Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Curt Valentin Gallery (New York, N.Y.)

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role Dealer/Gallery
dates 1937-1955
city New York City
stateNY
sex n/a
historical notes Curt Valentin was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1902. After completing his education, he became a dealer in modern art in Berlin.

In 1934 he returned to Hamburg and worked in the Buchholz Gallery, owned by Karl Buchholz. This gallery comprised two businesses: a bookstore in the front, and, in the rear, an art gallery devoted to the modern art classified as "degenerate" by the Nazis.

In 1937 Valentin emigrated to the U.S. with a sufficient number of modern German paintings to open a gallery under the Buchholz name in New York City. In 1951 the gallery was renamed the Curt Valentin Gallery.

Widely respected as one of the most astute dealers in modern art, Valentin organized influential exhibitions and attracted major artists to his gallery. His enthusiasm for sculpture is revealed by the artists and exhibitions he selected. He also published several distinguished, limited-edition books in which the writings of poets and novelists were illustrated by a contemporary artists.
Valentin died of a heart attack in Aug. 1954, while visiting Marino Marini in Italy. One year later the gallery was liquidated and some of the work from it was sold at a Parke-Bernet auction in Nov. 1955. Several of Valentin’s artists, as well as his assistant, Jane Wade, joined the Otto Gerson Gallery, which, after Gerson’s death in 1962, became the Marlborough-Gerson Gallery.

decades
of activity
1930-1940
1940-1950
1950-1960
updated 02/07/2020 18:20:53
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Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details
The Museum of Modern Art
Library and Archives
Curt Valentin papers, 1937-1955. see details...
Zentralarchiv des Internationalen Kunsthandels
Mauritiuswall 76-78
Curt Valentin Gallery Records see details...
Archives of American Art
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Catalogs of exhibitions organized by Curt Valentin, 1929-1948 see details...
Archives of American Art
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Jane Wade papers, 1903-1971. see details...
The Museum of Modern Art
Library and Archives
Curt Valentin Photographic Albums see details...
The Museum of Modern Art
Library and Archives
Artist file: Valentin, Curt; miscellaneous uncataloged material. see details...
Archives of American Art
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Lois Dailey Orswell letters from Curt Valentin and Richard Stankiewicz, 1945-1959. see details...
National Archives, Washington D.C.
Objects of art once owned by Karl Buchholz see details...