Providing an overview of the history of Austrian, German and Swiss painting over the last thirty-five years, as well as the story of one of the most notable German private collections of contemporary art.

Entrepreneurs Anna and Dieter Grässlin began as a couple to acquire works of German Informel from the late 1960s onwards, laying the foundations for the Grässlin Collection in gestural and expressive paintings that could be located conceptually somewhere in-between attempts at coming to terms with war-time memories and the desire to express a sense of re-awakening in the post-War era. Featuring works by Carl Buchheister, Karl Otto Götz, Gerhard Hoehme, Emil Schumacher and Wols. Since the 1980s the couple’s four children turned their backs on the positions of Informel and simultaneously discovered their own artistic generation, and have been added contemporary artworks to the collection.

In the mid-1990s, the Grässlin Collection initiated its original exhibition concept for the project RÄUME FÜR KUNST, which continues to this day. The project uses the empty shop windows in the town, as well as the town hall, the city gardens and private homes of various family members are all used as exhibition locations – making a visit to the KUNSTRAUM GRÄSSLIN a stroll through the city. It was at this time of the launch of RÄUME FÜR KUNST that the collection grew with works by new names such as Cosima von Bonin, Mark Dion and Michael Krebber.

The Grässlin Collection stands out for the fact that once an artist is chosen for inclusion in the collection; a relationship is established that endures for many years, with the intention being to acquire works from that artist’s different creative periods. New acquisitions of recent years to the collection include both works from artists that have been represented in the collection for a longer period, such as Albert Oehlen, Günther Förg and Imi Knoebel, as well as younger artists including Tobias Rehberger and Stefan Müller.

The Graesslin Collection is included in the Art Guide.