Galerie Jeanne

Stephan Balkenhol (born February 10, 1957, in Fritzlar - Germany)

The German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol says about his work:

„My sculptures don’t tell stories. Something mysterious is hidden within them. It’s not my task to reveal it, but rather the viewer’s to discover it.“

Stephan Balkenhol studied at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts under teachers such as Ulrich Rückriem and Sigmar Polke, taught at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt, and was a professor at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts until 2023. The artist is known for his sculptures, reliefs, drawings, and graphic works and works in his studios in Karlsruhe, Berlin, and Kassel, as well as in Meisenthal, Lorraine, France.

Stephan Balkenhol is one of the most renowned, internationally successful, and important German artists in the field of figurative sculpture. His roughly hewn, painted sculptures bear his unmistakable visual language and reveal the inherent presence of the material.

His powerful artworks and surreal figures depict people, animals, and architectural forms. Balkenhol’s figures seem to grow organically from within.

His bronze editions bear the unmistakable, understated expression of his visual language.

(H.W.)

Marc Chagall
born in Liosno / Vitebsk district (Russia / Belarus) on July 7, 1887 – died on March 28, 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France)

Marc Chagall is one of the most important artists of Classical Modernism. The graphic artist and painter achieved great popularity in the art world during his lifetime
His works are expressionistic in their narrative structure and show us a „painter-poet“. As a French artist, Chagall remains loyal to Russian folk art and combines it with “Jewish mythology”. Chagall remained caught up in the subject throughout his Russian homeland and its fairytale world.

In his dream worlds you will find winged creatures, rich flower bouquets and floating people and objects that are sometimes allowed to stand on their heads. Mythological animals, the crescent moon, the Eiffel Tower, circus tents or bridges as symbols of Paris appear again and again in his oeuvre.

 

Marc Chagall created a wealth of motif worlds
Recurring and newly interpreted motifs become metaphors in his works and override the laws of gravity.

Perspectives are possible, but they can also be exceeded marginally. The spatially impossible becomes possible in its color harmonies and gives each individual work a unique, new and radiant statement. Up until old age, Chagall developed new narrative strands in his usual narrative style.

The works of Marc Chagall presented in the Galerie Jeanne in Munich are popular with collectors and are still sought after today. With his unique world of images, Marc Chagall is one of the most important painters and graphic artists of the 20th century.

 
Marc Chagall’s work can be found in numerous large collections and museums around the world. Probably the largest Chagall collection is in the Chagall Museum in Nice!

Marc Chagall was a Franco-Russian painter who made Paris the center of his art.

(H.W.)

Salvador Dali was born Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domènche in Figueres (Catalonia, Spain) in 1904 and has called himself Marqués de Dalí de Púbol (Marquis of Dalí of Púbol) since 1982 – Púbol Castle was his home.

The Spanish painter, graphic artist and sculptor Salvador Dali is one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. His surrealist images influenced painting, film and literature.

As the main representative of surrealism, he created numerous works with his inexhaustible painterly and technical skills, which tell new themes in alienated motifs, objects, people or landscapes. The contrast and togetherness build up the tension in the depiction.

After the artist had to leave school in his homeland, he went to Paris. There he created his first cubist works. When Dali met Pablo Picasso, his interest in surrealism increased and his first experimental works showed him the way to his unreal, imaginary and dreamlike, i.e. surreal representations. This made the artist the main representative of the surrealism movement.

Salvador Dali’s works can be assigned to Surrealism, Cubism, Dadaism and Modern Art.

Dali’s extensive graphic work includes numerous artistic techniques such as the
Etchings, steel engravings, lithographs, woodcuts and mixed media techniques.

Catalog raisonné of the artworks of Salvador Dali

The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, by Albert Field, 1996, published by Salvador Dali Archives Ltd.
Ralf Michler et al, „The Catalog Raisonne of Etchings and Mixed-Media Prints, 1924-1980“, and „Catalog Raisonne of Prints II, Lithographs and Wood Engravings“.

(H.W.)

The US-American artist SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994) is one of the most important and significant protagonists of ACTION PAINTING
 

Sam Francis is one of the internationally leading artists of the so-called second generation of Abstract Expressionism.

 

The painter Sam Francis (real name:  Samuel Lewis Francis) found his spontaneous and wild style of painting to apparently unintentional color gradients
 

In his Action Painting, Sam Francis dealt with existing styles such as Abstract Expressionism with Tachisme, the established color field painting, Impressionism, Far Eastern art movements and calligraphy. In San Francisco, Sam Francis belonged to the Abstract Expressionists along with Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Clifford Still (1904-1980) and David Park (1911-1960).

