Acquisition Status

Collection Acquisitions from 2021–2025

 

13/06/—16/08/26

 

Horst Bartnig, Ingrid Behla, Jan Brokof, Elżbieta Chojna, Karl-Heinz Drescher, Reinaldo Eckenberger, Lutz Fleischer, Kerstin Franke-Gneuß, Eberhard Göschel, Franziska Holstein, Alex Jordan, Renata Kaminska, Klaus Kehrwald, Eva Mahn, Neue Gestaltung, Christoph Niemann, Dietmar Nieschler, Andrzej Nowacki, Helga Paris, Núria Quevedo, Thomas Ranft, Realgestalt, Wolfram A. Scheffler, Christine Schlegel, Henrik Schrat, Gudrun Trendafilov, Niklaus Troxler, Eva Walker, Claus Weidensdorfer, Albert Weis, Susanne Werdin

 

The BLMK’s collection serves as the starting point for the museum’s programming as well as for a wide range of thematic and monographic exhibitions. Under the title Acquisition Status (Aufnahmezustand), the BLMK presents selected acquisitions made over the past five years. The exhibition showcases groups of works added to the collection through purchase or donation during this period. Significant among these are groups of works entering the collection through bequests. Conceived as a dual exhibition, the show spans two venues: the Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus and the Rathaushalle in Frankfurt (Oder). While the presentations complement one another, they are also designed to stand independently and can be viewed separately.

 

The strictly mathematical works of Horst Bartnig form a focal point of the exhibition at the Dieselkraftwerk while simultaneously linking it to the show at the Rathaushalle. As a leading figure in Concrete Art, Bartnig creates works based on principles of system and variation regarding form and color. In addition to visualizations of mathematical progressions, the exhibition also features one of the artist’s rare figurative paintings. Bartnig’s works are displayed on a contemporary, modular spatial sculpture by Albert Weis; this geometric mirror installation serves as both a mounting surface and a resonant space for Bartnig’s paintings and pictorial objects.

 

The contrast between abstract and Constructivist formal languages on the one hand, and figurative, representational styles on the other, runs through the entire exhibition, connecting works across various modes of expression: painting, graphic art, photography, and poster art. Furthermore, the exhibition opens up a horizon of graphic art and drawing, encompassing subjects that are sensitive, surreal, and ironic in nature.

 

Works from the photography collection capture the atmosphere, structure, and dynamics of urban spaces. The images capture the unvarnished state of Halle (Saale)’s Old Town in the 1980s and bear witness to Berlin’s transformation over three decades—spanning the era of division and the years of upheaval following the fall of the Wall.

 

In the realm of poster art, the spectrum ranges from purely typographic designs and Constructivist screen prints to whimsical New Year’s greetings, narrative paper-cut compositions, and virtuoso, stylized photographic imagery.