Gabriele Henkel (née Hünermann; 9 December 1931 - 28 September 2017),[1] was a German art collector, art patron, author and artist. She was married to Konrad Henkel, the long-standing head of the Henkel Group.
Life
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Gabriele Hünermann was born in Düsseldorf, a daughter of Theodor Hünermann, chief physician of the Marien Hospital there.[citation needed] After a deprived war childhood without schooling, her father sent her to London to be an au pair at the age of 16. After which she worked as a journalist for the weekly magazines, The Observer and Newsweek, and was the youngest member of the Federal Press Conference when she met Konrad Henkel at the Rhenish Carnival.[citation needed] The couple married in 1955, she took her husband's last name.[citation needed]
From 1970 to 2000, she collected art from all over the world for the Henkel company, therefore building up the Group's art collection.[2] The works are located in the offices, meeting rooms and staff canteens at the companies headquarters in Düsseldorf.[3] The collection comprises about 4,000 works.[4]
Since 1972 she was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[5][6]
Through Bazon Brock, she received a lectureship for art history at the University of Wuppertal in 1983 where she became an honorary professor for communication design.[6]
In 2001 she founded the Kythera Cultural Foundation, which has been awarding the Kythera Prize annually since 2002.[citation needed]
Henkel was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st Class.[3] In 2009, she was honored with the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for her commitment to art and art education.[7]
In 2016, she exhibited 40 pieces from the collection of classical modern and contemporary art outside the company for the first time at the K 20 art collection in Düsseldorf.[3]
In August 2017, she published her memoirs under the title Die Zeit ist ein Augenblick.[8] On 28 September 2017, an exhibition of Gabriele Henkel's works was opened at the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf. She played a decisive role in the design. She was not present at the vernissage; she died the following night at the age of 85.[9]
Konrad and Gabriele Henkel are the parents of Christoph Henkel.[citation needed]
Literature
edit- Tafelbilder. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 978-3-7701-2418-3
- Les beaux restes – Bilder der Vergänglichkeit. Klinkhardt und Biermann, Munich 1995, ISBN 978-3-7814-0389-5
- Heine. Ein Bildermärchen. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 1997, ISBN 978-3-7701-4192-0
- Gabriele Henkel: Weiß ist alle Theorie – Zwischenräume, Richter, Düsseldorff 2001, ISBN 978-3-933807-62-5
- The Collection at Home – Sammlung Henkel. Zwei Bände, DuMont Literatur und Kunst Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-8321-9147-4 and ISBN 978-3-8321-9192-4
- Aquarelle – Malereien am Wasser. Grupello Verlag, Düsseldorf 2015, ISBN 978-3-89978-228-8
- Die Zeit ist ein Augenblick: Erinnerungen. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-641-22497-4
References
edit- ^ Koch, Brigitte; Düsseldorf. "Gabriele Henkel verstorben: Eine schillernde, lebensfrohe Diva". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ "Henkel stellt Kunstkatalog "Sammlung Henkel" vor / Eine Kunstsammlung für alle Mitarbeiter". presseportal.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ a b c Henkel. "Trauer um Prof. Gabriele Henkel". www.henkel.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ "Kunstsammlerin und Mäzenin Gabriele Henkel ist tot". chrismon.evangelisch.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ SPIEGEL, DER (17 March 2001). "Die reichsten Deutschen: Familie Henkel - Milliarden mit Megaperls - DER SPIEGEL - Wirtschaft". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ a b "Die Zeit ist ein Augenblick". Verlagsgruppe Random House (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ "Der Verdienstorden des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen | Das Landesportal Wir in NRW". www.land.nrw (in German). 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ Zeitung, Westdeutsche (13 August 2017). "Buch: Gabriele Henkel: Die Memoiren der "weißen Dame"". Westdeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ^ "Düsseldorf Hetjens-Museum: Gabriele Henkel bittet zu Tisch / Kunstkritik / Kultur / report-d.de - Düsseldorf Internetzeitung". www.report-d.de. Archived from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2020-03-25.