The collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation

Works
After more than 80 years of collecting contemporary art, the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation holds paintings, sculptures, installations, video works and films by over 150 artists.

Many of the works that entered the collection early on – such as those by Robert Delaunay, Paul Klee, Max Ernst or Hans Arp – now rank among the classics of Modernism. Groups of exceptional works by Joseph Beuys and Bruce Nauman, acquired in the 1960s and 1970s, have since established their place in the history of art and become recognised for their groundbreaking significance. With its acquisitions of contemporary art, the Foundation continues to stake out new territory and expand the boundaries of innovation – upholding the original founding principle from 1933 of “confidence in the future”. The latest additions to the collection include works by Jeff Wall, Tacita Dean, David Claerbout, Andrea Zittel, Steve McQueen and Toba Khedoori.


The lower level of the Schaulager exhibition area houses the monumental Rattenkönig [Rat-King] (1993), by the sculptor Katharina Fritsch (*1956), and the complex installation Untitled (1995—1997), by Robert Gober (*1954). Two large rooms for these works were included from the outset, in close cooperation with the artists, in the plans for the building. They are permanent installations in the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, and therefore can also be seen by visitors to the public exhibitions at Schaulager. By deciding to accommodate the works in this way, Schaulager guaranteed the continuing accessibility of two complex installations whose dimensions normally make it almost impossible to include them in exhibitions.


Katharina Fritsch, Rattenkönig, 1993, polyester, pigment, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel (permanently installed at Schaulager, Basel), Zurich, © 2017, ProLitteris, Zurich, Katharina Fritsch.

Katharina Fritsch, Rattenkönig (1993)
This remarkable sculpture consists of 16 identical rats, all of them jet black, sitting side by side on their hind legs. They are arranged in a circle, with their upper bodies leaning slightly outwards and their front paws raised. The giant bodies, twice human size, tower above the visitor. Looking through the dense array of rodents, one sees that their tails are woven into an enormous, ordered knot. Their stance indicates that they are ready to attack, but the impulse is blocked by the tangling of their heavy tails, which renders them immobile. Thus the knotted tails form a centre, surrounded and guarded by the rats.

The inspiration for Rattenkönig dates back to 1989, when Fritsch was staying in New York. She was overwhelmed by the city, with its formations of soaring skyscrapers and plunging abysses. The rat king motif refers to a natural phenomenon – which is extremely rare and, as yet, not fully understood – involving young rats whose tails become intertwined in the nest, to a point where they can no longer extricate themselves. Sightings of these so-called rat kings have been reported since the late Middle Ages, when they were feared as harbingers of the plague. In Fritsch's sculpture, the rat king evokes the image of New York as a Moloch, and alludes at the same time to German mythology.

After exhibiting the monumental work for a year at the Dia Art Foundation in New York, Fritsch also showed it at the Lyons Biennale in 1997 and the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, shortly before its acquisition by the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. Finally, with the construction of Schaulager, it became possible to install the sculpture permanently in Basel.


Robert Gober, Untitled, 1995—1997, installation, various materials, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel (permanently installed at Schaulager, Basel), © Robert Gober, photo: Bisig & Bayer, Basel

Robert Gober, Untitled (1995—1997)
In terms of both content and form, Robert Gober's Untitled is a highly complex installation, structured by objects arranged in a cruciform configuration. A cast concrete statue of the Virgin Mary occupies the centre of the room; her arms are outstretched and a culvert pipe pierces her lower body. The hollow pipe directs the gaze to the flight of cedar wood stairs behind the figure, down which a cascade of water pours into the room and floods over the floor before disappearing down a street drain. The rushing noise of the water – the most physically immediate element of the work – can already be heard from a distance. The Madonna also stands on a giant drain grate, cast in bronze. Through the grate, the gaze falls on a tidal pool with naturalistically depicted seaweed, shells, starfish and crabs, and oversized US coins. On either side of the figure, two open leather suitcases rest on two further drain grates, and again the eye is drawn to the ruffled surface of the water below, but this time interrupted by the feet and legs of a man, bearing a swaddled infant.

The sculptures, the significance of water as a life-giving force and an omnipresent element, and the cross-shaped layout of the ensemble, imbue the installation with a sense of the sacred. The work is replete with a multiplicity of visual and auditory clues, alluding to Christian symbolism and the theme of religious belief in ways that disconcert the viewer. The search for determinate meaning proves fruitless, just as the source of the water flowing down the stairs remains unknown.

