Where should bequests go?
Visual artists estates usually contain several types of material such as works of art (paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and maquettes), as well as written and visual documents (letters, memos, contracts, exhibition and sales lists, press clippings, photos, etc.). The classic repositories for works of art are museums and art collections, while written and visual documentation belong in archives or libraries. There are some institutions in Germany known for their extensive bequest holdings, such as the archives of the Akademie der Künste Berlin (which mainly receives the estates of its members)Footnote 5, the Zentralarchiv der Berliner MuseenFootnote 6, the Rheinische Archiv für Künstlernachlässe (whose holdings are stored in the Bonn Stadtarchiv)Footnote 7 and the Deutsche Kunstarchiv at the Germanische Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (Figs. 1 and 2).Footnote 8
Website for Rheinisches Archiv für Künstlernachlässe, Bonn
Website for Deutsches Kunstarchiv in the Germanisches National Museum, Nuremberg
Some libraries accommodate artists' estates, such as the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin, the state libraries of both Berlin and Munich, as well as the SLUB (Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek) in Dresden and many others. Specialist art and museum libraries, such as the Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek in Cologne, offer a natural environment for artists' estates. The employees have the necessary know-how for the preservation, acquisition and development of the collections and their existing publications and holdings provide contextualization and access points for new bequests.Footnote 9
Studio in Düsseldorf. Photograph: D. Haffner, August 2013
How to choose what to keep?
If an artist's works appear on the art market and have been sold, their artistically significant works usually would have entered museums and collections during their lifetime. Whether market success is always directly related to artistic quality is indeed questionable, but will not be discussed here (Fig. 3). What is certain is that estates almost always contain the bulk of works that (for whatever reason) have not found their way into collections. This raises the questions: “Should any of it be kept? Who wants it?” Uwe Degreif, curator at the Museum Biberach, holds the following provocative thesis after many years of experience with artists estatesFootnote 10: he claims that there is only about 5–10% of artistically significant work worth preserving from the total stock of an estate, not including the printed material and archives. In a bequest containing about 2,500 works, this amounts to only 100–250.
It is almost hopeless to try to interest any single public museum for the acquisition of an estate of this size. Very few museums would preserve an entire estate. Firstly, for reasons of space. In addition, the necessary acquisition and cataloguing of such an extensive legacy makes it difficult to afford. Museums are more than archives – the collecting priority is usually based on quality rather than quantity. An entire bequest rarely meets those criteria.
For estate executors, it is therefore advisable to diversify the portfolio, so to divide the estate giving individual works or groups of works to a number of suitable collections or museums. Smaller groups of works can be rapidly identified, developed and presented; temporary exhibitions help keep the artist's name in public eye. “Suitable collection” means that works must fit into the existing collection (which, in turn, presupposes the presence of a collection policy). Ideally, works complement existing movements or schools (as a member of a particular artists' circle or group, etc). Or perhaps they show regional references, based on the artist's biography or in the subjects of their works.
What to do with the rest?
To provide guidance on this issue, several dedicated initiatives have come together in the last ten years.
Forum für Künstlernachlässe (Forum for Artists' Estates), Hamburg (Fig. 4)
First of all there is the Hamburg Forum für Künstlernachlässe, which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a symposium in September 2013.Footnote 11 The Forum is a voluntary ‘club’ initiative supported by donations, sponsors and personal dedication. Their activities are centred on the city of Hamburg and the states immediately around it. The concept is to ensure artists' estates are processed and made accessible to the public. In addition to events, lectures and exhibitions, comes digitization, documentation and the online presentation of art. It was a wise and far-sighted decision to operate online from the beginning. The Forum also has, through its connection to the Museumsverbund der Nord- und Ostsee Region which provides the web-based software digiCULT, an online reporting tool so that the data can be available immediately in the appropriate online portal.Footnote 12 Thus the art and the artists are rapidly visible to the public. The development also serves to ensure a meaningful artistic core component is present. After the digitization and documentation, works can be sold to support the ongoing work of the organization.
