Summary of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
Kahnweiler is recognized as one of the most important art dealers of the twentieth century. While still in his early twenties, he had spotted the potential in a new generation of artists - the likes of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and Kees van Dongen - all of whom he represented through his famous Galerie Kahnweiler. Though he also dealt in Fauvist works, he would quickly emerge as the principle dealer in (and intellectual backer of) Cubism. But it was perhaps his long (and at times fractious) association with Picasso that confirmed him his place in the mythology of European modernism. As a German Jew living in Paris in the first half of the century, he was driven out of the French capital during both World Wars. But the exile didn't stop him, as he found the time to write Der Weg zum Kubismus (The Rise of Cubism), a book that gave the world the blueprint for Cubist theory and practice and which remains a seminal text in the history of modern art to this day.
Accomplishments
- Galerie Kahnweiler ranks as one of the most important galleries in art history. Possessed of an imposing self-belief and savvy business acumen, Kahnweiler confronted the prejudices of the Parisian art establishment by creating an unique creative environment that allowed some of the greatest artists of the early twentieth century to rise up and dominate the burgeoning avant-garde scene.
- Pablo Picasso was the first superstar artist of the new millennium and the artist owed much of his success to Kahnweiler. It was the German who saw the potential for Picasso's seminal Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and it was through Kahnweiler, and his sense for the power of promotion and publicity, that the Spaniard became the artist of choice amongst the most progressive collectors.
- Kahnweiler's influence extended beyond France. Indeed, he formed an international network of dealers through whom he was able to "introduce" his artists to new audiences in Europe and America. In a century where the hub of the art world shifted between two capitals, one might say that Kahnweiler was as intrinsic to the international success of the Parisian avant-garde as Clement Greenberg would be to the success of the New York avant-garde.
- Like Greenberg (who thirty years later convinced the world of the value of Abstract Expressionism), Kahnweiler proved to be a formidable and persuasive writer and theoretician. Through his book Der Weg zum Kubismus (not to mention various articles) he was able to put into words how the radical new art of Cubism offered the open-minded viewer a brand new way of looking at the world.
Biography of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was born Heinrich Kahnweiler in 1884. His family had relocated to the city of Mannheim, in the region of Baden, from the much smaller town of Rockenhausen in the Rhineland-Palatinate province.
