Vlog, Videoblog: Harald Falckenberg : Art Collector : Phoenix Art

January 30th, 2007

Interview with Harald Falckenberg (Quicktime-Video)

The private collector

Collecting is a passion or according to Freud a compensational act – to be traced back to the detachment of a child from ist mother. And when the time of cuddly toys is over the grown up child can collect stamps or in the best case art. A private person collecting art, for which reason ever, has a big advantage over an institutional collector. The private collector can follow his intuition, trust his gut feeling. He doesn´t owe an explanation even if he decides to purchase subversive art: obscene, pornographic, violent – mind you - in an artistic context.

The collections of private art lovers are often more thrilling and versatile than the collections of some bank corporations or companies which certainly would not have discovered Jonathan Meese. Although courageous buyers are not always able to estimate quality, they are an extraordinary important part of the artmarket.

Keith Haring. Untitled (Nuclear Sex Series). 1981.

Harald Falckenberg, lawyer and private collector, lives in Hamburg. In his 6000 sqm exhibition space and warehouse there are genuine treasures of modern and postmodern art. Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring, Gerhard Richter, Nam June Paik, Martin Kippenberger, Jonathan Meese are just a selection of the artists whose art works are owned by Falckenberg. At 50 he started to collect and he is certainly not going to stop it anymore.

The infantil artist
For an artist it is certainly indispensable to preserve an infantil element. Harald Falckenberg considers this feature most important for an artist. The childlike openness and impartiality enables an artist to perceive the world and the society clearer than a „normal“ person. Often artists have the ability to see social currents and political tendencies earlier and to pervade the time in which they live more deeply. They free themselves from all too strict rules and norms and create freedoms that make other perceptions possible. The target of this way of living is a closer approach to truth. But it is not enough to be infantil to understand the world as it is. Sometimes in the life of an artist he has to overcome the purely infantil without entirely losing it. The greatest artists in history such as Michelangelo, Rodin or Bach and Goethe can hardly be described as infantil. Haven´t these or other arists beside their childlike elements obtain maturity or even wisdom in the course of the years?

Search of truth
In our interview Falckenberg says for him art was not the beautiful, the true, the good but art was a journey; that he undertook an adventure, something to get involved in and to dispute about. The search of truth doesn´t play an important role for him. Is the higher purpose source of irritation? It seems for Falckenberg it is. His way of approaching art is wounderfully reflected in his collection. Wild video installations are set up beside monstrous machines. In some rooms it is loud and dazzling and colourful and in others it is almost dark. In fact the visit of the collection requires a knowledgeable guide in order to understand what is seen. This is certainly only one way to engage in and evaluate art but undoubtedly a thrilling one.

Interview with Harald Falckenberg (Quicktime-Video)

Daniela Krien

Translation by Katja Kirsche.

Gerhard Richter. Fiktion/Fiction. 1976.

Artists of the Collection Falckenberg:

Donald Baechler, Joseph Beuys, John Chamerberlain, William Copley, Mark Dion, Fischli/Weiss, Dan Flavin, Gilbert & George, Christian Hahn, Keitz Haring, Georg Herold, Mike Kelley, Peter Kogler, Paul McCarthy, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Juan Miguel Pozo, Robert Rauschenberg, Thomas Rieck, Kay Rosen, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Andreas Slominski, Thaddeus Strode, Rosemarie Trockel, Petrus Wandrey, John Wesley, Franz West, Lutz Winkler, Bill Beckley, Werner Büttner, Christo, Stephen Craig, Bogomir Ecker, Barry Flanagan, Günther Förg, Thomas Grünfeld, Richard Hamilton, Klaus Hartmann, Tadashi Kawamata, Martin Kippenberger, Robert Longo, Jahon McCracken, Johnathan Meese, C.O. Paeffgen, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Rolf Rose, Dieter Roth, Kenny Scharf, Frank Stella, Nicola Torke, Richard Tuttle, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Emmett Williams, Johannes Wohnseifer.

LINE OF BEAUTY AND GRACE

A documentary about Jock Sturges

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