The Four Seasons, 2021, by Idris Khan, in the lobby of the Deutsche Bank Center, New York
With Preview Day of Frieze New York underway, Will Fenstermaker discovers a stunning and carefully curated selection of artworks, in a spectacular skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, courtesy of Deutsche Bank
On a warm Manhattan afternoon, the sun is shining in a way that it only shines in cities and canyons. For a moment, light reaches the lobby of the Deutsche Bank Center, two 55-storey skyscrapers occupying the entire west side of Columbus Circle in New York City. Inside, four coloured paintings seemed to come alive. They comprise a work called The Four Seasons by the London-based artist Idris Khan.
A landscaped terrace at the Deutsche Bank Center Unbeknown to many, the Deutsche Bank Center is home to one of the world?s most substantial collections of contemporary photographs and works on paper. Deutsche Bank began collecting art in the late 1970s with a small idea, one that would prove radical in the context of corporate collections: works on paper could be made viewable to all, not siloed away in storage or senior executives? offices. In 1978, the bank arranged its first display in its New York offices, and in 1986 it opened its new global headquarters in Frankfurt?s Twin Towers with each of the buildings? 60 floors dedicated to a single artist.
Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century by Andy Warhol at the Deutsche Bank Centre in New York
At the time, the collection con...