Leo Castelli
American Gallerist
Trieste, Italy
New York, New York
Summary of Leo Castelli
Leo Castelli was one of the most influential gallerists working in the second half of the 20th Century. He was instrumental in the rise of the New York art scene and the city's displacement of Paris as the international epicenter of modern art. Having already played a part in the rise of the Abstract Expressionists, Castelli emerged as the driving force behind the ascents of Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptualism. In a strategy that was unique amongst gallerists, Castelli fostered close and lasting personal and professional ties with a roster of artists for whom he went to great lengths to support, promote, and publicize. But it was, perhaps, his determination to seek out and kindle new talent, matched by his willingness to take financial and reputational risks, that has done most to confirm him his standing as one of the leading American gallerists of his generation.
Accomplishments
- Castelli's reputation rests on in his knack for identifying new directions in the contemporary artworld, and for his readiness to back his instincts. For instance, having sensed that the Abstract Expressionist movement had lost its momentum, he put on solo exhibitions for two unknown artists, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Their early Neo Dadaist works are now looked upon by historians and critics as the harbingers of the Pop Art movement.
- Castelli was renowned for the tight bonds he formed with those he represented, even providing some with a working stipend. His formidable roster of artists reads like a who's-who of the American avant-garde. Figures of the stature of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Serra, and Ed Ruscha, have all acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Castelli.
- Joining the ranks of Peggy Guggenheim, Julien Levy, Alfred Barr, and Clement Greenberg, Castelli was one of a coterie of New York tastemakers. Having already earned the title, "Svengali of Pop" (from the New York Times), Castelli re-affirmed his position as a leading champion of the avant-grade through his subsequent backing for artists such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Bruce Nauman.
- In the mid-1970s, Castelli joined forces with his ex-wife to launch Castelli/Sonnabend Videotapes and Films (CSVAF). It was a first-of-its-kind initiative to produce, promote, and distribute experimental film and video by Conceptual artists such as Vito Acconci and Nancy Holt.
The Life of Leo Castelli
Art critic Barbara Rose states, "Castelli has not only encouraged artists directly, he has helped to make the whole country art-conscious through his cooperation with curators, critics, and writers. […] Castelli's was from the beginning an artists' gallery".
Leo Castelli and Important Artists and Artworks
Flag (1954-55)
Flag was exhibited in Jasper Johns's first solo exhibition at Castelli's gallery in early 1958. Castelli realized that Johns (and Robert Rauschenberg) could help build a bridge between the end of Abstract Expressionism and the birth of a new American art movement. The painting itself remains one of the artist's most iconic works. It represents the American flag (as it was in the mid-1950s) with forty-eight stars and thirteen stripes of alternating red and white, and it is associated with the Neo Dada movement.
Neo Dada is generally applied to mixed media artworks that draw on everyday objects and items as a way of challenging the cultural elitism associated historically with the world of high art (such as Abstract Expressionism). In keeping with this philosophy, Flag is rendered in Johns's encaustic style (paint mixed with hot beeswax and resin) and includes a collage element in the form of torn bits of newspaper (that the viewer can see when looking closely at the work). It was not Johns's intention to offer his own take on flag, however. Rather, he was asking his viewer to explore their own associations – somewhere within the gamut of pride and shame - with the painting. This type of deliberate semantic confusion was also a key feature of Neo Dadaism.
On visiting the Johns exhibition, MoMA director, and Castelli's erstwhile mentor, Alfred H. Barr Jr., saw an opportunity to help the museum's collection stay at the cutting edge of American art. Barr acquired four pieces from the gallery, but his procurement of Flag was achieved by a somewhat circuitous route. As MoMA explains, "Flag constitutes both a thing (a flag) and its representation (a painting of a flag). This built-in ambiguity is the work's innovation as well as its provocation. [Barr had] hoped to acquire the piece along with three others from Johns's first solo exhibition. [However, MOMA's] Committee and Board of Trustees deemed Flag to be potentially 'unpatriotic.' Barr circumvented their objections by asking architect Philip Johnson to acquire the work and donate it to the Museum at a later date". Johns himself acknowledged his gratitude to Castelli for helping launch his career and continued to exhibit with him until the gallerist's death in 1999.
Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, three panels - Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Bed (1955)
Bed was one of Robert Rauschenberg's first "combines", a term he used describe works that attached found objects to a traditional canvas. Bed differs from his other combines, however, in that it is not presented on canvas. As MoMA describes, "The artist took a well-worn pillow, sheet, and quilt, scribbled on them with pencil, splashed them with paint in a style similar to Jackson Pollock's action paintings and hung the entire ensemble on the wall. […] The story goes that Rauschenberg used his own bedding to make Bed, because he could not afford to buy a new canvas". MoMA adds that because Bed is hung on a gallery wall in the manner of a traditional painting, his bed "becomes a sort of intimate self-portrait consistent with his assertion that 'painting relates to both art and life … I try to act in that gap between the two'".
Castelli knew that by the mid-1950s the contemporary American art scene was becoming moribund and in need of new impetus. He recognized that Neo Dadaists, Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, were leading this new dawning (that would soon lead to the birth of the American Pop Art movement). Myrna Oliver of the LA Times writes, "[The Jasper] Johns show in January of 1958, and a Rauschenberg show that Castelli staged at his gallery three months later, made history for the painters and the dealer. The art world acknowledged - with purchases by the Museum of Modern Art, major articles in art magazines and gallery buzz - that a new phase of contemporary art had begun and that Castelli was the man who could recognize and promote its creators".
In 1989, Castelli gifted Bed to MoMA. A vital acquisition for a museum which tells the "official" story of contemporary American art, the donation represented an act of philanthropy on the part of Castelli. As Cohen-Solal explains, "when he decided to make the gift, Castelli knew perfectly well the appraised value of the work [was around $11 million]. His decision to donate Bed nevertheless, rather than to sell it as sound financial management would have advised, was the ultimate expression of himself as a gallerist rather than a dealer".
Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports - Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Girl with Ball (1961)
A pioneer of American Pop Art, Roy Lichtenstein's cartoon-like painting features a young woman, wearing a dark blue and white bathing suit, shown from the waist up. Her arms stretched upwards, the girl holds a red and white beach ball above her head as if she is about to throw it at the viewer, at whom she appears to look directly. Her hair flows in the coastal breeze, while her mouth, with vivid red lips (and tongue), is open as if she might be about to say something. Rendered in bold, simple lines, Lichtenstein drew inspiration for this image from a print advertisement. In this respect, the painting is fully in keeping with the goals of the Pop Art movement (to collapse the divide between popular culture and fine art). But the painting amounts to more than a simple facsimile. As MoMA explains, "his simulation of printing similarly robs the technology of the polish it had already achieved: overstating the dots of the Benday process, and limiting his palette to primary colors, he exaggerates the limitations of mechanical reproduction, which becomes as much the subject of the painting as the girl herself".
In September 1961 Lichtenstein brought several works to Castelli for review. Castelli recognized that the works were strikingly different from what he had been exhibiting in his gallery thus far. Despite a general lack of understanding around the idea of Pop Art, Castelli includes Girl with Ball in an 1961 exhibition entitled, "An Exhibition in Progress". Indeed, Lichtenstein was the only Pop artist among works by Neo-Dada pieces by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. On Rauschenberg's confused reaction to Lichtenstein's work, Castelli recalled, "he was incredibly taken aback […] 'What is that? I really don't understand.' Then, he came back, since this was a show that concerned him, and looked at the painting again. 'Well, I thought it over,' he said. "I really do like it very much'". Henceforward, Castelli represented Lichtenstein and gave him his first solo exhibition in early 1962.
Oil on canvas - Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Mao (1972)
Andy Warhol, one of the leading figures of the Pop Art movement, created several works featuring historical, contemporary, and celebrity figures in his signature silkscreen process. Here we see one of the first works in his series depicting the Chinese Communist leader, Chairman Mao. The Met Museum explains, "In 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon traveled to China to meet Chairman Mao Zedong, ending years of diplomatic isolation between the two nations. This historic event captured the imagination of Warhol, who, between 1972 and 1973, created 199 silkscreen paintings of Mao in five scales. An extension of his fascination with celebrity, the Mao paintings utilize Warhol's characteristic silkscreen process to transfer to canvas one of the most recognized portraits in the world: the photograph of Mao reproduced throughout China during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76)". Warhol was a notorious provocateur who insisted that his work was all about surface and empty of meaning. But the Met argues that the Mao works, "with their repeated image painted in flamboyant colors and with expressionistic marks, may suggest a parallel between political propaganda and capitalist advertising".
