Oral Histories

Interview of Felix Landau

Art dealer of modern and contemporary art. Owner of the Felix Landau Gallery.
Subtitle:
Los Angeles Art Community: Group Portrait, Felix Landau
Series:
Los Angeles Art Community - Group Portrait
Topic:
Art
Biographical Note:
Art dealer of modern and contemporary art. Owner of the Felix Landau Gallery.
Interviewer:
Schipper, Merle Solway
Interviewee:
Landau, Felix
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Length:
2 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Series Statement:
This series includes interviews with prominent Los Angeles-based visual artists and other members of the art establishment whose careers span the period from the 1920s through the 1970s. It documents the art community of the pre-World War II period and the rise of Los Angeles as a nationally recognized art center in the postwar period. Funding for this series was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Abstract:
Emigration from Vienna to New York, 1939; move to Los Angeles, 1947; start of Fraymart Gallery on Melrose Avenue, 1948, with Manny Singer and Morton Dimondstein; showing work of Clinton Adams, Jan Stussy, and Gordon Nunes from UCLA faculty; name changed to Landau Gallery, 1950; gallery burns, 1950; reopened on La Cienega Boulevard, 1952; Los Angeles art scene in 1950s; customers, critics, and other galleries; Landau-Alan Gallery, New York; relations with museums; showing California, national, and European artists, dealers' ethics and professionalism; gallery artists: Jack Zajac, John Paul Jones, John McLaughlin, James Jarvaise, Clinton Adams, Paul Wonner, William Theo Brown, George Baker, Peter Voulkos, Howard Warshaw; European artists; introducing Vienna School of Fantastic Realism to United States.