Wolfgang Ketterer

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Wolfgang Ketterer (born September 9, 1920 in Bräunlingen , † October 14, 2009 in Kreuth ) was a German art dealer .

Life

Wolfgang Ketterer grew up as the youngest of five children in Bräunlingen. At the age of 14 he began an apprenticeship in the iron trade and was drafted into military service in 1939.

After the Second World War , Ketterer joined the Stuttgart Art Cabinet in 1947, which his brother Roman Norbert had founded. He worked there as an office manager, goods procurer and auction clerk. In 1953, after tensions, he parted with his brother's business and independently sold prints by mail. One of his biggest sales during this period was an Edvard Munch painting for DM 370,000 .

In 1954 he founded a gallery in Stuttgart. In 1965 he went to Munich and settled in the former studio of the painter Franz von Stuck in what is now the Museum Villa Stuck . At that time his monthly turnover was around 100,000 DM. In 1968 he started art auctions . Two auctions of modern art were enough to get him to the top of the art market. At the first auction, Ketterer only auctioned a third of the auction goods and some of them were below their value, but the turnover was around 2 million marks. Works by Salvador Dalí , Pablo Picasso , Max Ernst and Paul Cézanne were up for auction. He later added specialties such as Art Nouveau and Asian art to his program. A collaboration on the book Das Recht der Bildenden Kunst by Horst Locher caused controversy , which besides a number of other art dealers also incriminated Ketterer himself. The chapter Unfair influencing the auction process dealt with the legal side of the illegal influencing of auctions.

In the 1970s he presented international exhibitions with artists such as Horst Janssen , Oskar Kokoschka and Henry Moore . In 1977 he set up a permanent representative office in New York . In the summer of 1982 he moved into new premises in the Carolinenpalais. In 1989 he took over the auction house F. Dörling.

In 1994 he appointed his son Robert as managing director of the newly founded company Ketterer Kunst and retired.

meaning

Wolfgang Ketterer is one of the most important art dealers in West German post-war history. The Süddeutsche Zeitung described him as a man "who for 30 years (...) has decisively influenced the art climate in Munich (...)".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Ketterer . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 2009 ( online - October 15, 2009 ).
  2. ↑ a b c Lastly with my brother . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 2009 ( online - October 15, 2009 ).
  3. ↑ quoted from obituary - On the death of Wolfgang Ketterer. Press release from: Ketterer Kunst. openpr.de, October 14, 2009, accessed October 15, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Ketterer, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Bräunlingen
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 2009
Place of death Kreuth