Warhol first met Castelli in the early 1960s. According to Cohen-Solal, the artist "appeared at the Castelli Gallery as a collector at first. He bought a [Jasper] Johns drawing for $350, then spotted a Lichtenstein propped against the wall". Warhol asked Ivan Karp, a director at the gallery, if Castelli would visit in his studio. Castelli agreed, but was not enamored with the artist's work. Castelli later explained, "I told Andy that he seemed to be pretty close to Lichtenstein, whom I had met before […]. Therefore, I couldn't have two artists competing in the same direction in the gallery. He was very distressed about that". It was later, in 1964, having seen his Brillo and Heinz sculptures at New York's Stable Gallery, that Castelli agreed to represent Warhol. He debuted at Castelli's gallery with his Flowers paintings in 1964. Warhol's Mao series featured in a solo show in late 1972.
Acrylic, silkscreen ink, and pencil on line - Collection of Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Sight Point (for Leo Castelli) (1972)
A masterpiece of Minimalism, Richard Serra's sculpture Sight Point (for Leo Castelli) features three large plates of weatherproofed steel measuring ten feet tall, and each weighing seventeen tons. The plates are carefully balanced to form a triangle, with a shaft of light shining into the center of the work (which is only accessible if one looks up from inside the structure). According to the Stedelijk Museum, this piece was, "the first sculpture [others followed in Europe and the US] in which Serra fully addressed his sculptural concern of counterbalancing weight on an immense scale and in the open air [and remains] a key work in the artist's oeuvre. [It] is Serra's first sculpture in which the inner space, and hence the effect of light, is important".
Originally, the design for Sight Point (for Leo Castelli) was entered into a competition for a new sculpture for the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut in 1972. Serra's was the winning design but was vetoed by the university's planners who reasoned it would be too large and in too close a proximity to one of the campus's historic building. However, following a meeting between Serra and Stedelijk Director, Edy de Wilde, the work found a home in the museum's new sculpture garden in 1975. Castelli went to lengths to advocate for the Minimalism movement. For Minimalist artists, especially those who worked in large scale such as Serra, money for such projects was in short supply and Castelli was often willing to provide funds for these ambitious projects. As artist Keith Sonnier states, "the whole group of us came in at the same time. Bruce Nauman was first, then Richard Serra and myself, then Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, [and] Robert Barry. The new pieces were expensive to fabricate, and [Castelli] was paying those fabrication bills. Richard Serra would not have been able to be Richard Serra without this production money".
Steel - Collection of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
untitled (for you Leo, in long respect and affection) 4 (1978)
Castelli advocated for the Minimalist movement over a number of exhibitions at his gallery dating from the 1960s. Flavin was perhaps best known for a series of unique sculptures featuring bands of fluorescent light. Here we see one such example, a corner sculpture which, once placed in a gallery space, floods the room with colored light. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth writes, "although he is described as one of the patriarchs of Minimalist sculpture [Flavin] generally rejected the appellations 'Minimalist' and 'sculpture' as too confining. He often pointed out that his works are ephemeral, temporary, and installed in relation to given architectural conditions. Emanating different colors of light, Flavin's installations have an indeterminate volume and appear virtually without mass. […] it. In this sense, the artist balanced cool, Duchampian detachment and material objectivity with subjective, lyrical beauty".
Flavin often titled his sculptures (or, rather, dedicated them) to important people in his life. This is one of four sculptures dedicated to Castelli. The gallerist was an early champion of Flavin, exhibiting his first fluorescent sculpture in 1972. Art collector Barbara Jakobson writes, "at the time when Minimal and Conceptual art were first being recognized, works by people like [Donald] Judd, Flavin, [Joseph] Kosuth, and [Bruce] Nauman weren't always in great demand but Leo never wavered in his affection for his artists.[…] Even if they didn't sell much, he always supported them, and I never heard him say anything against them". Sadly, the Flavin/Castelli relationship ended abruptly in the early 1990s following an acrimonious dispute (reported in the New York Times) over money. Castelli later accepted that his thoughtless neglect of the artist was at the root of their fallout.
