Established in San Francisco, Berggruen Gallery has been a cornerstone of the United States’ West Coast art scene for over five decades. Working across both primary and secondary markets, Berggruen Gallery specializes in the exhibition and sale of 20th and 21st-century American and European paintings, drawings, sculpture, and limited edition prints. The gallery has built a consistent history of engaging international audiences with pioneering art, as well as acting as a bridge introducing New York and international artists to West Coast collectors and art enthusiasts.
Since its opening in 1970, Berggruen Gallery has been an advocate for the Bay Area’s leading artists. The curatorial program has had a robust history of showcasing major postwar masters alongside emerging contemporary artists. The gallery played an instrumental role in building the careers of California masters such as Richard Diebenkorn, Mark di Suvero, David Park, Ed Ruscha, Paul Wonner, and Wayne Thiebaud, as well as staging ambitious exhibitions of a historic nature, including works by Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, Georgia O’Keeffe, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Cornell, Henry Moore, and Henri Matisse. Berggruen Gallery was also the first San Francisco gallery to show works by Helen Frankenthaler and Frank Stella.
The first gallery of national stature in San Francisco, Berggruen Gallery was a trailblazer for the burgeoning California art scene, and played a fundamental role in cultivating a group of dedicated collectors in the United States before garnering a global following.
Berggruen is known for growing the careers of California artists Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn, and Ed Ruscha, as well as other artists associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement such as Nathan Oliveira, Elmer Bischoff, Paul Wonner, and David Park. Berggruen is also known for introducing West Coast collectors to major East Coast artists as they were emerging such as Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Mark di Suvero. Berggruen has played an instrumental role in developing several notable private and institutional collections on the West Coast by introducing these collectors to important artists, as well as helping to launch the careers of then-emerging artists, including Tom Sachs, Barry McGee, Lorna Simpson, and Jennifer Bartlett. Berggruen has exhibited work by such influential artists as Georgia O'Keeffe, Philip Guston, Mark Tansey, Joseph Cornell, Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, Jim Dine, Alexander Calder, and Henry Moore.
Today, Berggruen Gallery continues to be a platform for both emerging and established artists, recently staging exhibitions for Diana Al-Hadid, Michael Craig-Martin, John Alexander, Darren Waterston, Matt Kleberg, Jane Hammond, Odili Donald Odita, and Anna Kunz. Gallery artists are included in over a hundred public collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The gallery has been profiled in major publications such as The New York Times, Vogue, The Guardian, GQ, ELLE, and Forbes.
As a leader of the San Francisco art scene, Berggruen Gallery consistently works with institutions in the Bay Area and across the United States. A member of the Art Dealers Association of America since 1975, Berggruen Gallery is housed in a renovated, historic three story building, the gallery features a 10,000 square foot exhibition space, including two floors of galleries and a floor dedicated to project and event space.