The Ankrum Gallery records measure 41.5 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to circa 1990s, with the bulk of the records dating from 1960 to 1990. The papers include over 395 artists files, general gallery correspondence, project files, administrative records, exhibition files, collector and client files, financial material, printed material, 1 unbound scrapbook, and photographs. Also included are personal papers of gallery founder Joan Ankrum and her nephew, artist Morris Broderson.
Scope and Contents:
The Ankrum Gallery records measure 41.5 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to circa 1990s, with the bulk of the records dating from 1960 to 1990. The papers include over 395 artists files, general gallery correspondence, project files, administrative records, exhibition files, collector and client files, financial material, printed material, 1 unbound scrapbook, and photographs. Also included are personal papers of gallery founder Joan Ankrum and her nephew, artist Morris Broderson.
General correspondence is with artists, museums, collectors, and clients, and generally concerns sales, exhibitions, and consignments. Correspondents include Irving Block, Morris Broderson, Naomi Caryl, Suzanne Jackson, Joseph and Olga Hirshhorn, among many others. Correspondence is also found in the artists files and the collector/client files.
Project files document various events, benefits, and projects undertaken by the gallery, including a UNICEF benefit, "Up Against Hunger," the Exceptional Children's foundation, and the Young Art Patrons.
Administrative files document many activities of the gallery, such as the gallery's and Joan Ankrum's membership in the Black Arts Council, the California Arts Council, and the Art Dealers Association of California of which Joan Ankrum was a primary organizer. Also found are publicity files, a file on the history of the gallery, leases, floor plans, insurance documents, lists of graphics for sale, and other miscellany.
Exhbition files appear to be incomplete, but do include files for Huichol Indian's art, "The Art of African Peoples" (1973), "Five Contemporary Mexican Painters" (1977), Ethiopian Folk Painting (1978), San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild All Media Exhibition (1982), "25th Anniversary Exhibition" (1985), among several others.
Extensive artists' files include correspondence, price lists, photographs and slides,resumes and biographical material, and sales invoices. Files are found for Benny Andrews, Carlos Almaraz, Richard Bauer, Irving Block, Naomi Caryl, Bernie Casey, Frank Duveneck, Lorser Feitelson, Bruno Groth, David Herschler, Jessie Homer, Suzanne Jackson, Buffie Johnson, Samella Lewis, Helen Lundeberg, Arnold Mesches, Henry Miller, Melvin Schuler, Arthur Secunda, Ken Shores, Jean Varda, and Zev, among many others. The Pat Alexander and Andy Nelson files also contain motion picture film.
Collector and client files document the gallery's relationship with over 115 collectors, museums, and art centers. Files may include correspondence and sales records and are found for Edith Halpert, Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Krannert Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum, Palm Spring Desert Museum, Paramount Pictures, San Diego Museum of Art, Staempfli Gallery, and Storm King Art Center, among many others.
Financial material documents sales through numbered invoices, consignments, loans, and insurance valuations. Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs and announcements, bulletins, periodicals, and newspaper clippings. One unbound scrapbook contains clippings and exhibition materials.
Photographs are of artwork, artists, and gallery openings. Additional photographs are found in the artists' files.
Joan Wheeler Ankrum personal papers document her personal and professional relationship with family, artists, and collectors. They include correspondence, personal writings, personal financial materials, printed material and loose scrapbook materials, family photographs and photographs of her as an actress, and artwork from various artists.
The papers of artist Morris Broderson, nephew of Joan Ankrum, document his professional relationship with the gallery as his primary dealer. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, publicity files, travel files, projects, exhibitions, collector/client files, financial material, printed material, photographs, and artwork.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 12 series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1961-1994 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Project Files, 1965-1987 (0.25 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Administrative Records, 1961- circa 1990s (1 linear foot; Boxes 1-2)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1961-1991 (1 linear foot; Boxes 2-3)
Series 5: Artists' Files, 1957-1994 (22.5 linear feet; Boxes 3-25, 41-42, FC 43-45)
Series 6: Collector and Client Files, 1960-1994 (3.2 linear feet; Boxes 25-28)
Series 7: Financial Material, 1962-1990 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 28-30)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1957-1994 (2 linear feet; Boxes 30-32, 41)
Series 9: Scrapbook, 1960-1988 (3 folders; Box 32)
Series 10: Photographs, circa 1960s-circa 1990s (0.35 linear feet; Boxes 32, 42)
Series 11: Joan Ankrum Personal Papers, circa 1900-1993 (2 linear feet; Boxes 32-34, 41)
Series 12: Morris Broderson Papers, 1941-1989 (7.2 linear feet; Boxes 34-42)
Biographical / Historical:
The Ankrum Gallery was established 1960 in Los Angeles by American film actress Joan Wheeler Ankrum and William Chalee. The gallery closed in 1989.
