High-calibre special shows

A patterned photo wallpaper spans the entire wall surface, from which objects and figures grow three-dimensionally into the room. However, you can only see them if you are wearing 3D glasses. Then they seem so close that you can touch them with your fingers. The pattern of the wallpaper also includes other works by artist Tim Berresheim - from his ‘Early Bird’ series from 2018. They take up the visual thread of the wallpaper and can be explored more intensively with the help of an app. Berresheim himself is also an Early Bird. He has been using digital tools to create his images for over twenty years, making him one of the pioneers of computer-based art in this country.

Berresheim will be the centrepiece of this year's special exhibition of the LBBW art collection at ART COLOGNE. The Landesbank Baden-Württemberg collection has been in existence for over 50 years and now comprises around 3000 works, which are constantly being added to through acquisitions. A particular concern of LBBW is to make its collection visible and to enter into dialogue with the public. Not only at the company's headquarters in Stuttgart, but also in co-operation with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the Kunsthalle Mannheim, for example. LBBW is also a proven partner for ART COLOGNE. With its presentation curated by Birgit Wiesenhütter, it will occupy a 240 square metre stand in Hall 11.2, where 16 artistic positions will be shown.

‘Transitions’ is the title of this special exhibition, which reflects the breadth of the collection through transitions between artistic media and genres, as well as formal and thematic transitions in space, time, society and culture. In his early work ‘Replica I’ (1977/87), for example, Thomas Schütte forms a wall of abstractly painted panels which, with a door-like recess, also appears to allow passage. Together with the watercolour ‘Mann im Matsch’ (Man in the Mud), the pictorial ensemble is based on his teacher at the time, Gerhard Richter, and marks Schütte's transition from painter to sculptor. Alexandra Bircken installs a sawn-up rocking horse over a corner, its fur replaced by human hair. In its deformation, it has an uncanny effect, while the allusive title ‘The centre will not hold’ triggers many associations, including political ones.

A special exhibition by Hans-Georg Esch, or HGEsch for short, at the south entrance to ART COLOGNE demonstrates just how fragile our world is and how quickly it can sink into lava and ash. The renowned architectural photographer and his team have erected an immersive rotunda there that shows a 360-degree panorama of modern-day Pompeii. Hardly any other place in the world is as well documented archaeologically as the 2,500-year-old settlement at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, which was destroyed by a devastating volcanic eruption in 79 AD. At the invitation of the Parco Archeologico, Esch approached the region with his ‘architectural gaze’. Spectacular drone footage reveals previously unseen structures that reveal parallels between Roman and modern urban planning. The unusual perspective reveals patterns whose idiosyncratic aesthetic magic is hard to resist. Other pictures, often created using long exposures, get particularly close, revelling in the weathered material and the play of light and shadow. The free-standing column stumps spiral almost futuristically into the sky, while the oval amphitheatre seems to dissolve out of wafts of mist. This creates a new view of the ancient city, which HGEsch sets against the backdrop of modern Naples. He skilfully interweaves the temporal levels of past and present, with the location of the catastrophe symbolising continuity rather than a state of emergency.

A third special exhibition, organised by the Cologne-based Central Archive for German and International Art Market Research (ZADIK), is dedicated to the Hamburg auction house Hauswedell & Nolte, which ceased operations in 2015.

Originally a book club founded by publisher Dr Ernst Hauswedell in 1927, Hauswedell & Nolte became an important address in the German art trade after 1945, especially for works of German Expressionism. However, books and autographs, old masters, modern art, contemporary art and non-European art and cultural assets were also sold in a total of 466 auctions. The auction house set records with the ‘Lüsterweibchen’ by Tilman Riemenschneider, for example - in 1985, the sculpture was the first work of art in Germany to achieve a hammer price of over one million marks in a German post-war auction.

Today, the Hauswedell & Nolte documents belong to the ZADIK as the so-called ‘A100’ collection. They not only form the largest sub-archive in terms of quantity, but are also the most consulted. It is mainly thanks to the former director of ZADIK, Günther Herzog, that this treasure was recovered and is now available in digitised form for scientific purposes. The processed auction data provides important insights for art market and provenance research, reports the current ZADIK director Prof Dr Nadine Oberste-Hetbleck, particularly with regard to the development of prices. The path of the art can now be clearly traced on site at ZADIK and at the fair using consignment books, auction records and customer files. And even the auction hammer will be swung one last time. ZADIK will not only be giving an insight into its current exhibition in Hall 11.1, but will also be holding an auction of exclusive cultural experiences for the benefit of ZADIK e.V. - on 9 November at 2 pm in the ART COLOGNE TALKS LOUNGE.