Avant-garde at Art Cologne
200 international galleries present contemporary works at the largest art fair in Germany.
In April roughly 200 international galleries are again presenting fascinating insights into the past and present of the avant-garde at the 47th Edition of Art Cologne. During the 2013 Cologne art fair a great deal of emphasis will again be placed on special shows and young galleries as well as the main exhibitors’ programmes in order to uphold the traditions of what must be the world’s oldest existing fair for the fine arts of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The event can be traced back to Kunstmarkt Köln ‚67, an art market that was opened by Cologne-based gallery owners Hein Stünke and Rudolf Zwirner in a Cologne department store in 1967. Stünke and Zwirner launched this “market” with the intention of establishing a new art centre in Germany, promoting young German artists and stimulating interest in them among international collectors. In 1967 the prices in Cologne still ranged between 20 deutschmarks for illustrations and 60,000 deutschmarks for top works. A representative oil painting by Gerhard Richter then cost less than a brand new VW Beetle.
In the meantime the scene has changed completely. In 2012 more money was spent on contemporary art than ever before. Richter’s works now attract prices of up to 15 million euros. And as a result, young new artists are again playing a special role at this tradition-steeped Cologne fair. Under the title “New Contemporaries”, 38 young, committed gallerists are showing their programmes of forward-looking art trends. And 22 young outstanding artists from in and outside Germany will be introducing themselves to the public under the heading “New Positions”.
While Art Cologne is taking place, Museum Ludwig, Kölnischer Kunstverein and Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst are also presenting top exhibitions of retrospectives and exciting trends in contemporary art. Museum Ludwig is showing a retrospective of the work of Andrea Fraser, designated winner of the 2013 Wolfgang Hahn Prize, and Kölnischer Kunstverein has a solo exhibition of works by Cologne-based artist Stefan Müller. The Ludwig Forum in Aachen will be exhibiting the art of Michael E. Smith, an artist from Detroit whose works are still relatively unknown in Germany.
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