Joan Wheeler Ankrum and William Challee opened Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1960 with a one-man show of Ankrum's nephew Morris Broderson. With a focus on contemporary California artists, Ankrum Gallery represented over 395 artists during its 30 years in operation, including Benny Andrews, Carlos Almaraz, Richard Bauer, Irving Block, Naomi Caryl, Bernie Casey, Frank Duveneck, Lorser Feitelson, Bruno Groth, David Herschler, Jessie Homer, Suzanne Jackson, Buffie Johnson, Samella Lewis, Helen Lundeberg, Arnold Mesches, Henry Miller, Melvin Schuler, Arthur Secunda, Ken Shores, Jean Varda, and Zev. In addition, the gallery was among the earliest to exhibit the work of black artists. The gallery also held exhibitions of world artists, which included "Art of African Peoples" (1973), "Yarn Paintings of the Huichol Indians" (1973), "Five Contemporary Mexican Painters" (1977), and "Ethiopian Folk Painting" (1978). Ankrum Gallery closed in 1989.
Art dealer and gallery owner, Joan Wheeler Ankrum was an actress before establishing the Ankrum Gallery primarily to showcase the work of her deaf nephew, Morris Broderson. Born in 1913 in Palo Alto, California, she began acting at the Pasadena Playhouse where she met her first husband Morris Ankrum with whom she had two sons, David and Cary Ankrum. She married gallery co-owner and partner William Challee in 1984. She helped organize the Los Angeles Art Dealers Association and the Monday Night Art Walks on La Cienega Boulevard. She was a member of the relatively short-lived Black Arts Council. Joan Wheeler Ankrum died in 2001 at the age of 88.
Morris Broderson (1928-2011) was a deaf painter. His first one-man show was at the Stanford Museum in 1957, followed by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. By 1959 he'd won two awards from the Los Angeles County Museum, and appeared in the Whitney Museum's "Young America" show in 1960. His travels influenced his work, including the hand gestures of Kabuki art in Japan. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among others. Following Joan Ankrum's death in 2001, Broderson was represented by her son David Ankrum.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are two oral history interviews with Joan Ankrum, one conducted by Betty Hoag, April 28, 1964, and a second by Paul Karlstrom, November 5, 1997-February 4, 1998. Additionally, there is an oral history interview with Morris Broderson conducted by Paul Karlstrom, March 11-13, 1998.
Provenance:
The Ankrum Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Joan Ankrum in 1995.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Ankrum Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
An interview of John Weber conducted 2006 March 21 and April 4, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Weber's home, in Chatham, New York.
Weber discusses his education at St. Catherine's Military School in Anaheim, California, and Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida; attending the Citadel in South Carolina and then joining the Navy; attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, after getting out of the Navy; accepting a job at the Dayton Art Institute on the curatorial staff and working for the director, Thomas C. Colt; moving to New York and attending the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; working at the Martha Jackson Gallery and his involvement in various influential shows there, including "Environments, Spaces, Situations," and "New Forms, New Media"; moving to Los Angeles in 1962 to work for the Dwan Gallery; getting involved with land artists, including Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, and Walter De Maria; moving back to New York to take on the directorship of the East Coast location of the Dwan Gallery, in SoHo, then the newest gallery neighborhood; opening his own gallery, the John Weber Gallery, on West Broadway in 1972; his involvement with the Fluxus Group and Arte Povera; the international nature of the art world in the 1960s and 70s; his business arrangements with artists, including the monthly stipends he gave them as advances on sales; his relationships with collectors, including Giuseppe Panza di Biumo and Emily and Burton Tremaine; his advocacy of Aboriginal art; the studios of Robert Smithson and Claes Oldenburg; his belief in the importance of originality; his adverse reaction when he first saw a piece by Dan Flavin; his interaction with art critics, including Irving Sandler and Grace Gluck; and his experience with art fairs. He also recalls Kirk Varnedoe, Jim Dine, Michael Goldberg, Jean Tinguely, Martial Raysse, Arman, Yves Klein, Franz Kline, Andre Emmerich, Mary Boone, Sol LeWitt, Andy Warhol, Gilberto Zorio, Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Anina Nosei, Sven Lukin, Robert Ryman, Alighiero Boetti, Konrad Fischer, Ivan Karp, Paula Cooper, Angela Westwater, Jeff Koons, Joseph Beuys, Hans Haacke, Leo Castelli, Tom Otterness, Joyce Nereaux, Dorothea Rockburne, Eva Hesse, Lucas Samaras, and Joseph Hirshhorn, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
John Weber (1932-2008) is an art dealer from Chatham, New York. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator of New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 11 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
An interview with Tom Jancar conducted June 23 2017, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art, at Pomona College, Art Department, Claremont, California.