Pink, green, blue and yellow fluorescent light - Collection of Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas
A Particular Kind of Heaven (1983)
Not content to make an impact on only the New York and European art scenes, Castelli wanted to bring the work of West Coast artists to wider public attention too. One such artist was Ed Ruscha, best known, perhaps, for his "word paintings". Ruscha's paintings are often executed on a grand scale with a simple background scene and bold letters that deliver a statement. In A Particular Kind of Heaven an orange-streaked sky showing the rising or setting of the sun dominates the canvas. At the bottom of the picture frame a thin line of dark blue represents what might be a body of water or a prairie. Bold white text, "A Particular Kind Of Heaven", fills the sky. Describing this work, San Franscico's de Young Museum state, "Ruscha's enigmatic texts and images illuminate the poetic possibilities—and the prosaic limitations — of written, visual, and verbal communication. […] Ruscha's white capital letters, which resemble those in Los Angeles's famous Hollywood sign, combined with the vivid sunrise or sunset landscape, recall a film title from a vintage Western movie".
Through representation in Castelli's New York gallery, Ruscha enjoyed successful cross-over careers in New York City, California, and overseas. This painting was included in his solo exhibition at Castelli's famous SoHo Gallery in the Spring of 1984. Ruscha appreciated that Castelli's success was due to his support for his artists, and his willingness to understand what they were trying to achieve in their art . Ruscha offered the following endorsement of Castelli: "most of the art Leo supported was like [Lichtenstein's]; it would not sell at first and the artists that he accepted wouldn't sell themselves easily. It took Leo to bridge the gap. […] when Leo started showing my work, I became part of his table of artists and, later on, I received a monthly allowance, but without ever having signed a contract. The funny thing is that this man, with his severe look and his European elegance, always had the mind of a youngster. That's what was so intriguing about Leo; he had a very youthful take on things".
Oil on canvas - Collection of de Young Museum, San Francisco, California
Biography of Leo Castelli
Childhood and Education
Leo Castelli was born Leo Krausz, the second of three children, to parents Ernesto Krausz and Bianca Castelli, in the Adriatic port city of Trieste, at that time a part of Austria-Hungary. Ernesto was the regional director for Austria-Hungary's largest bank; Bianca, was the daughter of a successful coffee merchant. Castelli (he and his siblings would be obliged to adopt his mother's "more Italian" maiden name in 1934) spent the first seven years of his life in Trieste. However, with the outbreak of the First World War, the family moved to Vienna where they lived for the next four years with his father's extended family. When the war ended, the family returned to Trieste (the city had become part of the Kingdom of Italy following the war).
The Castelli Gallery writes, "In many ways the Castelli's [return to Trieste] marked an optimistic new beginning for the family. Ernest[o] was made director of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, which had replaced the Kreditandstalt as the top bank in Trieste. This elevated position allowed Ernest[o] and Bianca to cultivate a cosmopolitan life-style. Together they hosted frequent parties which brought them in contact with a spectrum of political, financial, and cultural luminaries. Growing up in such an environment fostered in Leo and his two siblings, Silvia and Giorgio, a strong appreciation of high culture. During this time Leo developed a passion for Modern literature and perfected his fluency in German, French, Italian, and English".
In Trieste, the teenaged Castelli discovered a bookstore "run by a very intelligent man" who introduced him to a variety of non-fiction sources. He recalled, "I wanted to be a Renaissance man, and physically strong … one of my role models was Leon-Battista Alberti, the great architect. It was claimed that he could throw a stone higher than the Campanile' de Giotto in Florence, and that impressed me a lot. So I wanted to be very strong, and, as a consequence, I took part in a lot of sports, mainly mountain climbing and skiing. I also wanted to be extremely cultured; I wanted to know everything".
Early Training
Castelli agreed to his father's wishes by attending law school in Milan. He had little interest in practicing law, however, and after graduating in 1924, again at his father's urging, he joined an insurance firm. Although unfulfilled with insurance work, Castelli agreed to transfer to the firm's Bucharest office. It was in Bucharest that Castelli met the wealthy Schapira family. He first dated Eve Schapira, and later, her sister Ileana, who he married in 1932. Two years later a law was passed in Italy requiring the changing of foreign names to become "more Italian", with the result that the Krausz family officially became the Castelli family.
