Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), Score of the Happening, 1966

Provenance
Collection of the Ahrenberg family

Exhibited
Zurich, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Tadeusz Kantor, 30.08.-26.10.2008.

Literature
Munder H., Zweifel S., Tadeusz Kantor [exhibition catalog], published by Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich 2008.

Theodor "Teto" Ahrenberg (1912-1989) was a Swedish entrepreneur and visionary, and above all one of the most prominent art collectors of the 20th century. His passion, born in the post-war enthusiasm of the 1940s, evolved over time into a monumental undertaking, resulting in one of the most important and daring private panoramas of contemporary art in Europe. Over the course of four decades, Ahrenberg amassed more than six thousand works that documented not only the rapid changes in aesthetics, but also the vibrant, intimate fabric of his artistic relationships.
Ahrenberg's collection was a rare marriage of the already established masters with the most radical representatives of the emerging modern era. His holdings included works by pillars of modernism such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Le Corbusier and Marc Chagall. But what defined the unique nature of his patronage was his boundless openness to artists who were unruly and seeking new forms of expression. Ahrenberg became a protector and friend of such pioneers as Lucio Fontana, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Arman and Robert Rauschenberg. Significantly, his circle of interest also included Polish artists Tadeusz Kantor, Marian Bogusz, Aleksander Kobzdej, Pinchas Burstein (Maryan), Henryk Stażewski and Jan Lebenstein. The selection testifies to his incredible collecting intuition and rare ability to spot outstanding phenomena outside the Western mainstream.
The year 1962 became a painful caesura in Ahrenberg's biography. As a result of a contentious tax dispute with the Swedish state, much of his first collection - which included priceless pre-war works - was confiscated and dispersed at auction. This traumatic experience prompted the collector to move with his family to the picturesque village of Chexbres on Lake Geneva. It was there, at the Atelier Le Rocher estate, that a new chapter of his business was born, in which the house became a studio and the studio became a home. Ahrenberg invited artists for long residencies, allowing them total creative freedom and funding their most daring projects. Ahrenberg's second collection thus became an intimate record of encounters and shared lives with the greatest personalities of the era, mapping the freshest and most current trends in art. Today, his name remains a symbol of patronage based on boundless trust, being a testimony to the belief that the role of a collector goes far beyond mere possession of objects - it is to actively and passionately co-create the history of art.



Tadeusz Kantor and Theodor "Teto" Ahrenberg shared a friendship of more than forty years. Both were proud nonconformists, transgressing boundaries and stepping outside the box. This transgression manifested itself in Kantor's art through his decidedly unconventional practices, which included performance, conceptualism, gesture painting, experimental theatrical production and a constant redefinition of the avant-garde. Ahrenberg, on the other hand, cultivated a playful distrust of authority and power since childhood. He opposed conservatism and remained a strong individualist throughout his life. As a collector, he supported young, up-and-coming artists and was true to the changing notion of contemporary art.
At the dawn of the 1960s, Ahrenberg helped Kantor organize his first solo exhibition outside Poland. It took place in Stockholm at the famous Samlaren Gallery, where Max Ernst, Jean Tinguely, and other prominent European artists exhibited. "It was my first solo exhibition in Europe and I managed to sell many paintings (...). After receiving my share (...) I had 20,000 zlotys - enough to live for forty months in Krakow! I spent half of that night in various bars with friends. That's how it started." - recalled Kantor in an interview ("In the name of art. A portrait of Theodor 'Teto' Ahrenberg: collector and patron devoted to artists and their art," 1990, J. P. Morgan Friberg). Despite their different vocations and temperaments, for both Kantor and Ahrenberg, transgressing norms was not a simple act of rebellion. It was a way to effect change in and through art and to ensure that it remained controversial and relevant.