Harald Szeemann, the renowned exhibition organizer and friend of the entrepreneurs Anne-Marie Loeb-Haymann (1916–1999) and Victor Loeb (1910–1974), described their attitude as an emphatic “yes to the present day.” Between 1964 and 1974, the couple assembled a collection that was ripe for a museum from the start. To their contemporary art, often acquired directly from artists’ studios, the Loebs also added Constructivist pieces from the first decades of the twentieth century. Liquid Reflections (1967), a kinetic light sculpture by the American artist Liliane Lijn (*1939), supplied the title for the exhibition and the book. It articulates what it is that makes up the character of the collection: liquefaction and the dissolution of boundaries. What was previously a painting or a sculpture has been re-discovered, re-materialized, and re-interpreted. This catalogue gives readers a look at the creation of the collection, whose more than 350 works of art are on permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Bern. It also contains an index of works, introduces highlights from the collection, and describes the experimental new beginnings of art at that time. Exhibition: Kunstmuseum Bern 27.10.2017–28.1.2018
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