A large part of the contemporary art museums created in the last decades seem to have been projected as the most important piece of the collection that they exhibit inside. Think of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim for Bilbao or Herzog & de Meuron at London's Tate Modern. In Munich, in the State of Bavaria, the museum's architectural spectacle is represented by the headquarters of the Brandhorst collection, a display of colors signed by the Berlin architects Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton. Opened to the public in 2009, the tenth anniversary was celebrated with an exhibition that still exists and entitled Forever Young , a declaration of eternity for an art that, like the famous song, will always remain young.
Located next to the Old and Modern art galleries in Munich, the Brandhorst Museum houses the collection of Anette Brandhorst, great-granddaughter of the founder of Henkel (beauty products, detergents, insurance), and her husband, Udo Fritz-Hermann. Both began their acquisitions in 1971 and focused on art produced from the 1950s on, both in Europe and the United States. Anette Brandhorst died of cancer in 1999 and, respecting her wish, the husband decided to donate a selection of 700 pieces chosen from among the thousand long accumulated at that time. His only requirement was that everything should end up in a place consistent with the content and that the construction be done with public money. Cologne and Berlin entered the fray to add the collection to its rich museum offer, but the location that Munich offered put an end to Udo Fritz-Hermann's doubts. The construction of the building cost Bavaria about 60 million euros.
Along with the austerity of neighboring museums, the Brandhorst is a burst of visual joy. Its famous multi-chromatic façade is made up of 36,000 vertical ceramic lattices in 23 different colored glazes. The two-story building consists of three exhibition areas that are connected by stairs that distribute visitors through minimalist white rooms with Danish oak wooden floors.
Inside you can see a permanent collection of about 200 works that vary over time. Names are the dream of many directors of contemporary art museums. Andy Warhol was from the first moment in the collecting objective of the couple. There are a total of 120 paintings by the American artist, including his most famous series such as those dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The Brandhorst has the largest selection of Warhol works outside the United States.
Another of his most persecuted artists was the American Cy Twombly. His Lepanto series , twelve canvases commissioned by Harald Szeemann for the 2001 Venice Biennale, occupies one of the building's most memorable rooms. The Brandhorsts and Twomblys had an intense friendship for many years, so that the couple were deeply knowledgeable about their work and thanks to that very personal relationship they got clear instructions on how the artist wanted the public to see her famous frieze.
It can be said that all the trends of the second part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st are profusely represented in the collection: arte povera, minimalism or pop art. Among the avant-gardes of the sixties and seventies, there are essential works by Joseph Beuys, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter or Bruce Nauman. Among the so-called postmodernists, several works by Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley or Cady Noland are exhibited. The roster of recent international artists to join includes works by Kerstin Brätsch, Jacqueline Humphries, Mark Leckey, and Wade Guyton.
The initial agreement involved the delivery of 700 works, which since 2009 have increased to 1,200 thanks to the annual acquisition budget of the Udo and Anette Brandhorst Foundation, around four million euros. In addition to the constant renovation of the permanent collection, the museum dedicates monographic exhibitions to its artists and to the movements that have emerged in recent decades.
Achim Hochdörfer, director of the museum, announced at the post-lockdown reopening that the new acquisitions will try to break down the barriers that currently constrain the collection. On the one hand, the jump will be geographical because, in addition to European and American artists, creators from Africa or Asia may enter. Also marginalized artistic techniques in other times, such as ceramics or textile images, which are now recognized worldwide.