Being a curator for an installation and being an art dealer assembling an exhibit are two different beasts.
A curator even in the most nominal position is an expert as a subject specialist in whatever is being presented where historical significance and intellect are generally evident.
As an art dealer assembling an exhibit the path is much wider and more forgiving from a critical perspective where the outcome is collector based and sales are a key ingredient. However, there is on occasion a crossover of intellect and presentation from a gallery exhibit to that of a museum.
The term Modern Masters is fairly expansive and includes artists over the past 100 years from 1900 - 2000. Revolutionary art movements such as Surrealism, Cubism, Expressionism, Abstraction and Pop were the most expansive movements in art history to ever take place during a relatively short period of time.
Pablo Picasso's genius and influence in art history was the critical birth of these artistic movements by pushing the limits of painting away from the belief that art was meant to preserve old traditions and not create new ones. Whether he was globally responsible for such a departure in painting or the time was just serendipitous with other painters making the same leap at that period is still left to debate, but the art world would never be the same after 1900 and Picasso's emergence as a Modern Master.
Names such as Picasso, Chagall, Miro and Dali are the linked most commonly to the term Modern Masters and while there are many other important and critically acclaimed artists spanning the past hundred years, these are the most significant and commonly known.
In creating an exhibit of this kind, it isn't as easy as meeting with an artist in representation and discussing the next exhibit's direction. Modern Master works are not readily available, they're rare, not available from one source and often expensive which can create a variety of challenges when assembling an exhibit with such variables.
Over the past 25 years as an art dealer, I have had the pleasure of selling a variety of works including Picasso, Chagall, Miro and Dali and wanted to assemble a small collection by these important artists for sale in our new Bellevue location.
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