From April 13 to October 5, 2025, the Langen Foundation in Neuss will present, for the first time in Germany, a comprehensive selection of works from the renowned Swiss Ringier Collection. Curated by Beatrix Ruf and artist Wade Guyton, the exhibition comprises approximately 500 works and offers an impressive overview of one of the most exciting collections of contemporary art. Featuring works from the late 1960s to the present, it documents not only Michael Ringier's 30 years of collecting activity but also seminal developments in the art world.
Entitled "Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Film, Video, and Sound," the exhibition presents works from virtually all areas of artistic production. The works paint a multifaceted portrait of the Swiss publisher and media entrepreneur Michael Ringier, whose collection is closely linked to his personal and professional life, as well as the identity of Ringier, a media company operating in 19 countries in Europe and Africa.
Ringier is known for integrating art into its corporate culture. Since 1997, international artists have been given carte blanche to design the company's annual report every year. This has resulted in creative and intelligent explorations of how a media publisher operates today and interacts with its audience. Alongside artists such as Fischli/Weiss, Maurizio Cattelan, and Sylvie Fleury, Wade Guyton also designed an annual report in which a life-size photograph of one of his paintings spans hundreds of pages in high-resolution detail. When combined, the painting is reproduced in its original format.
The question of how the classic media of art, both in their conventional definitions and in deliberately imposed artistic blurring, continually invite new explorations is also hidden in the exhibition's subversive title. Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Film, Video, Sound plays with expectations about what constitutes a medium and what it can evoke in our perceptual behavior. The connection to a globally active media company like Ringier is obvious: from its beginnings in the publishing and printing industry to its transformation into a digitized and diversified corporation, the company has itself shaped the history of the relationship between content and carrier medium for more than 190 years.
Wade Guyton also examines the concept of painting as a medium. Whether in his large-format prints or through the deliberate use of digital technologies, Guyton questions what a medium can be and how it shapes the art it conveys.
By addressing these questions, the exhibition invites us to view the collection not merely as a collection of works, but as a multifaceted narrative that constantly opens up new perspectives. This approach reflects the attitude of Michael Ringier, who not only collects art but sees it as a vibrant and integral part of his entrepreneurial and cultural engagement.
Opening: April 13, 2025, 12 – 6 pm.
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