Sam Francis was impressed when he observed fellow artist Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956), who in his well-known “Drip Paintings” poured, dripped or splashed the colors onto the picture carrier. Through his technique Pollock freed his compositions from the line.

Sam Francis came into contact with many artists, art techniques and painting styles on his many international travels. Everything served to inspire the artist towards his own expression.

In the 1950s, Sam Francis stayed in Paris, where he encountered European Art Informel (non-geometric and non-representational painting). At times he belonged to the so-called Art Informel movement, which had emerged from Surrealism.

By dealing with all these art styles and artist colleagues, Sam Francis came to his artistic expression in „action painting“.

 

Since the 1970s, Sam Francis was the master of action painting



(H.W.)

James Francis Gill says about his work:

„There are no rules on the canvas. It can go in any direction. Every piece is a unique and special experience.“

 
The American artist James Francis Gill is a significant co-founder of American Pop Art.

 

…and has produced a substantial body of work in his career, which continues to this day. Gill’s works combine the glamour of iconic portraiture with a sense of realism and abstraction. The artist lives and works in Texas.

After studying architecture and design in Odessa, Gill became an artist and a pioneer of Pop Art.

In 1962, a triptych by James Francis Gill entitled „Marilyn Triptych“ was added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Gill’s works, such as the drawing „Laughing Women in Car and Close-up,“ were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York alongside those of Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, and Jasper Johns in the mid-1960s, early in his artistic career.

• In 1965, Gill began teaching painting at the University of Idaho.
• In 1967, his works were exhibited in Brazil alongside pieces by artists such as Andy Warhol and Edward Hopper.
• In 1969, Gill taught at the University of California
• and in 1970, he was a visiting professor in Oregon.

In keeping with the spirit of the times, Gill’s work became more profound, and the growing recognition of his art was overwhelming.

 

At the height of this first phase of his career, in 1972, the artist withdrew from the art world for over 30 years to further develop his unique artistic language and form of expression in isolation.

 

During these years, Gill returned to architectural design.

In the mid-1980s, Gill once again turned to painting—but without exhibiting it publicly.

It was only with an interview for the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s American Art Magazine that the artist began a kind of rediscovery of his work.

Gill now works with computer design and also uses the printer as a tool. „Metamage“ and „mixed media“—montage effects that go beyond his previous methods—have been added to the image composition of his works.

In 2010, Gill began his so-called late work, which continues to this day and incorporates depictions of icons from the Pop Art era and film actresses.

Gill’s works demonstrate the artist’s versatility, allowing him to combine abstraction and figuration in his often intensely colorful themes, with personalities such as Brigitte Bardot, Mick Jagger, and Grace Kelly appearing to step directly out of the picture and confront the viewer.

The American artist Keith Haring was one of the most important artists in the New York art scene in the 1980s.

He was a co-founder of 1980s Pop Art and also of the graffiti scene. Along with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, he is considered one of the Pop Art icons of his time. As one of the first street artists, Haring made this new artistic language socially acceptable. Keith Haring made history as the greatest and most influential street artist „of all time“! If you asked Keith Haring about his role models, he would say that alongside Pablo Picasso, Walt Disney was at the forefront of his mind. He began drawing comic strips as a child. Keith Haring developed his motifs in clear lines without any preliminary drawings.

In 1976, Haring began studying commercial art at the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh. In 1978, he exhibited at the Pittsburgh Arts and Crafts Center and shortly thereafter moved to New York, where he enrolled at the SVA (School of Visual Arts), which he left in 1980. At the SVA, Haring met Jean-Michel Basquiat. From then on, he organized exhibitions (at Club 57) and began making his first graffiti tags as a street artist.

He quickly became known for his crawling baby tag and his little dog. His Subway Drawings (1980-85) were popular in New York.

Keith Haring deliberately chose not to title his artworks so that the complexity of meanings would do justice to the diversity of people and their emotional interpretations. The recognizability of the clear forms and color surfaces, which can be absorbed at a glance, characterized his work. His Subway Drawings were quickly projected onto the walls, resulting in around ten thousand images being created in the New York subway system between 1980 and 1985.

From 1982 onwards, Haring created labyrinthine images that fit into the respective surface.

After an exhibition in New York, he was in demand internationally in the art world and traveled to

• Rotterdam,
• Amsterdam
• and to documenta 7 in Kassel.

