BERLIN.- The Deutsche Bank KunstHalle is showing a selection of works on paper from the Frieder Burda Collection that have been rarely shown so far. The KunstHalle is presenting 113 drawings, watercolors, and goauches from 1955 to 2009 by Georg Baselitz, Willem de Kooning, Sigmar Polke, Arnulf Rainer, Neo Rauch, and Gerhard Richter.

Over a period of decades, Frieder Burda has passionately built one of the most important private collections in Europe, extending from Abstract Expressionism to current international positions.

It all began with the Italian avant-garde painter Lucio Fontana in 1968. At the Documenta, Frieder Burda discovered a bright red canvas with three incisions in it. The entrepreneur from Germany’s famous printing and publishing dynasty couldn’t get the painting out of his mind. It became the cornerstone of the collection.

The first artist shown in the exhibition is Willem de Kooning, representing the heroes of Abstract Expressionism. The main part features four artists of whom Burda is one of the world’s most important collectors: Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, Arnulf Rainer, and Gerhard Richter. The exhibition concludes with early period works on paper by Neo Rauch, who renewed figuration as the first painter of a reunited Germany.

With this selection of works on paper, the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Burda Collection and the tenth anniversary of the Museum in Baden-Baden by continuing a series that is dedicated to drawing—a long-neglected medium that today characterizes contemporary artistic discourse more than any other – from different perspectives.

An exhibition catalogue entitled “..…Höhere Wesen befehlen” – Works on Paper from the Frieder Burda Collection has been published a German edition by Hatje Cantz Verlag with contributions by Hans-Joachim Müller and Thomas Wagner, among others, and a conversation between Götz Adriani, Friedhelm Hütte, and Neo Rauch.