Jane Kallir

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Jane Kallir (born July 30, 1954) is an American art dealer, curator and author. She is co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York, which specializes in Austrian and German Expressionism as well as self-taught and “outsider” art. In 2020, the gallery ceased commercial operations and became an art advisory. Its archives and library were transferred to the Kallir Research Institute, a foundation established in 2017. Kallir serves as President of the KRI. She has curated exhibitions for many American and international museums and is the author of the catalogue raisonné of Egon Schiele’s work in all mediums.

Life and career[edit]

Kallir was born in New York City and graduated from Brown University in 1976, with a BA in art and art history. In 1977, she began working for her grandfather, Otto Kallir, who founded the Galerie St. Etienne in 1939 in New York.[1]

She became the gallery’s co-director, with Hildegard Bachert (d. 2019), in 1979. In 1985, Kallir married Gary Cosimini, whom she had met in college.[2] The couple divorced in 1996 and remarried in 2008.[3]

Under Kallir’s direction in 1980, the Galerie St. Etienne initiated a regular program of museum-scale loan exhibitions, a practice not then common among commercial galleries.[4] These shows were routinely accompanied by book-length catalogues, published by trade publishers. Lenders included the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Phillips Collection, the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Lenbachhaus in Munich, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Wien Museum and the Belvedere in Vienna, plus many private collectors.

In addition to writing scholarly texts to accompany the Galerie St. Etienne’s exhibitions, Kallir became known for her annual “Art Market Reports."[5]

Jane Kallir has curated numerous museum shows both nationally and internationally. A frequent lecturer, she has written over twenty art books and many catalog essays. The Galerie St. Etienne is a longstanding member of the Art Dealers Association of America, which Kallir served as Vice President from 2003-2006.

In 1994, Kallir was recognized with the Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Museum exhibitions[edit]

Kallir has organized over 50 museum exhibitions in the United States, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and The Netherlands. Institutions with which she has worked include the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;[6] the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; the Hangaram Museum of Art, Seoul Art Center, South Korea; and the Museo del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy.

She has curated three shows for the Belvedere in Vienna: Egon Schiele in der Österreichischen Galerie, Egon Schiele: Self-Portraits and Portraits, and The Women of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka.

Kallir has also sent Grandma Moses exhibitions to more than 30 venues in the U.S. and Japan.[7]

Publications[edit]

Kallir is the author of 21 art books. She has published nine volumes on Egon Schiele, including the artist’s catalogue raisonné,[8][9] and seven studies on other aspects of fin-de-siècle Austrian art. Her 1986 history, Viennese Design and the Wiener Werkstätte, remains a standard text on the subject.

Kallir’s most recent publication is The Women of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka, to accompany the exhibition she curated at The Belvedere in 2015. Kallir’s writings also include four volumes on Grandma Moses, as well as Richard Gertle Oskar Kokoschka, which accompanied an exhibition at Galerie St. Etienne in New York City in 1992.

Kallir has written numerous magazine articles, as well as exhibition catalogue essays for such institutions as the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen,[10] the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Neue Galerie New York the American Folk Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As an author, Jane Kallir has received several literary prizes. In 1982, the “Art Libraries Societies Award” was awarded to The Folk Art Tradition, and in 1985 for Arnold Schoenberg’s Vienna.

Both the Elie Faure Award and the Prix des Lecteurs de Beaux-Arts Magazin were given in 1991 for Egon Schiele: The Complete Works.[11]

Anna Mary Robertson (“Grandma”) Moses[edit]

The Galerie St. Etienne mounted “Grandma” Moses’s first one-person show in 1940, and represented her exclusively until her death in 1961. In 1973, Otto Kallir and Galerie St. Etienne co-director Hildegard Bachert published a catalogue raisonné of Moses’s paintings.[12]

The Moses archives are now housed at the Kallir Research Institute, where the material is made available to scholars. The KRI is planning a digital update of the Moses catalogue raisonné, and Jane Kallir provides opinions regarding the authenticity of works not included in the 1973 edition.

In 2018, Kallir agreed to donate 10 “Grandma” Moses paintings to the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). The longterm goal is to establish a Moses study center at the museum. SAAM will host a major Moses exhibition in 2025.

Egon Schiele[edit]

Kallir is the foremost expert on the work of Egon Schiele, publishing Egon Schiele, the Complete Works in 1990, with an update in 1998.[13] The Kallir Research Institute issued a digital update of the catalogue raisonné, Egon Schiele Online, in 2018.

