The Blind Gallerist

By Johann König and Daniel Schreiber
The autobiography of Johann König, an influential art gallerist who lost his vision at the age of twelve.

Distributed for Sternberg Press

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Summary

The autobiography of Johann König, an influential art gallerist who lost his vision at the age of twelve.

Andy Warhol, Isa Genzken, On Kawara, Rosemarie Trockel—from childhood, Johann König has been surrounded by great artists and their art. At the age of twenty, König founded a gallery, despite the fact that he could hardly see anything.

What does it mean not to be able to see and to become a gallery owner? How does one access art when one can't rely on one's eyes? What is seeing at all when the world around you blurs? As a child, Johann König was given Indian cassettes by Gerhard Richter. Growing up Johann's father Kasper took him to the Städelschule (where Kaspar König was professor and later rector) and to Jeff Koons's studio in New York. At the age of twelve, a tragic accident threw him completely off course. In the midst of this crisis, and at his lowest point, König realized that art would be his salvation. Today in Berlin, from a concrete church built in the 1960s, he runs one of Germany's most spectacular galleries.

The Blind Gallerist has received rave reviews and was been mentioned all across German media upon its German release.

Paperback

$26.95 T ISBN: 9783956796272 160 pp. | 5.25 in x 7.75 in 72 color illus., 3 b&w illus.

Not for sale in Europe or the UK.

Authors

Johann König

Johann König, born in 1981, is a German gallery owner. His Berlin gallery is considered one of the most important for contemporary art in Germany. After leasing the St. Agnes Church in Kreuzberg, built in the 1960s, he renovated for three years before opening it in 2015 as a spectacular exhibition space, with exhibitions that have exerted a great attraction on art lovers and collectors. The gallery's artists include Monica Bonvicini, Katharina Grosse, Jeppe Hein, Michael Sailstorfer, Norbert Bisky, and Erwin Wurm.

Daniel Schreiber

Reviews

  • It is a kind of personal statement of faith, and it makes for touching and sometimes funny reading [...] a fascinating text.

    Kito Nedo

    Frieze

  • The book not only tells the moving story of an accident, it also reflects our visual society—and reveals a lot about the mechanisms of the art world.

  • While reading this memoir you ask yourself again and again, how was this all possible, if your eyesight is so limited. […] this is a manifesto of someone who tells us what it is like to see and experience the world as a seeing person as well as a blind person. Always knowing that one will return to darkness eventually.