Modes of Behavior towards People When Affection Plays a Part. Klein Collection

Alison and Peter W. Klein have been collecting art for nearly thirty years. Continually expanded since the end of the 1980s, their highly diverse collection is an impressive testament to an emotional desire to view and experience art. Their most recent acquisition is Anna Oppermann’s piece “Ensemble with Decoration (Modes of Behavior towards People When Affection Plays a Part) – Decoration with Birches, Pears, and Frame” (1969–1984–1992). With its puzzling poetry, the almost playfully added parenthetical clause characterizes Oppermann’s work overall. Hence it spontaneously became the overarching concept for the entire exhibition, also because the aspect of an affection for art and people appears symptomatic of the Klein’s (artistic) enterprise.

The exhibition showed selections of the extensive Klein Collection. Therefore, twenty-nine artists have been selected out of the abundance of the nearly nine hundred represented in the collection, who exemplify in particular the Klein’s collecting interests. After all, in addition to such famous artists as Sean Scully and Anselm Kiefer, the Klein’s continually turn their attention to not-yet-established as well as young positions.