Collection Information
Size: 0.6 Linear feet
Summary: The Laurel Gallery records measure 0.6 linear feet and date from 1944 to 1951. The collection sheds light on the gallery's operations through scant correspondence, photographs, printed material, an exhibition inventory, and financial records.
Biographical/Historical Note
The Laurel Gallery was founded in New York City in 1946 by painter, printmaker, and educator, Chris Ritter. The gallery, located at 108 East 57th Street, was an active supporter of contemporary American art. Ritter occasionally exhibited his own work in the Laurel Gallery, but mostly exhibited the work of other avant-garde artists, including Jimmy Ernst, Grace Borgenicht (Laurel Gallery's co-director), Claude Bentley, George Constant, Ibram Lassaw, and others. In addition to exhbitions, the gallery published four portfolios of artists' prints and a quarterly magazine. Ritter closed the gallery in 1952, around the same time Borgenicht opened the Grace Borgenicht Gallery.
Funding Note
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.