Galerie Max Hetzler, a global contemporary art gallery, has been a significant player in the international art scene since its establishment in Stuttgart in 1974. The gallery represents nearly sixty artists across six spaces in Berlin, Paris, and London, with an exhibition space and artist residency in Marfa, Texas. In its early years, the gallery championed the generation of influential German artists emerging at the time, including Albert Oehlen, Günther Förg, and Martin Kippenberger, and their international counterparts Christopher Wool, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, and Cady Noland, among others. Over several decades, Galerie Max Hetzler has expanded, having worked with nearly 175 artists and representing a strong core of leading international artists and supporting the legacy of several estates. The gallery’s programme is conceived as a fruitful dialogue between established artists and younger generations, representing a constantly evolving discourse.

In 1983, the gallery moved to Cologne, then the artistic center of Germany, and exhibited some of the most significant German and American artists of the 1980s. The ten years spent in Cologne were decisive and established Galerie Max Hetzler on the international scene. A small group formed around some of the artists included in Junge Kunst aus Westdeutschland – Werner Büttner, Günther Förg, Martin Kippenberger, Reinhard Mucha, Albert Oehlen and his brother Markus. These artists forged the identity of the gallery and found in it a place of freedom, dialogue, and interchange – a space where stances and positions harmonized and conflicted.

In 1989, Hetzler went into partnership with Luhring Augustine to open a space in Santa Monica, California. He continued to work regularly with two of the most important American contemporary artists: Jeff Koons and Christopher Wool, who had his first solo exhibition at the gallery in 1989.

In 1993, following Germany’s reunification, the gallery made its next move to a city full of potential: Berlin. The gallery slowly changed over the years, and Max with it. He broadened the gallery through the artists to new scenes like Turkey, Brazil, or Palestine. He has done a great deal to establish and secure the place of Berlin on the map of contemporary art by relying on a method successfully tested since the 1970s: cooperation.

In May 2014, the gallery opened a new space in Paris, with an exhibition of Albert Oehlen, thirty-three years after his first exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler. The gallery’s story continues in London, where it inaugurated a new space in 2018 with an exhibition of early paintings by André Butzer. Situated in the heart of Mayfair, a historic district for the arts, the London space enables Galerie Max Hetzler to continue its longstanding commitment to exhibiting the work of contemporary artists across generations.

In 2020, Galerie Max Hetzler opened its third space in Berlin, a street-level gallery in a magnificent art nouveau building at Bleibtreustraße 15/16, the former home of a pioneering German avant-garde art dealer Alfred Flechtheim (1878–1937). In 2021, the gallery inaugurated its latest space in Berlin, at Potsdamer Straße 77–87, a 600sqm space with an impressive glass façade which formerly housed the printing press for Berlin’s daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, with an exhibition of new paintings by André Butzer. In 2022 the gallery established Hetzler Marfa, a new space and artist residency in Texas which opened with an exhibition of works by Albert Oehlen.

Galerie Max Hetzler stands as a beacon of contemporary art in the global art scene. Its commitment to fostering artistic talent, promoting international artists, and nurturing a love for art among the public has made it a significant player in the global art scene. As it continues to evolve and expand, Galerie Max Hetzler remains dedicated to its mission of supporting and promoting the work of innovative and pioneering artists.