Art historian, critic, and former director of the Bonner Kunstverein Annelie Pohlen has donated thirty works of contemporary art to Museum Abteiberg. The donated pieces by Mary Bauermeister and Larry Miller, Heidi Bucher, Michael Buthe, Henning Christiansen, Allan Kaprow, Alison Knowles, Cary S. Leibowitz, Markus Lüpertz, Anna Meyer, Klaus Mettig, Ulrike Nattermüller, Giulio Paolini, Peter Piller, Thomas Rentmeister, Katharina Sieverding, Rosemarie Trockel, Katharina Wulff and Heimo Zobernig, and UTV will enter the museum collection and supplement the collection holdings at precise points of connection.
About
Annelie Pohlen, a Ph.D. historian, is one of the most prominent critics and curators in the Rhineland. Many of today’s influential contemporary artists owe their recognition to her early writings and exhibitions. As a freelance critic, she has lent her expertise to various outlets, including daily newspapers, radio, and art publications such as heute Kunst/Flash Art BRD/Italy, KUNSTFORUM International, ARTFORUM USA, and Noema Austria. She began her career as an independent curator and later became director of the Bonner Kunstverein, where she shaped the institution’s artistic program from 1986 to 2004. Pohlen’s focus extends to the latest developments in contemporary art, encompassing its formal, thematic, and social dimensions. Her interests also include Fluxus and early media art, as well as participatory and intermedial artistic concepts from the 1960s onward. The art historian’s commitment to the field persists, as she continues to publish catalogue texts and essays on selected perspectives in contemporary art. In 2021, she generously decided to donate objects from her personal collection to selected museums in the Rhineland.
Fig.: Allan Kaprow, “Repair” a Kaprow, 1995, plexiglas box with transparent base, patent shoe, gauze bandage, Pohlen Donation 2022, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Photo: Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf