A brand new Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

It isn’t every day that a major new gallery opens in Mayfair – and when was the last time you could visit an extraordinary collection of radical, conceptual and minimalist post-war American art in the capital? That’s right, hardly ever – and never. Think again. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac opens on Dover Street at the end of this month, a London outpost for a prestigious dealership already established in Paris and Salzburg. Thanks to a sensitive refurbishment of the magnificent 18^th century mansion Ely House, Ropac’s arrival couldn’t be more auspicious. Yet, within, the art on show includes some of the most revolutionary and anti-conservative pieces ever created.

The dealership has acquired the huge collection of German-born collector Egidio Marzona, who, in the 1960s, when he was in his early twenties, began to buy many of the radical, politicised minimalist concept pieces then being produced by American artists, as student revolt and political turmoil shook the West.

The Marzona Collection includes work by the great names of 1950s-1970s conceptual work, including Carl Andre (he of Equivalent VIII, the brick assemblage bought by the Tate in the 1970s, leading to one of the most explosive art rows ever to erupt in Britain), Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra and many others who aimed to shake society out of comfortable complacency.

Also showing for Ropac’s opening will be Gilbert & George’s early 1970s Drinking Pieces and Video Sculpture – the pair, still then largely unknown, get drunk together, recording themselves on the way to oblivion. As if the Marzona Collection and rare Gilbert & George wasn’t enough of a fanfare for the new gallery, Ropac is offering early pieces by the great German conceptualist, Joseph Beuys, including drawings and sculpture. And to cap it all, a new talent will join those greats – in the shape of a six-month residency at Ely House by young British artist Oliver Beer, who uses music, a sense place and sculpture to create extraordinary performance pieces. All of this at just one London address. Get over there.