Hans-Jürgen Müller was one of the most successful and progressive gallery owners of the early Federal Republic of Germany. The trained typesetter (*1936 in Ilmenau, † 2009 in Stuttgart) founded his first gallery in Stuttgart in 1958 at the age of 22, where he gained a foothold after fleeing from East to West Germany.

Very early on he showed the most important representatives of international art of the 1960s: Cy Twombly, Morris Louis, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Arnulf Rainer, Gerhard Richter, the main representatives of Fluxus, Informel and Zero, among others.

In the first years after its opening, Galerie Müller thus became a point of contact for European collectors. In 1967 Müller co-founded the 1st Cologne Art Market, today ART COLOGNE. One year later he opened his second gallery in Cologne and subsequently played a major role in building up many private and museum collections.

The increasing commercialisation and speculation in the art market, from which Müller himself profited in particular in the course of the documenta V of 1972, repelled him at the same time.

In 1973 he retired for some time, handed over his gallery to his colleagues and moved to Tenerife, where he purchased the site which would later develop into the MARIPOSA cultural park.

In 1975, he wrote the book “Kunst kommt nicht von Können” (“Art does not arise out of ability”), which became a cult book. The work discusses dealing with art and the pitfalls of the art market.

In 1976 Müller returned to Stuttgart. In 1977 he curated the very first exhibition of the still undiscovered art of the 1980s: ”Europa 79”. The exhibition showed all the later protagonists of this genre. During this time Müller also developed a concept entitled “New Life Forms through Art – Futura”.

In 1977 Hans-Jürgen Müller met his second wife Helga. They opened a gallery in Cologne in 1982. From then on, as a pair of gallery owners, they entered into a close life and work relationship.

In November 1984 the idea for the cultural project “ATLANTIS” was born. This later led to the development of MARIPOSA.