The collector Ingvild Goetz
The Sammlung Goetz was founded in 1993 by Ingvild Goetz, the year the collector opened her private museum in Munich-Oberföhring; the commissioned building was designed by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in 1989/90 and realized by Meier-Scupin Architekten in 1991/92. Ingvild Goetz’s passion for collecting, however, goes back much further. The collector acquired her first artwork in 1969, a graphic portfolio by the British pop art artist Eduardo Paolozzi. With the emergence of silkscreen printing, printmaking experienced a new heyday in the 1960s. As limited editions, prints made contemporary art affordable for almost everyone. In order to make new art available to a wider audience, between 1969 and 1972 Ingvild Goetz ran edition art in progress in Konstanz, a mail order publishing studio for graphic works. In 1972 she opened the gallery art in progress in Zurich. However, the political happening organized by Wolf Vostell for the opening ended in a scandal, and the Swiss authorities refused to grant Goetz the residence permit she had been promised. She therefore closed the gallery in Zurich in 1973 and continued her work in Munich. In a space on Maximilianstraße, she exhibited artists such as Christo, Cy Twombly, Giulio Paolini, Jannis Kounellis, Hanne Darboven, Brice Marden, Annalies Klophaus, Sol Lewitt, Neil Jenney, Michael Buthe, Jürgen Klauke and Mario Schifano. In 1975, she opened a branch of the gallery art in progress in Düsseldorf.
During this time, her collection continued to grow with works by artists, which she had exhibited in the gallery or exchanged with colleagues. In 1984 she closed the gallery to devote herself to the systematic expansion of her collection. The focus of her initial collection was Arte Povera and American artists of the 1980s. The approximately 300 works acquired during her time as a gallerist formed the basis of today’s Sammlung Goetz. The collection’s focus later shifted to Young British Artists, media art, Gutai, Italian art after 1950, contemporary art and individual positions by German artists.
Although the collector’s private gallery was not originally planned for the public, since 1993 Ingvild Goetz has shown works from her ever-growing collection in changing solo and group exhibitions there. In addition, the Sammlung Goetz engages in numerous cooperation projects with well-known institutions worldwide.
Ingvild Goetz has been awarded many prizes and honors for her public engagement. These include the Art Cologne Prize (2001), the culture prize, München Leuchtet (2001); the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award (2007); the Honorary Medal of the Technical University of Dresden for the establishment of a professorship for the “Grundlagen und Intervention bei Essstörungen“ (origins of and intervention against eating disorders) (2008); honorary membership in the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (2011); the Bundesverdienstkreuz – the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2011); the Bavarian Distinguished Service Award (2013); the homage of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2017) and the Cultural Award from the City of Munich (2021) for her lifetime achievements. Since 2018 she has been an honorary member of the expert council of Haus der Kunst and, since 2019, chairwoman of the board of trustees of the Pinakothek der Moderne.
Ingvild Goetz is also personally and financially involved in various charitable projects.