With the financial help of Ileana's father, the newlyweds enjoyed a comfortable standard of living in Bucharest before moving to Paris, where Castelli's father-in-law had secured him a job in banking in 1935. Once there, the couple became enthralled by the city's art scene. According to Castelli's biographer, Annie Cohen-Solal, "the first act of the [Castelli's] Paris sojourn proved true to expectations: Leo bided his time at the bank, but together the couple canvassed museums, galleries, antiques shops, bookstores, theaters, and the opera". Yet despite his initial excitement at living in Paris, Castelli was becoming increasingly aware that Europe was edging towards war. Adding to this sense of unease, he and Ileana's relationship had begun to deteriorate. By the time his daughter, Nina, was born in 1937, the couple, although still on good terms, were effectively living separate lives and socializing with their own sets of friends.
In early 1939 (and once more with the financial backing of his father-in-law) Castelli opened his first gallery with architect, René Drouin. Sadly the gallery was short-lived due to the onset of World War Two. Castelli recalled, "We had just one show I believe. And the artists that we were, at the time, involved with were the Surrealists: Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, [Pavel] Tchelitchew, Dali and some other minor ones, or not so minor really. But, for instance, Meret Oppenheim whose fame rests chiefly on the fur cup".
Mature Period
Given the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, and given their Jewish heritage, the Castellis were aware that their safety was in serious peril. After several failed attempts, they arrived by ship at New York City's Ellis Island in March 1941. Castelli and Ileana enrolled in programs at Columbia University but a year later he volunteered for service with the United States Army. Nina (his daughter) later stated, "my father was devoted to the U.S.; his army experience Americanized him. He became a Democrat and he wanted to be a citizen. His religion was humanism: my father was a man of the Enlightenment".
After the war, Castelli took a clerical job in manufacturing but was quietly plotting to relaunch his career as a gallerist. According to Cohen-Solal, "while nominally going to work at his desk, soon he would fall into the habit of ducking out before lunch, first to the coffee shop, then to Manhattan, frequenting the Fifty-seventh Street galleries or heading to Fifty-third Street, where […] he would play hooky at MoMA!". Of his first impressions of the museum Castelli recalled, "I was dazzled. Alfred Barr was presenting an encyclopedia of European art, such as no European museum could have offered at the time". Castelli (who had been granted American citizenship in recognition of his military service) and Barr bonded and enjoyed a lasting friendship.
In 1947 Nina Kandinsky, the wife of the recently deceased Wassily Kandinsky, arranged for Castelli to represent her husband in America. Castelli facilitated the sale of the Russian's works with private collectors (and later, through his own gallery). Castelli then made the acquaintance of Sidney Janis, who, with his wife, Harriet, opened the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1948. Art historian Peter Plagens writes, "Castelli's old-world charm and his newfound eager-beaver personality got him an 'arrangement' with on-the-way-up dealer Sidney Janis, who handled both European moderns and some of the new, scenery-chewing Abstract Expressionists". By the turn of the decade, Castelli had formed friendships with art-world luminaries Peggy Guggenheim, Julien Levy, Clement Greenberg, and fellow European émigré, Marcel Duchamp.
In 1950, Castelli and Janis worked together on an exhibition called Young Painters in the U.S. and France. The exhibition featured fifteen European painters, including Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages ,and Jean-Michel Coulon; and fifteen American artists, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Franz Kline. The exhibition effectively launched Castelli's career in America. As Plagens writes, "Castelli insinuated himself into the [Abstract Expressionists] spit 'n' argue forum, The Club, and parlayed that into participation in the bellwether Ninth Street Show [in June 1951], a giant do-it-yourself exhibition of nearly ninety artists ranging from septuagenarian éminence grise [a de-facto leader] Hans Hofmann to twenty-two-year-old Bennington College ingénue Helen Frankenthaler, and including nearly every abstract New York paint-flinger in between".