Forum für Künstlernachlässe, Hamburg
Künstlernachlässe Mannheim
Two years later, in 2005, the project “Nachlass-Stiftung für Mannheimer Künstler” was born in Mannheim . As in Hamburg, this is a volunteer, civic initiative that has achieved a lot with limited resources, with their material costs offset by sponsors.Footnote 13 Now renamed “Künstlernachlässe Mannheim” they maintain a strong regional reference. Since the work of many artists is often closely rooted in their belonging to certain places, local references are often also reflected in their œuvre. This aspect is not to be confused with provincialism, but rather to be understood as part of their identity. Also in Mannheim the artworks are digitized and are already online and searchable via the home page. However, the data is not yet available through an online portal (such as the German Digital Library). Such a development is desirable and would enhance significantly the public presence of the Mannheim artists and art.
Archiv für Künstlernachlässe der Stiftung Kunstfonds, Brauweiler
The Archiv für Künstlernachlässe der Stiftung Kunstfonds (the Stiftung Kunstfonds is similar to The Art Fund in the UK) in the former Brauweiler Abbey in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, enjoys somewhat better conditions than the two above-mentioned initiatives.Footnote 14. It was opened in April 2010 and receives both state and national funding. This means that this collection receives works by artists of “national importance” (however that is defined). The professionals in all relevant fields arrange proper storage and conservation, the loan of works to exhibitions or as permanent loans, and work with partners such as museums, galleries, universities, researchers and scientists. Digital services and on-line availability on the archive site are also part of the Brauweiler programme, although the integration of the digitized data into a nationwide portal is still missing and would be useful. Brauweiler also aims to archive the core original collections. Since autumn 2013 they have been collaborating with the Van Ham Art Estate, a subsidiary of the Cologne art auction house Van Ham. Van Ham helps with valuation and processing of individual, selected estates, and with the arrangement for sale of works of art from the archive.Footnote 15
[Private] Künstlernachlässe im Land Brandenburg (Fig. 5)
Website for Private Künstlernachlässe im Land Brandenburg
Spring of 2011 saw the unveiling of a voluntary initiative in Potsdam, in the state of Brandenburg, which has three development goals: the distributed acquisition of estates that are immediately made available via an online portal for artists' estates; a ‘mobile service’ to advise and assist estate executors/administrators; and a core collection repository.Footnote 16 The distributed collection of data provided by estate executors was the beginning of the concept, the corresponding web-based database went live in the middle of 2014. It allows you to locate an estate's inventory and, from these results, generate a catalogue raisonné. The plan to build a collection repository is based on the same considerations as in Hamburg or Brauweiler: The artist estates are to be preserved professionally. However, the model allows for items from the estates to be sold to help fund further work because, as with most of the initiatives, the problem is the lack of financial support. The need to secure the artistic legacy has not penetrated the consciousness of politicians enough and, in times of tight budgets, contemporary artists come further down the list of priorities.
In conclusion
What all these initiatives and institutions have in common is that they, from the outset, intended the acquisition and documentation of the works to be available online immediately. This is a wise, far-sighted decision. The web-based, possibly distributed collection is the only way to present the wealth of objects. It requires appropriate arrangements in advance (the estates must, for example, transfer the reproduction rights to the works of art at the beginning) but it is, in the long term, the right approach. By enriching the data and linking with other data sources such as GND (the German authorities database), Wikipedia, etc., data quality can be significantly improved in the medium term. As a result, the public presence of the respective artists and artworks increases, relationships with other art works and documentation about the artists can be identified, publications can be produced and the knowledge of our artistic and cultural life – especially away from the current mainstream – can be raised.
These initiatives have understood that to secure the artists estates, they should not be regarded purely as preservation facilities, like museums. They work with galleries and art dealers; sales are desired and encouraged, not taboo. The focus is on the conservation and preservation of cultural heritage – core holdings are retained but others may enter private hands through sales. However, there is still digitized record in the public domain. Meanwhile some bits of paper from the estate might also just disappear …
This is a translation of the article “Künstlernachlässe: hin oder weg?” that first appeared in the AKMB-news, 1 (2014): 15–19. The text has been translated by Erica Foden-Lenahan.
