{"id":46333,"date":"2017-08-25T16:13:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T20:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=46333"},"modified":"2017-08-26T07:06:23","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T11:06:23","slug":"teutloff-loved-art-and-how-it-looked-on-brocks-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/08\/teutloff-loved-art-and-how-it-looked-on-brocks-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Teutloff loved art \u2014 and how it looked on Brock’s campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lutz Teutloff made his mark on Brock University\u2019s landscape like few others have ever done.<\/p>\n

The philanthropist and art collector\u00a0died in Germany this month at the age of 79, leaving a remarkable legacy that included populating the Brock campus with major pieces of contemporary sculpture that today are landmarks as familiar as the Schmon Tower.<\/p>\n

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Lutz Teutloff in 1990: He saw Brock’s campus as an ideal place to display public sculptures.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Teutloff Collection is 12 art pieces that made their way to Brock during the 1990s, works owned by Teutloff but created\u00a0by such international artists as Ilan Averbuch, Buky Schawrtz, Pit Kroke, Fabrizio Plessi, Grimsby resident Reinhard Reitzenstein and others.<\/p>\n

The artwork’s destiny for Brock\u00a0can be traced to a campus tour that Teutloff had with then-president Terry White in 1988. Teutloff, who had homes in Germany and in Niagara-on-the-Lake, thought the campus\u2019s natural setting was an excellent showcase for strong artwork. They worked out a plan in which Teutloff and his wife Hannelore would loan sculptures that the young University could put on public display.<\/p>\n

The first piece arrived in 1990, when Averbuch\u2019s The Path of Possibilities<\/em> was installed in front of Schmon Tower. In 2015 it was moved to its present site near the busy pedestrian mall between Cairns Research Complex and Chown D Block.<\/p>\n

Other pieces followed, two of the most high-profile being Kroke\u2019s Gran Golar<\/em>, placed in the traffic circle of University Road East; and Averbuch\u2019s She Wolf<\/em>, the huge copper sculpture that resides in Isaac Brock Circle, and which has enjoyed a special status<\/a> with many students over the years.<\/p>\n

In 1997, Hannelore Teutloff told Brock\u2019s Collections Coordinator, Lesley Bell, that the idea for the Brock collection started in 1987, when her husband acquired Path of Possibilities<\/em> at the Chicago Art Fair.<\/p>\n

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The sculpture Gran Golar welcomes campus visitors at the Glenridge Avenue entrance.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe was fascinated by the expression of this work,\u201d said Hannelore, \u201cbut had no place for the work at that time. That same year he met former President Terry White who toured him through the Brock campus. Lutz was fascinated from the power and engagement behind Brock, and the different nations of the students impressed him. So Lutz asked Terry White and later, (White’s successor) President David Atkinson \u2026. who was thrilled to bring Ilan\u2019s work in front of the Schmon Tower. So it started \u2013 very pragmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Teutloffs chose works specifically for a student audience, and when Lutz Teutloff received an Honorary Doctorate from Brock in 2003, he told the Convocation audience that Path of Possibilities <\/em>\u201csignals the possibilities open to you who are studying here, the opportunities and privilege you should make the most of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visual Arts Associate Professor Derek Knight worked with Teutloff to produce the 2002 catalogue The Teutloff Collection at Brock University: Nature, Spirit, Matter<\/em>, available in Brock\u2019s James. A Gibson Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cit was Mr. Teutloff’s penchant for sculpture that drew him to Brock,\u201d said Knight. \u00a0\u201cHe saw the potential of the University environs, its broad green spaces and pedestrian concourses, as an ideal context in which to display a collection of public sculpture. To the University\u2019s credit, it was a willing partner in bringing a dozen unique works of contemporary art to Niagara. It is a cultural legacy that Mr. Teutloff intended us to enjoy in perpetuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Berlin in 1938, Teutloff had been a successful fashion entrepreneur, enabling him to pursue his passion for art. He eventually left fashion behind, accumulated pieces by artists and photographers around the world, and opened galleries in Cologne and in the German town of Bielefeld-Theesen.<\/p>\n

In reporting Teutloff\u2019s death this summer, the website Neue Westfalische<\/em> noted that (translated from German), \u201cIn his \u2018second home\u2019 Canada, he donated 12 sculptures from renowned artists to Brock University, Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brock sculptures were originally installed on loan, but in 2008 the University began a process to acquire the works permanently. They now belong to Brock.<\/p>\n\n\t