Since 1946 and over three generations, Galerie Henze & Ketterer has been committed to German Expressionism and manages the estate and archive of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, one of the most important artists of this movement and initiator of the artist's association "Brücke".
Modern Art, Informel and Abstraction after 1945, New Figuration, and contemporary painters and sculptors from Italy, Spain, and Germany are the gallery's other focal points.
The gallery sees its activity as a constant effort to promote the artists, works and artistic fields it represents, which includes not least the acquisition of its own large collections of works of art or entire estates, but also the maintenance of archives on the individual artists and a comprehensive library including its own publishing house. In recent decades, especially since our move to Switzerland in 1993, our gallery has developed into an internationally recognized and sought-after center of excellence for the representation of artists and art genres. We work closely with the world's leading dealers in our specialties. Our house has had the privilege of being instrumental in the creation and growth of many large and important museum and private collections, particularly of Expressionism. Numerous worldwide museum exhibitions and publications have not only originated here, but have also been curated entirely or in collaboration by our gallery.
Since the early 1970s, the gallery has participated in international art fairs including Art Basel, FIAC Paris, Art Karlsruhe, Masterpiece London and to date TEFAF Maastricht and Art Cologne.
The gallery maintains two branches in Switzerland: Wichtrach/Berne and Riehen/Basel are under the direction of Ingeborg Henze-Ketterer, Dr. Wolfgang Henze and Dr. Alexandra Henze. Our gallery in Riehen/Basel shows up to six curated exhibitions per year featuring artists from the gallery with thematic framing. In the large exhibition rooms in Bern/Wichtrach we show permanent exhibitions with changing hangings dedicated to the gallery's program and art genres.
The "Kunst-Depot" (by Gigon/Guyer) which is located right next to the gallery in Wichtrach/Bern serves as a modern exhibition space especially for large format works or installations and also as art storage for the gallery.
In the digital space, the gallery is present via an extensive website and its own Online Viewing Room (OVR) as well as with profiles at artsy.net, artnet.com, ifpda.org and printed-editions.com.
Also worth mentioning is the close cooperation between the in-house Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Archive in Wichtrach/Bern and the Kirchner Museum in Davos, founded by Roman Norbert Ketterer.
