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| Galerie Gmurzynska is a commercial art gallery in Switzerland that specializes in modern and contemporary art. They represent the Estate of ]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-world-report-card-thursday-june-5-2014-34479 |title=Art World Report Card, Thursday, June 5, 2014 |last1=Peers |first1=Alexandra |last2= |first2= |date=05.06.2014 |website=http://www.artnet.com |publisher=Artnet |accessdate=01.10.14}}</ref>, the Estate of ]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rhizome.org/announce/events/58356/view/ |title= Art HK 12: Galerie Gmurzynska presents Wifredo Lam exhibit with new works and booth designed by Zaha Hadid |last1=Urcia |first1=Ryan |last2= |first2= |date=14.05.2014 |website=http://www.rhizome.org |publisher=Rhizome |accessdate=01.10.14}}</ref> and the Estate of ]<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Dealer’s Notebook: Krystyna Gmurzynska & Isabelle Bscher |url=http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/830444/dealers-notebook-krystyna-gmurzynska-isabelle-bscher |journal=ART+AUCTION |location= |publisher=Louise Blouin Media |date=October 2012 |accessdate=23.05.14 }}</ref> among many others. | |||
| '''Galerie Gmurzynska''' is a commercial ] in Switzerland that specializes in modern and ], including exhibitions by North Americans such as tattoo artist Scott Campbell and action film star Sylvester Stallone. The gallery usually self-publishes a catalogue for its shows. | |||
| The gallery is currently being investigated by the FCA (Federal Customs Administration) for alleged VAT evasion totalling some six million Swiss francs. Under Swiss law, owners of artworks do not have to pay import charges until works of art are formally brought into the country, i.e. they come out of storage and are officially transferred. On Tuesday April 16th 2013, the gallery was raided by officials on the suspicion of supplying the five-star Hotel Dolder in Zurich with imported artworks valuing 75M Swiss Francs without paying duty. <ref>http://www.zurich4you.ch/hotel_dolder_grand_and_galerie_gmurzynska_raided.html </ref> | |||
| The Swiss authorities seized a large number of documents during their raid. Gmurzynska filed a complaint in order to prevent their inspection, but the Federal Court has ruled that in a criminal investigation of this kind where there is reasonable suspicion, the prosecuting FCA can demand to see papers it considers relevant to the case. <ref>http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/zuerich/region/Galerie-Gmurzynska-blitzt-vor-Bundesgericht-ab/story/20693778</ref> | |||
| The case has been covered in several international outlets including 'Die Welt'.<ref>http://www.welt.de/kultur/kunst-und-architektur/article123277175/Kunst-Keine-schoene-Bescherung-in-Zuerich.html</ref> | |||
| ==History== | ==History== | ||
| The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany by Antonina Gmurzynska<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/startseite/articleDB7SW-1.183740 |title=Russische Avantgarde in Zürich |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=12.11.2005 |website=http://www.nzz.ch |publisher=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |accessdate=12.07.08}}</ref>. From the beginning, the gallery was interested in organizing exhibitions that had a documentary character both through the choice of themes and through its publications. In its first year, an important exhibition of Japanese art from the 14th to the 19th century was held followed by an exhibition of French masterpieces from Pierre Bonnard up until the mid 20th century. The following year the gallery presented the work of ] <ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=David Burliuk: Bilder von 1907 - 1966 ; die erste große Retrospektiv-Ausstellung in Deutschland der russischen Futuristen und letzten überlebenden Mitglieder der Gruppe "Der Blaue Reiter" ; Ausstellung vom 2. September bis 15. Oktober 1966 |url=http://books.google.ch/books/about/David_Burliuk.html?id=e68INAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y |location= Cologne |publisher=Galerie Gmurzynska |date= September 1966 |isbn= |accessdate= }}</ref> - the first exhibition of ]. | |||
| The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany by Antonina Gmurzynska. Galerie Gmurzynska made its name as a supplier of avant-garde Russian art to Western collectors. According to Geraldine Norman OBE, an advisor to the Hermitage Museum, Antonina 'sought out the artists' families in Russia and became adept at sneaking art out of the country - art which was anyway banned by the Soviet government.'<ref name="telegraph">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4713862/A-tragic-flight-to-freedom.html</ref> | |||
| Its current owner, Krystna Gmurzynska-Bscher took over the gallery following her mother's death in 1986 and now runs it with her business partner Mathias Rastorfer. | |||
| In 1990, after losing a legal dispute with the local revenue authorities, the gallery left Germany permanently and moved its operations to Switzerland. The Galerie was involved in the removal of a major collection of documents, drawings and paintings by Russian Futurist artists estimated at around £100M belonging to Nikolai Khardzhiev and his wife Lidia Chaga. Geraldine Norman has described how 'Krystyna and Rastorfer went to Moscow with Professor Weststeijn in 1993 to meet the Khardzhievs. They drew up and signed an agreement through which Krystyna would give the old couple $2.5 million in Amsterdam. In return she was promised four paintings and two gouaches by Malevich worth some $30 million.' The gallery arranged the packing and removal of the couple's Moscow flat, but little of their archive ever reached them in Amsterdam. When the loss became public knowledge in Russia, there was an outcry aimed at the Russian Ministry of Culture. The investigating Russian authorities recovered a case containing a document outlining a deal struck between Gmurzynska and the couple: | |||