Kallir regularly provides opinions regarding works not in that catalogue raisonné, in addition to maintaining an archive of Schiele works authenticated since 1998.[14] Kallir has been instrumental in calling attention to the spoliation of art by the Nazi regime. Many Schiele collectors were persecuted after Hitler annexed Austria in 1938. Egon Schiele: The Complete Works contains an appendix, “Who’s Who in the Provenances,” documenting collections that were looted or otherwise lost during the Nazi years.[15]

In 1997, Kallir gave the New York Times a file documenting the Nazi theft of Schiele’s painting Portrait of Wally.[16] The resulting story led to the seizure of the painting by the NY District Attorney and a twelve-year lawsuit. As a result, the Austrian Parliament in 1998 issued a decree reopening the claims process for State museums, and in 2010, the heirs of the original owner of Portrait of Wally received a settlement of $19 million. Kallir’s role in the case is featured in the 2012 documentary film Portrait of Wally.[17]

The opening of previously sealed Austrian archives, in tandem with the 1998 restitution decree, has produced a wealth of new evidence documenting Nazi spoliation. Kallir continues to work with Austrian researchers on updating Schiele provenances.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Kallir, Saved from Europe (New York: Galerie St. Etienne, 1999)
  2. ^ “Jane Katherine Kallir Wed to Gary Cosimini,” The New York Times, Jan. 26, 1985.
  3. ^ Sipher, “Vows: Jane Kallir and Gary Cosimini,” The New York Times, Dec. 13. 2008.
  4. ^ Johnson, Ken (1999-12-24). "ART IN REVIEW; 'Saved From Europe'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  5. ^ "2017 Art Market Report: A Tale of Two Art Worlds". Galerie St. Etienne. 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  6. ^ Egon Schiele (1994): National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); Indianapolis Museum of Art; San Diego Museum of Art. Circulated by Art Services International.
  7. ^ Grandma Moses: The Artist Behind the Myth (1982-1983): Galerie St. Etienne; Danforth Museum (Framingham, Massachusetts); New York State Museum (Albany). The World of Grandma Moses (1984-1985): Museum of American Folk Art (New York); Baltimore Museum of Art; Norton Gallery (Palm Beach); Cheekwood Fine Arts Center (Nashville); Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha); Lakeview Museum of Art (Peoria). Grandma Moses (1987): Isetan Museum (Tokyo, Japan); Daimaru Museum (Osaka, Japan). Grandma Moses (1990): Isetan Museum (Tokyo, Japan); Daimaru Museum (Osaka, Japan); Daimaru Museum (Kyoto, Japan); Funabashi Art Forum (Funabashi, Japan); Takashimaya Museum (Yokohama, Japan). Grandma Moses (1995): Daimaru Museum (Osaka, Japan); Yasuda Kasai Museum (Tokyo, Japan); Shimonoseki Museum (Yamaguchi, Japan); Sogo Museum (Chiba, Japan). Grandma Moses: Pictures from the Past (1996): Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art (Florida). Grandma Moses in the 21st Century (2001-2003): National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC); San Diego Museum of Art; Orlando Museum of Art (Florida); Gilcrease Museum (Tulsa); Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio); Portland Art Museum (Oregon); Wadsworth Atheneum (Hartford). Grandma Moses (2005): Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan); Daimaru Museum (Kyoto, Japan); Daimaru Art Gallery (Hokkaido, Japan).
  8. ^ Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, The Complete Works: Including a Biography and a Catalogue Raisonné (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1900; expanded edition 1998).
  9. ^ Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1994). Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: 27 Masterworks (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996. Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Life and Work (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003). Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolors (London: Thames & Hudson, 2003). Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Love and Death (Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum & Hatje Canz: 2005). Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Erotica (Paris: Éditions Anthèse: 2007). Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Self-Portraits and Portraits (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2011). Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele's Women (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2012).
  10. ^ Wien 1900: Kunst & Design (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark).
  11. ^ Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, the Complete Works: Including a Biography and a Catalogue Raisonné (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1900; expanded edition 1998)
  12. ^ Kallir, Otto (1973). Grandma Moses. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
  13. ^ Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, the Complete Works: Including a Biography and a Catalogue Raisonné (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1900; expanded edition 1998)
  14. ^ Kino, Carol (2007-03-28). "Stolen Artworks and the Lawyers Who Reclaim Them". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  15. ^ Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, Including a Biography and a Catalogue Raisonné (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1900; expanded edition 1998)
  16. ^ Dobrzynski, Judith H. (1997-12-24). "THE ZEALOUS COLLECTOR -- A special report; A Singular Passion For Amassing Art, One Way or Another". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  17. ^ Andrew Shea, Director, Portrait of Wally: The Face that Launched a Thousand Lawsuits (documentary film, 2012).

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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