The Spectacolor billboard in Times Square illuminated Haring’s animations for over a month.

• In 1983, Keith Haring participated in the São Paulo Biennial and the Whitney Biennial.

That same year, Keith Haring became friends with Andy Warhol and painted an Andy Mouse for him, a hybrid of Warhol and Mickey Mouse.

In 1984, Haring painted huge street art murals in Manhattan, Minneapolis, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne and Sydney.

A year later (1985), Haring discovered canvas, which became his picture support alongside paper, vinyl tarpaulins and the exterior and interior walls of houses.

A mural was created in the Grande halle de la Villette for the 1985 Paris Biennale.

Keith Haring was 27 years old and had his first solo museum exhibition at the CAPC (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Bordeaux.

This was followed in 1986 by exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, which stretched strips of paper along the walls and allowed the artist to create spontaneously on-site. Haring called the paintings in this exhibition AMSTERDAM NOTES. They were ink drawings with red borders, a good 38 meters long – arguably the artist’s largest museum works.

In 1989, the artist founded the Keith Haring Foundation, and what was arguably his last public mural was created in 1989 on the exterior wall of a church in Pisa – it enlivens an area of 140 square meters.

The following year, Keith Haring died in 1990th in New York.

(H.W.)

Born in Brooklyn (New York City) in 1953, Robert Longo works as a painter, sculptor, draftsman, photographer and director.

Robert Longo is one of the main protagonists of the so-called „Picture Generation“!

 

Robert Longo is one of the most important graphic artists of our time

In 1971 Robert Longo began his artistic training, a year later he received a scholarship and studied restoration and art history at the “Accademia di Belle Arti” in Florence. With the „Bachelor of Fine Arts“ he finished his studies at the „Art School“ in the „Buffalo State College“ in New York in 1975.

An artistically eventful time followed for Robert Longo, which he processed in his works. The speed and the perceived range between strength and rest, movement and silence will from now on always remain a theme of his work. People in „Men in the Cities“ or natural phenomena are brought to a standstill in motion.

Robert Longo’s works live on contrasts, fractions of a second lie between the motif and the apparently next movement – everything seems frozen in the moment. Materials are used ideally and reveal Longo’s technical and creative perfection as an artist.

 
The contemporary artist Robert Longo convinces the professional world with mostly large-format works of art
These are charcoal drawings with an outstanding level of detail, which are also implemented as graphics. In Robert Longo’s motifs the world seems to stand still for a moment, for example when a giant wave from the “Monsters” series seems to freeze at the moment of upheaval.

 

Robert Longo’s motif repertoire convinces art collectors and museum people around the world

The themes are monster waves, like sharks that appear to be mirrored at the moment, dramatically staged horses, tigers in an oversized close-up view, flags and, from time to time, people frozen in motion. Robert Longo’s tigers, wolves, sharks or horses and even the monster waves seem to want to jump out of the picture in the next moment.

The famous, Spanish Catalan Painter and Printmaker Joan Miró i Ferrà was born in Barcelona in 1893 and died in Palma de Mallorca in 1983.

Joan Miró took part in art studies at the “La Llotja” academy in Barcelona at a young age – in addition to his accountant training.

 

Joan Miró was one of the most celebrated artists of the last century
In 1941 was Miró’s first major museums retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He was an artist of international reach. Miró combined the abstract art with his own Surrealist fantasy.

 

The Joan Miró Foaundation in Barcelona has a great collection of 11.000 pieces – Paintings, Graphic Arts and other famous works by this artist.

 (H.W.)

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881 Spain – 1973 France)

The Spanish painter, sculptor and graphic artist Pablo Picasso left behind a comprehensive oeuvre of drawings, graphics, collages, paintings, ceramics and sculptures. Picasso’s best-known works include the paintings “Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907) and “Guernica” (1937) – as key works of Classical Modernism – as an artistic exploration of the Spanish Civil War.

In 1897 Picasso went to Madrid to study at the „Royal Academy of San Fernando“.

Since 1897/98 he signed instead of RUIZ for the first time with “P. Picasso“

The Prado and the artist’s bars in the capital became his school.

In 1900 Picasso had his first exhibition entitled „Els Quatre Gats“. In the same year he traveled with Casagemas to the world exhibition in Paris, where the works of Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre Bonnard could be seen. From then on, the artist shared a studio with Casagemas here – in Montmatre, 49 Rue Gabrielle. City life and the works of Toulouse-Lautrec influenced his work during this period.

