LBBW and the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and its predecessor institutions, Städtische Sparkasse Stuttgart and, from 1975, Landesgirokasse, have accompanied the collection and the art museum since its foundation in March 1925. LBBW has therefore once again taken on the role of main sponsor of the anniversary exhibition ‘Doppelkäseplatte’ - as it did for the exhibition celebrating the museum's 10th anniversary in 2015. Thorsten Schönenberger, member of the Board of Managing Directors of LBBW, who is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the LBBW art collection, will speak at the opening on 7 March.

Over the decades, Städtische Sparkasse Stuttgart, Landesgirokasse and, since its foundation in 1999, LBBW have donated several works to the art museum or helped the city to acquire specific works - for example, in 1972 with the purchase of the triptych ‘Großstadt’ by Otto Dix, one of the major works of 20th century art.

LBBW's support for the purchase of this triptych marked the beginning of its long-standing commitment to the city's Dix collection, which has played a key role in raising the profile of the art museum. The galleries in which important works by Otto Dix are exhibited in the museum bear the name of LBBW. The ‘Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber’ also normally hangs there. The work from 1925, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year like the art museum, had been on loan from the Otto Dix Foundation to the municipal art collection since 1988. In 2006, LBBW acquired the important work with the intention that this masterpiece could hang permanently in the art museum. The painting is currently on display at the Kunsthalle Mannheim as part of the special exhibition ‘100 Years of New Objectivity’ (the exhibition in Mannheim ends on 9 March). From the beginning of April, Anita Berber will then be shown again at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

‘The cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is an example of how a partnership between a corporate collection and an important museum can be ideally realised,’ says Stephan Schorn, Head of the ‘Gesellschaftliches Engagement’ at LBBW, which also looks after LBBW's art collection. ‘A public bank and a public museum complement and inspire each other,’ says Schorn. ‘As a Landesbank with regional roots and an international presence, we have not only been supporting museums and exhibitions for decades, but we ourselves have been collecting works, mostly by young artists, for over 50 years. With over 3,000 works of art, we now have one of the largest corporate collections in Germany.’

To mark the 50th anniversary of the LBBW Collection in 2001, the major 2021 special exhibition ‘Now or Never’ also took place at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.