Landshut: Exhibition “Collector’s Eye” in the Koenig Museum – Bavaria

The concept is unusual. Alexandra von Arnim, director of the Koenig Museum in Landshut since February 2021, left the selection of the exhibits to art collectors for her first major exhibition. The goal: to position the Landshut sculptor in a new context, to locate him in the circle of famous colleagues such as Henry Moore, Eduardo Chillida or Marino Marini, or well-known painters such as Pierre Soulages, Willi Baumeister and Max Beckmann.

Eleven collectors felt drawn to Arnim’s idea and contributed not only a king from their collection, but also works by other artists. Some placed one of the sculptor’s contemporaries at his side, others chose cutting-edge art as a counterpart. Others opted for antiquity, which works well in the dialogue: Koenig’s “Rising Rider” harmonizes perfectly with an ancient horse from Greece (around 700 BC). The fact that the collectors and their heirs made their decisions individually is signaled by the subtitle of the show “Collector’s Eye”: “The subjective made a principle”. One does not learn a reason for the respective compilation – perhaps the catalog that is currently being prepared will provide answers. It is undisputed that this concept proves that Arnim has numerous contacts through her previous jobs in the art trade and her many years of work for the Munich museum area and knows many of the collectors personally. “I started brainstorming with some a year ago,” she says.

Ultimately, with this exhibition she is implementing a central request of the feasibility study published in February. The expertise had developed three possible scenarios for a future museum development of the Ganslberg, the sculptor’s former place of residence and work. And found that the level of awareness that Eike D. Schmidt, director of the Uffizi, considers the “most important interpreter of the Holocaust in German art” is currently too low to attract crowds of visitors. It is true that Koenig had a great international reputation after his “vertical takeoff” (Schmidt) in the 1960s – this is not only proven by the number of exhibitions, but also by the purchases made by large institutions up until the 1970s. But after the death of his gallery owners, Koenig disappeared from the art market. The study therefore sees the museum, as the center of the estate, as having an obligation to actively locate Koenig in the art historical debate, to continuously process his work scientifically and to increase his level of awareness again. After all, the number of visitors to the museum is slowly increasing again with free admission. Most of them, almost 2000, came in September of the previous year, the month when the “9/11” exhibition opened.

A work stood in front of a shopping center in Detroit

Not all collectors had a personal relationship with the sculptor. For example, the “Inhabited Garden” Foundation (Pulheim) bought Koenig’s “Large Framed Sculptures” at an auction in New York. The work originally stood in front of a shopping center in Detroit, Michigan. They sent the work to Landshut together with Cosima von Bonin’s large-format textile collage “Crude Cuisine” (2003). Their submission was a Colorful-Photo showing Prince Charles and Camilla Bowles, albeit partially obscured and reduced to their silhouettes – which goes well with Koenig’s figures, which are also anonymous.

A novelty in the sculpture museum are the paintings. Franz Herzog von Bayern, one of the earliest Koenig collectors, places a Golgotha ​​group (1956) alongside a large-format painting (1959) by Pierre Soulages, an impressive combination. Also great are the huge, shimmering green cushion picture by Gotthard Graubner and the luminous “OE 275” by Koenig’s artist friend Rupprecht Geiger, both on loan from the Bernhard Schaub collection. The landlord’s “Small Epitaph V” and the “Wailing Wall” come up against the power of the paintings with difficulty, because the sculptures are positioned too close to the ground on a wall.

A display case with jewelery from the Karin Basiner collection underscores Koenig’s diverse creativity. Bettina Dittlmann’s filigree “Schwarze Blume” brooch, set with garnets, goes perfectly with the golden necklace “Paar”, a gift from the sculptor to Basiner, as an entry in her diary shows. She had visited him on the Ganslberg. At the end of that visit, Koenig “went to his closet and came back with the ‘pair’ and put his necklace around my neck. Surprised by this turn of events, I spontaneously asked, ‘And what’s the cost?’ Then Fritz Koenig: ‘I’ll give it to you! You helped me to find it again’https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/.

Another collector with whom Koenig regularly exchanged views was the publisher Rolf Becker. He not only collected Koenig – the “Quadriga” (1953) is usually in the garden of the publishing house in Baierbrunn – but also his sculptor colleagues Eduardo Chillida and Marino Marini – represented in the show with “Yunque de sueno XVI” and “Piccolo Grido”. Marini, also a guest on the Ganslberg, was enthusiastic about horses, just like Koenig.

Open detailed view

Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach also chose a “Quadriga”, but he combined it with Wasa Marjanov’s “The Eternally Circling Dervish”, a life-size metal sculpture from 2021. A stark contrast. “It was important to me to be as diverse as possible,” says Arnim. This is also proven by the combination of historical glass bottles with Koenig’s early plastic “swing”. A nice contribution from a private collector from Landshut, who regularly exchanged views with Koenig about their common hobby, collecting antique storage bottles.

Incidentally, the dim foyer of the museum looks the same as it did when Koenig was alive. The “Epitaph for Icarus” has returned to its place, as has the “Zwei XII”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/.”I think it’s great that everything is back the way Fritz Koenig wanted it”, says Armin. After all, the house is his museum. “And he knew best of all how to present his works.”

collectible eye. The subjective made a principleuntil September 25, Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Koenig Museum, Am Prantlgarten 1, Landshut