Mother and daughter duo open Monaco gallery

Galerie Birch_Photo by Valeria Maselli_013Monaco’s newest art gallery, La Galerie Birch Monaco, opened Tuesday night to rave reviews from visitors who embarked on an “artistic adventure” in its charming premises on the 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.

Ms Birch 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 were 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.

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Photo: Valeria Maselli
Photo: Valeria Maselli

Tuesday’s vernissage was 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 July 4, the charismatic team will be welcoming visitors to their “Tuesday on The Rock” events, from 4-7pm, 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 Ms Birch’s favourite cocktail. Tuesday on The Rock will run every week from until September 26.

Galerie Birch Monaco, 17 rue Basse, is open from 11 am to 1 pm, 2:30-6 pm, on Tuesday until Friday, and from 11 am to 3 pm on Saturday.

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