Mr. Jancar discusses his family's origins in the Pasadena, California area; his mother's interest in painting and his early exposure to art in their home; the impact of music on his early art understanding; his first classes in art history at Orange Coast College and subsequent art degrees from UC Irvine; his interest in collecting Pictorialist photography in the Los Angeles area; his first exposures to Conceptual art at UC Irvine; his time as a teaching assistant for Bas Jan Ader at UCI; the impact of visits as a student to galleries in the L.A. area, especially the Claire Copley Gallery. Mr. Jancar also describes his work as an art preparator at the Bowers Museum; his time performing construction work with Tom Jimmerson for galleries in the L.A. area; his friendship with Richard Kuhlenschmidt and the opening of the Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in the Los Altos Apartments building in 1980; Mr. Jancar's decision to leave the gallery business in 1982 and to devote his time to working in corporate architecture; his return to the gallery world in 2006 and the opening of the Thomas Jancar Gallery; his focus on women artists and emphasis on showing the work of emerging artists alongside more established artists; his decision to leave the gallery world once again in 2015, and the closing of his gallery. Mr. Jancar also recalls Hal Glicksman, Tom Jimmerson, Craig Kauffman, Tom Garver, Phil Tippett, Tony DeLap, Ilene Segalove, Hiromu Kira, Guy de Cointet, as well as Kim Hubbard, David Amico, Phil Leider, Larry Gagosian, Louise Lawler, Jean Milant, Micol Hebron, Richard Prince, Annie Sprinkle, and David Askevold, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Tom Jancar (1950- ) a contemporary art dealer who owns Jancar Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is a writer in Los Angeles, California.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the Jancar Gallery records.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Topic:
Art dealers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews Search this
Gallery owners -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Jean Milant, conducted 2015 July 20, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art at Milant's home in Los Angeles, California.
Jean Milant discusses growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and his French and German heritage; his introduction to art instruction in high school and further studies at the University of Wisconsin; his trips to Europe and New York City as an undergraduate art student; his time as a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, and his work at the Tamarind Institute printmaking program and his introduction to Los Angeles; his work at Tamarind with Ed Ruscha, Sam Francis, Ed Moses, and Ken Price, among others; the beginnings of Cirrus Gallery and Cirrus Editions and his search for backers for the two endeavors; his partnership with Terry Inch as a backer for Cirrus. Mr. Milant also describes the decision to move his gallery and printmaking shop to downtown Los Angeles in 1979; the support of Robert Egelston and the collector Donald Marron and other collectors who first subscribed to his print editions; his experiences in France with Minnie de Beauvau-Craon; the gallery and museum scene in Los Angeles in the early '70s and '80s; his efforts to promote Los Angeles as a vibrant center of art, including trips to Europe in the early '70s to show his artists; the creation of Ed Ruscha's prints using food; working with Bruce Nauman and John Baldessari to create prints; the creation of the Los Angeles Visual Arts group of L.A. art dealers; his involvement with the creation of the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in 1974; his work with the artist Guy de Cointet and Mr. Cointet's early performances at Cirrus Gallery; the opening of MOCA in 1984; his desire to create a think-tank institute to help create a viable future for art. Mr. Milant also recalls Garo Antreasian, Newton Harrison, June Wayne, Frank Gehry, Robert Irwin, Eugene Sturman, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Ken Tyler, Riko Mizuno, Irving Blum, Gerry Rosen, Robert Overby, David Trowbridge as well as Chris Burden, Greg Card, Karen Carson, Craig Kauffman, Marian Goodman, Alain Rivière, Charles Christopher Hill, Steven Leiber, Viva, Michel Auder, and Jonas Wood, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Jean Robert Milant (1943- ) is an art dealer and publisher in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
The papers of Southern California art dealer and abstract painter John McLaughlin measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1922 to 1979. The collection documents John McLaughlin's personal life and career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, Tamarind Lithography fellowship files, scattered personal business records, printed materials, artwork, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Southern California art dealer and abstract painter John McLaughlin measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1922 to 1979. The collection documents John McLaughlin's personal life and career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, Tamarind Lithography fellowship files, scattered personal business records, printed materials, artwork, and photographic material.
