Monaco’s newest art gallery, La Galerie Birch Monaco, opened last night to rave reviews from visitors who embarked on an ‘artistic adventure’ in its charming premises on Monaco’s Rock.
Dynamic Danish duo Anette Birch and her daughter Caroline, 20, welcomed more than 70 people to the opening of their new gallery – almost 70 years to the day that their father and grandfather, Borge Birch, founded Galerie Birch in Copenhagen. Anette spent more than a year searching for a perfect location to exhibit her father’s legacy in Monaco and last night’s vernissage in the gallery on rue Basse, Monaco-Ville, was the realisation of a long-held dream.
Anette said: “It is wonderful to finally be able to share my father’s legacy with the people of Monaco, my adoptive home. I have spent a lot of time planning the new gallery here on the Rock, I walked the streets of the Principality looking for the ideal location, and I believe I found it here on the Rock. Today feels like my dreams have come true.
“I was delighted by the response, it was the perfect way to launch my new project and I am very grateful to everyone who came to find out more about our ‘artistic adventure’.”
At the forefront of last night’s opening exhibition was paintings by world famous artist Asger Jorn, co-founder of the CoBrA art movement in Paris in 1948. Birch was one of the first art dealers to discover the Danish artist and remained friends with him until his death in 1973. Other artists from this avant-garde movement were also represented including Egill Jacobsen, Pierre Alechinsky and Carl-Henning Pedersen, as well as important pieces from artists who were friends with Jorn, and subsequently Birch, such as Walasse Ting, Jan Voss and Pinot Gallizio.
Last night’s opening was just the first of many that Anette and Caroline, a third generation art connoisseur who also runs her own Birch Copenhagen – Contemporary Art Gallery in Denmark, plan to host in Monaco over the summer.
From next Tuesday July 4th, the charismatic team will be welcoming visitors to their Tuesday on The Rock events, from 4-7 pm, where art lovers or merely the curious are invited to come and discover works by some of Europe’s most prolific contemporary artists over a glass of Anette’s favourite cocktail. Tuesday on The Rock will run every week from July 4th until September 26th.
Gallery Birch Monaco, 17 rue Basse, will be open from 11 am to 1 pm, 2.30-6 pm, on Tuesday until Friday and from 11 am to 3 pm on Saturday.
