A brand-new museum with an old history has arrived in Potsdam’s Alte Markt square. Hasso Plattner is a billionaire who launched German software company SAP, the world’s third largest international software and programming company. He is also one of the world’s leading art collectors and the founding patron of the Museum Barberini, a private museum which opened its doors to the public this month.
The museum’s two opening exhibitions, Impressionism: The Art of Landscape and Modern Art Classics include key works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Liebermann and Edvard Munch. Many of the works on show are drawn from Plattner’s own extensive collection built up over 20 years. Leading our pack of journalists around the museum, Plattner said that he had chosen the city of Potsdam because, “East Germany was robbed twice; first by the war’s destruction, and then with Soviet Occupation.” He added, ironically, “I came as the white knight to rescue, but initially, a lot of people were against the museum, holding demonstrations and writing angry letters.” The process of building the museum has not been easy; criticism has been levied at Plattner that Germany has enough museums, that he is an example of the rich elite buying up the city. Asked for a response to the criticism, Plattner replied, “Germans have a character flaw of jealousy. It cannot be genetic because Germans are from all over the place. In America, you don’t have this.” Many of those critics have been swayed; for the museum’s pre-opening, 24,500 visitors arrived, with Berliners making the short trip on the S-Bahn.
The museum’s 17 exhibition galleries, spread over three floors, have been carefully painted to resonate with the works
Since its inception, the museum has experienced several incarnations. In 1750 the palace was built with Rome’s Palazzo Barberini in mind after King Frederick the Great had searched for models reminiscent to those in etchings depicting Italian architecture. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the building was altered, used as an assembly house for artistic and cultural societies, later welcoming in government agencies. After a 1945 air raid, the building was demolished a few years later.
Reconstructed along its historic lines by Berliner architect Thomas Albrecht, the museum cost a rumoured 60 million euros to build, yet was brought into the C21st with modern touches including a Barberini Smart Wall. Operated by an iPad, the wall allows visitors to study the collection’s paintings in images of 200m pixels, and was the idea of Plattner’s daughter Stephanie who wanted to engage young children. In a case of convenient multi-tasking, the wall was also programmed by Plattner’s company.
The museum’s 17 exhibition galleries, spread over three floors, have been carefully painted to resonate with the works. Plattner praised Dr. Ortrud Westheimer, previously director of Hamburg’s private museum Bucerius Kunstforum. “Hanging is a true art – you cannot hang your own collection. For the paintings I own and know, they look much better here.” He admitted, “I have more than two-plus homes and they are stacked up with paintings, so there is an overflow. When putting the collection together, I realized that 50% of the paintings I like have water in them.” Monet’s Waterlilies (1914-1917) is one such example; hung in a gallery of grey-blue walls, its outer edges of unpainted canvas lap at the blues, greens, and violets of the pond pulsing at its center.
Plattner’s connection with Potsdam also involved water; as a young child, he would gaze across at the forbidden East German town while sailing with his parents across Berlin’s lake. His first visit took place in 1988; he recalls a Proustian memory overlaid with the ‘distinct scent of the coal fires, and the several shades of grey in which the houses were painted, strong memories even today.’ Yet while Plattner’s connection to Potsdam appears permanent, his Impressionist and Modern works will leave the city after May 29th. Only his collection of East German art from before 1989 will stay, and the museum will host a completely different exhibition with 78 works from the Phillips collection. Plattner spoke of his responsibilities towards the museum affecting the future of the collection. “Every museum from time to time has to finance investments. Over five of the paintings, I have here originally come from American museums. And from time to time, I may have to sell some paintings to finance the museum.”
An artist whose works Plattner probably won’t part with will be those by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, an artist he believes to be better than Picasso. Standing before his favourite work on show, he said, “Children Playing with Fire (1947) is the most emotionally important painting for me. It has fire, tension, something dangerous. Not so many artists have taken WW2 on.” He added, “Bar Tamayo, there is no painting before Impressionism that I would buy for my home. Tamayo is testimony that I do not just buy art by names.”
Plattner’s passion also extends to philanthropy. In 2013, on Bill Gates advice, he signed The Giving Pledge, committing to give at least half of his fortune to philanthropic causes either during his lifetime or in his will. Alongside Plattner’s Potsdam Hasso Plattner institute, an information-technology college affiliated with the university, and financing the roof of the reconstructed historical Potsdam City Palace through his foundation, the Barberini is a tangible sign of that philanthropy. “The museum is nearly the finishing touch to Potsdam,” said Plattner. “I have no deal or expectations with the city. When you build a museum, you can only lose – half the people will find it great, and half won’t like it.” It seems to have worked; the Verein Stadtbild Deutschland, a society promoting the preservation and reconstruction of historical architecture, named Palace Barberini its ‘Building of the year’. “And the Museum Barberini is not called the Hasso Plattner Museum,” Plattner added. “In 20 or 30 years only a few people will remember I began it.”
Words/Photos Rebecca Swirsky © Artlyst 2017