Back in Madrid, Picasso published the art magazine “Arte Joven” as an illustrator together with the writer Francisco de Assis Soler.

When he returned to Paris, he found his first art dealer in Pere Manach and his first gallery owner in Berthe. The publisher Amboise Vollard is showing his works for the first time in an exhibition – the pink and blue periods are on display.

In 1910, Picasso painted his patron Vollard in a well-known Cubist painting.

Picasso’s artistic career began with works from the “Blue Period” (1901–1904) and the “Pink Period”. Picasso founded Cubism together with the artist Georges Braque (1908-1914). The “analytical phase” of Cubism lasted until around 1912 (portrait of Vollard – 1910) and then passed into Picasso’s “Synthetic Cubism”. The “Papiers collés” were created in the transitional phase (from 1912).

Picasso exhibited in 1910 at the “Neue Künstlervereinigung München”, at Herwarth Walden’s gallery “Der Sturm” in Berlin and in 1912 at the Sonderbund in the city of Cologne. At the same time, 4 works by Picasso can be found in the Blue Rider/Blaue Reiter exhibition in Munich. And in London he took part in the show “Manet and the Post-Impressionists” with drawings, paintings and prints (1910 and 1912).

1923 Picasso meets André Breton and surrealism (1924–1936)

Between 1930 and 1937 the “Suite Vollard” was created – a series of 100 graphics
… including the Minotaur motif and the artist and model theme. Since 2001 a complete series can be found in the „Pablo Picasso Graphics Museum“ in Münster.

 

The theme of the bullfight combined with the Minotaur myth pervades Picasso’s entire work. In his „Minotauromachy“ Picasso quotes Francisco de Goya. The “La Tauromaquia” series from 1957 contains 26 aquatint etchings that serve as illustrations for the bullfighting textbook.

Serge Poliakoff (January 8, 1900 in Moscow – October 1969)
discovered art at the age of 14. It’s not far from drawing lessons to the first landscape studies.

 

After years in the army, Serge Poliakoff finds a new home in Paris. As a musician he can live there.

From 1929, the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière became his painting school. Group exhibitions follow. From 1933 Poliakoff studied at the Académie Frochot with Derf and Friesz. In 1935 he went to London with his French partner and attended the Grosvenor School of Art and the Slade School of Art. The artefacts in the British Museum became his school.

 

The years 1937-1939 in Paris were of decisive importance for Serge Poliakoff’s artistic career
 

From here, Poliakoff will become an important pacesetter at the École de Paris. Here the encounters with the artist friends Wassily Kandinsky, who promotes abstraction in Poliakoff’s works, with Sonia Delaunay and Robert Delaunay, who make his palette more emotional, and above all with Otto Freundlich, who strongly influences his style and composition.

From then on, Poliakoff painted abstract paintings.

 

From 1946 the artist’s palette became almost monochrome in soft colors. His first lithograph is printed and opens up a new medium for Serge Poliakoff.

 

It was the year 1952 that Serge Poliakoff became independent as a painter
 

He gets his first gallery contract and can give up the music that has fed his family up to now.

His encounter with the works of Malevitch changed his palette again – even with negated color an expression is intensive and possible. His work will be shown overseas for the first time. He was enthusiastically received in New York. In 1953-1954 the gazettes were enthusiastic about the artist and his exhibitions were well attended.

The 1956 Lissone Prize and a monograph on Serge Poliakoff speak for themselves.

In 1957 Poliakoff ventured into etching for the first time. In the following years he travels with his exhibitions through European museums and inspires with individual exhibitions. Three years later, the Kunsthalle Bern shows over 130 works by the artist.

In 1958, Serge Poliakoff has international solo exhibitions in museums in France, Germany and England.

In 1966, Poliakoff was awarded the Grand Prize at the Menton Biennial. A retrospective at the Maison de la Caen will be his last exhibition in his lifetime.

Serge Poliakoff dies in 1969.

Der deutsche Kunstmaler, Bildhauer und Fotograf Gerhard Richter, war von 1971 bis 1993  als Professor für Malerei an der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf tätig und prägte Generationen von Künstlern. Gerhard Richter begriff die Möglichkeit der Abstraktion als ein Verfahren, um die Malerei in teils abstrakten Strategien neu zu Hinterfragen.

Seine Kunstwerke finden sich in Kunstsammlungen und Museen weltweit.  Richter ist Mitglied in der Berliner Akademie der Künste.

