David Zwirner
| David Zwirner | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 23, 1964 Cologne, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Art dealer |
David Zwirner (born October 23, 1964) is a German art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City and London (which opened in October 2012 with an exhibition by Luc Tuymans). Since 2012, Zwirner has consistently ranked in the top 5 of the ArtReview annual "Power 100" list, the magazine's survey of most important figures in contemporary art. Zwirner's rankings were 4 (2010), 5 (2012), 2 (2013), 2 (2014), 3 (2015), 4 (2016). He has been on the list since 2003. In 2012, he was listed at number two in Forbes magazine's "America's Most Powerful Art Dealers."
Zwirner was born in Cologne, West Germany. The son of art dealer Rudolph Zwirner and his wife Ursula, he was exposed to art at an early age as the family lived in a house with the gallery on the ground floor. At the suggestion of the art dealer Harold Diamond (the father of Mike D, from the Beastie Boys), Rudolf sent David and his sister to the Walden School in New York for one year. He left Germany for the United States after high school and attended New York University. He studied music and performed as a jazz drummer. He returned to Germany and worked in Hamburg in A&R for an affiliate of the PolyGram record label. He soon moved from working with musical talent to visual artists. He also began to build his own art collection, acquiring works by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hanne Darboven, and Dan Graham. His first job in the States was with the art dealer Brooke Alexander at Brooke Alexander Gallery.
In 1993, Zwirner opened David Zwirner Gallery in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, with the intention of showcasing an international mix of contemporary artists.
From 2000 to 2009, David Zwirner also was a partner with Iwan Wirth in Zwirner & Wirth, a gallery on New York's Upper East Side which focused on private sales. The collaboration yielded a series of exhibitions, including Gerhard Richter: Early Paintings (2000); Bruce Nauman (2001); Cy Twombly: Letter of Resignation (2002/2003); Claes Oldenburg: Early Work (2005); David Hammons (2006); Joseph Beuys: Sculpture and Drawing (2007); and Dan Flavin: The 1964 Green Gallery Exhibition (2008).
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