Contemporaries: Collectors and Artists – Hungarian and International Art from Private Collections in Hungary, 2010–2014

The acquisition of contemporary works of art by private individuals and the private collections that are created as a result of these initiatives can be seen as complex economic and social undertakings.

From an economic perspective, the use of private capital to create and build collections – in the case of contemporary works – is currently undergoing a multifaceted transformation. From the perspective of the macro-economy and, within it, the art sector – primarily artists and commercial galleries – it emerges as a demand that invigorates the arts and inspires supply; from the perspective of the collector, it may prove a prudent investment or an undertaking with a risky outcome (either remunerative only in the long-term or, in a bad case scenario, never).

From the perspective of society as a whole, collectors and collections that are accessible to the public play a conducive role in stimulating the creation, selection and preservation of cultural-artistic products, and also help further familiarization with and recognition of these works.

Due to the current protracted financial and societal crisis, it is particularly important to assume this economic and social role. Presently, in the midst of unfavourable circumstances in Hungary from the perspective of contemporary art, for-profit and non-profit private initiatives share in the public duties by supporting the creation and promotion of works of art. Ideally, the activity of the collectors is inseparable from the work of public art institutions. The collaboration of these two complementary domains is inevitable – the current exhibition at the New Budapest Gallery is an example of one such partnership.

The motif of personal involvement and investment, so often emphasized by collectors, also has a social implication: namely, it draws attention to the passionate interest in and appreciation of works of art and the acquaintances and often friendships that come into being between artists and collectors, who during the workweek are active in entirely different spheres of life.

Our exhibition first and foremost calls attention to the indispensable economic roles and the valuable social roles played by collectors of contemporary art in Hungary. The considerations on which the selection was based therefore deviate from customary curatorial exhibitions. The works here have been chosen not to confirm some previously formulated theoretical issue. Rather – based on works strictly from the period between 2010 and 2014 – the exhibition seeks to produce a snapshot of the acquisitions of contemporary works by collectors in Hungary. For the visitor, this snapshot will provide the outlines of various definitions of contemporary art that are inherent in each collection, while also illustrating the diversity of their orientations: whether it be an interest in Hungarian or international art or a preference for certain genres and mediums, not to mention the value judgements applied to the works of individual artists.

We were not intent on influencing, by providing some kind of distinguished “external” perspective, the revealing picture with which we were presented – a picture already structured by the aforementioned factors – when viewing the Hungarian and international works created over the course of the last five years. Namely, we regard the aspect of investment and patronage as equally legitimate and of equal public interest; collections stylistically homogenous or divergent; collections concentrating exclusively on Hungarian or international contemporary art; adherence to or rejection of current trends; collections cultivated with the assistance of experts or collections based entirely on independent choices.

When surveying works created between 2010 and 2014 that were made available to us, we strove to organize an exhibition of contemporary art that would simultaneously reflect the character and inherent connections of some of the collections, selecting in some cases uniquely characteristic pieces with which to demonstrate parallels and divergences, but also providing as comprehensive and informative picture of contemporary art as possible, including from the perspective of genres. Due to the disparate scale of acquisitions, the works selected for this exhibition are not displayed according to the individual collections, but rather are organized according to a logic suggested by the works themselves.

There are well-known, important collections which – much to our regret – are not represented in the exhibition: either the owners of the collections failed to respond to our inquiry or, for understandable reasons, they declined our request to participate. In some cases, a given collection did not include any works from the time frame. But it is also possible, of course, that there were significant collections that we failed to notice.

This exhibition which consists of works found in 38 Hungarian private collections (for reasons mentioned above, by no means with any pretension of comprehensiveness) may be a point of departure or a source of inspiration for future curatorial exhibitions that wish to focus on certain specific issues or subjects. And, last but not least, the current exhibition may kindle interest in contemporary art and the establishment of new collections.