Visual art of the twentieth century

The Bayer Collection

Bayer’s commitment to the visual arts goes back more than 100 years. The company now owns more than 5,500 twentieth-century paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. It uses its art to furnish its premises and also offers works from its "Artothek" to employees on loan.

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Dr. Carl Duisberg, the company’s first managing director, laid the foundation stone for the Bayer art collection. Linking art with work was a particular concern of his. As early as 1912 he commissioned a collection of coloured lithographs to decorate workplaces and recreation rooms at the Bayer site in Leverkusen.

Wide spectrum of twentieth-century art

The company now owns around 5,500 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures by twentieth-century artists of note. The Bayer Collection comprises 2,000 works by internationally recognized artists. It includes both works by famous painters and sculptors such as Max Beckmann, Emil Nolde, Ernst-Wilhelm Nay, Ernst Barlach, Pablo Picasso and Gerhard Richter, and works commissioned by the company. The main emphases are on German Expressionists, l’École de Paris, German "art informel" and the art of the 1970s. From the 1980s and 1990s, the company owns works by German painters, such as, Martin Kippenberger and Gerhard Richter.

Bayer Arts & Culture (Art Section, Rike Zoebelein) is responsible for looking after Bayer's art possessions. The aim is to augment the collection with appropriate new acquisitions and to purchase works by young artists for the Artothek.

Out of the collection into the office

One of the main purposes of the collection is to decorate rooms that define the company’s image to outsiders. In addition, Bayer Arts & Culture makes a special offer to employees. They can select works from the Bayer Artothek for their offices, free of charge and for an unlimited period. They only have to bear any re-framing, restoration or transport costs.

Hosting well-known artists

In order to make the Group’s art holdings accessible to the general public, Bayer Arts & Culture held four exhibitions of works from the Bayer Collection in the Leverkusen Erholunghaus during the 2007/2008 season.

Since the 1950s, Bayer has organized regular exhibitions featuring top-ranking artists such as Pablo Picasso or Joseph Beuys, focusing on specific regions, or introducing the work of well-known gallery owners and collectors.

Contact:

Bayer Arts & Culture