Page 193 - Katalog Beyond the Box 820 final.indd

Gallery in Maastricht in 1983. It mainly dealt with French 19th cen- Since 1988 you have been the first chairman of the Neuer Aachener
tury landscape painting. At the time it was showing works from the Kunstverein.
Barbizon School. Van Rijn, the co-founder of Fine Art Maastricht,
approached me and, with great attention and expertise, explained During my first tentative steps in matters of contemporary art, I
to me the works on display. A long landscape painting, two-thirds became involved with a group of interested people around the Aa-
sky with a small figure, titled ‚Open Landscape with Cows in Barbi- chen artist and exhibition organiser Charly Winter alias Karl von
zon‘ (undated) by Leon Viktor Dupré had me hooked. After dinner Monschau, who wanted to set up an art association. This was to
and long negotiations we finally agreed on a year‘s payment plan, be the continuation and further development of Aachen‘s legenda-
sealed with a handshake. Although I had only paid one installment ry ‚Gegenverkehr‘ (1964-1967). The Neue Aachener Kunstverein
for the painting, Jacques van Rijn delivered the Dupré to my home. was founded in 1986. I was one of the founding members. After a
Still somewhat uncertain and not sure if I had spent too much mo- few months I was provisionally elected to the exhibition committee,
ney, I stood the painting in my living room, put a mattress in front which was responsible for the artistic programme at the time. Since
of it and slept there every night for two weeks. It was to be the first January 1988 I have been the chairman of the board of directors
work in a collection of paintings by the Barbizon School and French of this art association. Back then, while collector friends were buy-
Pre-Impressionists. About two years later, I had a momentous ex- ing works in national galleries by artists such as Albert Oehlen and
perience: my first encounter with contemporary art. Hans Esser, an Martin Kippenberger, I hung around in Aachen‘s studios and put
architect, painter, and collector friend of mine, enthralled me with a together a collection of regional artists, including works by Joachim
work on paper of sheeps’ heads by Kadishman – quickly executed in Bandau, Peter Lacroix, Wolfgang Nestler, Emil Sorge, Winfried Vir-
bright colours. The scales fell from my eyes: you are collecting 19th nich, Karl von Monschau, and others. During these forays into the
century art and here was contemporary painting. It soon became regional studios, the motivation to support the artists played an of-
clear that in the future my collecting had to look not backwards but ten not insignificant role in my purchases, so that I once bought an
forwards. entire exhibition instead of an individual work. Through friendships
like that with Hoet, the intensive engagement with art and artists

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