About us
In 2025, Corinna Hoffmann took over the stewardship of the collection from her mother Erika.
Alongside donations to international institutions, parts of the collection have passed into the ownership of the two other siblings.
We will continue to present different parts of the collection publicly in the living and working spaces through annually changing installations. In this way we continually discover new dialogues between artworks from different generations and across media.
Under the direction of Clara Meister, Sammlung Hoffmann remains a place of curiosity and direct, analogue encounter with art.
From 2025, the project CENTRE DE GRAVITÉ is in residence at Sammlung Hoffmann. The research project on the topic of gravity was initiated by Saâdane Afif and is curated by Yasmine d'O.
Contact: Dara Jochum, Associate Researcher
Located in the basement by the red passageway of the Sophie-Gips-Höfe is the PROJEKTRAUM IM SOUTERRAIN, made available to invited non-profit groups. Independently in content from Sammlung Hoffmann, it is activated with changing exhibitions, talks, screenings and performances. Since November 2025: FILTER, run by a group of mediators from Sammlung Hoffmann and others.
History of the Collection
1960s and 70s
Erika and Rolf Hoffmann first discovered the Rhineland art scene, particularly the ZERO group with Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker, through whom they came to know parallel movements such as ZERO International and Arte Povera.
At the Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach in the late 1960s and 1970s they befriended Marcel Broodthaers, James Lee Byars, Braco Dimitrijevic and Lawrence Weiner, and at the Galerie m in Bochum they encountered François Morellet, Arnulf Rainer and Richard Serra.
1980s and 90s
In Cologne in the 1980s they encountered works by Astrid Klein, Chris Newman, Thomas Ruff, Wolfgang Tillmans and Thomas Locher.
Through travels, the Hoffmanns came to know the work of artists including Nobuyoshi Araki, Bill Beckley, Madeleine Berkhemer, Ashley Bickerton, Miriam Cahn, AK Dolven, Nan Goldin, Roni Horn, Donald Judd, Mike Kelley, Yayoi Kusama, Sarah Morris, Bruce Nauman, Eduardo Paolozzi, Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Spero, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Richard Tuttle, Andy Warhol and Franz West.
Following the sale of their company, the Hoffmanns devoted themselves more intensively from the mid-1980s onwards to their collecting passion, which remained entirely private.
The opening of the Iron Curtain enabled direct contact with Eastern European artists, among them Olga Chernysheva, Zuzanna Janin, Katarzyna Kozyra, Ene-Liis Semper and Jaan Toomik.
In 1990, Erika and Rolf Hoffmann developed the idea of a public-private partnership for a "Kunsthalle Dresden" — an institution for contemporary art to complement Dresden's collections from earlier periods. Several international investors and collectors expressed interest in participating, but the project could not be realised.
In 1994 the Hoffmanns found a vacant factory in Berlin-Mitte.
1997 to 2001
Following renovation and conversion, Rolf and Erika Hoffmann opened their collection to the public in their living and working spaces at the Sophie-Gips-Höfe in autumn 1997.
Video and spatial installations by Yael Bartana, Ernesto Neto, Pipilotti Rist, Fred Sandback and Joëlle Tuerlinckx were among new additions to the collection.
2001 to 2025
Following the death of Rolf Hoffmann in 2001, Erika presented 28 installations until 2025, which each assembled different works from the collection in personal configurations. The selection for the annually changing installations was guided by a keyword that suggested viewing the artworks from a particular contemporary perspective. Each month she invited friends and acquaintances to concerts or conversations with the artists represented in the current installation.
The final acquisitions of the 2010s came from Berlin galleries, project spaces and studios, including works by Saâdane Afif, Rosa Barba and Julie Mehretu.
In 2018, the Hoffmann family donated a significant part of their collection to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Further donations were made to the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Tate Modern in London and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
