Industry Reflected in Painting

The diverse collections of Giorgio Silzer, comprising several thousand different artworks, are today among the most important private art collections in Germany.

12.04.2003 - 03.06.2003

Influenced by the musical world of Gustav Mahler, Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, and Arnold Schönberg, Giorgio Silzer feels a particular connection to the spirit of Art Nouveau as well as to the atmosphere of the 1920s and 1930s. This period, formative for his life, found an extraordinarily concentrated and multifaceted expression not only in music but especially in the visual and applied arts.

Through his own artistic activity as a violin virtuoso, concertmaster of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and director of the Brandenburg Chamber Orchestra Berlin, he made many fascinating discoveries during his numerous concert tours around the world.

Giorgio Silzer’s collecting interests have always included early artistic depictions of factories and industrial facilities, fully aware that this is a challenging and rare area of collecting. As he once said with a smile: “I do not go to the things—the things come to me. Everything I touch becomes a collection.” How wonderful that this is so.