Grisebach is pleased to present a selection of works on paper from the Zwirner Collection on the occasion of the book launch of Rudolf Zwirner's autobiography "Ich wollte immer Gegenwart", written by Nicola Kuhn and published by Wienand Verlag.
In his Cologne gallery, the passionate art dealer has shown works by icons such as Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke in around 300 exhibitions since the early 1960s. He acquired numerous major works of modern art for his most important collector Peter Ludwig. To this day, they are the highlights of the Cologne museum named after him.
Cologne's status as an art metropolis is due not least to Rudolf Zwirner as co-founder of the first fair for contemporary art in 1967, which set standards throughout the world. Rudolf Zwirner has been living and working in his home city of Berlin again since 1996.
However, the Zwirner collection has little to do with his professional activity as an art dealer, but rather includes works by artists that he has hardly ever represented or sold. His preference for art on paper, which unites a broad spectrum of different epochs and regions, forms a common thread: European hand drawings from the 18th and 19th centuries, East Asian art from the 16th to 20th centuries, works of classical modernism as well as contemporary and outsider art. It is a connoisseur's collection without any pretence of systematisation, but with a great flair for artistic quality.
The European hand drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries include the brash portrait of a young man with a beret by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, a gouache by Pierre Paul Prudhon from 1808, which forms a preliminary study for the famous "Abduction of Psyche by Zephyr" in the Louvre, a Venetian landscape by Francesco Guardi, the pastel of a mother and child in an omnibus by Adolph Menzel from around 1848 and an almost abstract depiction by Victor Hugo. The watercolour of a tomb by Hubert Robert from 1798, the delicate ink drawing of a fountain by Ferdinand Olivier and the lively pen and ink drawing of the Adoration of the Magi by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo from around 1750 are further gems.
On display from the first half of the 20th century are a self-portrait by Lovis Corinth from 1921, two female nudes by Jean Fautrier from 1943/44, a pastel by Auguste Giacometti from 1926, a collage by Henri Laurens and an early still life by Louis Soutter from 1906.
East Asian art is represented by the Japanese poet Ono no Komachi, whose portrait with the calligraphy of one of her poems dates from the Tosa school around 1600.
From the field of Art Brut, intensive drawings by James Castle, Michael Paule and Foma Jaremtschuk are represented.
However, the most extensive focus of the collection is contemporary art, which has mostly been collected in larger groups of works over many years from the end of the gallery's existence to the present day. International artists such as Marcel Dzama, Simon Lewis, Pavel Pepperstein, Raymond Pettibon and Al Taylor as well as Berlin-based artists such as Laura Bruce, Elgar Farber, Jakob Mattner, Bernd Ribbeck and Albrecht Schäfer are among the favourites of the Zwirner Collection.
The book presentation and exhibition opening with Rudolf Zwirner and Nicola Kuhn will take place on 24 October 2019 at 6 pm at Fasanenstraße 25 in Berlin.
Exhibition
23 October to 2 November 2019
Mon. to Fri. 10 am to 6 pm, Sat. 11 am to 4 pm