Goetz Collection, Munich

The Sammlung Goetz (Goetz Collection) in Munich is a private museum featuring the contemporary art collection of Ingvild Goetz.
In January 2014, ms. Goetz donated her collection of media art and the museum building to the State of Bavaria.

Building
The institution is housed since 1993 in a famous building, one of the first completed after a design by then-emerging Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, and thereafter expanded in 2001 and 2004 after a design by Germany’s Brune Architekten.

The building by Herzog & de Meuron is a very simple construction on two levels, one of which is partially buried underground, and a mezzanine. The building is mostly made of reinforced concrete, birch wood, and translucent glass.
The exhibition galleries are generously lit by natural light through an array of semi-transparent ribbon windows.

Sammlung Goetz by Herzog & de Meuron, floor plans, and sections

The collection of modern and contemporary art
The Goetz collection encompasses about 5,000 works, including drawings, graphics, paintings, photographs, films, and multiple projections by prominent contemporary artists, such as Bruce Nauman, Robert Ryman, Cy Twombly, Jannis Kounellis, Helmut Federle, and Ulrich Rückriemwith; it also pays special attention to the Arte Povera Italian movement, and video-art.

Exhibition “Arte Povera. Works and Documents from the Goetz Collection 1985 Until Today”, 2001, installation view; photo Nic Tenwiggenhorn

Exhibition “Imagination becomes Reality – Part II”, installation view, photo: Nic Tenwiggenhorn

The Goetz Collection also features special events and monographic temporary exhibitions, and site-specific installations. The museum, which includes also a specialized library and an archive, can be visited by appointment only.

Cover image and photos, unless differently specified, are by Wilfried Petzi, Munich; courtesy of Sammlung Goetz