Works from the Boros Collection

With the exhibition »Works from the Boros Collection« the Museum für Neue Kunst is taking up its original concept as a collectors’ museum and is presenting the private collection of Christian Boros from Wuppertal. The exhibition provides a representative selection from this collection and with 31 artists (born 1962-73) and more than 200 exhibits it is the largest presentation of this collection to date. Many works are being shown for the first time. Christian Boros concentrates on collecting art by artists of his own generation; the exhibition is characterised by extensive groups of works by individual artists.

The exhibition presents the most important trends in contemporary art from Germany and Britain in the 90s. It shows the artistic positions which, using a wide variety of media, characterised the 90s. The spectrum ranges from Pop Art to Minimalist trends, action art and installations. All these artists share a fundamental desire to give vehement expression to their own generation. Lifestyle, pop generation and artistic crossover are the keywords of this decade.

The trends in painting which have been the most important since the 90s are represented by artists such as Franz Ackermann, Michel Majerus und Elizabeth Peyton and the younger generation including the Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal and the Danish artist Sergej Jensen who are represented by extensive groups of works. Olafur Eliasson, who is concerned with the reconstruction of natural phenomena in an artistic context, is also represented with an important group of works, comprising large-scale sculptures, small-scale installations and a series of photographic works. A large number of photographs by Wolfgang Tillmans which came into being over a period of 13 years provide a representative insight into his work. John Bock, who was inspired by Dadaism and Wiener Aktionismus, and Henrik Olesen, the object artist, who highlights social injustice using inconspicuous everday objects, are also represented.

Artists like Tobias Rehberger, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Cosima von Bonin expanded the scope of artistic forms and media by leaving the institutional setting of the exhibition venue in search of new locations for artistic production. The crossover between design and art which is represented by Tobias Rehberger and Stefan Kern in this exhibition while Mark Leckey and Daniel Pflum explore the boundaries between music and visual art. The large-scale sculptures by Manfred Pernice use architectural motifs in the analysis of the urban landscape. 

Another focal point of this exhibition are British artists. Some of them, such as Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas are among the first generation of the Young British Artists who in 1997 attracted considerable international attention with the exhibition "Sensation". Younger artists such as Martin Boyce, Jim Lambie and Paul Morrison represent the most recent developments in contemporary British art.