Max Protetch
Encyclopedia
Max Protetch is an American contemporary art dealer
and founder of Max Protetch gallery in Washington, D.C., and later in New York City.
In 1969, at the age of 23, Max Protetch opened his first gallery in Washington, D.C., while a graduate student in political science
at Georgetown University
.
Over the course of 40-plus years, Protetch has continued to broaden and deepen the horizon of what is new and relevant, including Minimal, Conceptual
, and Pop art
in the 1970s; architecture in the late 70s and 1980s; and, since the 1990s, a continuing engagement with a broad swathe of contemporary art
, including art from China. A constant has been an emphasis on the question of what is appropriate to be seen in a gallery outside of the traditional fine arts.
During the Washington years, 1969 to 1978, Max Protetch represented Andy Warhol
and other Pop artists; gave Vito Acconci
his first one-person show; and was showing Conceptual artists such as Sol LeWitt
, Joseph Kosuth
, On Kawara
, Robert Berry, and Doug Hubler as early as 1970. Kosuth and Art Language Press Group also had one-person shows during those years. Max Protetch presented early performance art by Dan Graham
and Dennis Oppenheim. Donald Judd
, Sol LeWitt
, Dan Flavin
, Joel Shapiro
, Jo Baer
, Lawrence Weiner
, and Carl Andre
exhibited. The Gallery mounted several political shows, including the group show 'Political Art' which featured Dorothea Rockburne
, Daniel Buren
, Sol LeWitt
, Carl Andre
, and Robert Morris
. This show was unique in dealing with the Marxist and political/economic involvements of Minimal and Conceptual art
.
In 1978, Max Protetch moved his gallery to New York and began showing architectural drawings. Since that time, Protetch has shown many of architecture's contemporary masters, including Aldo Rossi
, Robert Venturi
, John Hejduk
, Michael Graves
, Peter Eisenmann, Rem Koolhaas
, Zaha Hadid
, Frank Gehry
, Tadao Ando
, Daniel Libeskind
, and Samuel Mockbee
. Protetch represented the estates of Frank Lloyd Wright
and Erik Gunnar Asplund; has holdings of Louis Kahn
, Buckminster Fuller
, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
; and has sold the entire estates of Luis Barragán
and Aldo Rossi
. Protetch also has shown and represented artists who are uniquely engaged with public sculpture, including the late Scott Burton
, who has been the greatest artist-proponent of functional sculpture.
In the aftermath of September 11th, Max Protetch organized the landmark exhibition 'New World Trade Center: Design Proposals.' The show featured proposals for Lower Manhattan from an international group of 60 invited architects, including some of the most influential minds in contemporary architecture
. Widely regarded as the most highly attended private gallery exhibition in New York's history, the show was published as a book (HarperCollins
, 2002) and was chosen by the U.S. State Department to represent the United States at the 8th International Biennale of Architecture in Venice
.
In 2003, Max Protetch expanded to the rapidly growing arts community of Beacon, N.Y., with Max Protetch: Sculpture Beacon, a five-acre site for the exhibition of new and existing works of outdoor sculpture. The grounds have featured works by Sol LeWitt
, Buckminster Fuller
, Scott Burton
, Marcel Breuer
, Mel Chin
, and Tobias Putrih.
Max Protetch played a pioneering role in introducing Chinese contemporary art to Western audiences beginning in the mid-90s and including a previous partnership with Beijing Commune. The artists include Fang Lijun
, Zhang Xiaogang
, Yue Minjun, and Zhang Huan
, among others. Many of these artists had their first U.S. gallery exhibitions with Max Protetch.
Post-2000s, Max Protetch represented established and emerging artists, including David Reed, Betty Woodman
, Siah Armajani
, Byron Kim
, Oliver Herring
, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
, Marjetica Potrč
, Tobias Putrih, Mike Cloud, Hai Bo, Ren Jian, Tim Hyde, Chen Qiulin, Siebren Versteeg, Ann Pibal, Gao Shiqiang, Saul Chernick, Zach Harris, Sun Xun, Keita Sugiura, Katayoun Vaziri, Tun Win Aung & Wah Nu, the Estate of Richard DeVore
, and the Estate of Scott Burton
.
In 2010, the gallery was sold to new owners.
Max Protetch currently lives, works, and maintains his art and architectural holdings in New York City.
Art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...
and founder of Max Protetch gallery in Washington, D.C., and later in New York City.
In 1969, at the age of 23, Max Protetch opened his first gallery in Washington, D.C., while a graduate student in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
.
