The new “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” at Dresden’s Residenzschloss: a viewable storage facility for Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann, based on a design by Konstantin Grčić. A Frank Stella wall sculpture adorns the English Staircase
04 October 2023MI Kunstkammer
Another milestone in the history of Dresden’s Residenzschloss: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (the SKD) are installing the “Kunstkammer Gegenwart”, a new cabinet of contemporary art, in what was previously the Fürstengalerie. From December 2023, the important repository of knowledge and art at the Residenzschloss will thus include an archive of contemporary works. The main exhibits from Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann (the Hoffmann Collection Donation) will be joined by others from the Kunstfonds, Kupferstich-Kabinett and Albertinum, along with the affiliated Günther and Annemarie Gercken Foundation. The Fürstengalerie’s holdings will remain on show in the Residenzschloss.
The concept behind “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” aims to reconcile a museum’s two important tasks: storing works of art, and exhibiting them. By focusing on different aspects every year, this cabinet of art should offer insights into the vast troves of contemporary art at the SKD. The SKD succeeded in engaging the internationally renowned designer Konstantin Grčić to create a new, innovative viewable storage facility to present that art. His design includes a demonstration workshop, where the public will be able to watch conservators and restorers handle some of the modern, fragile materials used in contemporary art. At the same time, a progressive education approach is to be developed hand in hand with Technische Universität Dresden and Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK) and presented to the public.
Since 2018, Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann has made a valuable contribution to the SKD’s programme, adding exhibition projects that bring contemporary art into dialogue with the museum association’s historical collections. By offering contemporary outlooks on fundamental subjects and opening up new realms of aesthetic experience, it constantly provides new perspectives on the works, including the historical exhibits. Back at the start of September, the opening of “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” was heralded by the arrival in Dresden of an impressive wall sculpture by Frank Stella. Made in 1990 for his series of works on Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, it was sent from Berlin by Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann. The sculpture was once displayed on loan at the Albertinum in the 1990s, and is now also a gift to the SKD. Its position on the English Staircase at the Residenzschloss showcases its relationship with the baroque idiom and connects the past and present in more ways than one.
A selection of important works from this donation have been moved to the SKD that will fit neatly into the Dresden collections and complement them especially well. The establishment of “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” is the final step in that process. The works are an unconditional gift to the Free State of Saxony. Sammlung Hoffmann in Berlin remains open to the public and in close contact with the SKD regarding exhibitions. The pieces selected for the SKD comprise one of the most significant donations in the museum association’s recent history. Remarkably powerful and with outstanding qualities, many have already been well received in the SKD’s exhibition programme and will now be permanently secured for Saxony as a substantive element of the collection. They include works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Miriam Cahn, Isa Genzken, Félix González-Torres, Antony Gormley, Keith Haring, Rebecca Horn, William Kentridge, Imi Knoebel, Barbara Kruger, Julie Mehretu, Ron Mueck, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, A. R. Penck, Sigmar Polke, Chiharu Shiota, Frank Stella, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cy Twombly, Jorinde Voigt and Andy Warhol.
The Hoffmann family and the SKD will collaborate to continue two series of events involving works from Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann: the well-established “Blickwechsel” (Changing Perspectives), which integrates contemporary art into temporary presentations of the SKD’s historical and non-European collections, and the “Ortsgespräche” (Local Conversations), featuring selected works and held in various locations in Saxony. The aim behind this is to ensure that contemporary art from Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann continues to be presented in an inspiring dialogue with Saxon museums. The Hoffmann Collection donations will also continue to be presented in neighbouring countries. The OP ENHEIM gallery in Wrocław will, for example, be presenting “Third Skin” – an intimate dialogue between selected works from the collection – until 14 January 2024.