The Ninth Street Show was a roaring success and helped elevate the Abstract Expressionists in the hearts and minds of museums who had hitherto shown a reluctance to engage with the movement. Cohen-Solal observes, "by his participation in the Ninth Street Show, Castelli turned the tables: now it was he, with his freshly acquired knowledge of the contemporary American scene, who would teach Alfred Barr a thing or two and introduce him to a whole network of local artists utterly unknown to the director of MOMA". Castelli had also come to the realization that there were strong practical reasons for going it alone. He recalled, "I decided it was finally time to open a gallery [because] I saw that there was no other way for me to make a living, and that I had to become serious about it if I wanted to go on paying my rent and my grocery bills".
Opened in 1957, the Leo Castelli Gallery was a modest establishment, situated on the fourth floor of his home on New York's East 77th Street. For his first exhibition (in February 1957) Castelli hung works by European luminaries, Robert Delaunay, Alberto Giacometti, Fernand Léger, and Piet Mondrian, alongside those by Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and David Smith. However, the show convinced Castelli that Abstract Expressionism had reached its zenith and, in early 1958, he put his faith in two one-man exhibitions by little-known Neo-Dada artists Jasper Johns and (two months later) Robert Rauschenberg. Castelli recalled, "the secret was, in part, knowledge about art of the past. I studied art history and figured out that one movement followed another and that there were changes that occurred periodically. [The Abstract Expressionists had] dominated the scene for a while, so I felt that something else had to happen. I tried deliberately to detect that other thing and stumbled upon Rauschenberg [and] Johns".
Although Castelli had helped to raise the profile of the Abstract Expressionists, he never again represented them in his own gallery. This caused bad feelings on the part of some artists with whom he had formed close friendships. According to author Nate Freeman, "Castelli was confident that he had an eye for what new art would make de Kooning and his ilk seem dated, and what types of groundbreaking work adventurous collectors would covet even more than what they collected at the time. […] 'There are those unsuccessful Abstract Expressionists who accuse me of killing them; they blame me for their funerals,' Castelli said in a 1966 interview with the New York Times. 'But they were dead already. I just helped remove the bodies'".
While Castelli's career was in the ascendency, his personal life was becoming increasingly fraught. Having finally tired of his philandering, Ileana divorced her husband in 1959 and married screenwriter Michael Sonnabend. The newlyweds opened their own gallery, and regularly worked in collaboration with Castelli. Art historians Ida Yalzadeh and Naomi Blumberg write, "Because of his cultured European upbringing and his age (he did not open his gallery until he was nearly 50 years old), the established art dealer was able to form valuable ties with curators and collectors abroad, including with his former wife, who [opened] the Galerie Ileana Sonnabend in Paris in 1962. Those relationships proved influential for his artists, whose work began to appear in prestigious European art galleries. Castelli skillfully paved the way for American art of the 1960s and '70s to gain an international audience".
In 1963 Castelli married Antoinette Fraissex du Bost, a French woman, twenty-one years his junior. Their son Jean-Christophe was born later that year. Also in 1964, Rauschenberg became the first American to with the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale, an accolade that cemented Castelli's own reputation. One of Castelli's most important achievements, meanwhile, was the key role he played in elevating the Pop Art movement across America and in Europe. He represented two of the movement's most important artists, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. His significance to the movement's success was underlined in 1966 when The New York Times published an article in which they hailed Castelli as the "Svengali of Pop".
Later Period
In America, Castelli saw the value of moving beyond New York and began to represent artists who were dominating the art scene in California, most notably, perhaps, Ed Ruscha. According to Freeman, "Castelli devised a new model for how to treat his gallery roster—one that was so influential, it's now referred to as the 'Leo Castelli Model.' Under the old system, galleries simply sold the work and split the profit with the artist, a transactional relationship that did not assume the artists would have lifelong loyalty to the dealer". Under the Leo Castelli Model, the gallery and artist worked formed a partnership. He supplied his artists with a stipend (which was a strategy not adopted by other dealers) while cultivating "the brand of the artist [through] press and public relations, and making sure that they were regularly slotted into the exhibition schedule".
Castelli formed strong ties with collectors too. One of the most mutually beneficial collector/gallerist partnerships was formed with the Italian, Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. Panza initially approached Castelli in order to acquire a Robert Rauschenberg work. It was the beginning of a lasting relationship through which Panza purchased many works from Castelli's gallery. Panza once stated, "Leo was a true gentleman. The help he gave artists and collectors ensured that the works fell into good hands. If I've been able to assemble a great art collection, its' thanks to him".