Over the course of 40-plus years, Protetch has continued to broaden and deepen the horizon of what is new and relevant, including Minimal, Conceptual
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, and Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
in the 1970s; architecture in the late 70s and 1980s; and, since the 1990s, a continuing engagement with a broad swathe of contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
, including art from China. A constant has been an emphasis on the question of what is appropriate to be seen in a gallery outside of the traditional fine arts.
During the Washington years, 1969 to 1978, Max Protetch represented Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and other Pop artists; gave Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
his first one-person show; and was showing Conceptual artists such as Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
, Joseph Kosuth
Joseph Kosuth
Joseph Kosuth , is an American conceptual artist. Kosuth lives in New York and Rome.-Early life and career:Kosuth was born in Toledo, Ohio. He attended the Toledo Museum School of Design from 1955 to 1962 and studied privately under the Belgian painter Line Bloom Draper. In 1963, Kosuth enrolled at...
, On Kawara
On Kawara
is a Japanese conceptual artist living in New York City since 1965. He has shown in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976.-Early life:After graduating from Kariya High School in 1951, Kawara moved to Tokyo...
, Robert Berry, and Doug Hubler as early as 1970. Kosuth and Art Language Press Group also had one-person shows during those years. Max Protetch presented early performance art by Dan Graham
Dan Graham
Dan Graham , is a conceptual artist now working out of New York City. He is an influential figure in the field of contemporary art, both a practitioner of conceptual art and an art critic and theorist. His art career began in 1964 when he moved to New York and opened the John Daniels Gallery....
and Dennis Oppenheim. Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
, Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
, Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin
Dan Flavin was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures.-Early life and career:...
, Joel Shapiro
Joel Shapiro
Joel Shapiro is an American sculptor renowned for his dynamic work composed of simple rectangular shapes. Shapiro is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York. He lives and works in New York City, with a summer house on the shore of Lake Champlain, in Westport, New York...
, Jo Baer
Jo Baer
Josephine Gail "Jo" Baer, born Josephine Kleinberg August 7, 1929, is an American artist, whose works are associated with minimalist art...
, Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner was a central figure in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s His work often takes the form of typographic texts.- Life and career :...
, and Carl Andre
Carl Andre
Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American...
exhibited. The Gallery mounted several political shows, including the group show 'Political Art' which featured Dorothea Rockburne
Dorothea Rockburne
Dorothea Rockburne is an abstract painter drawing inspiration primarily from her deep interest in mathematics and astronomy. In 1950 she moved to the United States to attend Black Mountain College, where she studied with mathematician Max Dehn, a lifelong influence on her work...
, Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren is a French conceptual artist.- Work :Sometimes classified as an abstract minimalist Buren is known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture.Among his chief concerns is the...
, Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
, Carl Andre
Carl Andre
Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American...
, and Robert Morris
Robert Morris (artist)
Robert Morris is an American sculptor, conceptual artist and writer. He is regarded as one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism along with Donald Judd but he has also made important contributions to the development of performance art, land art, the Process Art movement and installation...
. This show was unique in dealing with the Marxist and political/economic involvements of Minimal and Conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
.
In 1978, Max Protetch moved his gallery to New York and began showing architectural drawings. Since that time, Protetch has shown many of architecture's contemporary masters, including Aldo Rossi
Aldo Rossi
Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design.-Early life:...
, Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi
Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major figures in the architecture of the twentieth century...
, John Hejduk
John Hejduk
John Quentin Hejduk , was an American architect, artist and educator who spent much of his life in New York City, USA...
, Michael Graves
Michael Graves
Michael Graves is an American architect. Identified as one of The New York Five, Graves has become a household name with his designs for domestic products sold at Target stores in the United States....
, Peter Eisenmann, Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
, Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
, Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
, Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando
is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was once categorized by Francesco Dal Co as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field...
, Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...
, and Samuel Mockbee
Samuel Mockbee
Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee was an American architect and a co-founder of the Auburn University Rural Studio program in Hale County, Alabama....
. Protetch represented the estates of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
and Erik Gunnar Asplund; has holdings of Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935...
, Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
; and has sold the entire estates of Luis Barragán
Luis Barragán
Luis Barragán Morfin was a Mexican architect. He was self-trained.-Early life:Educated as an engineer, he graduated from the Escuela Libre de Ingenieros in Guadalajara in 1923 and was self-trained as an architect.After graduation, he travelled through Spain, France , and...
and Aldo Rossi
Aldo Rossi
Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design.-Early life:...
