FRANKFURT.- Städel Museum presents “REAL – Photographs from the Collection of the DZ BANK”, on view through September 21, 2008. The Städel will present a selection of outstanding works from the DZ BANK art collection. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the DZ BANK’s founding, the exhibition will provide a broader public with the opportunity to gain an impression of the quality and diversity of a corporate collection whose uniqueness is by no means limited to Germany.

If on a smaller scale, this anniversary exhibition anticipates a state of affairs slated to become a reality in conjunction with the Städel’s planned expansion. Within the framework of a recently publicized agreement on an innovative form of cooperation, the DZ BANK will give the Städel more than two hundred works from its art collection. The transfer will go hand in hand with the opening of the new Städel exhibition hall where, from 2010-11 onward, these works will have a permanent home.

The exhibition “REAL” encompasses works which will remain in the DZ BANK collection as well as those destined for the Städel. “A presentation such as this one is already a clear indication that what will now take the form of two collections can remain closely connected in the future as well, and can enhance and enrich one another in an exciting way”, remarked Max Hollein, director of the Städel Museum.

The DZ BANK has at its disposal a comprehensive inventory of contemporary photography, representing one of the most renowned corporate collections in the world. In 1993, the banking house broke new ground with its decision to establish a collection focussing on photography in contemporary art. The collecting process was carried out in keeping with the leitmotif “concept: photography” parallel to the likewise still very young history of the art market for this medium.

The exhibition “REAL” retraces the development of photography as a branch of the visual arts and reflects its triumphant arrival on the art and exhibition scene from the 1980s onward. From the overall inventory of 6,000 works by some 550 artists of a wide range of nationalities, a cross-section of the bank’s holdings was condensed in a representative selection. Some 80 works reflect the concept of the collection’s structure which – divided into art categories in the classical manner – investigates the reciprocal effects between the genres and the further development of painting with the means of photography.

“Everything seemed to speak in favour of an exhibition of central works from the DZ BANK in a museum in which this history would be representatively conveyed, an exhibition which would operate with traditional genre concepts in a manner both playful and easy to understand”, explained Luminita Sabau, director of the DZ BANK art collection and curator of the anniversary exhibition. An art historian, Ms. Sabau has overseen the collection since its inception.

The result is a concentrated but openly structured exhibition in six sections. The spectrum ranges from portraits, cityscapes and architectural depictions to interiors, landscapes, genre scenes and still lifes. It includes works by Nobuyoshi Araki, Thomas Demand, Günter Förg, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Thomas Ruff, Katharina Sieverding, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol and many others. Yet it is not merely a presentation of so-called “highlights”, a circumstance documented by the participation of a large number of younger artists as well as sponsored emerging talents.

The intention is to convey the creativity and depth of artistic thought on this terrain. Already the title of the exhibition – “REAL” – is a conscious means of questioning the cliché of privileged verity with which photography has always had to contend. “This anniversary exhibition can be nothing more than a momentary take on a process we have defined as a ‘collective approximation of art’”, says Luminita Sabau. “In the future we will continue to work on the collection as an entity in its own right, to complete it and keep it up to date in the hope that it will someday convey the spirit of an era.”