“You have to get into painting with both feet,” is how the artist Maria Lassnig described her artistic process in an interview. Her work “Füsse” (1987/89) from the KiCo collection is emblematic of the second part of the exhibition, in which new possible paths are taken with the collection of the Kunsthalle Bielefeld and at the same time new points of view are opened up. “Walking together” means that works from two collections come together and enter into conversation with each other, complementing, expanding, questioning and also contradicting each other.
The examination of painting, space and abstraction from classical modernism to the present day forms the connecting art-historical thread between the collections. While the Kunsthalle’s collection focuses on German Expressionism and the American avant-garde of the 1960s, the KiCo collection is linked to more recent contemporary works.
The interplay creates new visual axes; at the same time, perspectives that were previously less visible are strengthened. Works in the Kunsthalle’s collection—including pieces by Monica Bonvicini, Gerhard Hoehme, Günter Fruhtrunk, Shannon Bool, Michel Majerus, and Charline von Heyl—can be supplemented with additional works from the KiCo Collection, thereby presenting a more comprehensive overview of their bodies of work. Works by artists such as Marcia Hafif, Katharina Grosse, and Maria Lassnig—which were previously entirely absent—extend the focus of our collection, established by artists such as Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, into more recent history.
The selected works expand the existing profile of our collection and show how perspectives can be opened up and shifted by collecting together. Historical and current positions enter into a dialog. Classical forms and concepts are juxtaposed with contemporary ones, sculptural and spatial works intertwine, photographic and media works expand the narrative dimension of the collections.
“Will you walk with me?” is conceived as a visible expression of a collection practice that focuses on cooperation, openness, sustainability and movement. The exhibition thus becomes an experimental thinking space in which future perspectives of museum work are tested and the foundations of a shared cultural memory are explored anew.
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