The late Ivan C. Karp, 1990
Photo by Melanie Eve Barocas
Ivan Karp, who died yesterday at 86, was one of those selfless mentors who were always profligate with their time and insights, even with little-known, fledgling art writers (including me in the 1970s). His artworld reputation was made while he was co-director of the now legendary Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959 to 1969, when it was giving exposure to new such new talent as Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Oldenburg, Wesselmann, Chamberlain.
While Castelli became blue-chip, Karp kept the emerging-artist focus in his still active O.K. Harris Gallery, founded in 1969. He was a pioneering settler in New York’s SoHo, which soon became a gallery mecca.
[UPDATE: Suzanne Kreps of O.K. Harris pledges that “the gallery will continue with vigor.”]
Eminently approachable by young artists, beginning collectors and cub reporters, Ivan was the fastest mouth in Manhattan—one of the few people with whom my notetaking could never keep up (frustrating, because so much of what he said was pithy, pungent, deeply informed).
Here are some Karp-isms, as recorded in my Knopf-published book, “The Complete Guide to Collecting Art”:
—Contemporary art dealer Ivan Karp…said that he is happy to give interested new collectors “a 30-minute speech describing the history of modern art movements and what we think is important.” (Thirty minutes from the fast-talking Karp is like 90 minutes at normal speed.)
—Negotiation is possible, Karp said, if an artist is just emerging from obscurity, but may not be possible for popular works by big-name artists. For works by unknowns, “compassion should enter. If a painting is priced at only $900 to $1,500, it’s not fair to negotiate.”
—Ivan Karp, who sees about 150 unaffiliated artists a week, keeps a
list of about 50 who he thinks show unusual promise. Collectors, he
said, can have this list (with studio addresses) on request.—Karp commented that “between 80 and 90 percent of my shows don’t sell. A few others do well, and they support the rest of the gallery. When we sell a print, we do a little dance in the back room.”
I hope the artworld’s least stuffy dealer is now doing his little dance in the afterlife’s back room.