The most recent addition to the Viehof Collection is a work by Sabine Moritz, expanding the list of female artists by one. 

The work ‘Columbus, 2025’ shows a dense network of gestural, overlapping brushstrokes in bold, sometimes contrasting colours. The composition appears deliberately open and non-hierarchical: there is no central motif, but rather an all-over field in which forms are suggested and then dissolve again. In terms of painting technique, the work combines expressive, almost impulsive gestures with controlled colour transitions. The visible brushstrokes and the juxtaposition of transparent and impasto areas create depth without asserting an illusionistic space. The title refers less to a concrete representation than to the motif of ‘discovery’ – understood as an ambivalent, historically burdensome act. Layers of paint cover each other, lines push forward and break off again. Instead of clearer orientation, a visual terrain emerges that is constantly in motion. Thus, ‘Columbus’ exemplifies Moritz's approach of not formulating historical or conceptual references narratively, but rather translating them into an open, painterly structure.

In 2008, the Viehof Collection was able to acquire a very special group of photographic works. These are the 101 C-prints from the Winterthur series by Thomas Struth. The Viehof Collection is the only art collection in the world to hold so many works from this series. The flower paintings and landscapes by Thomas Struth were created between 1991 and 1993. They were commissioned for patients rooms in a private clinic in Winterthur, Switzerland. The Viehof Collection is the only art collection in the world to include all 101 artworks from this series.

Sea of flowers and landscapes – nothing but nature as far as the eye can see. Ones first thought is that this is rather simple, trivial subject matter; after all, our culture today considers plant and flower motifs to be primarily decorative. The artworks are intended to be like windows, opening up the space and connecting patients‘ rooms to a living cosmos. They are not simply décor. In his flower pictures, created by photographing from close proximity, from different angles, and sometimes using overexposure or underexposure, Struth is not interested in portraying perfection. Instead, the theme of these photographs is a fantastic living diversity that – like the patients living in the rooms – are not in a state of stable equilibrium, but within the flow of time. Struth sometimes shows us closed buds, wilting flowers, crooked branches, or dried leaves. The flowers and landscapes are not intended simply to please the eye. Nor is this a schematic arrangement of botanical classifications. If it were, then the sole dandelion flower in Einzelner Löwenzahn – N°37, Düsseldorf, Neanderstraße 25 1993 would have to be seen as a representative of all existing dandelion flowers. On the contrary, Struth is concerned solely with this individual flower, with its peculiar characteristics. The flower is portrayed here heavily magnified, authentically, as a fragile individual. The concrete location in the title serves to emphasise this.

Text: Annika Forjahn, in: Freischwimmer - Fotografie der Sammlung Viehof und des Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2020, S. 88-97

Deichtorhallen Hamburg presents one of the most significant German private collections of contemporary art at two locations, the Hall for Contemporary Art and the Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg-Harburg. The Viehof Collection, which includes important works from the Speck Collection and the Rheingold Collection, brings together over 950 works in painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, installations, and video with an emphasis on German art from the post-war era to today. Both catalog and exhibition focus on outstanding groups of work by individual artists including Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Candida Höfer, Jörg Immendorff, Sigmar Polke, Daniel Richter and Rosemarie Trockel.

This comprehensive exhibition in Hamburg, put together entirely from the works of the collection and curated by Dirk Luckow, reveals for the first time the extraordinary range of this collection in an overview of Minimalism, represented by names such as Carl Andre and Dan Flavin, via the 1980s in Cologne defined by Walter Dahn, Georg Herold, Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen, the Düsseldorf School of Photography with Struth, Ruff and Sasse right up to the promising field of figurative art of the 21st century showcasing works by André Butzer, Peter Doig, Thomas Houseago, Jonathan Meese, Neo Rauch, Tal R, Corinne Wasmuth and many others.

The bilingual catalogue (German/ English) is avaliable at Snoeck Verlag for 58,00 Euros. Published by Dirk Luckow with essays by Philipp Kiaser, Dirck Luckow, Susanne Titz, Wolfgang Ulrich et al. as well as short texts on particular collecting areas. 360 pages, 410 illustrations in colour.

Check out the catalogue

Order the catalogue on the publisher's website

Exhibition:
Deichtorhallen Hamburg/Sammlung Falckenberg Hamburg-Harburg, 1.10.2016 – 15.01.2017