Galerie Bartsch and Chariau, founded in 1980, has been described by the press as „The Mecca of Graphic Art“. Its owners, Andreas Bartsch and Joelle Chariau decided to specialize in commercial art at a high level because nobody had done it yet, and this was a field where it seemed possible to work creatively, finding new fresh talent and rediscovering the work of great artists, fallen into oblivion.

Satirical drawing was from the start one of the main focuses of the gallery’s activities and it has shown over the years outstanding exhibitions of cartoons and caricatures by Steinberg, Sempé, Peter Arno, Thurber, Bosc, The Artists of The New Yorker, Rowlandson, Gillray etc. After the hudge success of an exhibition by René Gruau whose work the gallery rediscovered in 1982, it went on exploring the possibilities of fashion drawing, beginning with Lepape, Erté, Christian Bérard, Eric, Gruau again, Antonio…up to contemporary artists like Mats Gustafson and François Berthoud.

Andreas Bartsch and Joelle Chariau are authorities in both fields and are often working as consultants on international exhibitions. They have published or edited several books and beautiful catalogues, and last not least, they have helped building some of the best existing collections on those two subjects.