| 'It contained two revealing documents: a single paragraph agreement between Khardzhiev and Krystyna Gmurzynska in which she promised "material support" to the tune of $2.5 million after he reached Amsterdam, and a page containing sketches of six works by Malevich inscribed "I, Kh. N. I. , give to K.G.B. to keep for ever six works of Kaz. M. ". The first document was witnessed by Chaga, Willem Weststeijn and Krystyna's business partner, Mathias Rastorfer. | |||
| Rastorfer, however, says that these documents were not contracts but merely "letters of intent". The gallery negotiated a tougher deal once the two old people were in Holland. He says that he rang the Hilton a couple of months after they arrived to sort things out and discovered that they were furious with the gallery. They felt that they had been deceived and abandoned; only part of the collection and archives had reached them and they had been left to their own devices at the Hilton while their visas ran out.''<ref name="telegraph" /> | |||
| ''The New York Times'' reported that 'After the agreement came to light in 1994, Ms. Gmurzynska and Mr. Rastorfer denied taking part in the smuggling. But they would not say how the trove was moved, only that they advanced the couple money to relocate in November 1993 and completed the purchase of the art after it left Russia. The Khardzhievs told a very different story. The two art dealers not only took charge of moving their belongings, they said, but also helped to pack and carry away suitcases full of art. | |||
| ''Even this lady Gmurzynska was carrying very heavy valises,'' Mr. Khardzhiev told a Russian journalist, Konstantin Akinsha, who interviewed him in Amsterdam two years later. ''I was impressed by her womanly strength.''<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/arts/for-collector-russian-art-end-dream-murky-trail-behind-rediscovered-works.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm</ref> | |||
| Up until 1971 the gallery’s program focused on ] and international ] in addition to Russian avant-garde. Subsequently, classic Modern art with a special focus on ], ], ], ], and Robert and Sonia Delaunay were incorporated into the gallery’s program. | |||
| More recently, Galerie Gmurzynska was involved in a dispute with New York dealer Asher B. Edelman. Edelman had loaned a work by American painter Robert Ryman to Galerie Gmurznyska for exhibition in 2007. The painting was damaged but, according to Edelman, Gmurzynska 'disputed the damage claim and instructed its insurer, the Berlin- and Zurich-based Kuhn & Bülow Versicherungsmakler, to refuse payment. Edelman’s insurer, New York-based XL Specialty Insurance, which had insured the Ryman picture for $750,000, then made Edelman its assignee and he took the gallery to federal court.'<ref>http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/276117/seized-the-day</ref> Edelman resolved the matter at the opening of the Art Basel Miami Beach fair when he arranged for Miami Police, carrying a writ of execution for an unanswered lawsuit against the gallery, to confiscate some of Gmurzynska's works. The suit included 'an additional $250,000 for “willful conduct of defendant” and “reprehensible motives and such wanton dishonesty as to imply a criminal indifference to civil obligations.” The suit resulted in a default judgment for the plaintiff for about $765,000.''<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aX82sXGnDW4Y</ref> | |||
| From 1986 Krystyna Gmurzynska continued expanding the gallery’s classic modern program and in 1991 the gallery’s new building constructed by the Swiss architect, Roger Diener, was inaugurated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zeit.de/1991/24/rot-klar-kubisch |title= Die Galerie Gmurzynska in Köln. Rot, klar, kubisch |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=07.06.1991 |website=http://www.zeit.de |publisher=Die Zeit |accessdate=17.09.11}}</ref>. In 1993 the gallery expanded to a second location to a 14th-century building in the heart of Zug, Switzerland. With 160 square meters of new exhibition space, this gave the gallery the possibility of installing small and unusual exhibitions. In 1996 Mathias Rastorfer became a partner of both extensions of the gallery, having been with it since 1991 when he left his position as Associate Director at Pace Gallery in New York. Under his influence and in addition to the gallery’s traditional repertoire, the work of contemporary artists such as ], ] and ] amongst others, were incorporated. Ten years later the gallery opened its third branch in ] at Via Serlas, in 2003. | |||
| In a piece titled 'Seized the Day', Artinfo describes how 'Gmurzynska paid the judgment plus incidental costs, including the expense of enlisting the services of the U.S. marshals, and the confiscated pictures were returned to the gallery’s stand.' Rastorfer's response was to deny any knowledge of the legal action and claim that had been served upon Gmurzynska's gallery. | |||
| Forty years after its establishment, Krystyna Gmurzynska and Mathias Rastorfer relocated the gallery from Cologne to its new flagship location in Zurich’s Paradeplatz in 2005. The building that currently houses the gallery dates back to 1857 and it is the same building in which the ] movement was founded in 1917<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/startseite/articleDB7SW-1.183740 |title=Russische Avantgarde in Zürich |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=12.11.2005 |website=http://www.nzz.ch |publisher=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |accessdate=12.07.08}}</ref>. The first exhibition in Zurich was a solo exhibition by ] entitled, "The Modernist", that was thoroughly endorsed by the Calder Foundation, who described it is as, 'rare to experience a presentation of this quality outside of a museum'. As with each exhibition at the gallery the show featured a fully illustrated catalogue with important essays. | |||
| == References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 07:31, 9 October 2014
Galerie Gmurzynska is a commercial art gallery in Switzerland that specializes in modern and contemporary art. They represent the Estate of Yves Klein, the Estate of Wifredo Lam and the Estate of Louise Nevelson among many others.
