Origin and
History of the gallery

  • 1899
       

    1899 — Founding

    Friedrich Welz found­ed the frame and gild­ing work­shop of the same name in Salzburg. In 1934, his son, Friedrich Max­i­m­il­ian Welz (1903–1980), after his father’s death, took over the frame and gild­ing work­shop, which was con­tin­ued as a widow’s business.

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  • 1903
      1980

    1903–1980 — Friedrich Maximilian Welz 

    Friedrich M. Welz was born on Novem­ber 2, 1903, the fourth of five chil­dren in Salzburg (par­ents Friedrich and Karo­line Welz). After attend­ing sec­ondary school, he began train­ing in elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing. In 1918 he broke off his train­ing and went to Vien­na to learn car­pen­try and gild­ing, the man­u­al tools for his father’s frame business, […]

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  • 1910
       

    1910 — Palais Kuenburg

    The com­pa­ny has been based in the Palais Kuen­burg (Lan­gen­hof) at Sigmund–Haffner–Gasse 16 in the old town cen­ter of Salzburg since 1910.

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  • 1920
       

    1920 — Welz picture frame 

    After the journeyman’s exam­i­na­tion, Friedrich M. Welz found a job in the fac­to­ry of his uncle Max, who ran a mold­ing and frame fac­to­ry in Vien­na. “Welz pic­ture frame” already had a renowned rep­u­ta­tion. His uncle had con­tact with the artists of the time for whose works he cre­at­ed indi­vid­ual frames. Friedrich M. Welz got […]

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  • 1920s
       

    1920s — To travel

    On behalf of the com­pa­ny, Friedrich. M. Welz trav­eled through Europe, includ­ing Ire­land, Scot­land, Eng­land, Hol­land, Ger­many, Switzer­land, Italy, France, Hun­gary and Turkey. The ear­ly con­tacts with the visu­al arts in Vien­na and count­less muse­um vis­its on his trav­els through Europe deep­ened the knowl­edge of the lat­er art dealer.

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  • 1934
       

    1934 — Start of exhibition 

    The first art exhi­bi­tions have already been held in the frame and gild­ing work­shop. From the takeover of the com­pa­ny by Friedrich M. Welz in 1934, reg­u­lar exhi­bi­tions began in the court bar in the Palais Kuen­burg, which had served as a frame­work work­shop and was increas­ing­ly being con­vert­ed into an art trade. The license […]

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  • 1935
       

    1935 — Solo exhibitions

    In 1935 deci­sive solo exhi­bi­tions took place in Salzburg with works by Gus­tav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Richard Ger­stl and Oskar Kokosch­ka. At the same time, Friedrich M. Welz set stan­dards for his fur­ther activ­i­ties. Exhi­bi­tions by the Vien­na Seces­sion­ists, the Nötsch­er Cir­cle, French art from 19th and 20th cen­tu­ry and con­tem­po­rary Ital­ian art fol­lowed. In […]

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  • 1936
       

    1936 — MODERN MASTERS

    The sum­mer exhi­bi­tion in 1936 in the “Kun­st­sa­lon / Kun­st­laden Welz” ran under the title “MODERNE MEISTER”. A cat­a­log with 120 num­bers was pub­lished. The mod­ern mas­ters includ­ed Marc Cha­gall, Lovis Corinth, Paul Gau­guin, Max Lieber­mann, Edvard Munch, Paul Signac, Mau­rice Utril­lo and Mau­rice de Vlam­inck as well as the Aus­tri­ans Her­bert Boeckl, Anton Fais­tauer, Richard […]

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  • 1937
       

    1937 — Villa Wittek

    In order to be able to present larg­er exhi­bi­tions, Friedrich M. Welz rent­ed addi­tion­al rooms in the Vil­la Wit­tek at Schwarzs­trasse 7 in Salzburg in 1937. The gallery remained in these gallery rooms until 1945. The gen­er­al sto­ry con­tin­ued to be housed in Sig­­mund-Haffn­er-Gasse. The con­tacts of ear­li­er times, espe­cial­ly with France, revived dur­ing the war […]

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  • 1947
       

    1947 — Classic of modern art 

    As soon as it was pos­si­ble for Friedrich M. Welz after the war, he took over the man­age­ment of the gallery again. In addi­tion to numer­ous exhi­bi­tions in his own gallery, he also planned and real­ized many inter­na­tion­al arrange­ments, includ­ing the 1957 exhi­bi­tion “The Clas­sics of Aus­tri­an Mod­ern Art from Klimt to Wotru­ba” at the […]

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  • 1950
       

    1950 — Publishing company Gallery Welz 

    On the occa­sion of Anton Kolig’s exhi­bi­tion, Welz pub­lished the first pub­li­ca­tion, fol­lowed by anoth­er on Anton Stein­hart in 1949. The suc­cess of these two books prompt­ed the foun­da­tion of the pub­lish­ing house in 1950. With­in a short peri­od of time, the pub­lish­er suc­ceed­ed in gain­ing a pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­ty through its authors and pub­li­ca­tions that […]

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  • 1953
       

    1953 — SUMMER ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS 

    Around 1950 Friedrich M. Welz dealt more and more with the idea of found­ing a sum­mer acad­e­my for fine arts in Salzburg and win­ning Oskar Kokosch­ka as artis­tic direc­tor. The idea could be real­ized. In 1953, Friedrich M. Welz and Oskar Kokosch­ka found­ed the Inter­na­tion­al Sum­mer Acad­e­my for Fine Arts “School of See­ing” in Salzburg. […]