Biographical material includes McLaughlin's military service records, art awards, and resumes. Correspondence is with friends, artists, museums, and galleries. Notable correspondents include Eugene Anderson, Karl Benjamin, Frederick Hammersley, Jules Langsner, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Ad Reinhardt, and others. Writings and notes include several artist statements, lectures, notes, and lists and descriptions of paintings, some in the form of hand drawn sketches. Users will find McLaughlin's ideas about his work and aesthetics are referenced in much of the correspondence and writings. Some of the letters also document the evolution of the 1959 "Four Abstract Classicists" exhibition, particularly correspondence with Karl Benjamin, Peter Selz, and Jules Langsner. There are also writings about McLaughlin by others, including Jules Langsner. The Tamarind Lithography fellowship files consists of the letter of appointment, printed material, and profiles for fellow artists at the workshop.
Personal business records include assorted legal and financial papers, such as contracts with galleries, art loan agreements, consignment records, and art shipment expenses. There are business papers about McLaughlin's Japanese print gallery, The Tokaido, Inc. Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs for McLaughlin's shows at the Andre Emmerich Gallery, Felix Landau Gallery, a retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1968, and the seminal 1959 "Four Abstract Classicists" in Los Angeles, among others. Also found are exhibition announcements, news clippings, and press releases. Artwork includes a few paintings and collages. Photographs, negatives, and slides are of McLaughlin, including one portrait by John Waggaman), artwork, and exhibition installations. There is one album of photographs from a 1963 retrospective exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1942-circa 1969 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1936-1976 (0.7 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1934-1976 (0.7 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 4: Tamarind Lithography Fellowship Files, 1958-1970 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 5: Personal Business Records, circa 1938-1974 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1932-1979 (1.5 linear feet; Box 2-4)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1958 (0.2 linear feet; Box 3-5)
Series 8: Photographic Material, 1922-1979 (0.2 linear feet; Box 3)
Biographical / Historical:
John Dwyer McLaughlin (1898-1976) was best known as one of the leading Los Angeles "hard-edge" geometric abstractionist painters and one of the artists featured in the seminal 1959 exhibition "Four Abstract Classicists" curated by Jules Langsner. McLaughlin was also a dealer of Japanese art prints.
McLaughlin was born and educated in Massachusetts. He served in the United States Navy during World War I from 1917-1921 and married Florence Emerson in 1928. McLaughlin began painting around 1932 with no formal training. In 1935, the couple moved to Japan and lived for several years before moving back to Boston, where they opened The Tokaido, Inc., a Japanese art print gallery. From this time up to the beginning of World War II, McLaughlin worked primarily as a print dealer, without huge success. During World War II, he served as a language intelligence officer in the Marines, primarily because of his knowledge of Japanese.
After the war, McLaughlin and his wife settled in Dana Point, California, where he began painting in earnest, gaining some early local successes. His painting, Hope Deferred was awarded first prize for oil painting in the 1948 San Diego Art Guild Annual. He became associated with the Felix Landau Gallery in Los Angeles and was one of four painters included in the historic 1959 "Four Abstract Classicists" exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized by critic Jules Langsner which also featured the work of Frederick Hammersley, Lorser Feitelson, and Karl Benjamin. The phrase "hard-edge painting" was first used in association with this exhibition as a description of a unique California style of geometric abstractionist painting.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s McLaughlin exhibited widely and became a mentor for many younger Los Angeles area reductive painters. He was widely admired for his integrity and independent position regarding the art market. John McLaughlin died in Dana Point, California in 1976 at the age of 77.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds an oral history interview of John D. McLaughlin conducted July 23, 1974, by Paul J. Karlstrom.
Provenance:
The John McLaughlin papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in multiple installments. John McLaughlin donated material in 1973 and his widow Florence McLaughlin donated material in 1976. Additional papers were donated by the artist's nephew John McLaughlin in 1998 and 1999. A painting was donated 2015 by Stephne' Hesen estate.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The John McLaughlin papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The records of Los Angeles Heritage Gallery measure 13.8 linear feet and date from 1944-2000 with the bulk of the materials dating from 1960-1998. The majority of the collection consists of artists' files containing a wide variety of materials documenting the gallery's representation of its contemporary artists and gallery exhibitions, including biographical information, correspondence, and printed materials. About half of the artists' files are related to artist Charles White. Gallery records also include business correspondence, business records and additional printed materials.
