Written by Deborah Levine, Editor of the American Diversity Report

It takes more than artistic talent to bring an artist to the public.  Art galleries have played an important, on-going role for artists and their admirers.  Ellen Sragow, owner of Sragow Gallery, has worked with artists for more than 30 years.  A life-long New Yorker, Ellen received a BA from Hofstra in 1964 and a Masters degree from New York University (NYU) in 1966.  She majored in Art History and Painting.  By studying with two exceptional artists, Milton Resnick and Esteban Vicente, she learned how to look at painting and evaluate quality.  Another teacher, Irving Sandler, taught a class on Abstract Expressionism and then wrote the book, The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism.  Abstract Expressionism still holds her interest today.   She represents the Hollander Workshop, a lithography workshop that specialized in Abstract Expressionism and published prints by de Kooning, Guston, and Motherwell, among others.

After graduation, Ellen worked for NYU as registrar and assistant to the curator at NYU’s art collection for 4 years.  It was during her time at NYU, before working for galleries, that she began curating exhibits. Being a curator is an on-going mind set; Ellen has published articles on artists, many with an art history focus.    She notes that, “When you own your own gallery, you’re a curator.”

Ellen didn’t start out as a gallery owner but did work for a gallery when she left NYU.  She was an employee of “Prints on Prince Street,” a co-op gallery run by several publishers as an outlet for their prints.  The gallery moved several times, a common phenomenon among galleries, according to Ellen, as they follow the artists and low rents.   It was during these early days, in 1974, that Ellen began her own gallery.  “I had no business background but it was fun learning,” Ellen reminisces. 

In the early days as a gallery owner, it was possible to get ground floor space in SoHo for only $600.00 per month.  SoHo is the area "South of Houston" bordered by Canal, Broadway and Sixth Avenue. The cast iron buildings in SoHo were New York’s original skyscrapers. In the 60’s artists looking for large spaces for cheap rents built loft spaces. She later moved to Tribeca following cheaper rents. Tribeca, which refers to "Triangle Below the Canal," evolved from an inexpensive area where shopkeeper’s and artisans built their wooden houses in the 18th century. After the Civil War, the area became home to the city’s produce sellers and remained the central produce district until the 1960’s when artists moved into lofts in the area in the 70’s.  Following new trends and low rents, the next move was into the East Village in the 1980’s. It was a major move for young artists and dealers who got their start in the East Village. Ellen notes how times have changed, “Now the rents are high and it’s difficult for a young person to start a gallery.”

As a young gallery owner, Ellen showed emerging young artists like Ida Applebroog, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince. Over the years, works by major photographers, installation artists, sculptors and contemporary painters were exhibited.  Ellen started to show photography when it was just becoming popular. Of the early years, Ellen says, “None of it sold for very much at the time.” 

Not all of Ellen’s artists were young and cutting edge. In the 1980s, she became interested in WPA art.  These artists had been part of the government’s welfare program for artists during the 1930’s and ‘40’s.  She had met WPA artist Harry Gottleib and through him, met other WPA artists, many of whom were New York Jews like Will Barnet.  Many were women who had earned the same WPA salary as male artists in an early equality move. And many of these artists were African America.  “The WPA artists had been neglected.”  These artists weren’t selling their work thirty years ago when Ellen began showing and represented a number of them. “I’ve written about a lot of these artists.  I had an interest in their history when no one else was writing about them.  I wrote memorials on them; otherwise no one would have.”

Ellen talked about her philosophy, “I took on artists whose work needed exposure. I make sure the artist gets good press, show it and represent it properly. I care about the artists and have good relationships with them.  I’m honored to know them, like Elizabeth Catlett.”  Catlett is an African American who is now in her nineties and she is still making sculpture and prints. “Her work is so compelling. She was taught by her teacher Grant Wood, to paint what she knows.  The majority of her subject matter us African American women.”  Catlett received a Julius Rosenwald grant in the 1940s to create a suite of 15 prints called, “I Am The Negro Woman.”  Catlett married Mexican artist, Francisco Mora, later became a Mexican citizen but remains one of America’s most prominent African American artists.  The Sragow gallery is the exclusive dealer for Catlett’s prints and works on paper.  “Elizabeth Catlett’s prints used to sell for a few hundred dollars; now they sell for a few thousand.”

The Sragow Gallery continues to change with the times.  Ellen has just moved to a new space in Chelsea.   Ellen’s gallery lends work to museums.  She recently lent some work to the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, Mississippi.   Sometimes the artwork is on the road for months, or even years, traveling around the country and internationally.  “When I got into the art world it was a much smaller place. There were fewer galleries and everyone knew each other. It was about the art not the money, unlike today when art is selling for astronomical prices.  Ellen describes her approach as “fun but hard work.”   

Ellen does sell art work online and you can look at her inventory at www.sragowgallery.com. “The internet is a new phenomenon where people don’t see the work until it’s shipped to them.  But I still have major clients who won’t consider a piece unless it’s in front of them.”  Whatever the mode of communication, galleries are an ongoing and important element of bringing artists to the public’s attention.  The Sragow Gallery has long been a successful vehicle for showing established artists and it continues to bring emerging artists into the public eye.