The Deutsche Bank Collection in Frankfurt Living art and living corporate history Max Bill's granite sculpture Continuity in front of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main In the early hours of 7 September 1986, a low-loader made its way from Frankfurt's Osthafen to the twin-towered headquarters of the Deutsche Bank, where as dawn broke a gigantic crane relieved it of its 80 to 90 ton burden. After over three-and-a-half years of preparation Continuity, the massive granite sculpture by the Swiss artist Max Bill (1908-1994) was installed in front of the building's main entrance. The sculpture's double helix has long since established itself as the symbol of the Deutsche Bank's commitment to art, and indeed as an emblem of the concern. To this day its dynamic form symbolises the basic concept behind this commitment: to bring the experience of contemporary art into the bank and to encourage artistic visions and ideas. Sculpture by Richard Lippold in the lobby of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main At the end of the seventies, the Deutsche Bank became one of the first concerns to bring together the worlds of work and contemporary art. Displayed in corridors, banking halls and offices around the world, the collection has grown to comprise some 50,000 art works at 911 locations in 43 different countries. Since 1986, when the art works gracing the bank's new Frankfurt headquarters were presented to the public for the first time, the twin towers have embodied the concept of "Art at Work". They are the heart of the world's largest corporate collection and of the bank's global art activities. On entering the hustle and bustle of the entrance hall on the ground floor, with its walls of light-coloured stone, one is confronted by Hans Arp's bronze sculpture Ptolemäus III (1961). The lobby is dominated by a gigantic steel sculpture by Richard Lippold, apparently hovering near the ceiling, whose clear forms lead the observer's gaze up into the galleries of the towers' two ground floors and to the bridge linking them. Like an organically proliferating stain Sigmar Polke's alchemical halftone painting Untitled (1984) in the upper foyer contradicts this symmetry, shifting its hues according to how the light falls on it. Bernd und Hilla Becher Fachwerkhäuser, 1959-1961/1974 K19850192 © Bernd und Hilla Becher, Düsseldorf In the second floor, which also houses the conference rooms, the guided tours of the collection (of which over 250 are conducted each year) begin with contemporary photography. Here the visitor can see that since its beginnings the collection has continually been receptive to new influences. Cool architectural images such as Bernd and Hilla Becher's Half-timbered Houses (1959-1961/1974) and Candida Höfer's hermetically sealed strong room Bank Oldenburg (1998) represent the analytical approach of the Düsseldorf School and are here juxtaposed by works by other young photographers. The sharply defined detail of Julian Rosefeld's teeming Oktoberfest (1996/1999) recalls the works of Andreas Gursky, which are also to be found in the collection, whereas Erwin Wurm's installation Shot Taipei Biennale (2000) emphasises a conceptual approach to photography. Like the works of Miwa Yanagi that were shown in the Deutsche Guggenheim in early 2004, Izama Kaoru's Itaya Yuka wears Comme les Garcons #342 (2002) takes as its theme the world of consumerism, fashion fetishism and teenage culture. The staged photographs of these two young Japanese artists strike a contemporary chord, yet like so many recent works in the collection they are already achieving the status of classics. In the planning the Frankfurt collection the works of the Düsseldorf School played an important role—long before photographers such as Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Thomas Demand began to sell their work at high prices. This receptivity to new art, which is a direct result of the bank's original art concept, is also evident in the painting displayed on the second floor in front of the restaurant. Here is to be found Sigmar Polke's Drehung (Rotation, 1979), as well as works by Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, and Jörg Immendorf. On the floor above, the sequence is continued with works by "young savages" such as Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Bernd Zimmer and Elvira Bach, whose neo-expressive style with its unbridled use of colour caused a furore in the eighties. Photographs by Nathalie Grenzhäuser and Erwin Wurm, 2nd floor of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main This neo-expressionist "vehement painting"—which is currently undergoing a renaissance—is juxtaposed on the third floor with works by younger artists thematising the east-west dialogue that has developed in Germany since reunification. Placed next to Gerhard Altenbourg's extreme abstract-surrealist watercolours and Hermann Glöckner's works from the GDR of the fifties, Cornelia Schleime's series of photographic paint-overs, Kenya (1992), exudes a genuine yearning for the exotic—charged though the pictures are with a genuinely bitter critique of globalisation. Weiche (Points) by Neo Rauch, a prominent representative of the New Leipzig School, also exudes an air of disillusion. Rauch's works unite the aesthetics of American comic culture with the iconography of German post-war reconstruction and Social Realism. Neo Rauch Weiche, 1999 Öl auf Papier 215 x 190 cm K19990624 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2005. Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin In recent years the art displayed in the twin towers has seen an increase in the works of young, international artists. That these works are prominently displayed in the "semi-public" ground floors also reflects the collection's philosophy of choosing contemporary art that takes as its themes social developments and perspectives for the future. Whereas under the aegis of former Member of the Board of Managing Directors Herbert Zapp (1928-2004) the bank's offices in New York, Geneva, Kyoto, Singapore, St. Petersburg and Moscow had already been fitted out with contemporary German and international works of art, the furnishing of the Frankfurt headquarters with art works represented a further milestone in the history of the collection. Zapp's initiative in introducing art as an "alternative currency" into the concern's daily life—one that would both create identity and stimulate ideas—was in the mid-eighties a truly revolutionary development. Together with his advisors of those years, Prof. Dr. Klaus Gallwitz (Städel Art Institute, Frankfurt), Prof. Dr. Peter Beye (State Gallery Stuttgart), the gallery owner Wolfgang Wittrock and the present directors of Deutsche Bank Art, Dr. Ariane Grigoteit and Friedhelm Hütte, Zapp developed a pioneering concept for the twin skyscrapers—which were originally