MUNICH.- With the Museum Brandhorst, the Kunstareal museum complex has gained a significant new addition. In conjunction with the collection of the Pinakothek der Moderne, the multifaceted profile of modern and contemporary art has been expanded in an impressive manner.

The Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection, with its important work complexes, will open to the public tomorrow in a fascinating building designed by Sauerbruch Hutton architects. Both, architecture and works, further emphasize the city’s significant cultural importance and will trigger a far-reaching resonance. The paintings, sculptures and installations provide an aesthetic experience of exceptional immediacy and diversity, unlike that of virtually any other collection of private provenance in Germany.

From the very outset of their joint collecting activity, Udo and Anette Brandhorst were not only interested in the fine arts, but also in literature. Understandably, their attention focused on the cooperation between painters and poets in particular. This is shown in an impressive way by the 112 original editions of books illustrated by Picasso – with few exceptions this comprises virtually the whole of Picasso’s œuvre in this field. Works on paper by Kasimir Malevich, Kurt Schwitters, Joan Miró and others round off this complex.

This was soon followed by an increasing tendency towards contemporary art. Groups of works by artists from the second half of the twentieth century as well as by international exponents of contemporary art, form comprehensive focal points in the collection. With more than 60 works by Cy Twombly – paintings, sculptures and drawings – the Brandhorst Collection provides a unique overview of this exceptional artist’s creative development, comparable only with that in Houston, Texas. The ground-breaking American protagonist of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, is also represented by a plethora of works from all creative phases, a collection that cannot be matched by any other in Europe. Works by Joseph Beuys, Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, Bruce Nauman, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mike Kelley, are further protagonists of modern art represented in the Brandhorst Collection.

Following the exhibition Food for the Mind at Munich's Haus der Kunst in 2000, specific acquisitions were made to expand certain groups of works. The Brandhorst Collection now comprises more than 700 works.