, Deutsche Bank
Collection
To really see all the works in
this newly curated venue would probably take at least forty days. While
the majority of the works in the collection are on paper, 60 Wall Street
houses several paintings. The only sculpture is by
Louise Nevelson and can be found on the Executive Floor. Liz Christensen
took me on a private- eye tour of several floors to give me a sense of how
the collection has been organized and how it functions in the everyday
world of the Deutsche Bank employees working in this context of art,
culture and commerce. It quickly becomes clear that the major decisions
for the placement of the art revolve around the elevator and reception
areas. Potentially there are 45 ways to experience the collection.
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As Liz told me: "On the 'Forms of Abstraction' floor, (the
46th floor),
Blinky Palermo is juxtaposed with
James Nares while Keith Haring is
seen against a Nina
Bovasso. This shows how artists of different generations,
nationalities and sensibilities have approached the subject of abstract
mark-making on paper."
Liz Christensen, New York
The organizing
principal has as much to do with the input and sensibility of the people
working on individual floors. Unlike a museum or gallery, where
exhibitions are seen under isolated white cube conditions, the bank's
collection exists in a highly active business environment. In reality, 47
floors might amount to a1.6 million-square-foot office tower, but in terms
of art, that's an incredible amount of space that has to be neatly
delineated into functioning segments or chapters. Think of this new
configuration as an unending fold-out book where each page reveals another
level of visual information.
William Sommer: Three Dancing Figures, ca. 1923,
Deutsche Bank Collection
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