Collection Information
Size: 25.6 Linear feet
Summary: The records of the Allan Frumkin Gallery, a Chicago and New York City gallery, measure 25.6 linear feet and date from 1944-2016 with one letter pertaining to artwork documentation dating from 1880. The collection documents the gallery's activities through administrative files, dealer and client correspondence, artist files, financial records, gallery newsletters, printed material, and photographic material. Artist files represent over one-third of the collection and provide insight into the close relationship between Frumkin and many of the gallery's major artists including Robert Arneson, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jack Beal, Joan Brown, Colin Lanceley, Maryan, Roberto Matta, Philip Pearlstein, Peter Saul, H.C. Westermann, and William T. Wiley. Also included in the collection are the Frumkin Family papers, consisting of writings by Allan and wife Jean Martin Frumkin, editorial copy of Art Book Review , personal papers, and material relating to the Frumkin personal art collection and estate.
Biographical/Historical Note
Allan Frumkin Gallery (est. 1952; closed 1995) was a gallery owned and operated by art dealer Allan Frumkin with locations in Chicago (1952-1980; 1979-1980 as Frumkin & Struve) and New York City (1959-1995; 1988-1995 as Frumkin/Adams). Frumkin began his career exhibiting the drawings, paintings, and prints of European artists he met and developed relationships with while traveling abroad, including Roberto Matta, Alberto Burri, Alberto Giacometti, and Esteban Vicente. He soon began representing artists from across the United States, including Chicago artists Leon Golub, Jack Beal, Robert Barnes, June Leaf, and H.C. Westermann; West Coast artists Robert Arneson, Roy de Forest, and Joan Brown; and New York realist painters including Philip Pearlstein, Paul Georges, Alfred Leslie, Luis Cruz Azaceta, and Peter Saul. In the early years, the geography and aesthetic of the artists Frumkin championed--surrealist, realist, figurative, offbeat--contrasted with the prevailing trend toward New York abstraction. Frumkin retired as a gallery director in 1995, and Frumkin/Adams Gallery became the George Adams Gallery. Frumkin continued to work as a private dealer as Allan Frumkin Incorporated until his death in 2002.
Provenance
Donated to the Archives of American Art in 2017 by Peter Frumkin, Allan Frumkin's son.
Related Materials
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Allan Frumkin conducted by Paul Cummings in 1970.
Language Note
English .
Image assets for this folder have not been fully processed.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
