ART CITIES:Vienna-Class Reunion

Gabriele and Wilhelm Schürmann started collecting art in the mid1980s. Concentrating on context oriented positions informed by Institutional Critique and political art, their collection counteracts major currents in art, including artists by the likes of Martin Kippenberger, Christopher Williams, Valie Export or Franz West, the Schürmann Collection is one of the most important collections of contemporary art in Germany today.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Mumok Archive

Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann do not see their collection as just private property or a prestige object, but rather as an item of cultural value that needs exchange with the public. Their collection has been constantly growing and it provides an incomparable view of the development of contemporary art from the 1980s onward. The rationale behind the collection, which is held in Herzogenrath near Aachen and in Berlin, is both creative and productive, and the two collectors’ practice can be described as a particularly free-spirited form of cultural production. In this sense, the “Class Reunion” exhibition, the title of which refers to a 2008 installation of the same name by Berlin artist Nairy Baghramian, unravels an exciting, humorous, and surprising dialogue between the diverse artistic positions in the collection, establishing unexpected points of contact. One focus in this is on Viennese influences on this international collection and its networks. Wilhelm Schürmann says “Art and the ways in which we approach it are a never-ending process for me, which can and has to be continually changed. In public I am an interpreter, translator, and thus also co-producer. I am also there as a collector”. And Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann reject notions of collecting according to a contemporary canon or as a way of amassing venerable works. They are more interested in features of art such as its relevance to reality, its openness and humor, its credibility and necessity. They also value the quality of what is not immediately evident. The two collectors also welcome large installations that cannot be kept or shown in private spaces. Wilhelm Schürmann, who was born in 1946, developed his interest in art in the early 1980s in the context of punk and new wave music and their lifestyles. His first purchases were works by the Cologne studio collective Mülheimer Freiheit, but he later took these works out of the collection. In 1984 he also sold his collection of historical Czech photography to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. His connections to works by Günther Förg, Georg Herold, Meuser, Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen have remained significant throughout the history of the collection. From 1984 to 1986 Schürmann curated exhibitions of contemporary art at the CCD photo gallery in Düsseldorf, and encouraged some artists there to take an interest in photography. In the early 1990s the focus of the collection shifted toward American art, including West Coast influences. Since then the collection has been expanded continuously, with works by international artists including many Austrian artists.

Participating artists: Nairy Baghramian, Silvia Bächli, Monika Baer, John Baldessari/Meg Cranston, Francesco Barocco, Jennifer Bornstein, Nicola Brunnhuber, Ernst Caramelle, Kate Davis, Heinrich Dunst, Marina Faust, Morgan Fisher, Jef Geys, Ralph Gibson, Julian Göthe, Trixi Groiss, Gerhard Gronefeld, Julia Haller, Rachel Harrison, Lone Haugaard Madsen, Georg Herold, Nicolas Jasmin, Raimer Jochims, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Silke Otto Knapp, Alwin Lay, Brandon Lattu, Michael Light, Sonia Leimer, Anita Leisz, Jochen Lempert, Zoe Leonard, Chris Martin, Park McArthur, Paul McCarthy, Meuser, Lisette Model, Oswald Oberhuber, Albert Oehlen, Anna Oppermann, Anna Ostoya, Jens Preusse, Rebecca Quaytman, Susanne Paesler, Laurie Parsons, Stephen Prina, Deborah Remington, Lin May Saeed, Pentti Sammallahti, Stefan Sandner, Arlene Shechet, Sigune Siévi, Michael Simpson, Michael E. Smith, Lewis Stein, Jana Sterbark, Esther Stocker, Walter Swennen, Alice Tippit, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Nora Turato, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Miriam Visaczki, Franz West, Tristan Wilczek, Christopher Williams and Heimo Zobernig

Info: Curators: Karola Kraus and Wilhelm Schürmann, mumok (Museum moderner Kunst  Stiftung Ludwig Wien), Museumsplatz 1, Vienna, Duration: 23/6-11/11/18, Days & Hours: Mon 14:00-19:00, Tue-Wed & Fri-Sat 10:00-19:00, Thu 10:00-21:00, www.mumok.at