Gallerist Bruno Bischofberger, Who Catalyzed Basquiat/Warhol Collaboration, Dies at 86

"Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger, who fostered the famous collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, died on May 9. He was eighty-six. His death was announced on May 9 by his namesake gallery, which he had operated since 1963. Bischofberger played a crucial role in introducing US Pop artists to Europe and forged close, enduring relationships with many of those he represented."

"The following year, Bischofberger visited New York and met Warhol in person. In 1968, he convinced the artist to part with eleven paintings, including Superman, Batman, a Coca-Cola, and several works from the 1962-65 “Death and Disaster” series. Though Bischofberger was convinced he had paid too high a price, the deal cemented a personal and professional bond between the pair that would lead Warhol to offer the gallerist first right of refusal of his artwork."

"Among these were Warhol and Basquiat, whose collaboration resulted in Warhol's return to painting twenty years after he abandoned the practice. Bischofberger's talent as a gallerist also had an artistic component, one that reached viewers all over the world: His fancifully idiosyncratic ads graced Artforum 's back cover for nearly four decades."

"Having obtained his Ph.D. in Swiss folk art from the University of Zurich, he opened Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, then called City-Galerie, on Zurich's Pelikanstrassein 1963 (the gallery would move three times before arriving at its current location, in Männedorf, Zurich). Two years later, at the age of twenty-five, he mounted “Pop Art,” an exhibition of the form then hotly ascendant in New York and featuring work by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann."

Bruno Bischofberger, a Swiss art dealer, died on May 9 at age eighty-six. He ran a Zurich gallery he opened in 1963 and helped introduce US Pop artists to Europe through long-lasting relationships with artists he represented. He met Andy Warhol in New York in 1967 and persuaded Warhol to sell eleven paintings, including works such as Superman, Batman, and Coca-Cola, plus pieces from the Death and Disaster series. The transaction strengthened their bond and led Warhol to grant him first right of refusal. Bischofberger also supported Warhol’s return to painting and fostered the collaboration between Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His distinctive Artforum advertisements appeared for nearly four decades.

Read at Artforum