Scope and Contents:
The records of Los Angeles Heritage Gallery measure 13.8 linear feet and date from 1944-2000 with the bulk of the materials dating from 1960-1998. The majority of the collection consists of artists' files containing a wide variety of materials documenting the gallery's representation of its contemporary artists and gallery exhibitions, including biographical information, correspondence, and printed materials. About half of the artists' files are related to artist Charles White. Gallery records also include business correspondence, business records and additional printed materials.
Business correspondence and records contain incoming and outgoing correspondence with clients and galleries regarding artwork sales, consignments and exhibition loans; contracts, many with artists and lithographers; biographical information about Benjamin Horowitz; and other day-to-day business records.
Printed material documents exhibitions held at Heritage Gallery through exhibition announcement, catalogs, clippings, and posters, as well as a handful of printed materials for exhibitions held at other galleries and museums.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 3 series.
Series 1: Artists' Files, 1944-2000, bulk 1960-1998 (11.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-12, 15-16, OV 17)
Series 2: Business Correspondence and Records, 1945-1997 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 12-13)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1960s-1990s (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 13-14, 16)
Biographical / Historical:
Founder Benjamin Horowitz (1912-2004) was born in New York City and moved to Hollywood shortly before the outbreak of World War II. He began a career as a writer of detective fiction but was interrupted by the draft.
Horowitz opened Heritage Gallery in the early 1960s on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. His early dedication to African-American artists, chief among them Charles White to whom he gave more than 51 one-person exhibitions, distinguished the gallery.
Horowitz was the co-founder of the Art Dealers Association of California and also worked as an appraiser.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art holds several collections related to Heritage Gallery and Benjamin Horowitz, including the William Gropper papers and the Charles Wilbert White papers. Also found in the Archives is an oral history interview with Benjamin Horowitz conducted by Molly Saltman as a part of "Art and Artists" interviews, 1965-1966.
Provenance:
The Heritage Gallery records were donated by Benjamin Horowitz, founder of the gallery, in two accessions in 1998 and 2000.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Heritage Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
Citation:
Heritage Gallery records, 1944-2000, bulk 1960-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collection Care Preservation Fund.
An interview of Stephen Hahn conducted 2008 Mar. 14, by Susan Ford Morgan, for the Archives of American Art, at Hahn's home, in Montecito, Calif.
Hahn speaks of his early life in Hungary; moving to Paris when he was 12 years old, where his father was an Old Masters art dealer; working as a "runner" for art galleries in Paris; attending the École du Louvre in Paris; marrying an American woman, and moving to New York City in 1952; working as a craft dealer; living on Staten Island and taking the ferry to Manhattan every day; working as a private dealer for galleries in New York; working as an art advisor to Norton Simon; his own gallery shows in the early 1960s, including exhibitions of work by Gustave Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Claude Monet; a recent Courbet show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, and a Courbet exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in the late 1980s; working with Eugene Thaw; working with Dr. Arthur Sackler; Hahn's private collection; opening his gallery in 1960 on Fifty-Eighth Street and Madison Avenue; moving to his second gallery space three years later on Seventy-Fifth Street and Madison Avenue; working as a partner at Niveau Gallery for six months before opening his gallery in the new space; other galleries in the area at the time, including Acquavella Gallery; his first exhibition in the new space, showing two-dimensional work by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse; an exhibition of Karel Appel's work in his gallery in the early 1960s; involvement in the Art Dealers Association of America, beginning in the 1960s; serving as president of the organization in the early 1980s; his work appraising art; his observation that little changed for him in U.S. gallery scene over the years; Art Dealers Association shows at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, City; donating his collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; working as a private dealer; a brief mention of a lawsuit involving a Picasso sold to Marilynn Alsdorf; the redesign of the Norton Simon museum by architect Frank Gehry; the Janice and Henry Lazaroff collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and general trends and quality in art collecting. He also recalls Michael Fitzgerald, Michael Finley, Paul Herring, Eugene Thaw, Jean Dubuffet, the CoBrA group, George Plimpton, John Rewald, Clement Greenberg, Pierre Matisse, Larry Gagosian, John Richardson, Michael Hurson, Pablo Picasso, Nicolas de Staël, Alexina "Teeny" Duchamp.
Biographical / Historical:
Stephen Hahn (1921-2011) was an art dealer in Santa Barbara, Calif. Hahn served as president of the Art Dealers Association of America.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
The transcript and recording are open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
