Collection Hubert Looser - My Private Passion

The Fondation Hubert Looser is one of the foremost private collections of modern and contemporary art in the region of Switzerland, placing its main focus on Abstract Expressionism, Minimal Art and Arte Povera. In addition to single works of Giacometti, Picasso, Kiefer and other stars the collection includes work groups of Willem de Kooning, John Chamberlain, Cy Twombly, David Smith, Agnes Martin, and also Giuseppe Penone. From April 26 till July 15 2012 a big part of the collection will be presented the first time in the context of a museum at Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna. On occasion of the spectacular show CastYourArt visited Mr. Looser in Zürich and produced a collectors-portrait.

„Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.” (Walter Benjamin). This passion makes the collector dream, even more, it makes him dream, imagine and think; memory functions in images, hence the decision to collect them.

The collector is searches, slowly assembling his microcosm, creating his own theory and sensibility, creating a world according to him.
Moving through the collection means the semantic reading of multiple authorships and ultimately the decision where to place the emphasis of the gaze – within the narrative of the pieces or the total of the works in an intertextual dialogue, and the reading generated by Looser through his confrontations and positioning by which he imposes, or rather proposes his autonomous vision on the artefacts, beyond the artistic idiosyncrasies.

Since his younger days Hubert Looser has been interested in art, and over the last 50 years he created an original collection of international repute. In the 1970ies Looser began collecting works by Swiss artists like Serge Brignoni, Kurt Seligmann or André thomkins.

He was fascinated by correlations between abstract and figurative, between surrealist and concrete art, by the relations between European, American and Asian art movements, and from the 1980ies on he began acquiring works of internationally renowned artists: de Kooning, Cy Twombly, Giacometti, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, David Smith, Picasso et al.

He turned towards art movements that were underrepresented in collections of the time: Minimal Art, Abstract Expressionism and Informel, Arte Povera (Giuseppe Penone, Mario Merz) or Land Art.

To learn, to juxtapose, and to doubt, is the way in which Hubert Looser collected. Collecting involves the ability of distinguishing between what is to be refused and what is desired, certainly one of the most difficult operations of the human mind: choosing and putting in order. Therefore this collection is, even more than others, a very personal matter: absorbing the spirit of an age, however not swimming with the tide, avoiding the obvious, the facile and the self-evident, detecting hidden images.

Hubert Looser considers his collection as completed and now opens it to the view of the public, for the first time the biggest part of this collection in an exhibition, whereas it is normally located in the specifically adapted home of Hubert Looser in Zurich.

No collection is what is expected on the outset, but rather the ability of the collector to abandon himself to his passions, erring and reciprocal correlations of the works. Contradictions are not only an essential part of life itself but of art, out of the conflictive constellations emerges the need of the narrator, the artist and the collector to convey something.

In the collection, Arte Povera, Surrealism, Expressionism, sculpture, graphic art, painting and installation coexist, it is an image of his interests, values and priorities, and it demonstrates the intensity with which artists are capable of grasping the mysterious connections between the human being and the phenomena.
Hubert Looser is passionate about the rebellious, difficult artists who capture, comprehend and convey the essence of existence, even if the outcome is not too pleasing and easy to consume. The work of art has to touch, to stir and inspire the viewer: by its idea, its expression, and its beauty.
The exhibition is a composition of ambivalences, challenges and ideas, confirming that collecting is not a static activity. It proves that doubt is the pivotal capacity of the mind: doubts, contradictions, and discoveries, this is the collection of Hubert Looser. (written by Cem Angeli)