| Description |
Considerable attention has already been paid to the study of artistic patronage and private collecting. Yet this legitimate, and perhaps even the most interesting aspect of art history remains on the margins. Similarly, the history of exhibitions devoted to the phenomenon of private collections is only featured surprisingly briefly in the background of the rich history of authorial, thematic, monographic, group, federal or otherwise themed exhibitions. The project For One’s Honour, For Art’s Glory attempts to complement this lopsided balance, at least in part. The present exhibition combines old and modern art and, in terms of collecting priorities, motivations, emotions and associated individual projects, relativizes the polarity and diversity of both. It also rises above the passage of time and time preferences; for in all historical epochs collectors, be they passionate, speculative, or even pragmatic in their social class, have responded to either entirely contemporary or rather traditional codified forms of art, but often have also exhibited a surprising mix of both approaches; to us at a distance of sometimes centuries, sometimes only decades, have repeatedly encouraged to seek a system, an order or higher meaning in something in which it may never have been. The authors’ modest ambition was to devote appropriate space to backbone collections, but also to introduce others, the little-known or essentially unknown. Logically, much remains unfinished, omitted. We would like to see this selective “incompleteness” not as a restriction, but as a way out. As an opening to further interest in historical research into the origins and fates of the valuables hidden in our collections and, above all, as a foundation for a broad interdisciplinary discussion.
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