Art galleryDavid Zwirner
A New York gallery with one of the strongest rosters of living painters and of post-war estates.
- Founded
- 1993, New York
- Founded by
- David Zwirner
- Run from
- New York
- Spaces in
- 5 cities
- Highest reported sale
- $20 million
The gallery
David Zwirner grew up in the trade: his father, Rudolf Zwirner, was one of the leading dealers in Cologne and a founder of the first modern art fair. He opened his own gallery in SoHo, in New York, in 1993, with an exhibition of the Austrian sculptor Franz West, and moved to Chelsea in 2002.
The gallery built its name on artists it took on early and kept, among them Luc Tuymans, Marlene Dumas and Neo Rauch, and on the estates and foundations of American artists of the 1950s and 1960s: Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Joan Mitchell, Ruth Asawa, Alice Neel. London followed in 2012, Hong Kong in 2018, Paris in 2019 and Los Angeles in 2023.
It reports its sales at fairs in detail, which is why it appears so often in the lists of what sold. In 2018 it was reported to turn over more than 500 million dollars a year.
Reported sales
- Joan MitchellSunflowers, 1990 to 1991$20 millionArt Basel 2024
- Ruth AsawaUntitled, a hanging wire sculpture, 1955$9.5 millionArt Basel 2025
- Ruth AsawaA hanging sculpture$7.5 millionArt Basel Paris 2025
- Gerhard RichterA painting$6.8 millionArt Basel 2025
- Gerhard RichterAbstraktes Bild, 2016$6 millionArt Basel 2024
- Gerhard RichterAn abstract painting, 2016$5.5 millionArt Basel Miami Beach 2025
- Martin KippenbergerA painting$5 millionArt Basel Paris 2025
- Alice NeelPregnant Nude, 1967$3.3 millionArt Basel Miami Beach 2025
- Gerhard RichterSTRIP-TOWER, 2023$2.5 millionArt Basel 2023
Prices as the gallery reported them from its stand at the fair named. They are the seller's figures, usually the asking price, and cannot be checked.
Artists and estates
- Gerhard Richter
- Yayoi Kusama
- Marlene Dumas
- Luc Tuymans
- Kerry James Marshall
- Wolfgang Tillmans
- Neo Rauch
- Lisa Yuskavage
- Elizabeth Peyton
- Dana Schutz
- Michaël Borremans
- Bridget Riley
- William Eggleston
- Joan Mitchell
- Ruth Asawa
- Donald Judd
- Dan Flavin
- Josef Albers
- Alice Neel
- On Kawara
A selection. Rosters change, and the gallery's own site has the full list.
Milestones
- 1993The gallery opens in SoHo with an exhibition of Franz West.
- 2002The move to West 19th Street, in Chelsea.
- 2012London opens in a Mayfair town house.
- 2018Hong Kong opens in the H Queen's building.
- 2019Paris opens in the Marais.
- 2023Los Angeles opens, thirty years after the gallery was founded.