description | An interview of Richard Bellamy, concerning the Hansa Gallery, conducted by Richard Brown Baker for the Archives of American Art. Bellamy speaks of the Hansa Gallery's original organization by a group of Hans Hofmann's students; Hansa's location, purpose and program; and the definition of a cooperative gallery. Bellamy reminisces about his early life in Cincinnati, the influence of the Provincetown exhibition in 1949, becoming manager and director of Hansa Gallery and the gallery's move uptown. He discusses financial arrangements with artists, guest exhibitions, collectors, the gallery's location and its disadvantages in regard to visitors and critics, an Allan Kaprow exhibition, and the inclusion of Hansa artists in the Whitney Museum of American Art's annuals and other exhibitions.
He comments on Hansa's reputation, ART NEWS notices, comparisons of the Hansa and Green galleries, the weaknesses of a cooperative gallery, the search for new artists, financial problems, reasons for closing the gallery, galleries where original Hansa artists now exhibit and the gallery's importance in the art life of the times. He recalls John Gruen, Richard Stankiewicz, Miles Forst, Jan Muller, Myron Stout and Thomas Hess. |