The records of Mercury Galleries measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1943. The collection sheds light on the gallery's brief existence through correspondence, printed material including exhibition catalogs, announcements, press releases, and newspaper clippings, photographs of artwork, one transcript from a radio discussion, and flyers from WPA art tours.
Scope and Contents:
The records of Mercury Galleries measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1943. The collection sheds light on the gallery's brief existence through printed material including exhibition catalogs, announcements, press releases, and newspaper clippings, correspondence with artists, museums, and galleries, photographs of artwork, one transcript from a radio discussion, and flyers from WPA art tours.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Mercury Galleries was established in 1938 in New York, New York, by Sidney Paul Schectman (also known as Paul Kollmer) and Bernard Braddon. The gallery exhibited contemporary drawings, paintings, and sculptures and was known for its abstract expressionist and surrealist art shows.
Cornell graduates Schectman and Braddon opened Artmart Galleries in late 1937 in the loft of a building owned by family. They priced contemporary art between $5 and $50 regardless of who created it and any artist could exhibit and sell their original work there for a fee. Artists who exhibited there included Cleo Hartwig, Stanley William Hayer, and many more. Schectman and Braddon repeated this business model at Mercury Galleries the following year, and later organized the Circuit Art Association using the same idea.
Located in close proximity to the Whitney Museum, Mercury held The Ten: Whitney Dissenters (1938), featuring artists Adolph Gottlieb, Ralph Rosenborg, Mark Rothkowitz (Rothko), Ben-Zion, Joe Solman, Nahum Tschacbasov, Lou Schanker, Louis Harris, Earl Kerkam (guest), and Ilya Bolotowsky. Schectman, Braddon, and Louis Harris (a member of The Ten) broadcast a radio discussion titled "What's Wrong with American Art," in support of the show. The exhibition catalog foreword was written jointly by Schectman, Braddon, and Rothko.
Another notable Mercury Galleries group show was Visions of Other Worlds (circa 1937-1940), with works by surrealist painters Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst and others, African sculpture, and drawings by patients of psychiatric institutions in France. Schectman and Braddon were introduced to African art through visiting exhibitions and by the collector Ladislos Segy.
In addition to those mentioned above, other artists exhibited at Mercury during its short existence included Henri Matisse, Zoltan Hecht, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, poet Rachel Mack Wilson, Hananiah Harari, and John Rood.
The gallery closed in 1940.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Bernard Braddon and Sidney Paul Schectman conducted by Avis Berman, October 9, 1981.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Bernard B. Braddon, co-owner of Mercury Galleries, in 1981.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Mercury Galleries, 1937-1943. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
