Fame and professional success did not go to his head. The hairdresser Yannick Kraemer, a businessman with 200 franchised salons around the world, remains discreet and affordable. A bit shy but paradoxically jovial, we feel him sensitive, emotional. Passionate about life and people.
Born in the small village of Hatten in the north of Alsace around sixty years ago, Yannick Kraemer was destined to take over the family business, his father’s hairdressing salon. It’s not easy at first to imagine that this cycling enthusiast is today at the head of an empire: the Kraemer International group. And at the helm of an art gallery in the heart of Strasbourg, the Kraemer Gallery.
“I couldn’t see myself living without this painting”
It must be said that the Strasbourg resident above all has a real passion for contemporary art. A passion that dates back to adolescence: “I had just found a job with Dessange in Strasbourg, because my father absolutely wanted me to go to the city. And while walking through a gallery in the Les Halles shopping center, I came across a small painting, the painting of an Alsatian house, by the artist Michel Guédron. It was an immediate crush. » Determined to acquire the work which was worth more than a month and a half of his salary at the time, Yannick Kraemer then offered to pay for it in several installments: “I couldn’t see myself living without this painting. So he agreed that I pay him in six installments. This is how I acquired my first work of art. Subsequently, with my tips, I bought others, from the same artist. »
And the military service carried out in the paratroopers in the South-West will help to open the doors to the rest of the world. “The first time I took the plane, the door opened, I had to jump,” smiles Yannick Kraemer. The paratroopers, the South-West, it was already an adventure for me. » Pushed by his father “who had ambition for him”, the guy went to Paris to work for Jacques Dessange, famous hairdresser and formidable businessman. Yannick Kraemer is then in a good school.
Everything will get carried away quickly. He opened his first Dessange franchise salon in 1987, the first of around fifteen under this franchise. Then he will emancipate himself, franchise his own name, and surround himself with partners. The Kraemer empire was born.
Soon in Switzerland and China
Two hundred salons later, Yannick Kraemer finally confides that he “prefers to contemplate a work of art than the lines in his bank account”. The collector remains inexhaustible when he presents the works of the twenty artists of whom he speaks with heart… until he loses track of time. No emphasis and elaborate expressions to talk about them. No, Yannick Kraemer peppers his speech with anecdotes about renowned artists, getting excited about those in the making. And presents in traveling galleries like St-Art, the dozens of works that he owns and sells. In this 160 m2 space in Strasbourg, he offers works on paper, sculptures and paintings. There we also find his favorites for African and Asian art, the greats of Pop art, New Realists, Narrative Figuration… Andy Warhol, Niki de Saint Phalle, Robert Combas, Jeff Koons, Banksy, Damien Hirst, Yeanzy, to name but a few.
Yannick Kraemer does not intend to stop there in the Grand-Est. Its Strasbourg gallery has barely opened, two new ones, in Switzerland and China, are already under study.