Hans Mayer (gallery owner)

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Hans Mayer (* 1940 in Ulm ) belongs with his gallery in Dusseldorf the world's most important gallery of contemporary art . He discovered American Pop Art , the photographic art of Peter Lindbergh and Helmut Newton, and American art of the 1980s, and organized the legendary gathering of Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol .

Hans Mayer's gallery is located in Düsseldorf at Grabbeplatz 2 in September 2017

Life

Hans Mayer, a trained industrial clerk, attended courses at the Volkshochschule Ulm , which were held by Inge Aicher-Scholl , co-founder of the Ulm School of Design , and made friends with the artist Max Bill . From 1960 to 1964 he worked in Krefeld, initially in the Schröer furniture store, which later had a branch in Düsseldorf under the name "made in" on Heinrich-Heine Allee.

In 1965 he opened his first gallery, "(op) art gallery" in Esslingen am Neckar in a converted coffin bearing in Bach Street 32, which was to deal exclusively with concrete painting and objects, and received through the mediation of Albert Schulze-Vellinghausen work by Josef Albers . The exhibition took place with an opening concert by John Cage . After Albers, Hans Mayer presented exhibitions on Max Bill, Antonio Calderara , Gotthard Graubner , Karl Gerstner and Camille Graeser in Esslingen . The program for the gallery was not only designed by a stringent list of artists, showing concrete and kinetic art , but Hans Mayer also accompanied it with happenings , for example in 1966 with Julian Beck's The Living Theater . Bernhard Minetti and Gerhard Rühm were invited to readings; Albert Schulze Vellinghausen, Max Bense , Helmut Heißenbüttel and Eugen Gomringer gave opening speeches.

Almost nothing was sold. So Mayer set off with a bus between the vernissage and the finissage to reach collectors in Germany as far as the Netherlands. In order to be closer to this, Hans Mayer opened a branch in Krefeld on the Ostwall in 1967 . The opening show was “From Constructivism to Kinetics” with a spectrum from Hans Arp and Yaacov Agam to Bill, Alexander Calder , Kasimir Malewitsch , Agnes Martin , George Rickey , Jesús Rafael Soto , Jean Tinguely and Victor Vasarely . The Who played at the opening . The Parisian art dealer Denise René had become aware of the young gallery owner and so it came to the merger of the gallery, the "Galerie Denise" in Krefeld and from December 1969 also in the old town of Düsseldorf on Mühlenstrasse, right next to Daniel Spoerri's " Eat-Art Gallery" René Hans Mayer ”. Hans Mayer's Op Art gallery was the first to be shown by Andy Warhol in Düsseldorf. During the day the scene met next door in Spoerri's Eat-Art Restaurant of the Seven Senses , the evenings at Creamcheese . The gallery became famous in the 1960s due to the exhibitions of Op Art, Contemporary Constructivism and Kinetic Art.

When Hans Mayer moved his gallery to a corner restaurant at Grabbeplatz 2 after the opening of the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 1971 , Max Bill created the facility for him. This was followed by a crossover appearance by Steve Reich with his drumming performance in 1972. Mayer stayed in touch with Andy Warhol from New York. In 1979 Pop Art and Fluxus met at one of his dinners : Andy Warhol met Joseph Beuys. In the 1970s to 1990s, Mayer had continuously expanded the program and, since the early 1970s, the gallery's spectrum towards the USA . It showed Mark Rothko , Sol LeWitt in the mid-1970s in connection with a painting by Kazimir Malevich. He discovered Cy Twombly , but also shows Alexander Calder , Gotthard Graubner, Heinz Mack , Günther Uecker , Lucio Fontana and Arman . Group exhibitions with Carl Andre , Donald Judd and Agnes Martin alternated with Pop Art artists such as Roy Lichtenstein , Ellsworth Kelly , Tom Wesselmann and Robert Rauschenberg . American artists include Frank Stella and Bill Beckley, followed by representatives of the younger generation such as Keith Haring , Jean-Michel Basquiat , Kenny Scharf , Tony Oursler and Robert Longo . Hans Mayer is one of the most important mediators of contemporary art .

In addition to the pioneers of media, video and performance art - Nam June Paik joined the gallery in 1990 , followed by Jürgen Klauke and Tony Oursler - exponents of photography such as Bill Beckley , Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh are among the gallery's most important artists . Lindbergh worked for Mayer in the late 1960s before starting his international career as a fashion photographer in Paris. Mayer's friendly relationship with Dennis Hopper led to the film actor's first photo exhibition in Germany. Mayer mainly represents German painting with Ben Willikens and Markus Oehlen . He probably shared his distance from the Düsseldorf art scene and especially from the art academy with Werner Schmalenbach . When the Swabian Mayer opened his own gallery in Düsseldorf in 1971, Alfred Schmela and other gallery owners had already firmly committed the artists of the art academy to themselves.

