The Collection of Hermann and Margrit Rupf
This show places some 70 works collected by the Swiss couple alongside contemporary artworks. The Rupfs were great art patrons and Hermann, a Bern businessman, played a minor role as an art critic, nurturing public taste for contemporary art. What is most telling perhaps is the massive influence exerted by the important Parisian dealer Hermann Kahnweiler who advised the Rupfs and himself secured the right to represent Paul Klee. Picasso, who drew the dealer when he was still a struggling artist, once said, ‘What would have become of us if Kahnweiler hadn’t had a business sense?’ The whole collection may come as a surprise to anyone who thought that Peggy Guggenheim had a monopoly in this field.
Until April 23rd at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1957, Lithograph, Rupf Collection © Sucesión Pablo Picasso
