PUBL: Elisabeth Eggimann Gerber, Jüdische Kunsthändler und Galeristen, Eine Kulturgeschichte des Schweizer Kunsthandels mit einem Porträt der Galerie Aktuaryus in Zürich, 1924-46, Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2021 (available for free download)

Book presentation: 10.2.22 19h, Tödistr. 48, 8002 Zurich, an event by Omanut in collaboration with Galerie Alex Schlesinger, Zurich, registration required (omanut@omanut.ch).

Summary: The study contributes to the cultural history of the modern art trade in Switzerland, focusing on the work of Jewish art dealers and gallery owners. The Moos, Bollag and Aktuaryus were among the first art dealer families of Jewish origin on the Swiss art market. They and others were committed to the Impressionists and modern French art, promoted contemporary Swiss art and organized auctions.

In their function as art mediators, they established themselves between artists and collectors and thus built new art worlds. At the intersection of (European) Jewish identity and the history of art reception, their personal motives, professional approaches, strategic adaptations to the market, careers, and historical circumstances are illuminated. In a comprehensive portrait of the Aktuaryus Gallery in Zurich (1924-46), the work of the Jewish art dealer and gallerist Toni Aktuaryus (1893-1946) is also recapitulated for the first time.

Free download:
https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/pdf/10.7788/9783412523763

About the author: Licentiate in general history, comparative literature and art history (1997), assistant at the Swiss Farmhouse Research (1997-98), assistant to the museum curator at the Ritterhaus Bubikon (1998), research assistant at the Archives of Contemporary History at the ETHZ (1998-2002), scholarship holder of the Swiss National Science Foundation and doctoral student at the Institute for Jewish Studies of the University of Basel (2003-2007), freelance academic activity as author of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (biographical articles on the history of technology, art, and the art trade in the 19th and 20th centuries) and the Art Market Dictionary (entries on Aktuaryus and Bollag galleries), PhD from the University of Basel (2019). Member of Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, Basel (FAG) and Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Geschichte. List of publication (University Basel): https://forschdb2.unibas.ch/inf2/c/pubsearch/list.php?back=mainpage&unibaspublicID=itarmfemwk.