Happy birthday!

In the fast-paced art world, 70 years is an age that galleries don't often reach. Galerie Koch in Hanover was fortunate enough to do so this year, celebrating its milestone birthday in February and March with a major anniversary exhibition. The exhibition presented a representative cross-section of the gallery's program, which focuses on works of classical modernism, post-war art, and selected contemporary positions. Famous names from 20th-century art history such as Lyonel Feininger, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Gabriele Münter were represented, as were the ZERO trio Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker, the figurative sculptor Susanne Kraisser, and the landscape virtuoso Reiner Wagner.
Founded on February 2, 1955, by Bruno Koch, a textile merchant and passionate art collector originally from Greifswald, Galerie Koch is now the oldest gallery in Hanover and the state of Lower Saxony. Under the management of Jürgen and Angelika Koch, the founder's son and daughter-in-law, it has grown to become an established fixture in the North German art trade and the cultural life of the city. Since the late 1970s, the gallery has been located at Königstraße 50, a place that has become synonymous with quality and tradition, commitment and expertise. Today, in its third generation, siblings Ole-Christian and Petra Koch are continuing the legacy and have also been exhibiting at ART COLOGNE for many years.

With his private collection of expressionist artworks, Rainer M. Ludorff laid the foundation for Galerie LUDORFF, which opened its doors on November 15, 1975, on Düsseldorf's Königsallee. He subsequently built up a gallery that has shaped the Rhineland art scene ever since. Since then, it has been dedicated to German Impressionism and Expressionism at a museum level, later adding post-war art and selected contemporary positions. The gallery's founder was very fortunate that his second-eldest son, Manuel Ludorff, shared his passion for art. After spending time in London, where he was able to study the workings of an auction house (Sotheby's), a leading gallery (Marlborough Gallery), and an internationally sought-after photographer, Manuel Ludorff returned to Düsseldorf in 2009 to take on operational responsibility at Galerie LUDORFF and initiate an orderly transition.

Since art never stands still, but rather addresses new generations with new questions and forms of expression, as well as more innovative ways of communicating, Manuel Ludorff carefully developed the gallery further as its managing director. The “house saints” such as George Grosz and Otto Dix were joined by artists of the Informel movement such as Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages, as well as contemporaries such as Karin Kneffel. In recent years, the gallery has rendered outstanding services to the work of Lotte Laserstein with a solo exhibition and a well-researched monograph.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Galerie LUDORFF, two anniversary exhibitions (the second opens on October 30) will review these positions in the newly renovated and expanded premises on Königsallee, complemented by a wide range of events including gallery tours and expert talks. “We are proud,” says Manuel Ludorff, “to have been presenting outstanding works of art and making them accessible to a wide audience for half a century.” This is also happening at ART COLOGNE, where this year the gallery will be presenting, among other things, a captivating beach scene by Max Liebermann (“Beach Terrace in Noordwijk (Huis ter Duin)”), which was acquired by the legendary art dealer Paul Cassirer in 1913 directly from the artist's studio.

The Samuelis Baumgarte Gallery in Bielefeld is also celebrating its 50th anniversary. Its history began with a particularly charismatic founding figure: the artist Ruth Baumgarte (1923–2013). Her passion for drawing and watercolor painting was awakened while studying at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. After the war, she moved to Bielefeld, where she married and captured the “factory worlds” of the economic miracle era in the 1950s. Even more important to her was the portrayal of female roles in the 20th century – as a mother, artist, and social critic, she intertwined her life and work. From the 1980s onwards, she turned her attention to environmental issues and social anxieties before her Africa cycle (1984–2004) brought her international breakthrough. Travels across the continent inspired colorful, utopian visions of change and conflict. Museums such as the Albertina in Vienna exhibited her work, and in 2023 her 100th birthday was celebrated with retrospectives.

At the same time, she founded the gallery “Das Fenster” in 1975, where she exhibited her own works as well as paintings, graphic art, textiles, and ceramics by other contemporary artists. In 1986, her son Alexander took over the management of the joint gallery, which was henceforth named Samuelis Baumgarte—a tribute to family roots. Under Alexander Baumgarte's leadership, the gallery specialized in representing and presenting outstanding works by world-renowned artists and promising contemporary talents. At its prestigious location in Bielefeld at Niederwall 10, close to the town hall, city theater, and Old Market, it creates a lively connection between artistic tradition and innovative contemporary art. Its aim is to promote dialogue between the eras, as demonstrated by the anniversary exhibition “The Weimar Era – Arts of the Weimar Republic” (until November 15, 2025). Over 100 works from this turbulent period are on display, including Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, and Rudolf Schlichter, as well as rediscoveries such as DODO (Dörte Clara Wolff) and Fritz Schaefler. And some of them will certainly make the trip to ART COLOGNE.