Rudolf Zwirner Libri

Rudolf Zwirner, "the man who invented the art market," as coined in Der Spiegel, reflects on more than sixty years in the art business in his authoritative autobiography.0 An art dealer of the ages, Rudolf Zwirner, father of the esteemed gallerist David Zwirner, reached many milestones in his career. From co-founding Art Cologne, the first fair for contemporary art, in 1967, to showing works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, and Andy Warhol, Zwirner transformed the contemporary art scene in Cologne. Born in 1933, he presented more than three hundred exhibitions from the early 1960s to 1991. In his autobiography, Zwirner reveals stories of artists, his gallery, and his most important collector, Peter Ludwig, whose collection forms the cornerstone of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.0First published in 2019 in German, and translated and adapted here for the first time in English, the book explores the most significant moments of Zwirner's career and the fast-changing postwar art world of. Also included in this edition is a new introduction by Lucas Zwirner, Rudolf's grandson, who reflects on his grandfather's role in bringing us to the global art landscape we find ourselves in now.00Transl. from German by Gérard Goodrow

Rudolf Zwirner (geb. 1933) schrieb Kunsthandelsgeschichte: In seiner Kölner Galerie zeigte der leidenschaftliche Kunsthändler seit Beginn der 1960er-Jahre in rund 300 Ausstellungen Werke von Ikonen wie Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz und Sigmar Polke. Mit seinem wichtigsten Sammler Peter Ludwig füllte er ein ganzes Museum. Kölns Status als Kunstmetropole ist nicht zuletzt Rudolf Zwirner als Mitbegründer der ersten Messe für zeitgenössische Kunst 1967 zu verdanken, die auf der ganzen Welt Maßstäbe setzte. In seiner Autobiografie berichtet Zwirner als einer der bedeutendsten deutschen Galeristen pointiert von den entscheidenden Menschen, Begegnungen und Momenten des Kunstbetriebs. Since the early 1960s, Rudolf Zwirner presented works by icons such as Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz and Sigmar Polke in his gallery in Cologne. His most important collector was Peter Ludwig, with whom he filled an entire museum. Cologne's status as an art metropolis is not least due to Rudolf Zwirner as co-founder of the first fair for contemporary art in 1967. In his autobiography, Zwirner reports pointedly on the decisive people, encounters and moments in the art world.