| Michael Schultz | |
| Birth Date: | 4 November 1951 |
| Birth Place: | Freudenstadt |
| Occupation: | Gallerist |
| Nationality: | German |
Michael Schultz (born 4 November 1951) was an internationally active German gallerist. Michael Schultz Gallery / Galerie Michael Schultz operated in Berlin, Germany, Beijing, and Seoul. Thus he ran four galleries on two continents. The galleries provided cultural exchange, as Asian artists are shown in Europe and vice versa. The Galerie Michael Schultz GmbH & Co.KG was dissolved on November 7, 2019 due to the opening of insolvency proceedings. Schultz died of a brief serious illness on December 28, 2021.[1]
Born in Freudenstadt in Germany’s Black Forest on November 4, 1951, Michael Schultz, studied Music and Theater at the Freie Universität Berlin (1974–78). He was editor in chief of the now defunct "Berliner Kunstmagazin". He went on to become the managing director of the Michael Wewerka gallery (Berlin). In 1986 he founded Galerie Michael Schultz, and branched out in 2005 with "schultz contemporary". In the same year he also founded a gallery in Seoul (director: Cho Sung-sun), and in 2006 he established his fourth gallery, in Beijing (director: Hu Huijun). Gallery closed 2012. From 1985 to 2007 he served on the advisory board of Art Cologne art fair, and has been a member of the Art Committee KIAF, Seoul, Korea since 2005.[2] Since 2007 he was also a member of the Admission Committee for the "Art Fair.21", Cologne, Germany. He was Co-Founder of the "MunichContempo" art fair, Munich, Germany, which started in 2010.[3] Michael Schultz was among most major art fairs' regular exhibitors, such as ARCO Madrid, Art Miami, Armory New York.[4] Michael Schultz also closely collaborated with a number of international museums, for which he curated and organized exhibitions, such as the Georg-Kolbe-Museum in Berlin and the Kunsthalle Rostock, the Today Art Museum, Beijing and with both the National Museum of Contemporary At and the Gwangju Museum of Art in South Korea. On February 24, 2012 the 'Korean City of Art' Gwangju bestowed him with her honorary citizenship.[5]
Michael Schultz was arrested on October 17, 2019 in his Charlottenburg apartment on suspicion of selling artwork with forged authenticity certificates.[6] Prior to his arrest, a friend of Schultz was planning to sell a Gerhard Richter painting at Christie's in New York City with an estimate of €800,000 - 1,000,000.[7] The painting was previously given to the anonymous commissioner by Schultz as a form of payment. Upon background check with the Gerhard Richter Archive, it became apparent the picture was fake as the authentic work was previously displayed in Schultz gallery in 2014 where it appeared differently. After his arrest, the gallery subsequently closed its doors. Schultz was not imprisoned due to his health according to German press.[6] The remaining gallery stock is to be sold by a Cologne auction house named Van Ham through the insolvency administrator in June 2022.[8]
Michael Schultz mainly represented contemporary figurative artists from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, China, and Korea, like, in alphabetical order, Sonja Alhäuser, Arif Aziz, Chen Wenbo, Andy Denzler, Sven Drühl, Tommy Fitzpatrick, Feng Lu, Kristina Girke, Burkhard Held, Huang He, Huang Min, Stephan Kaluza, Kim Yusob, Bernd Kirschner, Ingo Kühl, Helge Leiberg, Ma Jun, Joel Morrison, Römer+Römer, Cornelia Schleime, SEO, Bong Chae Son, Maik Wolf, Zhu Cao. On the secondary market he worked with Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, A. R. Penck, Sigmar Polke, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter.[9]
More than 200 publications on curated artists and exhibitions:[10]