From the 1950s up to the present – the Deutsche Bundesbank's art collection Exhibition at the European Central Bank

Frauke Dannert, Zeppelin, 2012 ©Courtesy Galerie Rupert Pfab, Düsseldorf
Frauke Dannert, Zeppelin, 2012

As the title of the exhibition "From the 1950s up to the present" implies, the Bundesbank has been collecting art ever since it was founded. While its collection mainly comprises paintings and works on paper, it also includes sculptures and spatial installations. It has grown over the decades at numerous different locations, each with its own particular focus. From the outset, the Bundesbank sought to integrate art into the workplace, enabling staff to develop an easy familiarity with contemporary art.

The sheer variety of the Bundesbank's art collection makes it impossible to stage an exhibition in the Grossmarkthalle with a representative or chronological narrative. Instead, individual works have been selected from different decades which contain instructive cross-references and cross-fertilisations of substance and style. By concentrating on five individual themes, the Bundesbank seeks both to capture the broad character of its collection and to stimulate dialogues between vastly varying pictures.

The European Central Bank will offer guided tours of the exhibition.

Complementing the exhibition at the ECB, guided art tours will also be offered at the Bundesbank's Central Office, where the artworks are normally on view.