COLOGNE.- Lively, open to change, daring and innovative - these are the qualities ART COLOGNE (13th-17th April 2011) is displaying 45 years after it was founded. The 45th International Art Fair is once again the event that showcases the works of well-established artists and also very promising up and coming talents, where art dealers with long years of experience engage in dialogue with daring young gallery owners. About 200 galleries from 22 countries are offering a comprehensive overview ranging from Modernist works to post-war art to contemporary art coming straight from today's studios.

Some of the most important examples of Polish contemporary art are the works of the late Thadeusz Kantor, who died in 1990. Kantor's estate is represented by Galerie Isabella Czarnowska (Berlin), which is showing at its stand 25 drawings by this multitalented artist, who also was a theatre director and stage designer. Raster (Warsaw) will also show works by Polish artists, including Michal Budny, who at last year's ART COLOGNE had a NEW POSITIONS stand at Galerie nächst St. Stephan (Vienna) and currently has an exhibition at the Kunstverein in Düsseldorf.

Erika Deak Gallery (Budapest) is concentrating on Hungarian artists, including Attila Szücs and Andras Böröcz; Gallery Delaive (Amsterdam) will show early works on canvas by Sam Francis, which are from a private collection and have never been publicly exhibited before. The highlight at the stand of the Baukunst Galerie (Cologne) are large-format neon works by Francois Morellet, who currently has a big solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris. The Deweer Gallery (Otegem, Belgium) is presenting not only major artists such as Panamarenko and Enrique Marty, but also the works of two young artists: Benjamin Moravec and Tatjana Gerhard, whose bleak interiors become psychological spaces. Akira Ikeda (Berlin) is showing a one-man show with works by Imi Knoebel. The focus at the stand of Meyer Kainer (Vienna) will be exclusively on Lucy Stahl, who will be shown during ART COLOGNE at the Kölnischer Kunstverein along with Bela Kolarova. Galerie Jocelyn Wolff (Paris) is showing works by the performance duo Prinz Gholam (Notman-Boxer 2008). Ancient & Modern (London) - also a NEW CONTEMPORARIES exhibitor - is exhibiting works by Alan Kane, among other offerings.

Galleri Bo Bjergaard (Copenhagen) is focusing on Danish artists such as Poul Gernes, who is still undiscovered in Germany, and Per Kirkeby. The Oslo gallery Standard is exhibiting a solo presentation of works by the young Norwegian artist Kim Hiorthøy. Boisserée (Cologne) is devoting a sensational special exhibition to the 87-year-old Catalonian Antoni Tapiès, featuring a central work by the artist - the material image titled "Sud". And a small exhibition well worth seeing is that of works to mark the 30th year since the death of the artist Karl Fred Dahmen. The pieces on display are from the early Informel period.

"Neue Abstraktion" is the theme of a special show by Galerie Fahnemann (Berlin), in which seven young artists are taking part. Foxy Production (New York) is showing works by Gabriel Hartley and Sterling Ruby, two young American artists whose work includes paintings and sculpture. Galleria d`Arte Maggiore (Bologna) will offer works by Morandi and Fontana; Karsten Greve (Cologne/St. Moritz) is showing a collection of works by artists of international stature - Joel Shapiro (who is being exhibited in parallel at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne), Pierre Soulages and Jean-Michel Othoniel. The Centre Pompidou is currently devoting a retrospective exhibition to Othoniel. Hans Mayer (Düsseldorf) will present works by Carl André, Robert Longo, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. Galerie Milliken (Stockholm) is bringing works by Tris Felix and the Los Angeles-based artist Karl Haendel to ART COLOGNE.

Focal points at the stand of Häusler Contemporary (Munich) will be Gary Kuehn, an important representative of process art, and the Swiss artist Reto Boller, whose works move at the interface between painting and sculpture. Boller is developing a new object exclusively for ART COLOGNE.

Works by the great Expressionist painters will be presented at Henze & Ketterer & Triebold (Wietrach/Berne). Prominently featured will be Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, whose "Totentanz der Mary Wigman" will be offered for ¤4.3 million, as well as other top works such as Emil Nolde's "Vase mit Blumen" for ¤580,000 and Erich Heckel's "Weg durch Büsche" for ¤950,000. Galerie Hubertus Melsheimer (Cologne) is bringing works by artists including Alexej von Jawlensky, Oskar Kokoschka and August Macke.

Sure to attract very strong interest at the stand of Kewenig Galerie (Cologne) will be the spectacular machine sculptures by the Belgian artist Panamarenko, works by Jörg Immendorff and Christian Boltanski, and a monumental landscape by Ukrainian artist Ivan Bazak.

