Seit 26. Oktober 2021 mit neuen Räumen in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Hardenbergstr. 9A
With new premises in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Hardenbergstr. 9A since 26 October 2021
In 1963, Michael Werner co-founded the gallery Werner & Katz with Benjamin Katz in Berlin. The inaugural show, with works by Georg Baselitz, caused a public scandal and was closed down following a court order. The paintings Die grosse Nacht im Eimer and Nackter Mann were confiscated; the former is now part of the collection of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.
One year later, Michael Werner opened his own gallery in a former coal depot in Berlin, the ""1. Orthodoxe Salon"" (First Orthodox Salon).
In 1968, he moved to Cologne and took over Galerie Hake, and from October 1969 on, he continued as Galerie Michael Werner.
Since then, the gallery has successfully presented some of the most important German Post-War artists, as well as prominent American and European artists: Georg Baselitz, Marcel Broodthaers, James Lee Byars, Jörg Immendorff, Per Kirkeby, Eugène Leroy, Markus Lüpertz, A.R. Penck, Sigmar Polke, and Don Van Vliet. The gallery has also exhibited works by Modern masters such as Otto Freundlich, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Henri Michaux, and Francis Picabia.
In the early 1980s, Michael Werner started to establish the gallery artists in the United States—first in co-operation with the renowned New York galleries Ileana Sonnabend, Pace Gallery, Xavier Fourcade, and Marian Goodman, and then together with Mary Boone Gallery. In 1990, his own gallery, Michael Werner Gallery, opened in the Upper East Side in New York with Georg Baseliz’s Hero Paintings.
In 2007, Michael Werner hosted a guest series of exhibitions titled Michael Werner: Une saison à Paris, featuring the gallery artists at the prominent Galerie de France in Paris.
In the following year, Michael Werner Kunsthandel opened in Cologne next to the gallery’s existing Cologne office. Additionally, Michael Werner once again established an office in Berlin and presented his exhibitions in the former rooms of Galerie Julius Werner.
In 2009, the rooms were handed over to Veneklasen/Werner, and the Berlin office of Galerie Michael Werner moved to its current location in Märkisch Wilmersdorf, south of Berlin.
