"The run of the Dwan Gallery was brief but momentous. During its eleven years, Virginia Dwan mounted 134 shows, introducing viewers in Los Angeles and New York to the most challenging art practices of the time." — Earl A. Powell III

When Virginia Dwan opened the storied Dwan Gallery in a Los Angeles storefront in 1959, she (together with Ferus Gallery) helped establish Los Angeles as a nexus of the art world to rival New York or Paris. While Dwan's earliest exhibitions focused on certain established artists and Abstract Expressionists, by the early 1960s the gallery was increasingly showing Pop and Neo-Dada artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Yves Klein, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and James Rosenquist. By the middle of the decade, and especially after establishing a second location in NYC in 1965, Dwan focused increasingly on major minimalist and conceptual artists such as Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Arakawa, Robert Morris, Dan Flavin and others — eventually becoming the most important gallery to support landscape and other Earthworks artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer.

Though the gallery would last little more than a decade, its impact was enormous. Dwan not only exhibited and promoted her artists, she also funded their projects — and it is not an overstatement to say that without the support of Dwan such canonical works as Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" and Michael Heizer's "Double Negative" (which the artist eventually gave to Dwan) would simply not exist. Dwan was also a pioneer in creating promotional materials that were themselves works of art, frequently designed by the artists for conceptual works that otherwise often lacked any other physical manifestation.

Highlights of the collection include an exceptional unfolded example of Michael Heizer's monumental poster for "Double Negative / 1,000' x 42' x 30 / 40,000 Tons Displacement," as well as the rare poster for Yves Klein's "Le Monochrome," one of the few shows mounted during his brief life and one that marked a turning point in the gallery's history toward minimalism and conceptualism. Other major documents include a beautiful copy of the innovative catalogue BOXES, a complete set of postcards from Dwan's groundbreaking series of "Language" shows, as well as early and important pieces from Larry Rivers, Claes Oldenburg, Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Snelson, Dan Flavin, Ed Keinholz, James Rosenquist, Lucas Samaras, Robert Ryman, and numerous others.

The collection is in remarkable condition overall, with many of the posters unfolded. At 74 items, it is one of the largest groups of Dwan material of which we're aware. The Smithsonian holds a nearly complete collection, as does Bard — both donated by Virginia Dwan herself. The next largest grouping we've found is at the Getty (which consists of 57 items), and after that we locate only scattered individual items. As such, this collection represents nearly two-thirds of all Dwan exhibitions mounted during its twelve-year reign, and one of the largest to come to market. A major opportunity to acquire a dense and representative overview of this pioneering gallery and curator.

Read more: Celant, Virginia Dwan and the Dwan Gallery; Meyer, Rozanski, and Dwan, Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery 1959-1971.