Representional painting will be exhibited by Galerie Levy (Hamburg/Berlin). In Johannes Hüppi's image worlds female figures take on a variety of roles, which the artists captures on the canvas with coolly visual vocabulary; Alexander Raymond finds the inspiration for his themes in the immediate surroundings. Galerie Ludorff (Düsseldorf) is considered a leading specialist in Modernist works and post-war art. Emil Nolde's watercolour "Tränende Herzen und Tulpen" will be offered for ¤295,000, and "Purpurklang" by Ernst Wilhelm Nay will be priced at ¤650,000. Gerhard Richter will be represented with a group of canvases from the "Grün-Blau-Rot" series. Daniel Maman Fine Art (Buenos Aires) is going to provide insights into the art world in Argentina. Galerie Christian Nagel (Cologne/Antwerp) is devoting a solo show to Dominik Sittig and showing the young artist Alexander Zuckermann at its OPEN SPACE presentation. The latest photography by Larry Clark of the United States will be presented by Galerie Karl Pfefferle (Munich), which will also show collage works by David Lynch. Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle (Munich) is showing outstanding works by Jeff Wall and Thomas Struth. The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf is currently showing a retrospective of the latter artist's work. Florian Sundheimer (Munich) will show works including an early Baselitz ("Der Orientale", 1959), and Fred Jahn (Munich) is bringing a Baselitz from 2010 ("1. Mai", 6.IV.2010) to Cologne. Other galleries that are showing Baselitz are: DEWEER gallery (Otegem), Bo Bjerggaard (Copenhagen), Haas (Zurich), Springer & Winckler (Berlin) and Michael Werner (Cologne), who is also offering a wonderful work by Polke ("Ohne Titel", 1988). In addition to works by its heavyweights - Stephan Balkenhol, Wilhelm Sasnal and Thomas Ruff - Johnen Galerie (Berlin) is also showing "Eiereimer auf Stuhl mit Pappsockel" (2003), a sculpture by the Düsseldorf artist Hans-Peter Feldmann.

A particularly interesting highlight at the stand of Galerie Schwarzer (Düsseldorf) will be a special presentation of rare sculptures by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, to commemorate the 130th birthday of this important German sculptor. Still another Dadaist - Kurt Schwidders - will be shown by Galerie Berinson (Berlin). The stars at the stand of Team Gallery (New York) will include the brothers Gert and Uwe Tobias, who have brought fresh energy to the woodcut medium, and Ryan McGinley, Chris Vasell and Stanley Whitney. Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman (Vienna) will juxtapose paintings by Siegfried Anzinger with sculptures by Erwin Wurm; new works by Arne Quinze will be among the offerings at the stand of Galerie Thomas (Munich) at ART COLOGNE. At the stand of Edith Wahlandt (Stuttgart) the spotlight will be on pictures by Günter Fruhtrunk. Thomas Zander (Cologne) is showing photography by Lewis Baltz and Anthony McCall. The Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie (Bielefeld) is celebrating the 80th birthday of Heinz Mack with a retrospective titled "12 Werke aus 6 Jahrzehnten", curated by Christoph Vitali.

The OPEN SPACE area is reserved for young, experimental directions. Galerie Arndt (Berlin), for example, is devoting a solo presentation to the sculptor Karsten Konrad, who creates sculptures with a half-abstract, half-representational feeling and reliefs made of materials he finds in refuse piles. Konrad combines old furniture parts, colourful rods and other strange objects into idiosyncratic architecture models with a dynamic presence. Conradi (Hamburg) will present an installation by Thomas Baldischwyler; Johann König (Berlin) is using a dual presentation to contrast sculptural works by Michaela Meise with a series of photographic images by Annette Kelm. Krobath (Vienna) is showcasing Sofie Thorsen, who uses slide series, films, installations, murals and drawings to explore the depths of architectures, landscapes and living spaces. The Danish artist abstractly captures her observations in model-like drawings and interventions. Vittorio Manalese (Berlin) is showing an installation of cardboard figures by Martin Städeli that are made of paper, newspapers and cardboard tubes. Equally unstable are the sculptural objects by Benjamin Bronni, which will be presented by Parotta Contemporary Art (Stuttgart). Galerie Bob van Orsouw (Zurich) will concentrate on photographer Shirana Shahbazi. Martin van Zomeren (Amsterdam) is taking part with a solo show for Praneet Soi, who will represent India at the 2011 Venice Biennale.