Green Gallery
The Green Gallery was an art gallery that operated between 1960 and 1965 and was located at 15 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York, United States. The director of the gallery was Richard Bellamy (1927–1998),[1] and it was one of the first uptown galleries to show the work of the downtown New York avant-garde. During the late 1950s and early 1960s the downtown New York art world's avant-garde circle was generally located around the 10th Street Galleries and the Green Gallery began to show many 10th Street artists uptown. Searching for the best kinetic metaphor to describe Richard Bellamy's contribution to his art practice, Green Gallery opening artist Mark di Suvero famously told his dealer of 38 years, "You've been (springboard? (wings?) (slingshot?) to my art." [2]
The Green Gallery opened in 1960 with backing from the art collector Robert Scull (1917–1986). In 1962, Bellamy was introduced to the 22-year-old Sam Green. Amused by the coincidence of their names, Bellamy hired Green on the spot to man the galleries front desk. Art writer John Gruen later described Green Gallery as "an important stepping-stone for every major American Pop artist."[3] The gallery's five-year run spanned a fertile period in the New York art world. Showcasing a new generation of post-Abstract Expressionist artists, diverse in talent and vision, who were giving shape to works that would by the mid-1960s be called Color Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction, Minimalism, Op Art, Fluxus, and Pop Art.
After Andy Warhol's friend Ted Carey saw the works of James Rosenquist there – when Warhol was without a gallery, and still working as an illustrator – he suggested that Warhol try to engage the owner. In 1963 Warhol befriended Green in the gallery (assuming that Green was the son of the owner named "Green"), looking for an outlet for his artworks.[3][4]
It displayed the work of such artists as Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, Dan Flavin, Larry Poons, Milet Andrejevic, Mark di Suvero, Lucas Samaras, Robert Beauchamp, Neil Williams, Philip Wofford, Ralph Humphrey, Ronald Bladen, Richard Smith, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Pat Passlof, and Tadaaki Kuwayama. Other artists who exhibited in group exhibitions there included Kenneth Noland, Ellsworth Kelly, Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, Frank Stella, John Chamberlain, Daniel Spoerri, Walter Darby Bannard, Robert Whitman, Julius Hatofsky, Burgoyne Diller, Myron Stout, Richard Stankiewicz, Lester Johnson, Felix Pasilis, Joan Jacobs, Lilly Brody, Jean Follett, Aristedemos Kaldis, Peter Agostini, Philip Pavia, Franz Kline among others.[5]
See also
External links
- Richard Bellamy's NY Times obituary, Retrieved February 1st 2009
- Artnet, Charlie Finch The Way It Was, retrieved February 1st, 2009
- Elizabeth Baker, "Richard Bellamy 1927–1998," Art in America, retrieved February 1st, 2009
- "Breaking Through : Richard Bellamy and the Green Gallery, 1960 – 1965 / Twenty-Three Interviews, retrieved March 14, 2010
- Richard Bellamy archives, Museum of Modern Art website
- "Richard Bellamy Papers," exhibition MOMA archive
References
- ↑ interview with Richard Bellamy, 1963, Archives of American Art, retrieved February 1, 2009
- ↑ Judith Stein, "A Bond of Steel: di Suvero and Bellamy,Art in America, November 2005, pp. 150–155.
- 1 2 "Sam Green – Obituary". The Telegraph. March 18, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ↑ "Sam Green – Obituary". warholstars.org. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ↑ La Prade Eric. Breaking Through Richard Bellamy and the Green Gallery 1960–1965 Twenty-Three Interviews, pp. 202–205, Midmarch Arts Press, 2009 ISBN 978-1877675782
Coordinates: 40°45′49.32″N 73°58′31.16″W / 40.7637000°N 73.9753222°W