Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall

“Hidden Treasures from Vienna” fascinated almost 100,000 visitors with pieces from the art collections of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna through April 2018. Eloquent art connoisseurs such as art professor Ben Willikens and art consultant Countess Marie-Catherine Douglas were also honored to present their exhibition favorites at the event “Rendezvous with Art”. “As Far as the Eye Can See”, an opulent selection of exciting acquisitions of international art in the Würth Collection since 1960, has been on display since April. The often enormous formats of international stars such as Brian O’Doherty, Elger Esser, Peter Halley, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer, Martin Kippenberger, Robert Longo, Yan Pei-Ming, Sigmar Polke or Marc Quinn are partly abstract, partly realistic and not infrequently challenging, yet they question our familiar way of interacting with the world time and again. The accompanying program to the exhibition also scored points, at the joint reading by Max Urlacher and Charles Brauer in March 2018, for example, or in July, when Peter Lohmeyer’s reading from F. C. Delius’ “Der Sommer, in dem ich Weltmeister wurde” (“The Summer in which I Became World Champion”) gave comfort to all those who were troubled by the early elimination of the German national soccer team from the World Cup in Russia.