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Contemporary Masterpieces Enter Guggenheim Permanent Collection

To commemorate its 15-year collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Deutsche Bank is pleased to announce that artworks by nine artists commissioned for the Deutsche Guggenheim Museum in Berlin will become part of the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.  Each of the commissioned pieces was made expressly for the Deutsche Guggenheim site in Berlin on Unter den Linden where the works debuted.

The commissions entering the Guggenheim collection include major works by Pawel Althamer, John Baldessari, Hanne Darboven, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, Gabriel Orozco, Agathe Snow, Jeff Wall and Phoebe Washburn and encompass painting, photography, large-scale sculpture, installation and video.  Eight substantial commissioned works from the first five years of the collaboration by Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter, James Rosenquist, Andreas Slominski, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Bill Viola, Lawrence Weiner and Rachel Whiteread were handed over to the Guggenheim Museum in 2005. 

Another group of commissions will become part of the Deutsche Bank Collection. These will be on view in public or shared areas of the Bank and made available for exhibition loans.  Amongst these is a work by John Baldessari, which is hanging in the lobby of the Bank’s New York office, as well as a major installation by Anish Kapoor titled “Memory,” currently showcased at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.

The Deutsche Guggenheim was established in 1997 as a unique collaboration between Deutsche Bank and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Through an ambitious program of exhibitions of contemporary and modern art as well as commissions, Deutsche Bank and the Guggenheim Foundation acted as a catalyst for artistic production by some of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most accomplished artists. Originally conceived as a five-year program, it was extended into a 15-year collaboration.

“As a result of our successful collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Deutsche Bank leaves an extraordinary legacy demonstrating the enormous benefits of our cultural alliances. By handing over these works to the Guggenheim we are ensuring they will be accessible to people all over the world,” said, Stefan Krause, Deutsche Bank Management Board member and Chairman of the Global Art Steering Committee.
 
“The presence of the Deutsche Guggenheim in a new, re-unified Berlin was a significant contributor to the success of Berlin as a revitalized city, a cultural destination, and artistically vibrant capitol,” said Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. “We are thrilled that as part of our permanent collection, these commissioned works will now be available to a global audience through exhibitions and online platforms.” 

Deutsche Bank will continue its exhibition gallery in Berlin as the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle.  Beginning in April 2013, the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle will show collaborative projects with independent curators, international partner museums and cultural institutions as well as regular exhibitions of works from the Deutsche Bank Collection. The Bank’s collaboration with the Guggenheim will continue on a project by project basis.

To read more about Deutsche Bank’s new exhibition space, please click here.