About us
History of the gallery
Galerie Poll opened on 8th October 1968 in an old flat at Niebuhrstraße 77 in Berlin-Charlottenburg with a solo exhibition of works by the painter, illustrator, and graphic artist Peter Sorge (1937–2000).
With their gallery, Eva and Lothar C. Poll continued the tradition of Großgörschen 35, Berlin’s first self-help gallery for artists that had opened in 1964. At the time, the name “Poll” was associated mainly with the art movement known as critical realism. Today, the gallery run by Nana Poll together with her mother Eva Poll has become known as a site for contemporary figurative art since 1960, with a focus on German painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture.
After operating at a number of locations, including thirty years at Lützowplatz 7 in Berlin-Tiergarten, the gallery has been located since the summer of 2015 at Gipsstraße 3 in Berlin-Mitte. The Poll Art Foundation, founded in 1986 by Eva and Lothar C. Poll, is based in the same building. With an additional showroom, the shared location offers a total of around 350 square metres of exhibition space. The complex of buildings comprising the former Musikschule Mitte was converted into an art and studio building at the end of the 1990s, following the designs of architect Jürgen Pleuser.
Galerie Poll is a member of the Federal Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers (Bundesverband Deutscher Galerien und Kunsthändler, BVDG) and the Gallery Association of Berlin (Landesverband Berliner Galerien, LVBG), of which it is a founding member. Galerie Poll was likewise a founding member of the LVBG’s predecessor, an initiative of Berlin art dealers (the Interessengemeinschaft Berliner Kunsthändler, IBK) founded in 1968 which organised the first contemporary art fairs in Berlin in the late 1960s, parallel to Cologne, and which Eva Poll chaired from 1976 to 1982.
As curator of many exhibitions in museums in Germany and other countries in Europe, and of shows in Goethe Institutes, Eva Poll has left a prominent mark on the art scene. In 1993, she was awarded the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her significant service to Berlin’s artistic landscape and as an award for her many years of commitment in the field of culture. The LVBG recognised her impact by naming her honorary president in 2008. Nana Poll has served on the LVBG board since 2014. Part of the extensive archive of the Poll Gallery has been housed in the ZADIK – Central Archive for German and International Art Market Research (Zentralarchiv für deutsche und internationale Kunstmarktforschung) since 2009.