Friedrich Christian Flick donates 104 works of contemporary art to the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Press release from 01/28/2015
To mark his 70th birthday, Friedrich Christian Flick has donated 104 works of contemporary art to the Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin. This is the second donation in just a few years. Flick had already donated 166 works to the museum in 2008.
In addition to the donation at the time, the museum is now receiving further outstanding works by 50 international artists, including Absalon, David Claerbout, Stan Douglas, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Candida Höfer, Paul McCarthy, Jason Rhoades, Pipilotti Rist, Anri Sala, Thomas Schütte, Diana Thater and Franz West. The Nationalgalerie's collection now includes entire groups of works by these artists. In addition, the collection will be supplemented by key works or groups of works by Nathalie Djurberg, Brian O'Doherty, Peter Fischli / David Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, Raoul de Keyser, Manfred Pernice, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth and others.
The donation will be presented in a comprehensive exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin in autumn 2015.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, says: "The fact that Friedrich Christian Flick is once again donating over 100 works from the 20th and 21st centuries to the Nationalgalerie is quite extraordinary and symbolises the long-standing and successful collaboration between the collector and the museum. Once again it is clear what the support of collectors and patrons means for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and how much private commitment enriches our collections. I would like to thank Friedrich Christian Flick most sincerely for his generosity and for his trust in us and in Berlin as a centre of art, which he has once again expressed with this donation."
For the Director General of the National Museums in Berlin, Michael Eissenhauer, Flick's commitment is fantastic: "It is an important gesture at the right moment. The new donation offers the Nationalgalerie many opportunities for curatorial work. I would like to thank Friedrich Christian Flick most sincerely for his generosity and for his trust in us."
Udo Kittelmann, Director of the Nationalgalerie, adds: "This donation is a sign of many years of very good cooperation and, above all, it is testimony to the continued support of the Nationalgalerie's collection. This collection will be enriched by the works and groups of works acquired and will be further expanded in the long term with works by highly significant artists. This donation shows that even in times when public museums are often accused of no longer being able to fulfil their collecting mission due to a lack of resources, it is still possible to successfully carry out concentrated collection work."
The Friedrich Christian Flick Collection is one of the most outstanding private collections of contemporary art in the world. In recent years, it has repeatedly been the subject of successful presentations. Exhibitions such as "I can't cut off an ear every day. Deconstructions of the artist myth" (2008), "Art is super!" (2009), "Architektonika" (2011/2012) and "Body Pressure" (2013) as well as the extensive monographic exhibitions of Bruce Nauman (2010) and Martin Kippenberger (2013) were largely based on the holdings of this collection.