Scope and Content of Collection
The Galerie Paul Maenz Köln archive documents the gallery's extensive engagement in the
promotion of contemporary and avant-garde art in Germany. Maenz represented, exhibited,
loaned and sold works by many of the leading artists involved with Conceptualism, the
Trans-avantgarde, and German Neo-Expressionism. The bulk of the material spans the gallery's
entire operations from 1970 when Maenz first wrote to numerous artists about his tentative
plans to open a gallery, to 1990 the year the gallery closed its doors.
The collection contains letters and papers relating to the day-to-day activities of the
gallery. Maenz corresponded with numerous artists, museum personnel, gallery owners, private
collectors throughout Europe and North America, and art critics. The content of most letters
relates to artists' works and theories, exhibitions and installations, private and public
acquisitions, loan and consignment agreements, and photograph requests. There are a small
number of financial papers, which almost fully document the gallery's finances from
1979-1980, and reference material in the form of artists' biographies, press clippings and
printed matter. Approximately half of the collection consists of photographs, color
transparencies, negatives, contact sheets and slides documenting works by artists and almost
all of the gallery's exhibitions.
Arrangement note
The collection is organized in nine series:
Series I. General correspondence, 1970-1990;
Series II. Artists'
correspondence, 1970-1980;
Series III. Loans, 1975-1990;
Series IV. Photograph permission requests,
1983-1990;
Series V. Financial, 1979-1980;
Series VI. Artists' biographies, ca. 1977-1990;
Series VII. Clippings and
miscellaneous ephemera, 1956-1991;
Series VIII. Gallery publications and printed matter,
1970-1990;
Series IX. Photographs, ca. 1971-1990
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