| Apart from scientific research, conservation, exhibitions, and art education, the collecting of works of art is one of the fundamental tasks of a museum. In many countries one sees cutbacks or at least a freezing of funding levels when it comes to state support of museums. In contrast, expenditure for the maintenance and operation of museums is on the rise, and particularly the cost of transport and insurance for artwork places a great strain on budgets. Filling the gap with funds from sponsors is a constrained option, especially in economically challenging times when companies are keeping a tight hold on their purse strings. Hence, museums have no means at hand for acquiring new works of art, which is precarious in both cultural policy and general socio-political terms. |  |
Karlheinz Essl
Apart from scientific research, conservation, exhibitions, and art education, the collecting of works of art is one of the fundamental tasks of a museum. In many countries one sees cutbacks or at least a freezing of funding levels when it comes to state support of museums. In contrast, expenditure for the maintenance and operation of museums is on the rise, and particularly the cost of transport and insurance for artwork places a great strain on budgets. Filling the gap with funds from sponsors is a constrained option, especially in economically challenging times when companies are keeping a tight hold on their purse strings. Hence, museums have no means at hand for acquiring new works of art, which is precarious in both cultural policy and general socio-political terms.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Essl Museum I have invited the directors of ten selected, internationally renowned museums to join us in the project Aspects of Collecting. They were provided with a budget and asked to use it for the purchase of works of art that seem interesting and important to them in terms of their existing collections. We imposed no restrictions as far as artists or media were concerned; we only recommended that the selection should focus on contemporary art. The selected works are presented in the exhibition Aspects of Collecting at the Essl Museum, and are at the disposal of the respective museums on permanent loan.
Invitations were essentially extended to those museums with which we had been able to build close cooperation over the years in the form of shared projects or by providing mutual art loans. In the selection, I also took care to maximize the international spread with regards to geographic distribution.
The partner museums are as follows:
1. ARKEN Museum of Modern Art – Ishøj/Denmark
2. India Habitat Centre – New Delhi/India
3. LOUISIANA Museum of Modern Art – Humlebæk/Denmark
4. MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto/Italy
5. MdM Museum der Moderne – Salzburg/Austria
6. MOT Museum of Contemporary Art – Tokyo/Japan
7. MSL Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi – Lodz/Poland
8. MSU Muzej suvremene umjetnosti – Zagreb/Croatia
9. Städel Museum – Frankfurt/Germany
10. Tate Liverpool – U.K.
The Essl Museum contributes an acquisition concept of its own.This exhibition project encompasses a range of different collection concepts. In that context, a number of questions arose. Where will the individual museums place their focus? How important is the profile of a collection for its acquisition decisions? Will the decision makers opt for a range of artists, or will they devote the entire budget to one single artistic stance? The resulting acquisition concepts reveal utmost diversity. The spectrum covers anything from a focus on one individual work of art (e.g. Tate, MOT) to works that complement the existing collection focus (MdM, Louisiana), a curatorial exploration of painting at the margins of European art after 1945 (Städel), a theme-based concept (MART, MSL) or broad-based acquisitions of young art (MSU, IHC).
One thing has become particularly clear: there are prolific options for enlarging and enhancing collections, an important element that must be fostered and strengthened. Particularly at a time when state-run museums have very limited possibilities for enlarging their collections, our project is designed to make a contribution to spurring a public debate on the importance of collections and their underlying collecting concepts. Aspects of Collecting offers the unique opportunity to compare diverging collecting and purchasing strategies in one exhibition, and encourages visitors to discover a great wealth of artistic production.
