Jürgen Becker, gallery owner: "My recommendation is a work by Sigmar Polke, for example this gouache. Sigmar Polke is for sure one of the most important contemporary artists, who always surprises with his imagination paired with humour and intelligence - a brilliant artist, whose enormous creativity finds its expression in images, photos and prints.”

If you asked a gallery owner for a special Christmas present suggestion, he is bound to suggest a picture, photo or sculpture.

So it's natural that Hamburg gallery owner Jürgen Becker, chooses “RaubÜberfall” (“armed robbery”),a work of the Silesian-born artist Sigmar Polke.

About Jürgen Becker

He first met artists like Polke, Beuys, Palermo, Sieverding Knoebel and Ruthenbeck when he was a student in Bonn, where he completed a law degree in 1974. In the early Seventies he began to assemble his own art collection, while up until 1974 working for for Deutsche Bank. He then concentrated solely on collecting and dealing in works of art in New York. During his time in the US he extended his contacts to international artists such as Richard Tuttle, Fred Sanback and Keith Sonnier.

The Jürgen Becker Gallery was opened in 1989 and works with the following artists: Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, James Welling, Allen Ruppersberg, Keith Sonnier and John Waters.

2006 will see exhibitions by Tuttle and Prince, and a global project with prints by Bruce Nauman, Richard Artschwager, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Palermo, Katharina Fritsch, Robert Barry, Tomas Schmit, etc. The gallery also showcases young artists like Klaus Hartmann or Barbara Zenner, graduates of Hamburg's art school.

The picture’s price is 'on request'. For further information please email: [email protected] or visit www.galeriebecker.de.

Text: Classic Driver
Photos: Rüdiger Gierahn