Considered a veteran in the field, Barbara Braathen is a contemporary art dealer, curator, and consultant who possesses a creative skill set and a mind that refuses to believe in boundaries. Whether working with a client to select the perfect artwork or consulting with an artist on their archival needs, she brings valuable experience, enthusiasm, and a sense of fun to any project.
Braathen’s Experience When She Started Her Galleries
On June 1, 1980, Braathen opened her first art gallery in Lower Manhattan. A great breakthrough was when a major collector and his wife visited on January 1, 1981, and purchased six large paintings by Jamie Dalglish. Braathen recalls going to a vintage clothing store, ecstatic that she could spend $90. That was back when money was not as significant as the commitment to aesthetics and poetry.
At the time, the contemporary art world was a cottage industry in which everyone either knew or was aware of each other. It was customary and possible to go to all of the art shows and read all of the art periodicals. A new gallery specializing in contemporary art, such as hers, would open only every few years. She opened with blessings and encouragement from around the world.
Barbara’s second gallery at 33 Bleecker Street was open from 1988 to 1998. It was speculated that the gallery space, located at the top of Mott Street, was possibly once Nikola Tesla’s studio, or perhaps Mott Iron Works, where Marcel Duchamp obtained his iconic readymade work of art, the urinal. Steps away was the only Louis Sullivan building in Manhattan, which housed the offices of Artforum, at that time the most important art magazine in the world; across the street was the acclaimed Noho Star where Braathen generally had breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner along with innumerable other art world figures; and nearby on the Bowery was the historical nightclub venue CBGBs. In 1989, when the actor Fred Gwynne had a show at Barbara Braathen Gallery, the whole of Bleecker Street between Bowery and Lafayette was closed off for the crowds and large television cameras.
Her Passion
Having advanced degrees in modern art history from UCLA, Braathen continues to be intrigued by the subject, particularly “The Spiritual in Art.” In 2011 the School of Visual Arts sponsored the webinar “Beyond Kandinsky,” developed and hosted by artist Taney Roniger, and this inspired Braathen to focus on Kandinsky and his Russian roots. She wrote three film scripts about this subject, including “The Silver Age.” Based on a true story, it depicts a group of Russian creatives in the early decades of the twentieth-century who together endure three domestic revolutions, a world war, and the collapse of empire; for six months after the Tsar’s abdication in 1917, Russia struggled to become a democracy but the Communists were more organized and managed to wrest control of the government.
Braathen came from her extensive university studies believing that Art and Spirit were inextricably linked. However, she was unhappy to learn that in the real world of professional life, one could never bring up the sensitive subject for fear of being labeled as a dimwitted-insignificant-fluffhead-no-count-dreamer. In 2019, the blockbuster exhibition of Hilma af Klint paintings at the Guggenheim Museum changed everything, achieving the museum’s highest attendance ever. Five years before Kandinsky, the reclusive Swedish artist, virtually unknown to the wider art world, produced the first abstract paintings in a series of colossal works. With this show, the previously taboo subject of the Spiritual in Art became suddenly acceptable.
The path was open for Braathen to achieve a lifelong desire: to have a gallery “Dedicated to the Spiritual in Art.” Delighted that current technology allows this to be an online gallery, she stated in an interview that she intends to present contemporary artists who have dealt with spiritual material throughout their careers, as well as to detail a history of the subject from cave drawings to current trends. She also stated that she is working on a personal blog where she will explore her views on The Spiritual in Art.
Her belief is that art exists in a sacred and highly regarded sphere. And that all works of art, whether the focus is political, phenomenological, descriptive, symbolic, scientific, humorous, conceptual, illustrative, numerical, cynical, ornamental, or aleatory, and regardless of the artist’s claims, are inherently spiritual. And that art has the power to transform people, cultures, and the future.
She is a lifelong student of the spiritual sciences, currently exploring the works of Rudolf Steiner, and studying with Paramahansa Yogananda.
Braathen’s View on Art Industry
Braathen considers the art industry to be the best in the world. It offers an unparalleled variety of creative personalities, experiences, interests, objects, environments, thoughts and conversations.
