The British Museum is to receive a gift of 34 prints and drawings by artists from post-war Germany, improving the museum’s collection of modern German art. The works, by artists such as Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Markus Lüpertz, Blinky Palermo and A.R. Penck, are a gift from collector Count Christian Duerckheim.
70-year old Duerckheim is an anglophile German industrialist who was a UK resident in the 1960’s. Not only is he giving the 34 works to the museum, he is also lending a further 60 prints and drawings for Germany Divided: Baselitz and His Generation, an exhibition that will open on February 6, 2014. Around half of the works in the exhibition will be by Baselitz.
In 2011, Duerckheim sold a significant proportion of his collection, described by Sotheby’s to Art Daily as “A collection of the most significant and defining German Art of the 1960s and 1970s ever to come to market”. Duerckheim started collecting in 1970 after seeing Baselitz’s Hero print. An intense period of collecting in the 1970’s and 80’s led to Duerckheim amassing a thorough selection of the art of his generation.
