Page 39 - Studio International - May 1970

London or New York, the Rhineland so far exclusively along the same lines.
Hans-Jurgen Muller, the Stuttgart and Cologne
lacks the kind of atmosphere which makes a Q. Could it be said that you created these gallery owner
modern big city not only a stimulating place difficulties yourself by trying to hold on to a 2
but also an attractive one. q phase of modern art, and by swimming E. Hauser
Saulenwand 1969
against the current of later developments ? 310 x 670 x 130 cm
II A. But I have gone on showing a number of
THE GALERIE MULLER IS ONE OF THE LEADING major artists, up to and including Minimal
GALLERIES IN WESTERN GERMANY. FOR TEN Art : Tony Smith, Bob Mangold, Robert Huot,
YEARS NOW, HANS-JURGEN MULLER HAS BEEN David Novros, and others. There is no doubt
EXHIBITING NOT ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT that the cubes of Tony Smith and Bob Morris
ARTISTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES, BUT ALSO A represent the end of something within Hard
GROUP OF GERMAN PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS Edge or Minimal Art. What the reaction
WHO HAVE RECENTLY TAKEN ON against this tendency will be is impossible to
INTERNATIONAL STATUS. THE FOLLOWING predict exactly. But in any case I think that as
INTERVIEW WAS PROMPTED BY THE GALLERY'S a dealer one must always be on the watch for
MOVE FROM STUTTGART TO COLOGNE. whatever new tendencies are coming up. The
alternative would be to turn 'classic', putting
Q. Herr Muller, you moved recently from on regular shows of all the classic artists of
Stuttgart to Cologne. Why are you giving up a Hard Edge-and they are after all people
position that you built up over ten years of whose work will still be alive in a hundred
hard and consistent work ? years. What happens then is that one comes
A. First of all, I am not giving up my gallery up against the price barrier. The prices
in Stuttgart. It will carry on alongside the people are asking for Morris Louis these days
Cologne one. How feasible this is economi- are extremely high; and you can't get a
cally, time alone will tell; but I am not moving Noland under ten thousand dollars. I am con-
to Cologne for financial reasons. The Stutt- vinced that a gallery owner has a certain duty
gart gallery has done very well financially. to the section of the public which hasn't got
What is happening in Cologne is what we all that sort of money. These are the people who a firm value, they come to have a lot more
waited so long for: there is now a centre for can afford only the work of young artists who confidence. When I show the work of a young
the art world in Germany. I can foresee the have not yet arrived. For me, this is in itself artist and tell the collectors that this is an
time when all the major galleries in the Federal reason enough not to have a 'classic' gallery. important man who has a future, they trust
Republic will move to Cologne. Ricke and Q. But the newest tendencies- Conceptual me much more than they did ten years ago.
Wilbrand have already arrived, and I gather Art for instance- threaten to put a stop to Q. A year ago the German press carried a
that Neuendorf and Friedrich are going to. your kind of art dealing altogether. In your story to the effect that you were planning to
Brusberg is going to open up a subsidiary in case, artistic preferences go hand in hand with transform the commercial structure of your
Dusseldorf. All this has the advantage, for the purely commercial business of buying and gallery. There was going to be a 'Kunst
foreigners as well as for us, that one doesn't selling. In a gallery specializing in Conceptual GmbH', an 'Art-Inc.', which was going to
have to go to a number of places in order to Art, like Konrad Fischer's in Dusseldorf, this turn out prints and multiples in large editions.
find out what's going on in Germany; now kind of harmony is not going to be possible. What lay behind this ?
everything is in one place, in Cologne. We A. Conceptual Art, in my view, has no claim A. Anyone who thinks about it really seriously
now have our equivalent to London, New to exclusive validity, nor to finality. It is a sooner or later comes up against the question
York or Paris. A German dealer who wants to tendency like many others, like Op Art or of how many people we are really reaching
launch his artists on the international market Pop Art. It is true that there are important with contemporary art. The numbers one
has to be in Cologne. artists in Conceptual Art, people like Heitzer, hears quoted are fearfully low. It is estimated
Q. The artists you represent—Hauser, Lenk, Dibbets or Walter de Maria. But like any that about thirty thousand people in Germany
Pfahler and Quinte-practise a style that could other tendency, this one boils down to a few are voluntarily in contact with modern art. In
be roughly described as Hard Edge. The outstanding people. Which means that the a population of fifty million, that's a negligible
international activities of the gallery reflect question needs putting the other way: how figure. On the other hand, we know that people
the same tendency. When and why did you long will Konrad Fischer keep his 'ideas who come into contact with art by accident
settle on this idea? gallery' going? I am convinced that there will often reveal a sudden interest that must have
A. I started the gallery in 1960. People mostly go on being easel paintings, and sculptures, been latent but was undetected.
identify us with so-called hard-edge painting and saleable objects. Q. What is your estimate of the number of
nowadays, and this is partly justified. The Q. Sales alone are often not enough to keep a people in this 'latent' category?
most significant artists of this trend had their gallery going. Do you have collectors or A. In a population the size of that of Western
first German showing, and in some cases their patrons in the background who support the Germany, we can assume that there are about
first showing in Europe, at my gallery. But the gallery with capital-or can you finance your 400,000 potential purchasers of modern
whole evolution of modern art comes into it. work through what you sell ? graphics. This figure is based on the fact that
The gallery actually opened with Cy Twom- A. We finance ourselves through sales. We on the one hand people under twenty are
bly, who has nothing at all to do with Hard have a hardcore of regular clients. They are unlikely to be able to buy works of art-and
Edge. After that I showed the main representa- people who have been taking our advice for on the other, people over forty are not pre-
tives of Art Informel and Op Art. Then, years. This can only come, I think, from the pared to make radical changes in their way of
around 1962, when the tendency began to kind of gallery image that builds up after five life. This leaves 10,000,000 people. Of these
appear which is now called Hard Edge, we or six years, when clients realize that they we know that about 4 per cent choose furni-
took it up; it is in fact a kind of art that appeals bought things at the right time, and that what ture and motor-cars on aesthetic as well as
to me personally. Now that a certain stagna- they bought is now not only important but practical grounds. These are the people who,
tion seems to me to be setting in, in art highly priced. When people take a risk on for instance, buy furniture from Knoll Inter-
generally, it is obviously difficult to carry on buying something and then find it acquires national. Hence the figure of 400,000. We