Ileana Sonnabend
Ileana Sonnabend | |
---|---|
Born | Ileana Schapira October 29, 1914 Bucharest, Romania |
Died | October 21, 2007 Manhattan, New York City | (aged 92)
Nationality | Romanian |
Alma mater | Columbia University |
Occupation | Art dealer |
Years active | 1959–2002 |
Spouse | Leo Castelli (1933–1959) Michael Sonnabend (1959–2001) |
Children | 1 daughter |
Ileana Sonnabend (née Schapira, October 29, 1914 – October 21, 2007) was a Romanian-American art dealer of 20th-century art. The Sonnabend Gallery opened in Paris in 1962 and was instrumental in making American art of the 1960s known in Europe, with an emphasis on American
Life and work
Sonnabend was born Ileana Schapira in Bucharest to a Romanian Jewish father, Mihail Schapira, and his Viennese wife, Marianne Strate-Felber.[1][2][3] Ileana Sonnabend received a degree in psychology from Columbia University.[4]
Her father, Mihail Schapira, was a successful businessman and financial advisor to King Carol II of Romania. Sonnabend was, for many years, married to Leo Castelli, whom she met in Bucharest in 1932 and married soon after. The couple had a daughter, Nina Sundell.[5] She and her husband left Europe during the 1940s and settled in New York City. During the 1940s, her mother Marianne Schapira divorced her father and met and married the Russian-born American painter John D. Graham[1] (who was a mentor figure to artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Arshile Gorky). Graham also became a mentor to Ileana and Leo by introducing them to his artist friends in the New York art world. In 1950, the couple curated a show of young American and European painters, which included both Jean Dubuffet and Mark Rothko.[6] After divorcing Castelli (with whom she remained lifelong friends) in 1959 she married Polish-born Michelangelo scholar Michael Sonnabend, whom she had met during the 1940s.
Two years later, they opened Galerie Ileana Sonnabend on Quai des Grands-Augustins in Paris, where she introduced art by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and others, and helped establish a European market for their work.[7] In 1965, they acquired an additional apartment on Ca' del Dose in Venice.[8] In 1968, the couple closed the Paris showroom and moved back to New York. At one time, the couple thought that Michael Sonnabend would run the New York gallery while Ileana oversaw their Paris establishment, but he soon found that the art business did not suit him.[9]
In 1971, she opened the Sonnabend Gallery, in a building at 420 West Broadway in Soho. The industrial chic restoration instantly became the center of the emerging SoHo art scene.
In 2000, after she had closed her other galleries, Sonnabend and her adopted son Antonio Homem moved the SoHo gallery to West 22nd Street in Chelsea.[7]
Collection
After Sonnabend died in her Manhattan home in October 2007 at the age of 92, the
In 2011, 59 paintings, sculptures, and photographs by 46 artists, selected from Sonnabend's personal collection, were shown in "Ileana Sonnabend: An Italian Portrait" at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.[16]
In 2014, the Museum of Modern Art in New York paid tribute to Sonnabend's legacy with an exhibition entitled, Ileana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New (21 December 2013 – 21 April 2014). The exhibition included the work of approximately 40 artists, including Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.[17][18]
References
- ^ a b c Roberta Smith (October 24, 2007), "Ileana Sonnabend, Art World Figure, Dies at 92", The New York Times.]
- ^ Roberta Smith (December 2, 2005), "A Charismatic Artist Who Was Known for Talk", The New York Times
- ^ Arcada Art magazine: "Ileana Sonnabend: Venice Celebrates The Great 20Th-Century Art 'Hunter'" Archived 2013-01-17 at archive.today July 6, 2011
- ^ Laure de Coppet and Alan Jones, The Art Dealers. The Powers Behind the Scene Talk About the Business of Art, Clarkson N. Potter Publishers, New York, 1984
- ^ Anthony Haden-Guest, "The Roving Eye", Artnet, August 23, 1999.
- ^ a b Charles Darwent (October 27, 2007), "Ileana Sonnabend – Queen of the SoHo art world", The Independent.
- ^ a b c Mary Rourke (October 27, 2007), "Ileana Sonnabend, 92; influential N. Y. art dealer, collector", Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Lisa Zeitz (August 8, 2011), "Dies ist ein italienisches Porträt", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. (in German)
- ^ Roberta Smith (June 6, 2001), "Michael Sonnabend, 101, Downtown Art Impresario", The New York Times.
- ISBN 9780415937641
- ^ Janet Novack (March 12, 2012), Death and Taxes Forbes.
- ^ "Newsmakers: 1999–2009". Art+Auction, September 2009.
- ^ Colin Gleadell (May 20, 2008), "Art sales: super-rich send prices soaring", The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Charmaine Picard (May 1, 2008), "Sonnabend estate sold for $600m", The Art Newspaper.
- ^ Carol Vogel (April 4, 2008), "A Colossal Private Sale by the Heirs of a Dealer", The New York Times.
- ^ "Ileana Sonnabend: An Italian Portrait, May 29 – October 2, 2011", Archived January 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.
- ^ "Sonnabend Remembered". Art in America. December 2013. p. 21.
- ^ Ileana Sonnabend: Ambassador for the New Archived 2013-12-30 at the Wayback Machine. MoMAPRESS. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
Further reading
- "Interview with Avis Berman", April 10, 1997 (transcript, 57 pages), Museum of Modern Art oral history program