Since his death in 1999, his son Björn has continued his father’s work on behalf of his family with amazing consistency, which becomes apparent time and again in his acquisition of work by young and most recent artistic stances that are in turn in a position to enter into a dialogue with older ones. This results in astonishing combinations within the newly assembled and extended collection, to intelligent reverberations and responses. Yet the second and third generation of younger artists is not interested in the formal continuation of a recognizable pictorial language, for instance in terms of a “Neominimalism” or “Neoconceptual Art,” but in a critical inquiry into reality occurring under changed conditions.
Björn Lafrenz’s attitude as a collector is similar to his fathers, despite his belonging to a younger generation: he, too, collects contemporary art by young artists, often just beginning their careers; he, too, has his finger on the pulse of time, without wanting in any way to be in pursuit of a kind of zeitgeist. Neither father nor son ever followed the trends of the art market; they consistently trusted their own views and convictions. Thus, the collection was able to find its own organic and distinctive form and is today considered to be one of the most important private collections in Germany.
This new presentation, which takes in the entire third floor of the Weserburg, directs its focus toward younger artistic stances. In doing so, it creates space for dynamic dialogues between early works from the 1970s and those of the current generation of artists, who take up the stylistic elements of their predecessors, occasionally subject them to scrutiny, and in this way enable new perspectives on apparently familiar art. Two generations of collectors and artists meet here for an encounter that has never taken place in another collection of art. Indeed: Doppelte Rotation, or Double Rotation, in the sense of a transgenerational mobility within the collection. At the same time, however, this applies to the viewer within the framework of his or her aesthetic reason: in the wealth of his or her thoughts, feelings, and questions while visiting the exhibition.
Josef Albers, Hermine Anthoine, Jake Berthot, Louis Cane, Alan Charlton, Rolf Deimling, Cordula Ditz, Johannes Esper, Frank Gerritz, Peter Joseph, Ellsworth Kelly, Harald Klingelhöller, Kitty Kraus, Daniel Lergon, Richard Long, John McCracken, Michael Pfisterer, Larry Poons, Charlotte Posenenske, James Reineking, Ulrich Rückriem, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Richard Serra, Robert Therrien.
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