Austrian collectors celebrate a 35-year passion for art

By Ivonne Marschall Mar 14, 2007, 17:47 GMT

Klosterneuburg, Austria - Marking 35 years of intensive art collecting, Agnes and Karlheinz Essl - among Austria's pre-eminent art collectors - were set Wednesday to present their 'Passion for Art' in a large-scale jubilee show.

From March 15 to August 26, the couple will be exhibiting 400 works by 160 Austrian and international contemporary artists in their private museum near Vienna.

They could show only a small part of their total collection of more than 6,000 works acquired over the years, Karlheinz Essl said. It was, however, his 'private view' of the collection,' he added.

Arranged by topics, he combines works by renowned local artists like Arnulf Rainer, Maria Lassnig or Herrmann Nitsch with works by Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Francis Bacon and Martin Kippenberger.

Most spectacular among new acquisitions is Dark Wave, by Mexican artist Gabrial Orozco - a cast of a 15-metre whale skeleton, completely covered with concentric circles, drawn in graphite.

Austria's most important private art museum is in the small town of Klosterneuburg on Vienna's outskirts, surrounded by vineyards and woods.

The Essls, who own a chain of DIY stores in Austria and seven eastern European countries, said the distance to the capital gave them space for individual development.

After meeting in New York more than 50 years ago, the couple started serious art collecting 35 years ago, an obsession that culminated in building their own museum.

'It is a museum of the new generation,' Essl said. 'Away from old- fashioned ideas to an open house.' Making contemporary art accessible to a broad audience a main focus, Agnes Essl said.

For that purpose, the museum regularly hosts music performances and concerts in combination with their exhibitions.

The Austrian part of the collection provides an overview of the country's art since 1945, including most of the decisive artists of the period.

The scope ranges from the Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s and 1960s to the Vienna Actionism and New Painting of the 1980s and all the way to the reductionist art of the 1990s.

While in the early years the collectors' stay in United States exerted a strong influence on the collection, international works were later selected mainly on the basis of their significance for painting and their relationship to the Austrian art tradition.

For the collectors, personal contact with the artists has been an important part of the acquisition. 'We want to find out what lies beneath the ostensible aesthetics of an artwork,' Essl said.

But among his 6,000 pieces in the museum, depots and the offices in the company headquarters, there was no favourite, the entrepreneur said.

'We picked each one of them and we are fully convinced of each choice. It is like with our children - you can't say there is a favourite child,' Essl said.