Professor Axel Marx and his family donate important works by the artist Joseph Beuys from the Erich Marx Collection to SPK
Press release from 09/08/2022
Donation contract signed - Axel Marx: Our family remains connected to the art city of Berlin - Hermann Parzinger: Overwhelming gesture from the family
The family of the well-known Berlin collector Erich Marx, who died two years ago, has donated the entire holdings of works by the artist Joseph Beuys from the Marx Collection to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Professor Axel Marx, son of the deceased, had already announced this step in September 2021 at a memorial service for Erich Marx at Hamburger Bahnhof. The donation agreement has now also been signed there. These are such important works as "The secret block for a secret person in Ireland", "STELLE, 2nd version", "Energiestab", "Straßenbahnhaltestelle, 2nd version", "Ohne Titel (Tafel)", "Ohne Titel (ART = KAPITAL), "Ohne Titel (Neutralisiertes Kapital") and the grandiose spatial installation "Das Kapital Raum 1970-1977", some of which are currently on display at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin and most of which are to be shown in the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts at the Kulturforum in the future. The remaining works from the Marx Collection will remain on loan to Berlin's museums.
"The art city of Berlin and its cultural scene were very close to my father's heart. For forty years now, there have been connections with the Nationalgalerie, which have repeatedly led to loans. We know how much Erich Marx is missed in this city as a patron of the arts and a good personal friend. As his family, we want to continue his work and his connection with Berlin and are now permanently donating the Beuys collection to the SPK. Beuys was a great artist who shared a close friendship with our father. The Nationalgalerie is now in a position like no other museum to show the steps in the work and intellectual concepts of this great artist in a comprehensive way by means of central sculptures and drawings," said Axel Marx.
At the same time, Axel Marx continued, the family is committed to Berlin as a centre of art. "I have great human trust in Professor Parzinger and the new managers at Hamburger Bahnhof and the new Nationalgalerie."
SPK President Hermann Parzinger spoke of an "overwhelming gesture by the Marx family": "It is moving to see that Erich Marx's family remains so closely connected to the SPK and the Nationalgalerie even after his death. I am sure that this would have been in his spirit. I am very grateful to Axel Marx that the family made the extremely generous donation of the Beuys works possible. It means a great deal to us and to the many art lovers in Berlin as well as nationally and internationally. The Marx Collection is an inseparable part of Berlin and we are delighted to be able to present it prominently in the new Museum of the 20th Century at the Kulturforum."
Till Fellrath, Director Hamburger Bahnhof- Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin: "The Marx Collection is inextricably linked to the founding of the Hamburger Bahnhof as the Nationalgalerie's Museum der Gegenwart. Since its opening, the expansive works by Beuys have been a globally recognised constant in the presentation of the collection. For the Hamburger Bahnhof and the entire team, this historic donation is recognition of the many years of successful collaboration with the Marx Collection. It also strengthens the Hamburger Bahnhof's position as a contemporary national gallery in Berlin with its unique complex comprising the historic railway station building with the Kleihueshalle and the Rieckhallen. We would like to thank the Marx family for their extraordinary gesture and their trust, which is a mandate for us to convey these epoch-making works of German post-war history to future generations and make them accessible."
Klaus Biesenbach, Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie: "The donation of "Das Kapital Raum. 1970-1977" forms the spatial and conceptual foundation of the Museum of the 20th Century in the sense of Beuys' social sculpture. We are infinitely grateful to the Marx family for enabling us to present Beuy's appeal to society in this form. The large-format installation cannot be understood solely as an object, but is also a sustainable artistic and social mission for the new building. Beuys is thus literally at the basis of the museum of the 20th century as an urgent appendage of social and ecological responsibility and is already having an impact on the form and function of the new museum."
About the Marx Collection
When building up his collection, Erich Marx (1921-2020) focussed on a few artists whose works particularly fascinated him: Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly and Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Liechtenstein and a few others. They are represented with impressive work groups and key works that make their respective artistic development comprehensible. Erich Marx formulated the claim early on that his collection should also fulfil the requirements of a museum. His important collection of contemporary art was first shown to the public in 1982 in the upper hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie. In order to give this collection a place in Berlin, the Hamburger Bahnhof was expanded into the Museum für Gegenwart. For over 20 years, it was on display there in the context of the works of the Nationalgalerie, and later also the Friedrich Cristian Flick Collection. With the opening of the Museum of the 20th Century at the Kulturforum, it will move there in a few years and find its place in a new context.
Erich Marx cultivated a special relationship with Joseph Beuys in particular throughout his life as a collector. The installation "Tram stop. A monument to the future" at the Venice Biennale made a deep impression on him. It was not least through Heiner Bastian, Beuys' confidant and Erich Marx's long-time advisor, that the businessman and collector developed a close relationship with the exceptional artist in the years that followed. Marx also supported Beuys in the realisation of several works, such as the creation of "Unschlitt" for the Skulptur Projekte Münster 1977 or the "7,000 Oaks" project for documenta 7 in Kassel. Erich Marx considered the acquisition of the work "Das Kapital Raum 1970-1977" in 2015 together with his son Axel Marx to be the final highlight of his collecting activities.