Karl Bollmann and his spouse Heidi are among the many essential worldwide collectors of latest jewelry. This effort started at approx. In 1970, curiosity in jewelery elevated when a husband gifted a diamond, creating an ever-growing assortment of greater than 1,000 works.

Karl was born in Vienna on August 30, 1943 and died there on December 7, 2022, after a two-year siege of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His acumen and curiosity in artwork and philosophy have by no means waned, and Heidi’s dedication to the sphere continues.

I met the Bollmanns at a gathering of the World Crafts Council in Vienna in 1980, which introduced collectively delegates and people from everywhere in the world within the modern craft motion. At the moment there was a deep focus on jewelery in Vienna. Peter Skubic had curated a world jewelery exhibition entitled Schmuck Worldwide 1900–1980 additionally Künstlerhaus in Vienna, Austria. And Galerie am Graben, based and managed by Inge Asenbaum, was a dominant entity. It was there that Inge launched me to the Bollmanns – it was there that I made my first go to to their assortment. I bear in mind a big porcelain cupboard positioned within the nook of residing rooms stuffed with the embryonic beginnings of what would finally turn out to be a significant worldwide assortment.

His passions have been famend, and Karl’s philosophical connection to the work is documented within the exhibition. Schmuck 1970–2015, Sammlung Bollmann, MAK Vienna – Museum of Utilized Arts and accompanying e-book.[i] The present was held concurrently with the Fritz Maierhofer retrospective.

Karl had a ardour for “exploring, accumulating and carrying”. Within the e-book, philosophical quotes from Kant and descriptions of jewellery invented by Karl punctuated portraits of artists, mates, and colleagues. 142 artists took half within the exhibition. As I recall, six have been proven in-depth: Manfred Bischoff, Yasuki Hiramatsu, Helfried KodreBruno MartinazziManfred Nisslmüller and Peter Skubik. Additionally exhibited at MAK venture 2000, 61 works that Karl commissioned for the “mistress of the collector couple” in honor of the millennium.

The Bollmann Assortment went to Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau, Germany in 2017. It was later displayed as follows: Pensieri Preziosi Bollmann Assortment, Modern Jewellery 1960–2018 Oratorio di San Rocco is in Padua, Italy.

The Bollmanns developed deep and lasting relationships with artists. Karl and Heidi have been a dominant presence in Munich every year throughout Schmuck, and have been at courtroom with artists, curators, college students – anybody who needed to narrate to him as Karl took them to a philosophical Kant-based jewelery wonderland. Karl documented his annual visits to Bruno Martinazzi and Manfred Bischoff in images he took. One sequence specifically consists of portraits of Bruno towards the sky on the similar location every year in Ansedonia, Italy. I selected to incorporate a replica that Karl despatched me in 2013 – hopefully extra within the Bollmann archives.

“Karl has been honored with a gold medal by the Austrian Authorities for his patronage of the humanities,” Heidi wrote in an e mail dated January 3, 2023. For us, Karl Bollmann will ceaselessly be an emblem of the significance of the collector who holds the reins within the historical past of our area.

[i] Printed by MAK – Osterreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Gegenwartskunst, Vienna, Austria and Arnoldsche Artwork Publishers, Stuttgart, Germany, 2015.