Art Cologne

The Kölner Kunstmarkt was founded by gallerists Hein Stünke and Rudolph Zwirner in 1967 in an attempt to reinvigorate the weak market for contemporary art.

With Bonn as the new capital city of Germany, the Rhineland – an industrial powerhouse at the centre of Europe driving the West German economy and acting as a hub for the entire western European economy – took over as the centre of the West German art world.

The first Kölner Kunstmarkt took place in the Gürzenich festival hall in the medieval part of the city; the following year Kunsthalle Köln was added as an additional location.

[7] With the emergence of the Berlin art scene, a bevy of remedies — special events and exhibitions, prizes and promotional gags — were devised to rejuvenate the fair, but they proved of little avail.

An unattractive shift of venue within the fairgrounds and a change of dates from autumn to spring only exaggerated the unease of public and professionals alike.

[9] In 2008, Art Cologne abandoned its sister event on the Spanish island of Mallorca[10] after just one edition and appointed Los Angeles gallery owner Daniel Hug, grandson of the Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy, to be its new director, part of a drive to boost attendance and win back top collectors and dealers.

[11] For the 2012 edition, Hug invited Nada, the Miami and New York fair for young artists, to join Art Cologne.