William Sommer: Two Dancing Figures, ca.
1924,
Deutsche Bank Collection
Considering that it's been a nearly two- year hiatus since the bank had its
core business offices downtown, this re-unification process is an amazing
accomplishment. The achievement has much to do with the collaboration not
only of the curatorial group of Ariane Grigoteit, Friedhelm Hütte and Liz
Christensen, but also with the bank's employees and their responses to the
art. As Liz Christensen noted: "We have two separate floors of meeting-and
dining rooms which have internationalism as their themes and are available
for all employees, clients and visitors to experience." In addition, talks
are given by exhibiting artists throughout the year in which employees and
their guests are invited to participate. This is an extension of a program
that flourished in midtown during the past several years. In order to
realize this "migration" project, Liz Christensen had to work both
theoretically and with a careful eye to the reality of the physical space.
While initial concepts were mapped out on her computer, Liz's final
decisions were ultimately based on whether or not a particular work
functioned in its planned environment.
Lee Krasner: Twenty-four Hours Dark, 1981,
Deutsche Bank Collection
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While renovated floors clearly presented an ultra-minimal
design, other floors, such as the 20th floor, inherited rich wood paneling
and slatted shutters. Here, a combination of
William Sommer watercolors called Three Dancing Figures from 1923
sits opposite
Lee Krasner's famous series, Twenty-four Hours Dark, from 1981,
painted in oil on canvas. What comes across here and on other floors is
the emphasis on a cross-cultural dialogue that happens by virtue of mixing
up and reorganizing often classical art historical divides.
A very
rare and unusual Eva Hesse
gouache from 1963 can also be found here as can
Alfred Jensen's famous number series, Second Version of 5760 Days: 360
= 16 Solar Years, from 1977, done in oil on paperboard. If one didn't
have to work, it would be easy indeed to spend the day wandering the
hallways or sitting and looking at the
Lawrence Weiners.
Alfred Jensen: Second Version of 5760 Days: 360 = 16 Solar Years, 1977,
Deutsche Bank Collection
While the 20th floor
is pure elegance, offering a deep sense of reserve, the trading floors
immediately plunge the viewer into super-action. Just before entering the
most intense Hollywood-esque series of monitors, and lcd signs, (
Michael Douglas in Wall Street immediately comes to mind), a view
of New York discretely presents itself in full panorama reminding everyone
why getting to the top is worth the struggle. Liz Christensen admits that
"it's visually overloaded" inside the trading floors. She did, however,
find a quieter adjacent wall to locate a series of
Imi Knoebel cut-outs that seem to provide a much needed calm and humor.
Like the act of making a film, the job of curating 45 floors is all about
understanding sequence, audience and dialogue. Success happens by coming
up with large ideas, making extremely educated guesses and then following
up with the physical action of being an excellent editor.
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