Originally, Untitled was created as a site-specific installation for a temporary exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In 1999, the work entered the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation.

Dieter Roth, Selbstturm; Löwenturm (1969–1998)

Dieter Roth, Selbstturm, 1969–1998, wood, glass, chocolate casts, sugar casts; Löwenturm, 1970—1998, iron, glass, chocolate casts, sugar casts; studio consisting of various materials, objects and devices, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel (location: St. Alban-Rheinweg, Basel), © Dieter Roth Estate.

Dieter Roth, Selbstturm; Löwenturm (1969—1998)

Selbstturm; Löwenturm offers a unique insight into Dieter Roth's oeuvre. The installation in his former studio, exposed to a process of continual decay, is one of the boldest, most unconventional works acquired by the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation.

Location
Room adjacent to the Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart
Guided access only.
Registration

Registration →

Self-Portraits and Lion Heads
The sculpture Selbstturm; Löwenturm [Self tower; Lion tower], by Dieter Roth (1930–1998), standing in the room adjacent to the Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart, seems uncanny, yet familiar, like a mass of memories that have fallen out of time. A faintly sour smell of chocolate hangs in the air. Self-portraits and lions' heads, cast in chocolate and sugar, are densely arranged on rows of shelves, set in two free-standing racks. At the suggestion of Maja Oeri, the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation acquired the work in 1989 as an artistic concept that was still a work in progress.

The sculptures, which over the years have grown fragile, have their starting point in Dieter Roth's first group of chocolate multiples, made in 1968 and titled Portrait of the Artist as Vogelfutterbüste [Portrait of the Artist as Birdseed Bust] – alluding to James Joyce's novel of artistic awakening, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), which Roth dismissed as kitsch. The small busts, standing just 20 centimetres tall, are made of chocolate mixed with birdseed. They were originally mounted on broom handles, with a platform provided for garden birds to perch and consume the sculptures. From 1969 onwards, Roth began to stack the casts into towers, starting with the Selbstturm and continuing from 1970 with the heads in the Löwenturm. The towers were first exhibited in 1971 at Daniel Spoerri's Eat Art Gallery in Düsseldorf. From 1985, Roth began to augment the self-portraits and lion busts with sphinx-like figures combining human and animal features, and started also to experiment with various types of sugar. The sugar casts were deposited on the earlier, chocolate layers of the tower. Dieter Roth described this structure as an image of nature, with the brown chocolate symbolising the earth, and the coloured and light blue sugar figures evoking, respectively, flowers and the sky. Since the works were first created, their organic materials have continued to change and evolve, in complicity with the artist – decaying and crumbling, emitting odours, and altering their shape and colour. This accords with Roth's conviction that art must be part of life, exposed to the rhythms of time and caught up in a process of perpetual transformation.

The two racks, taller than head height, stand in the centre of Dieter Roth’s former studio, which houses a small workshop with two cooking stoves, pots and various kitchen utensils, plaster and silicone moulds, bags of sugar and food colourings. There is also a neatly ordered desk with a telephone, a wall shelf with files documenting the work on the towers, a card index with photographs of the sculptures, a camera for still photographs and a video camera, a refrigerator, work clothes, tools, and souvenir photos of Dieter Roth, his grandchildren and his work colleagues.

Four of the artworks in the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation were created for specific sites outside Schaulager or can be seen in museums, where they are on permanent loan.


Enzo Cucchi, Ohne Titel, 1984, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel (location: Brüglingen Botanic Garden, Basel), © Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Switzerland.

