The Deutsche Bank Collection in Leipzig In the heart of the east German art metropolis Up-and-coming young artists compete vigorously for places at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts - not just because works that bear the stamp of the New Leipzig School sell very well but also because of the very special atmosphere that prevails in this art academy in the State of Saxony. Since the early sixties, the academy has enjoyed a wide reputation for its dedicated teaching staff of technical perfectionists, as well as for creating a kind of artistic biotope in which such outstanding painters as Bernhard Heisig and Werner Tübke could work in peace in the often hostile cultural climate of the old GDR. Prints by Gerhard Altenbourg in the Deutsche Bank, Leipzig Deutsche Bank Collection © Henning Bock At the end of the eighties, when video and conceptual art was all the rage, in Leipzig the accompanying eloquent obituaries to painting were quietly ignored. At that time the academy became the centre of a lively urban art scene which flourished in art galleries, studios, and among individual groups of artists. The high standards of craftsmanship and the explicit social critique that are associated with all styles and generations represented within the Leipzig School are also clearly evident in the works housed in the Deutsche Bank Collection on Leipzig's Martin-Luther-Ring. The history of these banking premises goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. The Deutsche Bank moved into the building, designed by Arwed Rossbach (1844-1902) and inspired by the Florentine and Roman palace architecture of the late Renaissance, in 1902.. Both the interior and exterior architecture are dominated by opulent decorative motifs—from the mosaic floors to the Jugendstil glass cupola, from the wooden panelling on the walls to the detailed stucco and ironwork embellishments. In the dialogue between east German post-war art and contemporary art on the one hand and the architecture of this protected building on the other, a series of fascinating contrasts are created that reflect the interplay of tradition and social change. Prints by Hartwig Ebersbach in the Deutsche Bank, Leipzig Deutsche Bank Collection © Henning Bock The building was reacquired by the Deutsche Bank from the assets of the old GDR State Bank in 1990. It was completely renovated and an extension added, the work being completed by 1995. A total of over 140 works by more than 25 artists are displayed here. The tour of the collection begins in the colonnaded foyer on the ground floor. In the stairway to the strong room, whose historical form has by and large been preserved, hangs a group of over twenty dry point etchings and coloured woodcuts by Gerhard Altenbourg (1926-1989). Though the Leipzig collection mainly focuses on artists connected with Saxony, Altenbourg originated from Thuringia. Returning from the Second World War, he began to study at the Weimar Art Academy. On journeys to the West, he studied the recently rediscovered Modernist artists and developed an admiration for Wols, Jean Dubuffet, Art Brut and Joseph Beuys. After the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, Altenbourg was largely cut off from artistic developments in western Europe. He became a loner, celebrated in the West and victimized and mistrusted by the GDR authorities for refusing to bend to the dictates of socialist art. His sensitive, labyrinthine drawings recall the fantasy and spirituality of the Surrealists, relocating human existence in a dream world that appears at the same time to be both far away and very close at hand. His early works especially, such as Königsgrab (King's grave, 1951), exude a spirit of mourning and—almost prophetically—of suffering in a hostile environment. Carlfriedrich Claus Ohne Titel, 1972 Tusche und Farbstift auf beidseitig bezeichnetem Transparentpapier 10,5 x 13,2 cm K19920009 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2005 In Carlfriedrich Claus (1930-1998) the Leipzig collection possesses the works of yet another artist who worked alone and in complete seclusion. But in contrast to Altenbourg, Claus was inspired by a deep belief in the visionary power of Communism. Claus did not see himself as an artist but as an alchemist, philosopher and poet. He would periodically withdraw from the world to conduct what he called "language exercises" (analogous to spiritual exercises), preparatory to experimenting with the concepts of time, sound and process in his works. Not graphical composition but language and ideas were the starting point for his art. His "language sheets" are full of transcendental, symbolic allusions, aimed at inspiring new experiments in thought and emotion. The gallery that runs around the open-space customer hall on the first floor is devoted to three Leipzig artists who all studied under Bernhard Heisig and who each represent very different aspects of the Leipzig School. Inspired by the late work of Lovis Corinth, by Asger Jorn and the COBRA Group, Hartwig Ebersbach, who was born in 1941 near Zwickau, created spontaneous images of increasing abstraction. He wanted at all costs to be a "bad" painter, he declared, alluding to the forced optimism of the kind of figurative socialist art commissioned by the GDR authorities. His refusenik stance is in contrast to Neo Rauch's affirmative strategy: the most prominent representative of a new figurative painting, he takes as his theme the relationship between eastern and western culture in a reunited Europe. In such works as Weiche (Points, 