Galerie Gmurzynska is an international art gallery with locations in Switzerland in Zurich and Zug, as well as the Galerie Gmurzynska US Inc. in the United States in New York. The gallery specialises in 20th century Modern and Contemporary Classics.

The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany by the Polish born Antonina Gmurzynska. From the beginning, the gallery was interested in organizing exhibitions that had a documentary character both through the choice of themes and through its publications. In its first year, an important exhibition of Japanese art from the 14th to the 19th century was held followed by an exhibition of French masterpieces from Pierre Bonnard up until the mid 20th century. The following year the gallery presented the work of David Burliuk – the first Avant-garde exhibition.

Up until 1971 the gallery’s program focused on Surrealism and international Constructivism and the Avant-garde. Subsequently, classic Modern art with a special focus on Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Fernand Léger, Lyonel Feininger, and Robert and Sonia Delaunay were incorporated into the gallery’s program.

From 1986 Krystyna Gmurzynska continued expanding the gallery’s classic modern program and in 1991 the gallery’s new Cologne building constructed by the Swiss architect, Roger Diener, was inaugurated. In 1993 the gallery expanded to a second location to a 14th century building in the heart of Zug, Switzerland. This building has given the gallery the opportunity to experiment with new exhibitions such as the French born Yves Klein and the Ukrainian born Kazimir Malevich or Aspects of Futurism in 1995, by juxtaposing modern and contemporary art with classic architectural elements of the Zug space. In 1996 Mathias Rastorfer became a partner of both extensions of the gallery, having been with it since 1991 when he left his position as Associate Director at Pace Gallery in New York. Under his influence and in addition to the gallery’s traditional repertoire, the work of contemporary artists such as Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson and Yves Klein amongst others, were incorporated. Ten years later the gallery opened its third branch in St. Moritz at Via Serlas, in 2003.

Forty years after its establishment, Krystyna Gmurzynska and Mathias Rastorfer relocated the gallery from Cologne to its new flagship location in Zurich’s Paradeplatz in 2005. The building that currently houses the gallery dates back to 1857 and it is the same block in which the Dada movement was founded in 1917, presenting its first exhibition at Galerie Dada. The first exhibition in Zurich was a solo exhibition by Alexander Calder, entitled The Modernist, that was executed in close collaboration with the Calder Foundation, who described it is as “rare to experience a presentation of this quality outside of a museum”. As with each exhibition at the gallery the show featured a fully illustrated catalogue with important essays.