Gerhard F. Reinz Collection

The right man in the right place

Without the Cologne gallery owner and publisher Gerhard F. Reinz, the German art scene would not be what it is today. Gerhard Reinz began in 1959 as a publisher of art books and prints in Berlin. In 1960, Gerhard F. Reinz opened his gallery on Cologne's Theodor-Heuss-Ring: with sculptures by Matisse, Picasso and other great masters of French, Spanish and German modernism and contemporary art. He dedicated his work to them - from 1973 to 2009 in his newly built Orangerie Gallery in Helenenstrasse. High-quality graphic art and sculpture were also important areas of his repertoire. Reinz not only became a reliable and successful partner for his artists and collectors, he also rendered special services to his colleagues over many years. From 1976 on, he was a member of the board of the Federal Association of German Galleries (BVDG), which was only founded in 1975.

Commitment to young artists

When Reinz took over the management of the gallery association in 1980 under Bogislav von Wentzel, he and the Bonn gallery owner Philomene Magers set up a support program for young artists, for which he was able to acquire funding from the Düsseldorf and Cologne fair companies, the cities, the state and the federal government. This program - which today has its place at Art Cologne as "New Positions" - can, in its soon to be thirty years of existence, boast discoveries such as Rosemarie Trockel, Mischa Kuball, Gregor Schneider, Neo Rauch, Thomas Ruff, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin and many others who have since achieved international prominence.

Support for young galleries

In 1984, when Reinz was elected chairman of the BVDG, he tied the "International Art Market" alternating between Cologne and Düsseldorf to the Cologne fair as Art Cologne, which gave the association a guaranteed annual financial cushion. This also put Reinz in a position to occasionally help young colleagues, among them Gerd Harry Lybke with his gallery Eigen + Art, to raise the stand fees for their first participations in the fair. Together with the trade fair company, he organized the major benefit openings of Art Cologne, which raised capital donations in cash and in kind: For example, in 1988 a purchase budget for the Museum Ludwig amounting to 120,000 marks, or in 1989 the sum of 232,000 marks for the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach.

Hirst's shark at the Art Cologne

The special shows presented by the BVDG under the aegis of Gerhard F. Reinz at Art Cologne caused a sensation - such as that of the Young British Artists from the collection of Charles Saatchi in 1993, including Damien Hirst's shark conserve. Reinz steered the association's fortunes until 1997, after which he served as honorary chairman. When he was awarded the Art Cologne Prize in 1998, he doubled the prize money and donated it for a sculpture by Michel Croissant, which now graces Cologne's Kolpingplatz. He continued his involvement in connection with Art Cologne as a founding member and, until the beginning of 2009, as chairman of the board of the "Friends of Art Cologne." Since 2003, the circle of patrons, together with the Cologne Trade Fair, has been raising considerable sums to supplement the scarcely available acquisitions budget of Cologne's museums. Gerhard F. Reinz passed away in Warendorf in 2013. The memories of Gerhard Reinz's life's work are preserved by the Central Archive of the International Art Trade (ZADIK), an institution that he himself co-founded in 1992 and got off the ground with start-up funding from the German Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Prof. Dr. Günter Herzog