1999) located in the left wing of the gallery, he succeeds with great virtuosity in fusing the modern myths of the Warsaw Pact countries and of the western world in surreal dream scenes. The aesthetics of American comic culture and eastern Socialist Realism are united in a conglomerate of highly charged images of post-war German reconstruction. Rosa Loy Feldrittersporn, 1999 Tinte auf Papier 94 x 63 cm K20000611 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2005 The magic exuded by Rauch's pictures is also to be felt in a different way in those of his wife Rosa Loy. "Painting is an exploration of the stations at which the train stops, as well as an exploration of the place, the time," says Loy. In her work this ambivalent examination of the concepts of "home" and "belonging" is also linked to another theme: "the feminine in all its multifarious nuances and entanglements." Uwe Kowski Ohne Titel, 1992 Gouache, Pigment und Beize auf Papier 50 x 66,5 cm K19923034 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2005. Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin In the immediate vicinity of Neo Rauch's works hangs Uwe Kowski's Weltbild (World picture, 1993), together with other of his large format drawings. In the interwoven limbs, lines and forms of the composition may be intuited ideas and plans for both possible and utopian existences. Kowski's work is characterised by this balance between abstraction and dimly perceived representational forms. This is also true of his gouaches, in which flowing streams of colour delineate simple human forms whose bright hues recall European Modernism's enthusiasm for folk art and the art of so-called "primitive" cultures. On the second floor, the conference rooms grouped around the central oval space create an ideal architectonic setting for five panel format works by Jörg Herold from his series In L. trägt H. die Wunden Hausers zur Schau (In L., H. displays Hauser's wounds, 1990). Herold sees his artistic work as "a washing in the archaeological sense." Like Kowski's, his works formally engage with the tradition of painting and at the same time examine the nature of historical perception: his Kaspar Hauser, who is incapable of speech, gestures like Herold's Piktographisches Alphabet series (1996) towards the artistic possibility (or impossibility) of dialogue, of finding one's own language. A participant in documenta X (1997), Herold belongs to a group of former students of the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts who at the end of the eighties sought to free themselves from all traces of official political pathos and trace their own uncensored paths in the city's subversive art scene. Olaf Nicolai Ohne Titel, aus der Serie: Morphologische Studien, 1991 Überarbeiteter Siebdruck auf Papier K19921088 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2005. Courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin With Carsten and Olaf Nicolai, the collection presents on the second floor two prominent Leipzig artists of the younger generation. In the GDR art scene of the eighties, a yearning for "otherness" prompted experimentation with expressive forms in an attempt to create something resembling individuality. Like his brother Carsten, Olaf Nicolai (b. 1962) is today one of the most important representatives of a generation of artists whose work explicitly focuses on the interfaces between art and nature, culture and science. As Olaf Nikolai jokingly observed: "However, the more individualised we became in terms of formal expression, the more we resembled each other." He thus set out in an opposite direction from his brother: since the end of the nineties he has been exploring how the growing plethora of manufactured goods in our world affects our perception of the environment. His illuminated box Nach der Natur (After nature), which was first exhibited at the 1997 documenta X, established artificiality as the focus of his work. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the business world, this miniscule biotope seems like a photographic fiction, an apparent rescuing of nature through simulation. Prints by Gerhard Altenbourg in the Deutsche Bank, Leipzig Deutsche Bank Collection © Henning Bock In contrast to the passionate, expressive style of the Leipzig School, the Nicolais' style is sober and objective, manifesting a strict adherence to form. In the work of such young Leipzig painters as Tilo Baumgärtel, Tim Eitel and Martin Eder, however, this occasionally rather too cool conception of reality is combined with fantastic and romantic elements. Although the epithet "Leipzig School" has established itself in the history of contemporary art, it stands in fact for a number of very different trends. The Deutsche Bank Collection here in Leipzig, is evidence that the city's vibrant art scene is truly international in status. The director of the Eigen + Art gallery, Gerd Harry Lybke, who has contributed decisively to the success of the young Leipzig artists, describes the phenomenon of Leipzig thus: "It is no coincidence that 'Leipziger Allerlei' or 'Leipzig Potpourri' is the city's 'national dish'—it is made up of all kinds of vegetables that people have brought from all over the place, cooked, fried, and steamed, then tossed in the great cooking pot that is Leipzig—originally filled only with water and Leipzig crayfish. And that has become Leipzig's favourite dish! A mixture of ingredients from a range of different countries stirred up with their local crayfish. An international mixture." » back to overview