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Founder of the Arndt Art Agency, Matthias Arndt, has run his gallery business in Berlin, Zurich, New York, and Singapore for over two decades. As an established art expert and advisor, he has dedicated himself to sourcing major modern and contemporary artworks belonging to artists of the calibre of Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Yayoi Kusama, which have been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou, among many other venues.
As an art dealer, Matthias Arndt has worked alongside artists, collections, dealers, foundations, and public institutions in the industry. Moreover, he is a member of the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee of the TATE, chair of BERLIN MASTERS Foundation, and founder of the ARNDT Family Foundation. The ARNDT Collection presents an extensive and eclectic selection of works from diverse artists who are representing and challenging the world around them.
In this interview, CollectivistX meets the art dealer behind the ARNDT Collection and questions him on his wealth of experience and his notions of beauty. By honing into his ongoing practice, this interview wishes to share his insight in hope of inspiring more art collectors in the future.
Matthias, how would you describe the ‘ARNDT Collection’ and what makes you proud of this?
We came to collecting late, after working in the art world for 25 years already. There was, of course, always a conflict of interest when working in the gallery sector and our clients had first pick of works with each exhibition. When we changed the format of our way of working to an Agency, we were then able to start building our own collection.
In one word, I would describe the collection as “eclectic”. We literally buy what we love: work by artists we admire for their different views of the world. We do not shy away from buying works by big names – however, these are often smaller works. We have also recently focused on the work of emerging artists and Aboriginal Art. We are extremely proud of our “Artbarn” Art Space and our exhibition program that we have developed and run at the end of the world in Cape Schanck.
When and why did you start collecting art?
As mentioned, our focus on “collecting” for the ARNDT Collection only started 10 years ago when we changed our business format creating the new model of an Art Agency. Then we were free to look around more and to acquire artworks from artists, colleagues, exhibitions, and through auctions. Up until then, I had only witnessed how addictive collecting can be through working with many young and established clients, and our many art collector friends. We soon contracted the “collecting-virus”. Being 100% committed to whatever we do, whether working with artists or advising private and corporate clients in building collections, we applied this “all in” approach to our own collecting as well.
Do you remember the first piece you acquired?
I can remember purchasing my first work: it was a drawing by Hannah Höch from the 1930s. I bought it when I was 18 years old, using my first paycheck as a down payment.
What do you look for when you acquire a new art piece?
I think you should always buy what resonates with you and what you love. With contemporary art being more popular than ever before, art has also become a commodity and art may seem like a good “investment”. But in the end, you have to love your artworks for their inherent value, the beauty, but also the artistic vision they represent.
I follow my experience through having looked at art for over three decades and try to identify artworks that, in their essence, reflect on the “conditio humana”, what it is that determines life and social existence in today's world. What succeeds in grabbing my attention, enchants, and often also challenges, is how the work is resolved artistically and skilfully with the adequate means. This is what we aim to buy for the collection.
Has any other art collector inspired your practice?
There are many, but amongst them I would mention Harald Falckenberg, who started collecting diametrically against his conservative orientation, looking at artists that challenged his views and everything he stood for. Harald, who passed last year, unfortunately, started as a client of my gallery, then became a friend and mentor, an inspiration – and I feel the resemblance – in his versatility: collecting, writing, promoting the artists he loved. He built his own collection space, hosting exhibitions, also of artists who deserved attention, but whom he did not have in his collection, which I highly respected.
Your collection includes diverse and multidisciplinary works. How do you understand beauty?
Beauty does not always mean something that is aesthetically pleasing. It often can even result in the opposite, as in the case of the work of Thomas Hirschhorn, an internationally renowned sculptor and installation-based artist in the Western world. Hirschhorn (Swiss born in 1957, lives and works in Paris) is celebrated for his large-scale installations, created with “poor materials” such as cardboard, plastic tape, aluminium foil. He does not aim to please neither the critics nor the market. He says his work is not about the quality, but its content of energy (“Qualité non, energie oui”).
In his vast installations, such as “Stand Alone” (his third solo exhibition with my gallery Arndt & Partner in Berlin, in 2007), Hirschhorn makes his point that his art is not about beauty, nor precious material, but about the energy and effort the artist invests in each work, as much as the strength of the position he takes in his art. Therefore, the expression of pain or fear in art often translates into beauty: through the energy, intensity, and authenticity.
One of my early gallery shows was called “The Aggression of Beauty”. It considered the situation when the fear of losing a precious moment of beauty is so strong that one prefers to let go of it, as it is almost too beautiful.
What is the purpose of your foundation?
The ARNDT Foundation aims to financially support the next generations of artists and the institutions that want to show and collect them. Our Foundation continues the legacy of the BERLIN MASTERS Foundation that I managed with my wife Tiffany Wood from 2013 to 2022, which supported emerging artists based in Berlin with financial support, artist residencies, and mentoring.
Most recently, the ARNDT Foundation has joined a philanthropic initiative with the Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart's International Companions Circle as Founding Members. Through this collaboration the Foundation will provide annual funds for the acquisition of an artwork by a Berlin-based artist for the collection of the Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.
I am also a member of the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee (APAC) for the Tate, which assists the institution as part of its research and commitment to works by artists from the Asia Pacific region which informs my work with our Foundation.
Particularly, as Artificial Intelligence and other phenomena are raising numerous questions about what makes ‘art’, what is the value of human-produced artwork in your opinion?
To me, the human imprint and humanist approach to art is everything. There might be some good art being made through or with the help of AI, some of which I also like and love – such as in the work of Katja Novitskova and Refik Anadol, for example – but usually what excites and inspires me the most in art and art-making is the human touch, physical and present in the artist’s narration.
Do you believe art can change the world? In what way?
Absolutely, in fact one of my earlier gallery shows was entitled “Changing the world”. After more than three decades in the art world, I have preserved my conviction that art can change the world, through opening us to new views on the world that ideally also affects our actions and refines our decision-making in other areas.
What would you recommend to those aspiring to begin their own art collections? What’s something you wish you had known before starting to work in this field?
Buy only what you love. Look with your eyes and hearts, not with your ears. Always acquire the more representative piece rather than a minor work. Start out and acquire your first one or two artworks, see how this feels, and enjoy living with art. If you feel collecting is something you would like to pursue in a more focused way, find a trustworthy advisor to assist you in finding the right approach and sourcing the best works for you.