In 1998 he opened a branch in Berlin , Unter den Linden 42; the experiment failed and after five years he had to give up. On the 40th anniversary gallery in October 2005 he borrowed from public and private collections his imaginary "Mayer Museum" together and pointed in the Langen Foundation forty works by Hans Arp, Carl Andre, Sol Lewitt, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Brancusi , Yves Klein , Martin Kippenberger , Robert Rauschenberg, Dan Flavin , Mark Rothko, Richard Serra , Barnett Newman and Kasimir Malewitsch.

When the old Zurich house in which the gallery was located was demolished in the summer of 2009, Hans Mayer moved with the gallery to an industrial area in Düsseldorf. For a short time, Mayer maintained his branch in the Medienhafen , where he then presented Hopper, Haring, Lindbergh or Uecker in large shows. In 2011, Hans Mayer moved his gallery back to his old address on Grabbeplatz. The interior designer Danilo Silvestrin created “a cathedral for art”, according to Mayer, with wall heights of up to 6.5 meters. There were always projects with the band Kraftwerk . The highlight of the opening of the new building was an audiovisual projection by the Kraftwerk group onto the front of the K20 Museum opposite . Since his early days as a gallery owner, Hans Mayer has been famous for his creative crossover activities such as concerts, theater, dance and fashion shows.

From the very beginning, Hans Mayer has been regularly represented at major art fairs worldwide, including Art Basel and Art Cologne since 1970 . In 2015 he received the “Art Cologne Prize” for outstanding achievements in art education.

In today's program, Hans Mayer leads the likes of Tony Cragg , Imi Knoebel , Andreas Gursky , Norbert Kricke and Nam June Paik. From Joseph Beuys he last received works from private collections. Hans Mayer has dedicated himself to over 330 exhibitions since 1965. In 2020 he will move his gallery to the listed Schmela Haus . His son's gallery will also be located there. The last exhibition in the old building is called Good-bye Grabbeplatz and will be shown until February 29, 2020.

Exhibitions (selection)

publication

  • Hans Mayer: From Constructivism to Kinetics 1917 to 1967. Krefeld: Self-published by Galerie Denise René, 1967

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Image of the poster "(op) art gallery" , from the Esslingen City Archives fund
  2. ↑ Legendary Gallerist Hans Mayer Opens Up on the History of Art Basel, from its First to 45th Year , on Artsy Editorial, July 10, 2014, accessed on February 20, 2016
  3. ↑ Helga Behn: How Concrete Art Came to Esslingen , Frankfurter Allgemeine , July 20, 2012, accessed on February 21, 2016
  4. ^ Photo from the Denise René Hans Mayer gallery in Krefeld
  5. ↑ Mayer Film , Interview: Carl Friedrich Schröer, Camera and Montage: Thom de Bock, from eiskellerberg.tv, accessed on February 20, 2016
  6. ↑ exhibition room Hans Mayer, Unter den Linden 42 , on artports.com, accessed on February 21, 2016
  7. ↑ 35 Uwe Reimann: million euros for the Orrick House , construction project , on Rheinische Post, from March 27, 2011, accessed on February 21, 2016
  8. ↑ Hans Mayer receives the ART COLOGNE Prize 2015 , from the Federal Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers. V., accessed on February 19, 2016
  9. ^ Georg Imdahl: Galerie Hans Mayer: Good-bye, not adieu. In: faz.net. January 24, 2020, accessed January 30, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Annette Bosetti: Images against the Cold War. After 40 years, gallery owner Hans Mayer is exhibiting artist Katharina Sieverding in Düsseldorf with her cycle “Norad I - VI”. , on Rheinische Post on February 19, 2016, accessed on February 21, 2016
  11. ↑ Karen Kedmey: A Century After Malevich Rocked the World, Galerie Hans Mayer Celebrates with Robert Longo's Homage to Radical Abstraction . , on Artsy Editorial, October 9, 2015, accessed February 20, 2016
  12. ^ Bill Beckley: The Accidental Poet , on Artsy Editorial, accessed February 20, 2016
  13. ↑ Bettina Ruhrberg: 9 works by 9 artists from the Düsseldorf Art Academy , on artnet.de, accessed on February 21, 2016
  14. ^ Exhibition by Ben Willikens in the Galerie Hans Mayer , On the occasion of the vernissage of the exhibition by Ben Willikens in the Galerie Hans Mayer, Maximilian Schell spoke with the artist about his work and gave an introduction to his work.
  15. ^ Catalog Ellsworth Kelly , Galerie Denise René - Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf, self-published Galerie Denise René - Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf, 1972
  16. ^ Hans Wichmann, Florian Hufnagel: Artists' posters: France / USA, second half of the 20th century , Springer Basel AG, 1991, ISBN 978-3-0348-6406-0 , p. 163
  17. ↑ happening in the coffin bearing, poster , Esslinger Zeitung, March 31, 2014. Retrieved on February 20, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayer, Hans Frieder (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm