The Brandhorst Museum, which was opened this spring, has given the Kunstareal München a stunning cornerstone. The Berlin architectural firm Sauerbruch Hutton has achieved a masterly construction on difficult terrain: modern but not trendy, self-assured but not narcissistic. The 36,000 coloured ceramic bars, adorning the outside of the museum in sophisticated harmony, provide a powerful point of focus against the predominately grey, pastel melancholy of the Bavarian metropolis and at the same time symbolically hint at the colourful wonders the collection has to offer.

In contrast, the interior of the building is characterised by functional understatement. A sculpturally designed staircase opens up around 3,200 square metres of exhibition space with a convincing spatial concept on three levels. White walls and ceilings, and the warm brown of the wooden floor made of Danish oak, provide a perfectly befitting background for the exhibition pieces. You can’t criticise it for environmental impact, either: the Brandhorst Museum gets by on half the energy required by similar buildings.

The financing and the running costs of the building have been made the responsibility of the Free State of Bavaria – a relatively sweet pill administered to the state by the benefactor, since in return Bavaria inherited not only the patron’s internationally renowned collection of over 700 works of art, but also assets of a foundation worth 120 million Euros.

It all began with a Joan Miró collage and a Cy Twombly drawing bought by Udo Brandhorst when he was still a student. In the Seventies he and his wife Anette, who died in 1999, began to expand their collection in earnest. To begin with they focused on antiquarian books by the masters of the modern classics, including – almost fully represented by 112 original editions – Pablo Picasso’s pictorial conflict alongside literary texts.

In succeeding years, these two married collectors broadened their perspective on contemporary art on the one hand; yet on the other hand, they focused strongly on central representatives of the genre in Europe and America, such as Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis, Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Damien Hirst, Bruce Nauman, Alex Katz and Andy Warhol. The Brandhorst Museum owns well over 100 works by the latter artist alone, representing an impressive cross-section of his work.

And above all others: Cy Twombly. Alongside the Menil Collection in Houston/Texas, the new Munich museum incorporates the most extensive single collection of the artist’s work with over 60 pictures and sculptures. In many ways the opposite of Warhol, Twombly relocated to Italy decades ago and absorbed important influences for his musical/lyrical style from the Mediterranean world. The polygonal room in which his 12-canvas Lepanto work hangs was designed in conjunction with the artist, and can in fact be described as the heart of the entire museum.

The Brandhorst Museum represents an immense asset to Munich’s artistic heritage, thanks to these huge groups of work: whilst the Pinakothek der Moderne unfurls the full, multi-faceted diversity of 20th and 21st century art, Udo and Anette Brandhorst’s collection intensifies this overview through its concentration on the masters who have shaped the art of our time and will determine future development.

Text: Thomas Held

Information:

Brandhorst Museum
Kunstareal München
Theresienstraße 35 a
80333 Munich
Tel. 00 49 89 238 052286

http://www.museum-brandhorst.de/en/visitor-information.html