2023-11-07 18:05:24
Hamburg – The art world mourns the death of Harald Falckenberg: The Hamburg art collector died on Monday in Hamburg at the age of 80, as the Hamburg cultural authority announced on Tuesday. Falckenberg was considered one of the most renowned art collectors in Germany. His collection is one of the most important private collections of contemporary art in the world and today includes around 2,400 works. The focus is on German and American contemporary art from the 1980s onwards.
“Harald Falckenberg’s death creates a gap the extent of which we can hardly imagine at the moment,” said Hamburg’s Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda (SPD). “He was a real exception and a great person. Even if his work continues to shine, the art world will be different without him.” With great passion, Falckenberg built one of the most important collections of contemporary art, shaped the Hamburg art scene and inspired others to art with joy and humor. “As a passionate advocate for contemporary art, Harald Falckenberg has made the world a lot better,” said Brosda.
Born in Hamburg
The lawyer and entrepreneur, who was born in Hamburg on October 5, 1943, began building a comprehensive collection of contemporary art in the mid-1990s. Since 1996 it has been shown publicly as part of temporary exhibitions, and since 2001 in the exhibition house founded by Harald Falckenberg on the Harburg Phoenix grounds. In 2011, the collection and exhibition operations in Harburg were taken over by the municipal Deichtorhallen Hamburg as part of a permanent loan. In 2008 Falckenberg was appointed professor by the Hamburg University of Fine Arts (HFBK).
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It all started with the young wild ones: Martin Kippenberger, Werner Büttner and Albert Oehlen. “My friend, the artist Werner Büttner, opened my eyes to contemporary art,” said Falckenberg in a 2012 dpa interview. “I’m interested in critical art that deals with social problems.”
Three major focuses
According to his own statements, his collection has three main focuses: the Germans Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Werner Büttner and Georg Herold. The American artists around Richard Prince, John Baldessari, Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley. And thirdly, more playful and poetic, Dieter Roth and Öyvind Fahlström. Plus the next generation around John Bock, Jonathan Meese and Daniel Richter, who build on the works of these artists.
“For me it’s about the artistic attitude that is manifested through works of art,” said the lawyer. And the artistic attitude is about the questions and problems of an artist in a certain time and under certain conditions. This argument can only happen in public, “because it is not about ownership, but about a discourse.” That’s why he made his collection accessible to the public right from the start.
“We have lost a great and generous friend of art, whose work in the art world with its slogan “civil disobedience” will remain in our memory,” said Deichtorhallen director Dirk Luckow. “Harald Falckenberg lived and argued intensely, loved discussion and discourse and was always looking for an intellectual challenge.”
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