built as a hotel complex. As one descends the stairs from floor to floor, one passes through a panorama of German art from the sixties, seventies and eighties, approaching the present the closer one gets to ground level, where one is confronted by contemporary art from Germany and abroad. On the panels in the lifts, next to the buttons for each floor, are engraved not as one would expect the names of the various departments but those of the artists to whom each floor is dedicated. Thus at the touch of a button one chooses one's floor—and at the same time embarks on a journey through the history of contemporary art. The two first-born artists, Horst Antes and Joseph Beuys, occupy the top floors in each tower. Symbolically, therefore, each tower starts with the two main German schools of the sixties—those of Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe - that have left their mark on all subsequent German art. In the early years, the presentation of contemporary "Art at Work" in the bank was often problematic, not only for staff members but for artists too. Art alters corporate culture and inspires communication—but it can also be provocative and uncomfortable. Thus communicating art both within the bank and to the general public outside its walls became a major consideration. For instance, to facilitate contact with art the bank organised meetings with artists, in which staff members could personally get to know the artists and works displayed on their floor. Sculpture by Alfred Lörchner and painting by Oskar Kokoschka on an executive floor of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main This interaction between art and staff members is an integral part of the concept evolved for the collection in the twin towers, for it is not simply a lineally didactic presentation of post-war German art. Rather it reflects individual positions taken up by representatives of contemporary German culture—with all its caesuras, parallelisms and contradictions. Starting out from Classical Modernism and works by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Vassily Kandinsky and Emil Nolde, the collection later focused heavily on the post-war generation of artists. Georg Baselitz's "reversed" painting Heroes and Markus Lupertz's neo-expressive landscapes highlight this generation's critical perspective on Modernism. On the 28th floor, dedicated to works by Gerhard Richter, the wealth of drawings, prints and watercolours document the spectrum covered by Richter since his earliest works—and by the Capitalist Realism movement that Richter founded with Sigmar Polke in the sixties. While Jörg Immendorf was putting his historical paintings at the service of political agitation and Germany's coming to terms with its past, Imi Knöbel and Blinky Palermo based their Minimalist approach on Kasimir Malevich and the beginnings of the Russian Avant-garde. The collection also includes local artists: beside the Frankfurt "Quadriga" around Heinz Kreutz and Bernard Schultze, whose tachist painting has decisively influenced post-war German abstractionism, these include Thomas Bayrle and Manfred Stumpf, to whom individual floors are dedicated. Since the seventies Bayrle, who is a professor at the Frankfurt Städel School of Art, has focused his artistic attention on mass production and mass mobility. His prints show how his art has developed from using traditional techniques to generating prints and animations using computers. "Thou shalt not lie"—this Biblical commandment is printed as with a template on Manfred Stumpf's Untitled from 1984, which portrays a crash test dummy sitting in a car chassis. A former student of Bayrle, in his works Stumpf uses Christian and other religious motifs to explore contemporary social and technological themes. Even before reunification, it was clear that contemporary art is strongly influenced by new technologies and global networks that are increasingly rendering national borders superfluous. Whereas the collection originally focused on works from German-speaking countries, in the eighties the emphasis shifted to international art, though works on paper continued to predominate. As a medium, paper establishes a strong link with the bank—it is the stuff of which money is made and an important material in the office. At the same time, digital communication and virtual data transfer have now rendered the traditional office obsolete. Yet precisely because workplaces have become more mobile—and with them staff members too—and as a consequence the spatial relationships in bank buildings are constantly shifting, art must communicate continuity and sustainability. The bank has developed into a global concern, uniting under its roof a diverse range of cultural identities. As a result, under the direction of Dr. Ariane Grigoteit and Friedhelm Hütte the concept of "Art at Work" has over the past decade been broadened. Whereas in the past the collection directors were advised by such prominent German gallery owners as Wolfgang Wittrock and Fred Jahn, today they take counsel from such international art experts as Bärbel Grässlin, Sadie Coles and Yoshiko Isshiki. Photography by Ottmar Hörl on the 2nd floor of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main The main focus of the collection's curatorial work is on accessibility to art and on the public presence of art in the bank, including by extension art's role as catalyst for debate in the world outside the bank. Museums around the world present different aspects of the collection through such thematic exhibitions as A Century of Landscapes (1999), The Return of the Giants (2002), and Man in the Middle (2002). As a logical development of this trend, in 1997, together with the New York Guggenheim Museum, the bank cofounded the Deutsche Guggenheim in its Berlin headquarters to stage its own exhibitions. The goal of this joint venture is to put on first-class exhibitions as well as to display works specially commissioned for the exhibition hall by artists such as Jeff Koons, Rachel Whitehead, Gerhard Richter and Bill Viola. In addition, the Moment series offered an opportunity of presenting temporary art projects in public spaces outside the workplace. The 25th anniversary of the collection is an opportunity both to reflect on the collection's past and to consider its future. For the exhibition with which the Deutsche Bank Collection celebrated this anniversary in the spring of 2005, art works from the bank's offices and branches throughout the world were collected together and presented in an exhibition space specially designed for the occasion by Zaha Hadid. Many of the works in this exhibition were borrowed from the twin towers in Frankfurt. In their new surroundings they revealed new facets of the concern's art—as an integral part of a global collection embodying both living art and living corporate history. » back to overview