. Protetch also has shown and represented artists who are uniquely engaged with public sculpture, including the late Scott Burton
Scott Burton
Scott Burton was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze.-Early years:...
, who has been the greatest artist-proponent of functional sculpture.
In the aftermath of September 11th, Max Protetch organized the landmark exhibition 'New World Trade Center: Design Proposals.' The show featured proposals for Lower Manhattan from an international group of 60 invited architects, including some of the most influential minds in contemporary architecture
Contemporary architecture
Contemporary architecture is generally speaking the architecture of the present time.The term contemporary architecture is also applied to a range of styles of recently built structures and space which are optimized for current use....
. Widely regarded as the most highly attended private gallery exhibition in New York's history, the show was published as a book (HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, 2002) and was chosen by the U.S. State Department to represent the United States at the 8th International Biennale of Architecture in Venice
8th International Architecture Exhibition
The 8th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2002 Venice Biennale of Architecture, titled Next, was directed by Deyan Sudjic. Held at the Arsenale and Giardini exhibition venues, it took place from September 8 to November 3...
.
In 2003, Max Protetch expanded to the rapidly growing arts community of Beacon, N.Y., with Max Protetch: Sculpture Beacon, a five-acre site for the exhibition of new and existing works of outdoor sculpture. The grounds have featured works by Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
, Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, Scott Burton
Scott Burton
Scott Burton was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze.-Early years:...
, Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
, Mel Chin
Mel Chin
Mel Chin is a conceptual visual artist. Motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances, Chin works in a variety of art media to calculate meaning in modern life. Chin places art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, but his work is not limited...
, and Tobias Putrih.
Max Protetch played a pioneering role in introducing Chinese contemporary art to Western audiences beginning in the mid-90s and including a previous partnership with Beijing Commune. The artists include Fang Lijun
Fang Lijun
Fang Lijun is an artist based in Beijing.He has shown work internationally in exhibitions including The Next Ones at Alexander Ochs , Beijing, New Work, New Acquisitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Alors, la Chine? at the Pompidou Centre in Paris...
, Zhang Xiaogang
Zhang Xiaogang
Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter. Paintings in his Bloodline series are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupiled eyes, posed in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s...
, Yue Minjun, and Zhang Huan
Zhang Huan
Zhang Huan is a Chinese artist based in Shanghai and New York. He made his BA at the He Nan University in Kai Feng and his MA at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing...
, among others. Many of these artists had their first U.S. gallery exhibitions with Max Protetch.
Post-2000s, Max Protetch represented established and emerging artists, including David Reed, Betty Woodman
Betty Woodman
Betty Woodman is an American artist.- Work and Influences :Internationally recognized as one of today’s most important sculptors using ceramics, Betty Woodman's career began in the 1950s as a production potter with the aim of creating beautiful objects to enhance everyday life...
, Siah Armajani
Siah Armajani
Siah Armajani is an Iranian-born American sculptor.Siah Armajani designed the Olympic Torch presiding over the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
, Byron Kim
Byron Kim
Byron Kim is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In the early 1990s he produced minimalist paintings exploring racial identity. He also graduated from Yale University.-Works:...
, Oliver Herring
Oliver Herring
Oliver Herring is an experimental artist based in Brooklyn, New York. His works include knitting Mylar, participatory performances, styrofoam photo sculptures and video.-Biography:...
, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle is an American artist.He graduated from Williams College with a BA in 1983, and from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in 1989....
, Marjetica Potrč
Marjetica Potrc
Marjetica Potrč is an artist and architect based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her interdisciplinary practice includes on-site projects, research, architectural case studies, and series of drawings...
, Tobias Putrih, Mike Cloud, Hai Bo, Ren Jian, Tim Hyde, Chen Qiulin, Siebren Versteeg, Ann Pibal, Gao Shiqiang, Saul Chernick, Zach Harris, Sun Xun, Keita Sugiura, Katayoun Vaziri, Tun Win Aung & Wah Nu, the Estate of Richard DeVore
Richard DeVore
Richard DeVore was an American ceramicist that was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1933. He earned a B.Ed. degree with an art major from the University of Toledo in 1955, and received an M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1957. In 1966 DeVore became head of the ceramics department at Cranbrook...
, and the Estate of Scott Burton
Scott Burton
Scott Burton was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze.-Early years:...
.
In 2010, the gallery was sold to new owners.
Max Protetch currently lives, works, and maintains his art and architectural holdings in New York City.