Richard L. Feigen

American gallery owner (1930–2021)

Richard L. Feigen
Born	(1930-08-08)August 8, 1930 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	January 29, 2021(2021-01-29) (aged 90) Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Gallerist
Spouse	Sandra Elizabeth Canning Walker Margaret (Peggy) Langan-Culver Isabelle Harnoncourt Wisowaty

Richard Lee Feigen (August 8, 1930 – January 29, 2021) was an American gallery owner.^[1]

Early life and education

A native of Chicago, he was the son of a lawyer and a homemaker who, while not themselves collectors, encouraged their son's early acquisitive interests. He purchased his first artwork in 1942, at the age of 11.^[2]

Feigen earned a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1952^[3] and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University in 1954.

Career

He opened his first gallery on Astor Street in Chicago in 1957,^[4] and displayed impressionist and surrealist artists from the 20th Century, such as George Grosz, Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Claes Oldenburg, Joseph Cornell, James Rosenquist, and Ray Johnson. He opened a second gallery in New York City in 1962 and displayed works from Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Max Beckmann, and Constantin Brâncuși. Throughout his career, Feigen sold paintings to the likes of the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art.

Feigen was cast as a version of himself in Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street.^[4]

Personal life

He was married three times: to Sandra Elizabeth Canning Walker in 1966,^[5] to Margaret (Peggy) Langan-Culver in 1998,^[6] and to Isabelle Harnoncourt Wisowaty in 2007.^[4]

Feigen died from complications of COVID-19 in Mount Kisco, New York, on January 29, 2021, at the age of 90.^[7]

Books

Dubuffet and the Anticulture. Exh. cat. 1969–1970 New York.
Tales from the Art Crypt: The Painters, the Museums, the Curators, the Collectors, the Auctions, the Art. New York: Knopf, 2000. ISBN 9780394571690

Notable exhibitions in New York

1996: A Century of Landscape Painting, England and France 1770–1870^[8]

2004–2005: Beckmann/Picasso show with the Jan Krugier Gallery^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]

2010: Richard Wilson and the British Arcadia^[13]^[14]

2011–2012: Late Medieval Panel Paintings^[15]

2015: Ray Johnson's Art World (estate of Ray Johnson, 1927–1995)^[16]

References

^ "Feigen, Richard 1930- (Richard L. Feigen)". encyclopedia.com.
^ McIlhenney, James. "Oral history interview with Richard L. Feigen, Jan 9-13, 2009". Smithsonian: Archives of American Art. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
^ "Richard Feigen (1930–2021)". Artforum. January 31, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Genzlinger, Neil (February 7, 2021). "Richard Feigen, 90, Dealer and Gallerist Who Boosted Masters and Young Artists". New York Times. Vol. 170, no. 58962. p. 23. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
^ "Richard Feigen Weds Mrs. Sandra Walker (Published 1966)". New York Times. February 24, 1966. p. 31. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
^ Jeromack, Paul (September 23, 1998). "Artnet News". Artnet. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
^ Kinsella, Eileen (February 1, 2021). "Art Luminaries Pay Tribute to Richard Feigen, the 'Collector in Dealer's Clothes' Revered for Championing Old and New Masters Alike". Artnet News.
^ Carter, Holland (May 17, 1996). "Art in Review". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Esplund, Lance (January 6, 2005). "Sizing Up Two Masters, Side by Side". New York Sun. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
^ Panero, James (January 2005). "Gallery Chronicle". New Criterion. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Kramer, Hilton (December 13, 2004). "Beckmann, Picasso: Painters Reunited For the First Time". New York Observer. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Johnson, Ken (November 12, 2004). "Art in Review; 'Beckmann-Picasso/Picasso-Beckmann'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Melikian, Souren (June 4, 2010). "The Mystery of the British Landscape Master". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Karlins, N. F. (June 10, 2010). "The Dawn of the Romantic". Artnet. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Jeromack, Paul (January 23, 2012). "Suffering of the Body". Artnet. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
^ Kennedy, Randy (January 8, 2015). "Always On His Own Terms: Ray Johnson Defies Categories 20 Years After His Death". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2015.