Page 34 - Studio International - October 1965

Collecting contemporary art

Wilhelm Hack, German collector who has previously acquired
1 medieval art, explains his interest in the art of today
You own a collection of Medieval Art. What induced
you to collect Contemporary Art?
The answer to this question is very simple. A collection
of old pictures certainly has great attraction. The task
of the collector consists in preserving the works of art
that have come down to us. and placing them in their
historical setting. This is a task which in our day 1s
more and more in the hands of museums and institu­
tions. At the same time. by his preoccupation with
medieval art the collector gains a positive experience
of form. which 1s also an indispensable factor when
dealing with contemporary art.
Collecting modern art on the other hand demands of
the collector. apart from making an aesthetic evaluation.
that he come to grips. intellectually. with his own
generation. Every genuine work of art must express the
spirit of the age. and the artistic experience must stand
up to life. or must prophetically anticipate something
of the spirit of the future. There must be involvement.
The true collector who. when confronted with it. dis­
covers a new art expression. a new aesthetic value. is
on the right track. Such a collector gains for himself the
joy of a new artistic experience and thus participates
directly in the artistic creativeness of his time. The
development of the last 50 years has been so revolu­
tionary. so fruitful. that it can only be compared with
the great break-through of the Renaissance. In
abandoning representational art and rendering nature
in whatever form. a new means of expression was
found which enabled the artist to realise his creative
forces with unlimited freedom and in a manner never
before known. To bring this new freedom into an
ordered shape was the aim of the creative artist of my
generation. an aim as valid for scientific as for artistic
cognition. The discoveries in science. philosophy and
the arts have transformed. if not actually destroyed. the
hitherto valid image of man.
The work of art reflects its time and a collection of

2

1 4
Ossip Zadkine Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944
Portrai1 WJ/helm Hack 1961 Scharfe Harte 1926
Bronze 61 x 35 cm.
2 5
Robert Delaunay 1885-1941 Frank Kupka 1871-1957
Sun No. 1. 1912/13 Dream of P,suls and S1amens 1919
100 x 81 cm. 80 x 90 cm.
3 6
Karel Appel August Macke 1887-1914
Burning Head 1954 /n1erpre1auon on music of J. S. Bach
130 x 100 cm. 101 x 82 cm.
152