Grace Borgenicht Brandt

Grace Borgenicht Brandt
Born
Grace Lubell

(1915-01-25)January 25, 1915
DiedJuly 19, 2001(2001-07-19) (aged 86)
EducationB.A. and M.A. Columbia University
Occupation(s)Art dealer
Painter
Spouse(s)Jack Borgenicht (m. 1938; divorced 1954)
Norman Sachs Jr. (divorced)
Warren Brandt
Children3 with Borgenicht
FamilyBenedict I. Lubell (brother)
Orin Kerr (grandson)
Eli M. Black (brother-in-law)
Leon Black (nephew)

Grace Borgenicht Brandt (January 25, 1915 – July 19, 2001) was an American art dealer.[1]

Biography

Brandt was born Grace Lubell on January 25, 1915, as one of five children to a Jewish family in New York City. Her parents, Jeanette Lillian Salny[2] and Samuel L. Lubell (born Samuel Lazarus Lubelsky),[3] were both from Suwałki Governorate, Congress Poland.[1][4] Samuel founded the Bell Oil and Gas Company, an independent oil refiner in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[5] and Lubell Brothers, a shirt manufacturer in New York City.[6] Her siblings include oil executive Benedict I. Lubell and Shirley Black Kash (formerly married to Eli M. Black).[5][7]

She attended Calhoun School and the New College at Columbia University. In 1934, while still a student, she studied in the studio of the painter André L'Hote in Paris.[1] After returning to New York, she studied printmaking at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 and earned a M.A. in art education from Columbia.[1]

After school, she painted professionally, having her first solo show at Chris Ritter's Laurel Gallery in 1947 and later became one of Ritter's primary financial backers.[1] After Ritter closed the Laurel Gallery in 1950, Brandt opened her own gallery, The Grace Borgenicht Gallery, in May 1951.[1] Her gallery focused on living American artists including Milton Avery, Ilya Bolotowsky, Jimmy Ernst, Wolf Kahn, Gabor Peterdi, Leonard Baskin, Edward Corbett, and Ralston Crawford.[1] She represented Avery until his death in 1965 and also represented Gertrude Greene, José de Rivera, Adja Yunkers, James Brooks and Roy Gussow. In 1995, she closed her gallery.[1]

Although known as an art dealer, she continued to paint and showed her work in the 1954 Whitney Annual and had a solo show at the Martha Jackson Gallery in 1955.[1]

Personal life

Brandt married three times. Between January 20, 1938 and 1954,[8] she was married to dress manufacturer Jack Borgenicht; they had three daughters before divorcing,[1][9][10] Jan Borgenicht Schwartz, Berta Borgenicht Kerr, and Lois Borgenicht.[11] (Jack would go on to have seven more children including artist Ruth Borgenicht).[12] On July 17, 1956, she married her second husband Norman Sachs Jr., divorcing in December 1960. The same month, on December 26, she married her third husband, artist Warren Brandt.[8] She had a stepdaughter, Isabella Brandt Johansen[11] She lived in Manhattan and Watermill, New York.[1] Brandt died in Manhattan on July 19, 2001, at the age of 86[1] after an accidental fall.[9] Services were held at the Riverside Memorial Chapel.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Smith, Roberta (July 21, 2001). "Grace Borgenicht Brandt, 86, New York Art Dealer, Dies". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "MRS. SAMUEL L. LUBELL (Published 1952)". 1952-12-27.
  3. ^ "Jeanette and Samuel Lubell Foundation". Chapman Legacy Society.
  4. ^ "Samuel L. Lubell, Founded Shirt and Oil Companies". The New York Times. July 10, 1966. p. 69.
  5. ^ a b "Benedict I. Lubell, Tulsa Oil Executive And Arts Patron, 87". The New York Times. December 14, 1996.
  6. ^ "Samuel L. Lubell, Founded Shirt and Oil Companies". The New York Times. July 10, 1966.
  7. ^ "Funeral Services Set for Tulsa Arts Patron Benedict I. Lubell". Tulsa World. December 14, 1996.
  8. ^ a b Who's who of American Women: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living American Women. 1964. p. 112.
  9. ^ a b "Grace Borgenicht Brandt, a New York art dealer and collector who specialized in contemporary American art, died Thursday of complications after a fall, her family said". Asbury Park Press. July 21, 2001. She then married Jack Borgenicht, a dress manufacturer, with whom she had three daughters. Their marriage ended in divorce, as did a subsequent marriage to Norman Sachs Jr.
  10. ^ Freehling, Allison (January 1, 1996). "High Profile: Jack Borgenicht". Daily Press.
  11. ^ a b c "Paid Notice: Deaths Brandt, Grace Borgenicht". The New York Times. July 21, 2001.
  12. ^ "Jacob 'Jack' Borgenicht, 93, businessman, preservationist". New Jersey Hills Media Group. September 1, 2015.