English
The Taschen Collection
Interview with Benedikt Taschen. By Marga Paz, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. On the occasion of the exhibition at the museum. 20th October 2004 – 15th January 2005
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MP: When did you start collecting? Why? Which was the first piece you bought? Do you still own it?
BT: I bought my first piece of art around 1980 when I was 19: a lithograph by an artist I still admire, Konrad Klapheck. Throughout his career he very much followed his own road and created a unique body of work. Actually, in connection with Klapheck the word "body" is somewhat odd because he only painted machines — typewriters, calculators, bulldozers and so on. Klapheck, who is a distant relative of mine, was one of the first artists I met. I always liked him. Not only did he never treat me like a child, he also had great paintings by Magritte in his home and a very wide range of interests like boxing, which he followed passionately. Besides, he was born on the same day I was: February 10th.
Anyhow, with my first income earned from the sales of Mickey Mouse comic strips I bought a brand new pair of sports shoes with spikes and a print by Konrad Klapheck with a flat iron on it, acquired from a guy who was about to move from Cologne to Florida. I still own those editions I bougth at that time and I love them.
I learned early on that artists were a unique genre of people. My father was a physician and among his patients were the most colorful and diverse -characters: bohemians, hippies, writers, photographers and artists. My father didn`t mind that they rarely ever paid their bills; he was happy to hang out with them and sometimes accepted their art in lieu of money, if he liked the work.
In 1985, I began to show a serious interest in contemporary art when I acquired a whole group of works from the art dealer Thomas Borgmann. I had known Thomas since childhood and occasionally worked at his Cologne based gallery during school holidays. He had a great eye and was an even greater salesman. Thus, I didn`t just buy one piece, but twenty: drawings, paintings and sculptures by Rosemarie Trockel, Georg Herold, Werner Buettner, Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger.
MP: Your collection is concentrated on a few names. Why?
BT: Anything I really care about, I do intensely and passionately. Since I`ve been collecting, it has never been my intention to cover as many aspects of contemporary art as possible or to own works by hundreds of different artists. I prefer to focus on a few artists and try to collect them in depth. My motto is: "Go for the real losers and make sure to pick their worst works." Artists and their work have to perform over the years in order to keep their place in art history, and there are simply far too many of them competing for the same thing. When you look back over just one generation, let`s say if you browse through a catalog of any Art Basel, Documenta or any other major international exhibition, in the case of 90 percent of the artists represented there you wonder "What the hell happened to him or her?".
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
MP: When did you start collecting? Why? Which was the first piece you bought? Do you still own it?
BT: I bought my first piece of art around 1980 when I was 19: a lithograph by an artist I still admire, Konrad Klapheck. Throughout his career he very much followed his own road and created a unique body of work. Actually, in connection with Klapheck the word "body" is somewhat odd because he only painted machines — typewriters, calculators, bulldozers and so on. Klapheck, who is a distant relative of mine, was one of the first artists I met. I always liked him. Not only did he never treat me like a child, he also had great paintings by Magritte in his home and a very wide range of interests like boxing, which he followed passionately. Besides, he was born on the same day I was: February 10th.
Anyhow, with my first income earned from the sales of Mickey Mouse comic strips I bought a brand new pair of sports shoes with spikes and a print by Konrad Klapheck with a flat iron on it, acquired from a guy who was about to move from Cologne to Florida. I still own those editions I bougth at that time and I love them.
I learned early on that artists were a unique genre of people. My father was a physician and among his patients were the most colorful and diverse -characters: bohemians, hippies, writers, photographers and artists. My father didn`t mind that they rarely ever paid their bills; he was happy to hang out with them and sometimes accepted their art in lieu of money, if he liked the work.
In 1985, I began to show a serious interest in contemporary art when I acquired a whole group of works from the art dealer Thomas Borgmann. I had known Thomas since childhood and occasionally worked at his Cologne based gallery during school holidays. He had a great eye and was an even greater salesman. Thus, I didn`t just buy one piece, but twenty: drawings, paintings and sculptures by Rosemarie Trockel, Georg Herold, Werner Buettner, Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger.
MP: Your collection is concentrated on a few names. Why?
BT: Anything I really care about, I do intensely and passionately. Since I`ve been collecting, it has never been my intention to cover as many aspects of contemporary art as possible or to own works by hundreds of different artists. I prefer to focus on a few artists and try to collect them in depth. My motto is: "Go for the real losers and make sure to pick their worst works." Artists and their work have to perform over the years in order to keep their place in art history, and there are simply far too many of them competing for the same thing. When you look back over just one generation, let`s say if you browse through a catalog of any Art Basel, Documenta or any other major international exhibition, in the case of 90 percent of the artists represented there you wonder "What the hell happened to him or her?".
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Taschen Collection
Hardcover 11.7 x 16.5 in., 254 pages
$ 70.00
$ 70.00
The art of a particular moment in history from a new point of view
Konrad Klapheck, Sports shoe, 1968
Dr. Benedikt Taschen with daughter Hannelore, wife Martha and son Wolfram, Cologne, in front of a watercolour by Hubert Berke. Foto: Chargesheimer, 1959