Gerhard Richter ist nach dem neuen, internationalem „Kunstkompass“ der Zeitschrift Capital (15. November 2025) weiterhin der wichtigste Künstler der Welt. Richter nimmt seit 21 Jahren den Platz 1 unter den 100 wichtigsten Gegenwartskünstlern ein.

 

Gerhard Richter belegt seit Jahrzehnten den 1. Platz im Ranking der Gegenwartskünstler.
 

Das wohl berühmteste Zitat des Professors für Malerei: „Gute Bilder sind auch unverständlich!“ Seine hohen Ansprüche an ein Kunstwerk forderten stets das undenkbare heraus.

Sein Weg in die Kunst startete als Betriebs- und Theatermaler, bis er mit gerade 19 Jahren sein Studium an der Kunstakademie Dresden begann. Bevor die Mauer gebaut wurde, schaffte der Künstler es rechtzeitig dem „DDR-Realismus“ zu entfliehen.

An der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie begann er ein studentisches Leben. Hier unterrichteten ihn zum Beispiel Ferdinand Macketanz und Karl Otto Götz. Sigmar Polke studierte mit Gerhard Richter in der Klasse Götz. Bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre arbeitete Gerhard Richter als als Kunsterzieher, war 1967 Gastdozent an der Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg und seit dem Jahr 1971 an der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie als Professur für Malerei (1971-1993).

Seine Geburtstagsausstellung im Albertinum der Staatlichen Kunstsammlung Dresden von Februar bis Mai 2022 wurde von Gerhard Richter höchst persönlich kuratiert. Viele Exponate kamen aus Gerhard Richters Kunststiftung und so stehen Landschaften und Porträts neben Familienbildern, die ihm etwas bedeuten.

Aus dem Maler ist in letzter Zeit ein Zeichner geworden, der künstlerisch noch viel zu sagen hat. Der Künstler Gerhard Richter selbst schätzt die Direktheit seiner künstlerischen Aussagen auf Papier.

Gerhard Richter lebt und arbeitet in Köln.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was an American artist and co-founder as well as the most important exponent of American Pop Art
Andy Warhol is the most important representative and co-founder of the international pop art movement and one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His New York studio and the legendary factory have cult status.

 

Andy Warhol created iconic motifs that shaped and inspired Pop Art

Campbell’s soup can
Coca Cola bottle
Jackie Kennedy
Marilyn Monroe
celebrity portraits
Elvis Presley series
… on request
 

Andy Warhol declared screen printing to be an art medium (Silk screen) and duplication received a new technique in art history

As a successful advertising illustrator, he gave new input to the pop art movement through his screen prints.

Andy Warhol was shown at the 4th documenta (1968), the 6th documenta   (1977) and the 7th documenta (1982) in Kassel. Since Warhol presented the United States of America pavilion at the Venice art event (the Biennale) in 1976, he had established himself as the most important artist of his time.

 

The works of Andy Warhol can be found in important international museums and private collections:

2020 „Andy Warhol Now“ traveling exhibition – Cologne Museum Ludwig, London Tate Modern, Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and Aspen Art Museum in Colorado.
The exhibition „Andy Warhol – Pop Art Identities“ in the large exhibition and event hall of a former Dresden factory ends on June 12, 2022
 

As an artist, filmmaker, and publisher, Warhol expanded his genre and career, which began in 1950 as a graphic designer and illustrator for fashion and lifestyle magazines. From 1945 to 1949 he had studied commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now Carnegie Mellon University. He had degrees in painting and design. paintings and screenprints.

Warhol concentrated on pop culture subjects, Hollywood stars, comic and cartoon motifs such as Mickey Mouse, Popeye and Superman. Initially drawn by hand, screen printing soon became his technique. As a result, the artist distanced himself from the abstract expressionism of his time and from action painting. And he carried the spirit of his time, because Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg had also discovered these motifs for themselves.

In June 2022, the Rolling Stones had their concert in Munich (Germany). Mick Jagger shows the work of Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987) at the exhibition stand of Galerie Jeanne from Munich in a serial print on Arches Aquarelle handmade paper.

It was created in 1975 in an edition of 250 and was personally signed and numbered by Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is the most important representative and co-founder of the international Pop Art movement and one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His New York studio and the legendary „Factory“ have cult status. Warhol focused on pop culture subjects, Hollywood stars, comic and cartoon motifs. Initially drawn by hand, screen printing soon became his technique. This distanced the artist from the Abstract Expressionism of his time and from Action Painting. He hit the nerve of his time, because Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg had also discovered these motifs for themselves.

(H.W.)