ART-PRESENTATION:A Selection of Works from Galerie 1900-2000
Dada arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that had led to the war. Dada’s aesthetic proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, all of which generated their own groups. The movement dissipated with the establishment of Surrealism,which sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination. Disdaining rationalism and literary realism the Surrealists believed the rational mind repressed the power of the imagination, weighing it down with taboos.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive
The exhibition “A Selection of Works from Galerie 1900-2000” presents Dada and Surrealist works on paper and photographs from the early to mid-twentieth Century at David Zwirner Gallery in New York, organized by David Fleiss. In the early 1950s, Marcel Fleiss, who was meant to succeed to his father, a furrier in Paris, is sent to New York to learn the trade. The young man falls in love with jazz and photographs the great musicians of the time. His photographs and critics are published in the magazine “Jazz Hot”. Back to France, in the Parisian furriers’ neighborhood, Marcel Fleiss goes to Drouot and discovers the world of auctions. There, he meets Fred Fisher, who introduces him to the world of Surrealism. Then in 1959 in a gallery in Vence France, Marcel Fleiss meets an old man complaining that no one bears any interest in buying his drawings; he was Man Ray. A few years later, Man Ray will end up convincing Marcel Fleiss to open a gallery, With Fred Fisher and Philippe Klein, Marcel Fleiss buys a former drycleaner’s shop on the rue de l’Université: the “Galerie des Quatre Mouvements”. Man Ray obviously is the first artist exhibited with forty rayographs (25/2-25/3/1972) and Marcel Fleiss welcomes Max Ernst, Salvador Dali or again Julien Levy. Furrier in the morning, gallery owner in the afternoon, Marcel Fleiss meets his first success that same year thanks to an exhibition with American Hyperrealist artists that attract collectors such as Daniel Hechter or Daniel Filipacchi. In 1973, Salvador Dali authors the introduction to the catalogue “Grands maîtres hypperréalistes américains” and realizes an etching in relief. His associate and friend Fred Fisher dies in 1976, Marcel Fleiss goes beyond over Quatre Mouvements’s initial project and launches his own space, Galerie 1900-2000. Oddly enough, a furrier formerly occupied that space. Then two annexes opened on rue de Penthièvre and the Galerie de Poche at 3 rue Bonaparte. In 1988, Isidore Isou, Maurice Lemaître and Jacques Spaccagna are part of the Lettrism exhibition. Marcel Fleiss’ close ties with the emerging New York scene leads to many exchanges, notably of works of art, and Julian Schnabel will make his portrait. During the exhibition “Happenings & Fluxus” (7/6-29/1989), Yoko Ono stages a performance at the Beaux-Arts. A few months later, Marcel Fleiss organizes a solo show of her work at the gallery (7-15/10/1989) with major critical success. Thanks to Yoko Ono, Marcel Fleiss meets Keith Haring, which will lead to his last exhibition, at the Galerie de Poche in January 1990. In 1991, Marcel Fleiss met Dora Maar and organized the first exhibition of her photographs. That same year, his son David, a specialist of Marcel Duchamp and of photography, which he will develop within the Galerie 1900-2000, joins the gallery, developing its photography program and establishing links between historical and contemporary artists. Together, they devote themselves primarily to Surrealist paintings, drawings, and photographs, while also continuing to champion the art of the 2oth and 21st Centuries.
On presentation re works by: Berenice Abbott, Johannes Baargeld, Hans Bellmer, Joaquín Edwards Bello, Victor Brauner, André Breton, Paul Citroen, René Crevel, Salvador Dalí, Robert Desnos, Oscar Domínguez, Marcel Duchamp, Nusch Éluard, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Arshile Gorky, Jindřich Heisler, Hannah Höch, Heinrich Hoffmann, Georges Hugnet, Germaine Hugnet, Valentine Hugo, Wifredo Lam, René Magritte, André Masson, Roberto Matta, Joan Miró, Max Morise, Paul Nougé, Francis Picabia, Jackson Pollock, Man Ray, Hans Richter, Jeannette Tanguy, Yves Tanguy, Tristan Tzara and Raoul Ubac.
Info: Organizer: David Fleiss, David Zwirner Gallery, 34 East 69th Street, New York, Duration: 12/9-27/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com