Castelli had realized that art collectors existed beyond the more formal and traditional gallery spaces of upper Manhattan and, in 1971, opened a second gallery in SoHo on 420 West Broadway. Ileana opened a gallery of her own on the floor above her ex-husband's and they continued to work to each other's mutual benefit. Indeed, in 1974 the couple joined forces to create Castelli/Sonnabend Videotapes and Films (CSVAF), an initiative to promote moving image within the conceptual arts, and the first venture of its kind in the United States. Over its decade-long lifespan, CSVAF would produce, distribute, and sell works by a total of 35 conceptual artists, including Bruce Nauman, William Wegman, Richard Serra, Joan Jonas, and Vito Acconci. Many of these works fell under the banner of Post Minimalist, a term coined by art critic Robert Pincus-Witten to describe a move beyond the rigid formality of Minimalism to allow for a more expressive, more Conceptual, element to emerge (as shift that could be seen in Acconci and Nauman's performance based video art, for example).
Castelli closed his uptown gallery in 1977 and opened a new location in SoHo, at 142 Greene Street. The move gave him more floorspace to exhibit works by cutting-edge artists including Nauman and Dan Flavin. Yet despite his career successes, Castelli was not without his domestic troubles. His second marriage was suffering, due to his extra-marital affairs, and his wife's suspicions about his close relationship with his ex-wife. Moreover, new galleries were continuing to open which brought unwelcome competition. Still, Castelli continued to thrive because he saw the wisdom in sharing artists with other gallerists. One such partnership, beginning in 1981, with a new gallerist, Mary Boone (the "New Queen of the Art Scene" according to a 1982 New York magazine headline), saw them jointly represented Julian Schnabel. For Castelli the arrangement kept him relevant, while for Boone, she was able to access Castelli's existing contacts.
In December 1983, Lichtenstein unveiled one of his seminal works, his Greene Street Mural, a vast 96-and-a-1/2 foot-long reprise of his entire oeuvre. Unprecedented for its time, the mural was a temporary, site-specific, work displayed (as its title suggests) at Castelli's Greene Street Gallery. In strict accordance with Lichtenstein's wishes, his "disposable" mural was painted over after the six-week show (leaving only reproductions of the original). Such was the cordial relationship between the two men, Castelli had happily accepted an offer from the artist to work as one of his assistants during the latter stages of painting.
The 1990s was a period of upheaval for Castelli. His health was failing, and in 1995 he married (he was divorced from Antoinette Fraissex du Bost in 1987) journalist Barbara Bertozzi having met her two years before when she interviewed him. Struggling to maintain his larger gallery space, he closed his Soho gallery in 1997 and opened what would be his last gallery, a much smaller uptown space. Castelli died two years later after a brief illness at the age of ninety-one.
The Legacy of Leo Castelli
Leo Castelli, having already helped propel the Abstract Expressionist movement onto the international art scene, was responsible for the launch of the careers of the major figures in Neo Dada, Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art movements. Indeed, his roster of clients - including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly - reads like a who's-who of late 20th century contemporary American art. As author and historian Annie Cohen-Solal writes "he aligned himself with the finest contemporary American artists, pursuing his activities according to the art-world model of the impresario-cum-dervish […] and leaving the breathless observer continually to wonder what he would do next".
Castelli was a true pioneer in the gallerist-artist relationship. He built binding relationships, not just with his artists, but with collectors and museums too. With them he managed to acquire some of the most iconic pieces of the late 20th century art, and in the process, generated millions of dollars in art sales. Castelli was more than a shrewd businessman, however. He was a dedicated art lover who was willing to make financial sacrifices in the interest of the artists in which he placed his faith. Art critic Robert Pincus-Wittens writes, "it was not only his alertness to innovations that distinguished Castelli but also that he placed service to the artist far above the bottom line, pioneering alternative, experimental spaces (expanding into SoHo, for instance), placing bibliographic and photographic services at the disposition of critics and researchers gratis, and long paying out monthly stipends to gallery artists, even those who one imagines never knew lean periods. In so doing, he not only ratified but reified these shifts in taste [in contemporary art] even when, often enough, such support brought him precipitously close to financial ruin".