Thaddaeus Ropac

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Thaddaeus Ropac (born January 16, 1960 in Klagenfurt , Carinthia ) is an Austrian gallery owner with a worldwide reputation. His gallery Thaddaeus Ropac has been running a parent company in Villa Kast on Salzburg's Mirabellplatz since 1989 , and a gallery in the center of Paris since 1990 , and an extension there since 2005 in Paris- Pantin . He also realized (from 2017) an extension of the gallery in London (Ely House). The Emslieb Castle near Hellbrunn also belongs to him as a residence.

Live and act

background

Thaddaeus Ropac was born in Klagenfurt in 1960 as the son of a family with a Carinthian-Slovenian background . According to his own statements, the retail salesman trained after compulsory schooling in Lienz / East Tyrol wanted to develop himself further and initially become an artist himself. That is why he (according to his own statements) began in 1979 to work on stone sculptures for the Carinthian sculptor Karl Prantl . But Joseph Beuys , with whom he worked as a helper at Berlin exhibitions from 1981 to 1982, and for whom he later also worked as an estate gallery owner, talked him out of being an artist. The next path into the art world was to found a gallery.

Beginnings

In the early 1980s, Thaddaeus Ropac started as a gallery owner in Lienz / East Tyrol (1981 to 1985, partly as Galerie Rotha , from 1983 as a forum for avant-garde art ) and then in Salzburg (from 1983 as Galerie Thaddäus J. Ropač ): “As Andy Warhol came to my mini-gallery in Salzburg in 1984, he was horrified. My first gallery at Kaigasse 40 was really provincial, I couldn't even afford suitable frames. Also Joseph Beuys , who has so strongly influenced my life, wrinkling her nose. I was really artistic underground. I sold next to nothing back then. But important people were there, ” said Ropac in an APA conversation on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his Salzburg gallery in November 2009.

In Lienz and Salzburg he initially (between 1981 and 1989) exhibited not only important Austrian painters (see below), but also sculpture artists such as the sculptors Karl Prantl , Valentin Oman , Tony Cragg and others. a., or ceramic artists, such as B. Maria Baumgartner and Barbara Reisinger . But he succeeded, as the basis of his later success as early as the 80s, above all well-known Austrian painters and media artists, such as Alfred Klinkan , Maria Lassnig , Günter Brus , Gunter Damisch , Oswald Oberhuber , Herbert Brandl , Brigitte Kowanz , Siegfried Anzinger , Franz Graf , Hans Steininger , Hubert Scheibl , Günther Selichar , Walter Obholzer , Edgar Tezak , Tone Fink or Hubert Schmalix , as well as international artists such as Joseph Beuys , Andy Warhol , Keith Haring , Per Kirkeby , AR Penck , Jean-Michel Basquiat , Anne and Patrick To bring Poirier and others to Lienz and Salzburg.

Breakthrough as a gallery owner

The basis of the success as a gallery owner was from the beginning and is still today a feeling for quality and market significance in the selection of the presented artists. Thaddaeus Ropac achieved the breakthrough to international importance not least because he learned of typical art market reactions (price increases) to the death of artists such as Andy Warhol , Joseph Beuys , Robert Rauschenberg , Robert Mapplethorpe , Jean-Michel Basquiat , Elaine Sturtevant or Harun Farocki benefited, whose estates he secured and in some cases still sells exclusively today. Thaddaeus Ropac himself sees his success as being due to his passion for art: “It has to do with charisma, with enthusiasm. It was always about the artists. "

For the current importance as a gallery owner since the relocation of his gallery to the Villa Kast as the parent company in Salzburg (from 1989) see the separate Wikipedia keyword Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac .

Other activities

On the importance of the person

General meaning

As a gallery owner of modern art, Thaddaeus Ropac is one of the 100 most important people in the global and international art world, as ranked by the British magazine ArtReview since 2002. Ropac is described there in 2015 as One of Europe's foremost blue-chip gallerists . He is the only Austrian who ArtReview has continuously ranked as someone of global impact since 2002 (2015 as No. 84, previously up to max. No. 66).

Honors

Sources and web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gallery owner Thaddaeus Ropac , orf.at
  2. ↑ Text in the journal ArtReview, 2015 , accessed on July 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ Information about the Salzburg "Villa Kast"
  4. ↑ I have a dream. Article in the journal Kunst , 2011, queried on July 25, 2016. On this, the comment of a Wikipedia chronicler: Of all people, Joseph Beuys allegedly advised against who the motto Everyone is an artist comes from: Joseph Beuys: Everyone is an artist - On the way to the freedom figure of the social organism (FIU-Verlag), ISBN 3-928780-52-2 .
  5. ↑ Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac celebrates its 25th anniversary. Article in: Der Standard from November 5, 2009, accessed on July 26, 2016.
  6. ↑ I have a Dream in the magazine Kunst , 2011, accessed on July 25, 2016.
  7. ↑ Many reporters and chroniclers on the importance of Thaddaeus Ropac see this as z. B. Article in Art magazine, also online ( memento of the original from August 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on August 6, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  8. ↑ Louis Lewitan: "That was my salvation" - Interview with Thaddaeus Ropac: "I got 200 percent in debt". In: Zeit-magazin, No. 41/2019. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, October 5, 2019, accessed on December 2, 2019 .
  9. ^ Homepage of the Salzburg Foundation , accessed on August 3, 2016;
  10. ↑ Complete ranking by ArtReview 2015 of the 100 This year's most influential people in the contemporary artworld. Queryed on July 25, 2016.
  11. ↑ a b List of recipients of a badge of honor for services to the Republic of Austria , requested on July 30, 2016;
  12. ^ Website of the Friends of the Salzburg Festival , accessed on July 27, 2016.
  13. ↑ Entry in the Salzburg Wiki on the Art and Culture Prize , requested on July 27, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Ropac, Thaddaeus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Klagenfurt am Wörthersee , Carinthia