From Beckmann to Warhol

The collection can be roughly divided into four art-historical areas. It presented German Expressionism with works by Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. The Modernism of the École de Paris – this covers the entire Paris art scene at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries – represented by works by the artists Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. Representing post-war and informal art the collection includes artwork by Ernst Wilhelm Nay. With his free and spontaneous drawings and his intuitive use of colour this participant of the 2nd and 3rd "documenta" occupies a key position in German post-war art. The main focus is on art produced between the 1970s and today. It is in this context that the collection takes in the works by American West Coast artists like David Hockney, Sam Francis and Ed Ruscha. On display also are canvasses from German artists Gerhard Richter, Albert Oehlen, Martin Kippenberger, Jan Voss as well as photographic works by Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer and the large format polaroids of Marina Abramović and Ulvi Ulay.

It was Carl Duisberg, the company's chief executive from 1912 till 1925, who laid the foundations of the current collection. In 1909 he commissioned Max Liebermann to paint his portrait. In the years following the Second World War those responsible for the collection bought whatever appealed to them and was not too expensive. The objective at that time was not to tie up money as an investment for a particular time but rather to make artworks available to staff members for a certain period as part of their office furnishings. Today any existing gaps in the collection are being closed bit-by-bit and collecting activities are aimed at enhancing the existing items and setting new accents. Now for the first time ever a part of the oldest private art collections in Germany is being put on display outside of Leverkusen.

The exhibition includes works by the following artists:
Marina Abramović, Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Undine Bandelin, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Hubert Berke, Georges Braque, William Brauhauser, Werner Büttner, Ernst Caramelle, Marc Chagall, Eduardo Chillida, Roberto Cordone, John Coplans, Guillaume Corneille, Karl Fred Dahmen, Lynn Davis, Jan Dibbets, Otto Dix, Joseph Fassbender, Lyonel Feininger, Günther Förg, Sam Francis, Lee Friedländer, Giovanni da Bologna, Marven Graf, Andreas Gursky, Erich Heckel, Georg Herold, Sebastian Herzau, David Hockney, Candida Höfer, Gerhard Hoehme, Max Kaus, Martin Kippenberger, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Klimsch, Imi Knoebel, Henning Kürschner, Henri Laurens, Zoe Leonard, Silke Leverkühne, Sol LeWitt, Max Liebermann, Adolf Luther, Gerhard Marcks, Ewald Mataré, Georg Meistermann, Mario Merz, Manolo Millares, Joan Miró, Ernst Mollenhauer, Henry Moore, Otto Mueller, Esther Müller, Michael Morrill, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Martin Noel, Emil Nolde, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Max Pechstein, Pablo Picasso, Otto Piene, Juan Hernández Pijuan, Gerhard Richter, Christian Rohlfs, James Rosenquist, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Tomas Schmit, Eva Schön, Werner Scholz, Bernard Schultze, Martin Schuster, Sean Scully, David Shapiro, Beate Slansky, Frank Stella, Antoni Tàpies, Hildegard Tolkmitt, Hann Trier, Ulvi Ulay (Gemeinschaftsarbeit mit M. Abramović), Jan Voss, Andy Warhol, Mario Weinberg, Zao Wou-Ki, Michelle Zalopany