Galerie Gmurzynska

About the Gallery
Galerie Gmurzynska is an international art gallery with locations in Switzerland in Zurich and Zug, as well as the Galerie Gmurzynska US Inc. in the United States in New York. The gallery specialises in 20th century Modern and Contemporary Classics.

The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany by the Polish born Antonina Gmurzynska. From the beginning, the gallery was interested in organizing exhibitions that had a documentary character both through the choice of themes and through its publications. In its first year, an important exhibition of Japanese art from the 14th to the 19th century was held followed by an exhibition of French masterpieces from Pierre Bonnard up until the mid 20th century. The following year the gallery presented the work of David Burliuk – the first Avant-garde exhibition.

Up until 1971 the gallery’s program focused on Surrealism and international Constructivism and the Avant-garde. Subsequently, classic Modern art with a special focus on Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Fernand Léger, Lyonel Feininger, and Robert and Sonia Delaunay were incorporated into the gallery’s program.

About the Presentation
Galerie Gmurzynska presents Dan Basen (1939–1970), a rediscovery from the 1960s New York avant-garde. Basen moved fluidly between Happenings, nouveau réalisme, Pop, assemblage, and experimental film, while maintaining close ties with Beat poets and American Surrealists. Though often shown alongside Pop artists, Basen fiercely critiqued their commercial aesthetics, forging a singular and tragic path. Dr. Jonathan D. Katz in the accompanying comprehensive monograph proclaims, “His curiosity, fecundity and brilliant inventiveness … marked him as an artist’s artist and the very embodiment of the Sixties revolutionary fervor.”