I’m a book person. There is no night (almost) I can fall asleep without reading pages from my personal, tiny bedside library. Since I have been interested in art, I mean not generally, but like really into it, I have been quite curious about art collectors, dealers and the ones who move the business. The last week Ileana Sonnabend (Ambassador for the New) is on my top list. She was not only an inspiring art dealer, but owner of two galleries – one in New York, other in Paris, she not only introduced post American artists to Western Europe art lovers, she was named – Mother of pop art.
Can you imagine, that Robert Rauschenberg admitted, that he had never finished a painting without wondering what Ileana would think of it. And Jim Dine once said: “I could never conceive of my life without her, until I was without her”. But the list of artists whom she gave carte blanche is long… Lichtenstein, Warhol, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Baselitz.
I don’t like to say it, but COOL is the best word to describe her… how a granny looking woman made artists believe in themselves, while the public was astonished by the provocative exhibitions she held.
Today I gathered some of documentary pics I could find around the net from her amazing, bit bohemian and very inspiring life.
Photos: Pinterest, Hyperallergic.com, Gabriellebryers.com, Publico.pt