29.02. – 17.05.2020: MOVING ENERGIES – 10 years me Collectors Room Berlin

10 years me Collectors Room Berlin: This anniversary has been celebrated with an exhibition that takes a highly personal look into both, the activities of the foundation and the Olbricht Collection.

Flows of energy pass through us, moving us, our world, and everything in our universe. Thomas Olbricht has often also described his experience and life with art as a flow of energy that he likes to share with as many people as possible. Our art space in fact took its name after this wish of his: moving energies – me Collectors Room Berlin.

MOVING ENERGIES, or energy flows resulting from the interplay of diverse objects, genres and epochs, also characterize the eclecticism of the Olbricht Collection. Exhibits, which include model fire engines, Art Nouveau objects, romantic landscape paintings, designer furniture, African wood sculptures, stamps, globes and Old Masters still life paintings as well as the Renaissance and Baroque objects of the Wunderkammer and, above all, Contemporary Art. These objects are united in the collector’s private rooms. French Art Nouveau vases are grouped before of a romantic sunset painting by Carl Robert Kummer; Ewald Mataré’s sculptures are bundled on the shelf next to an abstract colour explosion by Katharina Grosse; and Baroque carved objects are presented against the backdrop of a black and white film still by Cindy Sherman. Some of these seemingly idiosyncratic compositions make up the collector’s highly subjective universe.

In the spring 2010, Thomas Olbricht opened the me Collectors Room Berlin, thereby making his collection accessible to the public. In close to twenty exhibitions, individual parts of the collection were presented and explored. The inspiration for these shows, as well as for the acquisition of art for the collection itself, is the result of Olbricht’s travels and visits to exhibitions and art fairs. The subsequent reflection on such encounters and the maturing of concrete formulations predominantly takes place in the private sphere, i.e. at home, amid art, paintings, invitations, auction catalogues and the collecting foci.

These private rooms are recreated in MOVING ENERGIES in ‘stage sets’ that render the collector’s inspirations and ideas directly accessible. All collection areas, some of which have been a continuous focus for years, others the result of a phasic interest, are united. The areas are presented in the private ‘staged sets’ to better illustrate the multi-faceted creative process of collecting.

Thomas Olbricht began collecting stamps when he was just five years old and is still an avid lover of first day covers from all countries. Through decades of meticulous collecting activity, Thomas Olbricht has a complete collection of Gerhard Richter’s editions, which include more than 170 works. As part of the exhibition, a space will be devoted to the abstract works of Richter from the collection. The Wunderkammer, with its precious Renaissance and Baroque objects, is another years-long focus of the collection, as are model fire engines and paper maché plants, which were a permanent fixture in German schools at the turn of the century. Works by Cindy Sherman, Claire Fontaine, FORT, Thomas Schütte oder William N. Copley are juxtaposed with other works by Georg Baselitz, Willi Baumeister, Albrecht Dürer, Carroll Dunham, Nicole Eisenman, Katharina Grosse, Anselm Kiefer, Karin Kneffel, Alicja Kwade, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Dana Schutz, Timm Ulrichs, Jorinde Voigt and John Wesley, which have not previously been exhibited.

It is precisely from the synopsis of all these collection areas in his home that Thomas Olbricht draws propelling energy time and again. With MOVING ENERGIES, the collector provides visitors with a unique and personal insight into his collection.

Publication
On the occasion of the anniversary show a publication gives an insight in 10 years me Collectors Room Berlin / Olbricht Foundation.

Artists
Etel Adnan, Ellen Altfest, Diane Arbus, Georg Baselitz, Willi Baumeister, Joseph Beuys, Guillaume Bijl, Carl von Blaas, Michael Borremans, Jonas Burgert, Peter Brüning, Carl Gustav Carus, Johann Anton Castell, Ouyang Chun, William N. Copley, Carroll Dunham, Albrecht Dürer, Nicole Eisenman, Sylvie Fleury, Claire Fontaine, Sam Francis, Katharina Fritsch, FORT, Bernard Frize, Gama, Jeanno Gaussi, Tomoo Gokita, Gotthard Graubner, Katharina Grosse, Uwe Henneken, Rachel Howard, John Isaacs, Anselm Kiefer, Anton Edvard Kieldrup, Gustav Kluge, Karin Kneffel, Imi Knoebel, Norbert Kricke, Klara Kristalova, Carl Robert Kummer, Alicja Kwade, Thomas Lerooy, Julius von Leypold, Marcin Maciejowski, Ewald Mataré, Vilhelm Melbye, Richard Müller, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Richard Oelze, Paul Outerbridge Jr., A.R. Penck, Elizabeth Peyton, Johann Georg Pforr, Germaine Richier, Daniel Richter, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Carl Abraham Rothstén, Mark Ryden, Tom Sachs, Moritz Schleime, Emil Schumacher, Thomas Schütte, Dana Schutz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Eric Serritella, Cindy Sherman, Fred Thieler, Gokita Tomoo, Günther Uecker, Timm Ulrichs, Paloma Varga Weisz, Jorinde Voigt, Gottfried von Wedig, John Wesley, Tom Wesselmann, Fritz Winter, Antoine Wiertz, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Ni Youyu, Xu Yihui

Digital scavenger hunt & answers
Digital scavenger hunt through the exhibitions “MOVING ENERGIES” and “Gerhard Richter”
Answers for the digital scavenger hunt through the exhibitions “MOVING ENERGIES” and “Gerhard Richter”

View here selected press reviews for the exhibition “MOVING ENERGIES – 10 years me Collectors Room Berlin”.

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Images & Copyrights (v.l.n.r. & v.o.n.u.)
Karin Kneffel, Ohne Titel, 2005, 200 x 230 cm © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 / Olbricht Collection, Photo Jana Ebert
Bernard Frize, Blanc, 2006, 165 x 165 cm © Courtesy Perrotin, Bernard Frize / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 / Olbricht Collection, Photo André Morin
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 2017, 155 x 105 cm © Gerhard Richter 2019 (0247) / Olbricht Collection
Dana Schutz, Fanatics, 2005, 229 x 244 cm © the artist, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin and Petzel Gallery, New York / Olbricht Collection, Photo Jochen Littkemann
FORT, Symptoms Of The Universe, 2018 © Courtesy of the artists / Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf
Nicole Eisenman, Mining II, 2005, 153 x 198 cm © Courtesy the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin / Olbricht Collection, Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Katharina Grosse, o.T. 2014, 201 x 135 cm © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 / Olbricht Collection
William N. Copley, Untitled (Think), 1961, 63,5 x 80 cm © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020 / Olbricht Collection
John Wesley, Untitled (Lautrec’s bisou), 2005, 48 x 46 cm © Courtesy of the artist and Fredericks & Freiser, NY / Olbricht Collection, Photo Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Anonym, Dresden im Abendlicht, um 1850/60, 24,5 x 45 cm © Villa Grisebach, Berlin / Olbricht Collection
Anselm Kiefer, Wundtau regnet, 2011, 380 x 380 cm © Anselm Kiefer / Olbricht Collection, Photo Charles Duprat
Sammlung Feuerwehrwagen © Olbricht Collection, Photo Jana Ebert
Esaias zur Linden, Höfisches Trinkgefäß in Form eines Schiffes, Nürnberg, um 1609-1629, ca. 56 x 26 x 9 cm © Kunstkammer Georg Laue München, Olbricht Collection