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  • 1956
       

    1956 — Oeuvre directory

    The most impor­tant achieve­ments of the pub­lish­er include the oeu­vre cat­a­log of Oskar Kokoschka’s paint­ings (1956), edit­ed by Hans Maria Wingler, the work of Gus­tav Klimt with a cat­a­log raison­né by Fritz Novot­ny and Johannes Dobai (1967), and the 4‑volume cat­a­log of the draw­ings Gus­tav Klimts by Alice Strobl, edit­ed by the Alberti­na Graph­ic Collection […]

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  • 1958
      59

    1958 59 — Gallery conversions

    The gallery was con­vert­ed and expand­ed for the first time. From mid–July to mid–September 1959, “WORKS OF EUROPEAN and PRECOLUMBIAN ART” and sculp­tures and draw­ings by “EMILIO GRECO” were pre­sent­ed in the new exhi­bi­tion rooms of Galerie Welz.

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  • 1974
       

    1974 — Today’s gallery space 

    The cur­rent gallery space goes back to a ren­o­va­tion in 1974 accord­ing to plans by Ger­hard Garste­nauer and an inte­ri­or design redesign under the direc­tion of the archi­tect Volk­mar Burgstaller.

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  • 1977
       

    1977 — MODERN GALLERY AND GRAPHICAL COLLECTION RUPERTINUM 

    Friedrich M. Welz did not only shop for the gallery and orga­nized exhi­bi­tions through­out his life, but also built up a per­son­al col­lec­tion. The art deal­er and pub­lish­er Friedrich M. Welz laid the foun­da­tions in 1977 with the dona­tion of his col­lec­tion, which includ­ed Oskar Kokoschka’s entire graph­ic work and the visu­al tes­ti­mo­ny of important […]

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  • 1978
       

    1978 — Limited company foundation 

    1973 the com­pa­ny becomes a Ges. m. b. H. Friedrich M. Welz was the sole own­er of the Galerie Welz until the end of 1973. With the con­ver­sion into a Ges. m. b. H. long-term employ­ees become co-part­n­ers. Welz remains the major­i­ty share­hold­er and man­ag­ing direc­tor. In 1978 Friedrich M. Welz hands over his shares […]

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  • 1980s
       

    1980s — Exhibitions

    Fol­low­ing the tra­di­tion of the gallery, icons and vedute from the 19th cen­tu­ry were pre­sent­ed in addi­tion to works of con­tem­po­rary art and clas­sic mod­ern art until the late 1970s. In the 1980s the gallery focused its exhi­bi­tion activ­i­ties more and more on works of con­tem­po­rary art and clas­si­cal mod­ern art, includ­ing Lovis Corinth, Gus­tav Klimt, […]

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  • 1990s
       

    1990s — Exhibitions

    In the 1990s there fol­lowed graph­ic exhi­bi­tions with works by Theophile Steinlen, Le Cor­busier, Vision Russe and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Ger­man Expres­sion­ism, among oth­ers. In addi­tion to con­tem­po­rary art, exhi­bi­tions were shown with works by André Derain, Max Ernst, Ernst Lud­wig Kirch­n­er, Joan Miró and Hen­ry Moore.

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  • 2000s
       
    Bonnard

    2000s — Exhibitions

    Since the late 1980s, the gallery’s pro­gram has increas­ing­ly focused on con­tem­po­rary art, clas­si­cal mod­ernism and Ger­man expres­sion­ism. Exhi­bi­tions with works by Frieden­sre­ich Hun­dert­wass­er, Antoni Tàpies, Pierre Bon­nard, Emil Schu­mach­er, George Grosz could be real­ized. The gallery strives for a long-term col­lab­o­ra­tion with the artists. Artists such as Her­bert Albrecht, Her­bert Bre­it­er, Paul Flo­ra, Rudolf […]

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  • 2008
       

    2008 — Catalog of works by Oskar Kokoschka 

    Numer­ous mono­graphs and art books for art lovers and col­lec­tors on Ger­hart Fran­kl, Rudolf Hradil, Gus­tav Klimt, Oskar Kokosch­ka, Anton Mahringer, Hannes Mlenek, Kurt Moldovan, Armin Pram­staller and many more, as well as overviews of works about Friedrich Adu­atz, Eduard Bäumer, Tina Blau, were cre­at­ed at Ver­lag Galerie Welz , Her­bert Bre­it­er, Ger­hart Fran­kl, Richard […]

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  • today
       

    today — Gallery today

    Today the gallery is man­aged by the man­ag­ing part­ners, Hubert Lendl and Mar­tin Kelz. Con­tem­po­rary art and clas­si­cal mod­ernism con­tin­ue to be the focus.

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18991903–1980191019201920s193419351936193719471950195319561958 591974197719781980s1990s2000s2008today

All rights reserved, in par­tic­u­lar the right of repro­duc­tion, dis­tri­b­u­tion and trans­la­tion.
If there is evi­dence of jus­ti­fied claims, these will be com­pen­sat­ed by Galerie Welz.

Pho­to cred­its:
© Welz Gallery
© Prove­nance for­mer­ly owned by the art deal­er and frame man­u­fac­tur­er Frank Uhlig, Vienna