Saidenberg Gallery

The New York–based Saidenberg Gallery focused primarily on modern European art. It was established and managed by Eleanore Block (1911–1999) and Daniel Saidenberg (1906–1997). In addition to working as art dealers, the Saidenbergs were art collectors and supporters of the arts and public education. Their gallery had two other locations before its final address at 1018 Madison Avenue at 78th Street, and its clients included the Museum of Modern Art, David Rockefeller, and Sally and Victor Ganz.

Eleanore was a professional dancer from Chicago who specialized in modern dance. She was the daughter of the steel industrialist Leopold E. Block, and her brother, Leigh Block, was a prominent art collector based in Chicago. In 1934 she married Daniel, a professional cellist and conductor who had studied under André Hekking in Paris and at the Julliard School in New York. Daniel first played for the Philadelphia Orchestra before moving to Chicago in 1930 to assume the position of First Cellist for the Chicago Symphony. The Saidenbergs moved to New York around 1943, and Eleanore began work as a private art dealer. In 1962 she was a founding member of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). The Saidenbergs opened their gallery in 1950 at its first location, the ground floor of the family townhouse at 10 East 77th Street.

From 1955 until 1973, the Saidenbergs acted as the official U.S. representatives for Pablo Picasso, a position they assumed after the death of the artist’s previous representative, Curt Valentin. As a result, the couple worked closely with Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris, which was managed by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and his stepdaughter Louise Leiris. The first Picasso exhibition organized by the gallery was A Selection of 55 Drawings by Pablo Picasso, 1953–54 (December 1955–January 1956).

The Saidenberg Gallery also served as representative for three other artists who were also associated with Galerie Louise Leiris: Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, and André Masson. The work of Paul Klee was also shown at the gallery, and the Saidenbergs loaned Cubist works—including the painting Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1910; The Art Institute of Chicago) and the papier collé Guitar and Wine Glass (1912; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio)—to Picasso: An American Tribute (April–May 1962), a traveling exhibition organized by art historian John Richardson (b. 1924) on the occasion of the artist’s eightieth birthday. Two years later, the Saidenbergs contributed works from Braque’s Fauvist and Cubist periods to the multi-venue exhibition George Braque 1882–1963: An American Tribute (April–May 1964), which was also curated by Richardson. Picasso’s ninetieth birthday in 1971 was marked by another exhibition that was co-organized by the Saidenberg and Marlborough galleries. For Homage to Picasso for His 90th Birthday: Exhibition for the Benefit of the American Cancer Society the gallery showed the artist’s work from 1901 to 1924. In 1980 the Saidenbergs mounted an exhibition in honor of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler titled, Homage to Kahnweiler: Braque, Gris, Laurens, Léger, Masson, Picasso.

The couple’s initial art purchases were made in the mid-1940s. Among the Cubist works they owned were Picasso’s painting The Fruit Dish (1912; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Promised Gift from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection), his collage Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Rum (1914; donated to the Museum of Modern Art in 1956), and Braque’s papier collé Bal, Bach Journal (1912). Most of their estate was sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 1999.