Raphael 12

In 1981, Petru Petrov founded the gallery Raphael in Frankfurt am Main. He conducted the gallery over the last twenty years with a clear inclination to classical modern art, eventually organizing solo-exhibitions by Tapies, Man Ray, Hartung or Bacon (prints).

With two gallery-spaces in Frankfurt (Grüneburgweg - Domstraße) Petru Petrov split the activity of his gallery in pure organization of exhibitions (Grüneburgweg) and commercial oriented art-dealing (Domstraße). In 2002, the gallery Raphael-Westend then moved from Grüneburgweg to Braubachstraße (immediate proximity to the museum of modern art). Gallery Raphael took over the premises of Gallery W. Viertel, who retired from his gallery activity. With the move, the gallery also changed its name from Gallery Raphael Westend to Gallery Raphael 12 (according to the house-number in the Braubachstraße).

Petru Petrov finally retired completely from the exhibition activity of his branch in 2003 and left the direction of the gallery Raphael 12 to his son Raphael (after whom the gallery was named).

Raphael Petrov, born in 1979, which makes him Frankfurt’s youngest gallerist, pursues a much more actual and more contemporary exhibition policy then the gallery did until now.

With a clear orientation towards post-war and contemporary art, he breaks with the traditional defended classic modern art.

In 2003-2004, this led to solo-exhibitions by young and up-coming artists such as Tony Soulié, Eric Liot and Antonio Sanz de la Fuente as well as to important exhibitions by internationally recognized names of post-war creation such as Jacques Doucet or Peter Klasen.

For the future, it is planed to let young and up-coming as well as internationally renowned contemporary artists form the image of the gallery, exhibit them regularly and impose them on the European art-market.