The van de Loo Foundation was established to retain and pursue the comprehension of art as it was represented by Otto van de Loo in his gallery. From the very beginning it was his ambition to promote art as the existential expression of individuals in their time.
From the 1950s on dedicated gallery owner Otto van de Loo had a formative influence on Munich as a city of the arts. He made the members of the SPUR and CoBrA groups as well as other, now internationally renowned, artists such as Arnulf Rainer, Antoni Tàpies, Antonio Saura or Wolf Vostell accessible to the public. In a rigid social climate Otto van de Loo unwaveringly and against fierce opposition plead his case for the freedom of art. Towards the end of the 1960s he set up the Forum Galerie van de Loo, a creative space which promoted new artistic forms of expression such as performance and art happenings. In 1970 the Kinderforum van de Loo for children and young people was established – a place to study and experience free art in a creative way.
Even though the social climate has changed a lot since the foundation of the Otto van de Loo Gallery, his legacy remains as relevant es ever today: art should be understood neither as a commodity nor as an event, but as a chance to deal with existential problems. Thus, the main aim and purpose of the foundation is to promote art and culture in this way. The van de Loo foundation supports the active creativity of the artists, involves children and young people in artistic and social processes with an emphasis on art educational projects and promotes the art historical research on artists within the van de Loo Gallery‘s sphere of influence.