Gabriele Henkel

Gabriele Hünermann was born in Düsseldorf, a daughter of Theodor Hünermann, chief physician of the Marien Hospital there.^{[citation needed]} After a deprived war childhood without schooling, her father sent her to London to be an au pair at the age of 16. After which she worked as a journalist for the weekly magazines, The Observer and Newsweek, and was the youngest member of the Federal Press Conference when she met Konrad Henkel at the Rhenish Carnival.^{[citation needed]} The couple married in 1955, she took her husband's last name.^{[citation needed]}

From 1970 to 2000, she collected art from all over the world for the Henkel company, therefore building up the Group's art collection.^[2] The works are located in the offices, meeting rooms and staff canteens at the companies headquarters in Düsseldorf.^[3] The collection comprises about 4,000 works.^[4]

Since 1972 she was a member of the International Advisory Board of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.^[5][6]

Through Bazon Brock, she received a lectureship for art history at the University of Wuppertal in 1983 where she became an honorary professor for communication design.^[6]

In 2001 she founded the Kythera Cultural Foundation, which has been awarding the Kythera Prize annually since 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Henkel was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st Class.^[3] In 2009, she was honored with the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for her commitment to art and art education.^[7]

In 2016, she exhibited 40 pieces from the collection of classical modern and contemporary art outside the company for the first time at the K 20 art collection in Düsseldorf.^[3]

In August 2017, she published her memoirs under the title Die Zeit ist ein Augenblick.^[8] On 28 September 2017, an exhibition of Gabriele Henkel's works was opened at the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf. She played a decisive role in the design. She was not present at the vernissage; she died the following night at the age of 85.^[9]

Konrad and Gabriele Henkel are the parents of Christoph Henkel.^{[citation needed]}

• Tafelbilder. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 978-3-7701-2418-3
• Les beaux restes – Bilder der Vergänglichkeit. Klinkhardt und Biermann, Munich 1995, ISBN 978-3-7814-0389-5
• Heine. Ein Bildermärchen. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 1997, ISBN 978-3-7701-4192-0
• Gabriele Henkel: Weiß ist alle Theorie – Zwischenräume, Richter, Düsseldorff 2001, ISBN 978-3-933807-62-5
• The Collection at Home – Sammlung Henkel. Zwei Bände, DuMont Literatur und Kunst Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-8321-9147-4 and ISBN 978-3-8321-9192-4
• Aquarelle – Malereien am Wasser. Grupello Verlag, Düsseldorf 2015, ISBN 978-3-89978-228-8
• Die Zeit ist ein Augenblick: Erinnerungen. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-641-22497-4