History
The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany by Antonina Gmurzynska. From the beginning, the gallery was interested in organizing exhibitions that had a documentary character both through the choice of themes and through its publications. In its first year, an important exhibition of Japanese art from the 14th to the 19th century was held followed by an exhibition of French masterpieces from Pierre Bonnard up until the mid 20th century. The following year the gallery presented the work of David Burliuk - the first exhibition of Russian avant-garde.
Up until 1971 the gallery’s program focused on Surrealism and international Constructivism in addition to Russian avant-garde. Subsequently, classic Modern art with a special focus on Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Fernand Leger, Lyonel Feininger, and Robert and Sonia Delaunay were incorporated into the gallery’s program.
From 1986 Krystyna Gmurzynska continued expanding the gallery’s classic modern program and in 1991 the gallery’s new building constructed by the Swiss architect, Roger Diener, was inaugurated. In 1993 the gallery expanded to a second location to a 14th-century building in the heart of Zug, Switzerland. With 160 square meters of new exhibition space, this gave the gallery the possibility of installing small and unusual exhibitions. In 1996 Mathias Rastorfer became a partner of both extensions of the gallery, having been with it since 1991 when he left his position as Associate Director at Pace Gallery in New York. Under his influence and in addition to the gallery’s traditional repertoire, the work of contemporary artists such as Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson and Yves Klein amongst others, were incorporated. Ten years later the gallery opened its third branch in St. Moritz at Via Serlas, in 2003.
Forty years after its establishment, Krystyna Gmurzynska and Mathias Rastorfer relocated the gallery from Cologne to its new flagship location in Zurich’s Paradeplatz in 2005. The building that currently houses the gallery dates back to 1857 and it is the same building in which the Dada movement was founded in 1917. The first exhibition in Zurich was a solo exhibition by Alexander Calder entitled, "The Modernist", that was thoroughly endorsed by the Calder Foundation, who described it is as, 'rare to experience a presentation of this quality outside of a museum'. As with each exhibition at the gallery the show featured a fully illustrated catalogue with important essays.
References
- Peers, Alexandra (05.06.2014). "Art World Report Card, Thursday, June 5, 2014". http://www.artnet.com. Artnet. Retrieved 01.10.14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help); External link in|website= - Urcia, Ryan (14.05.2014). "Art HK 12: Galerie Gmurzynska presents Wifredo Lam exhibit with new works and booth designed by Zaha Hadid". http://www.rhizome.org. Rhizome. Retrieved 01.10.14.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help); External link in|website= - "Dealer's Notebook: Krystyna Gmurzynska & Isabelle Bscher". ART+AUCTION. Louise Blouin Media. October 2012. Retrieved 23.05.14.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - "Russische Avantgarde in Zürich". http://www.nzz.ch. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 12.11.2005. Retrieved 12.07.08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help); External link in|website= - David Burliuk: Bilder von 1907 - 1966 ; die erste große Retrospektiv-Ausstellung in Deutschland der russischen Futuristen und letzten überlebenden Mitglieder der Gruppe "Der Blaue Reiter" ; Ausstellung vom 2. September bis 15. Oktober 1966. Cologne: Galerie Gmurzynska. September 1966.
- "Die Galerie Gmurzynska in Köln. Rot, klar, kubisch". http://www.zeit.de. Die Zeit. 07.06.1991. Retrieved 17.09.11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help); External link in|website= - "Russische Avantgarde in Zürich". http://www.nzz.ch. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 12.11.2005. Retrieved 12.07.08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help); External link in|website=