Overview
Collection Information
Size: 24.8 Linear feet
Summary: Artist's files, including business correspondence, price lists and invoices, newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, photographs and slides, exhibition announcements, and catalogs and brochures from artists represented by the Esther Robles Gallery.
Biographical/Historical Note
The Robles Gallery (est. 1947, closed 1979) was a commercial art gallery in Los Angeles, California, founded by Esther Waggoner Robles (1907-2001). Robles originally named her business Esther's Alley Gallery after its location at the rear of a building on La Cienega Boulevard. The gallery initially specialized in frames, crafts, and modern design. In 1947, Esther married Robert Holtz Robles (born 1922), who became her business partner and helped her transform the shop into a serious commercial art gallery. The gallery moved to a street-facing location and became the Esther Robles Gallery. More galleries would open nearby throughout the 1950s and 1960s, helping establish the area along N. La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood as a hub for gallerists and art collectors. With modern and contemporary art as its focus, the Esther Robles Gallery exhibited works by Karel Appel, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Emil Bisttram, Karl Benjamin, Herbert Bayer, Claire Falkenstein, and other significant artists. The Robles moved the gallery to Brentwood in 1976 and retired several years later.
Provenance
Donated 2005 and 2009 by Robert Robles, husband and business partner of Esther Robles who died in 2001.
Language Note
English .
