©STEEN GYLENDAL
Michael O. Kewenig, a German art dealer who, with his wife, Jule, founded Berlin’s Kewenig Galerie, has died. His cause of death and his age could not be immediately verified.
In 1986, Kewenig opened his gallery in Cologne, Germany. In the ’70s, he had worked with the famed art dealer Rudolf Zwirner and, after working for several years after as a lawyer, Kewenig decided to return to the art world. Using connections he had made through Zwirner, he assembled a roster that would come to focus on Arte Povera and Conceptualism.
For nearly three decades, Kewenig Galerie was located in Cologne. In 2004, the gallery opened a second space in Palma de Majorca, Spain. In 2013, Jule and Michael decided to relocate the gallery to Berlin. “I started to feel bored [with Cologne], and people stopped coming,” Kewenig said of the move in a 2014 interview.
Kewenig Galerie’s roster currently includes Ghada Amer, Marcel Broodthaers, Nan Goldin, William Kentridge, Seydou Keïta, Jannis Kounellis, and A. R. Penck. Next week, the gallery is slated to open a show of new work by Kimsooja.