Klaus Gunther Perls
Klaus Gunther Perls (born as Klaus Günther Perls on January 15, 1912 in Berlin ; died on June 2, 2008 in Mount Kisco ) was a German-American art dealer.
Life
Klaus Günther Perls was a son of the diplomat and later art dealer Hugo Perls and Käthe Kolker. His older brother Frank Richard Perls also became an art dealer, while his brother Thomas Alfred Perls (1923–1982) became an engineer at Lockheed .
Perls began studying art history in Munich and was expelled in 1933 after power was handed over to the National Socialists. He was able to continue his studies in Basel and received his doctorate there with a dissertation on Jean Fouquet . He worked in his mother's Paris art dealer and emigrated to the USA in 1935. In Manhattan he founded the Perls Galleries with his brother Frank Perls, and Frank then went to California. Perls received US citizenship in 1940 and married the American educator Amelia Blumenthal, who became a partner in the art dealership. They had two children and the music producer Nick Perls died in 1987.
The art dealer dealt primarily with painters of the classical modern period from Paris. From 1954 they also represented Alexander Calder . In 1997 they retired. Perls last lived in Armonk .
In 1991 the Perls donated a collection of African art from the former Kingdom of Benin to the Metropolitan Museum of Art , which they had built up since the 1970s, and in 1996 works by Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani . The total value was estimated at over $ 60 million at the time.
Fonts (selection)
- Jean Fouquet . Paris, 1940
- Vlaminck . 1941
- Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow, Klaus Perls: Chaim Soutine. Catalog raisonné . Cologne: Taschen, 1993
- Magazine articles
literature
- Perls, Klaus Gunther . In: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical handbook of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism . Munich: Saur, 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , p. 504 f.
- Perls, Klaus Gunther . In: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (ed.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Vol. 1: Politics, economics, public life . Munich: Saur 1980, p. 553.
Web links
- Literature by and about Perls, Klaus in the bibliographic database WorldCat
- William Grimes: Klaus Perls, Art Dealer Who Gave Picassos to the Met, Dies at 96 , New York Times, June 6, 2008
- Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection , The Metropolitan Museum of Art, PDF
Individual evidence
- ↑ Perls, Amelia (nee Blumenthal) , NYT, September 8, 2002
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Perls, Klaus Gunther |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Perls, Klaus Günther |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American art dealer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 15, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 2, 2008 |
| Place of death | Mount Kisco |