Enzo Cucchi, Ohne Titel (1984)
Enzo Cucchis (1949) Skulptur Ohne Titel* entstand als Auftragsarbeit für die 1984 von Ernst Beyeler, Reinhold Hohl und Martin Schwander organisierte Ausstellung «Skulptur im 20. Jahrhundert» im Basler Merian-Park, die an die gleichnamige Ausstellung 1980 im Wenkenpark in Riehen anschloss. Für seine Skulptur verankerte Cucchi zwei aus Bronze gegossene, nahezu zwölf Meter lange Pfähle schräg in der Erde. Mit ihren ellipsoiden Aufsätzen erinnern sie an dünne Pilze, Schneckenfühler, Antennen oder – aufgrund ihrer rindenähnlichen Oberflächenstruktur – an verkohlte Baumstämme. Sie rufen archaische Bilder wach und evozieren Unbewusstes und Mythisches, was unterstrichen wird durch Totenköpfe, die den Pfählen wie Flechten anhaften und sich an einem der beiden Stämme, einer Himmelsleiter ähnlich, in einer Spirale emporwinden. In ihrer rohen, mächtigen Präsenz widerspiegelt die Skulptur die ungebändigte Energie der Naturgesetze und tritt in scharfen Kontrast zu der von Menschenhand gestalteten Natur des Parks.

Standort
Merian Gärten, Basel (bei der Villa Merian)
Zugänglich täglich von 8 Uhr bis Sonnenuntergang.


Ilya Kabakov, Denkmal für einen verlorenen Handschuh, 1998 (detail), Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel (location: St. Alban-Rheinweg, Basel), © 2017, ProLitteris, Zurich, Ilya Kabakov.

Ilya Kabakov, Denkmal für einen verlorenen Handschuh (1998)
In front of the Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart, within sight of the Rhine, a red woman's glove lies seemingly discarded on a patch of gravel under a chestnut tree. Grouped around the glove are nine panels arranged in a semicircle, like music stands set up for a concert. Each panel is inscribed with a text in four languages (French, English, German and Russian) in which an imaginary character considers the lost glove and the associations to which it gives rise. The installation Denkmal für einen verlorenen Handschuh [Monument to a Lost Glove] by Ilya Kabakov (*1933) speaks of lovers' journeys, of feelings of loneliness, or annoyance at public disorder – inspired by the glove. The nine texts create a polyphony of mental images, memories and attitudes. The stories interrupt the everyday routine of casual passers-by, and draw them – if they take the time - into the mental worlds of others.

Location
Rhine promenade in front of the Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart
The installation is accessible at all times.


Richard Serra, Open Field Vertical/Horizontal Elevations (for Breughel and Martin Schwander), 1979–1980, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel (location: Wenkenpark, Riehen/Basel).

Richard Serra, Open Field Vertical/Horizontal Elevations (for Breughel and Martin Schwander) (1979–1980)
The colossal sculptures of Richard Serra (1939) are heavyweight site-specific works that formulate an aesthetic response to a landscape or topographical situation. Open Field Vertical/Horizontal Elevations (for Breughel and Martin Schwander)* was created between 1979 and 1980 for the exhibition “Skulptur im 20. Jahrhundert” in the Wenkenpark in Riehen. Unspectacular and unusually restrained, it comprises ten forged steel blocks, each weighing nearly 2.5 tonnes, which are positioned at selected topographical points in the park landscape. Serra chose the individual locations with the help of a map and by repeatedly walking over the terrain. There is no defined vantage point for viewing the work. Its object lies, instead, in the careful exploration of a network of relationships that extends over an area of some 9500 square metres. Walking down the slope, the viewer gradually apprehends that space is not a dimension independent of human involvement, but is actively generated, constructed and modified by the individual.

Location
Wenkenpark, Riehen
The installation is publicly accessible at all times.


Jean Tinguely, Méta-Harmonie II, 1979, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, gift of Paul Sacher 1980, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, © 2017, ProLitteris, Zurich, Jean Tinguely.

Jean Tinguely, Méta-Harmonie II (1979)Jean Tinguely, Méta-Harmonie II (1979)
The sculpture Méta-Harmonie II, by Jean Tinguely (1925–1991), stands in the Museum Tinguely, where it has been on permanent loan since 1996. The monumental, three-part structure, mounted on wheels, is almost seven metres wide and four metres high. It is a striking example of Tinguely's installations built from scrap metal, incorporating elements of sound and movement. The artist described Méta-Harmonie II as a "sound-mixing machine", involving the interaction of several dozen wheels, in differing materials and sizes. The sculpture also includes a variety of used musical instruments, including a piano, drums and plastic keyboards, played by an assembly of batons, wheels and puppets, which in turn are driven by motors and V-belts. The wheels, rotating at a leisurely but varying pace, create a randomly generated carpet of sound.

Location
Museum Tinguely, Basel
Accessible with a valid entrance ticket for the Museum Tinguely.