Evelyne Z. Daitz (April 13, 1936 – October 31, 2019) was a Swiss-born American art dealer, curator, and agent, specializing in photography. She was the owner and director of the Witkin Gallery in New York from 1984 to 1999.

Early life

Eveline Iris Zoller was born on April 13, 1936, in

Dardagny Dardagny () is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. In 1978, Dardagny received the Wakker Prize for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage. History Dardagny was first mentioned in 1309 as ''Dardaniacum''. ...

, Switzerland, the daughter of Johann Zoller and Pauline Feller Zoller. Her father was a blacksmith, and her parents ran a gas station and shop. Eveline Zoller moved to the United States to work as an '' au pair''. She became Eveline Daitz when she married Howard C. Daitz, a photography dealer, in 1962. When she became an American citizen in 1965, she began using the spelling "Evelyne" for her first name.

Career

Daitz helped to run the Witkin Gallery, "the first commercially successful photographic gallery in New York City",Wiese, Lenox
Finding Aid for the Witkin Gallery Collection
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. with its founder, Lee D. Witkin, from 1976 until his death in 1984. Then she became owner and director of the Witkin Gallery for fifteen years, moving it from E. 57th Street to SoHo in 1985, and closing the gallery and bookstore in 1999. She chose photographers to feature in the gallery, promoting the works of Jill Freedman,

Evelyn Hofer Evelyn Hofer (January 21, 1922 – November 2, 2009) was a German-American portrait and documentary photographer. Life and work Hofer was born in Marburg, Germany. The family moved to Geneva in 1933 in order to escape Nazism, and later to Mad ...

, Ruth Orkin,

Marion Palfi Marion Palfi (1907–1978) was a German-American social-documentary photographer born in Berlin. In 1940 she moved from Germany to New York City to escape the Nazi army and their ideologies. Early life Palfi was the daughter of German theater de ...

Burk Uzzle Burk Uzzle (August 4, 1938 in Raleigh, North Carolina) is an American photojournalist, previously member of Magnum Photos and president from 1979 to 1980. Burk Uzzle (burkuzzle.com) has spent his life as a professional photographer. Initially g ...

, and

Jerry Uelsmann Jerry Norman Uelsmann (June 11, 1934 – April 4, 2022) was an American photographer. As an emerging artist in the 1960s, Jerry Uelsmann received international recognition for surreal, enigmatic photographs (photomontages) made with his uniqu ...

among many others. In 1988 Daitz hosted a show of 64 new prints of photographs by

Walter Ballhause Walter Ballhause (born in Hameln on 3 April 1911 – died in Plauen on 8 July 1991) was a German photographer. He was active politically and worked in social documentary photography. Biography Born in Hameln as the son of a shoemaker, Walter Ball ...

, who documented life in Weimar Germany. Some of the gallery's shows under Daitz had unusual themes, such as "On the Elbow" (1993), fifty photographs of elbows, and "Sur la Tête" (1998), photographs of objects on human and animal heads, inspired by the work of

Graciela Iturbide Graciela Iturbide (born May 16, 1942) is a Mexican photographer. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in many major museum collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Biograp ...

. "Sur la Tête" was described by the ''New York Times'' photography critic as "provocative, mysterious, whimsical, just plain beautiful, or a combination thereof." The gallery's last show, "Clothes Off" (1999), focused on photography and the nude subject, including works by Imogen Cunningham, Judy Dater,

Manuel Álvarez Bravo Manuel Álvarez Bravo (February 4, 1902 – October 19, 2002) was a Mexican artistic photographer and one of the most important figures in 20th century Latin American photography. He was born and raised in Mexico City. While he took art classes a ...

, Edward Weston,

Mário Cravo Neto Mário Cravo Neto (Salvador, April 20, 1947 — Salvador, August 9, 2009) was a Brazilian photographer, sculptor and draughtsman. Mário Cravo, son of the sculptor Mário Cravo Júnior, is considered one of the most important photographers of Bra ...

, Arnold Eagle, and

Willy Ronis Willy Ronis (; 14 August 191012 September 2009) was a French photographer. His best-known work shows life in post-war Paris and Provence. Life and work Ronis was born in Paris; his father, Emmanuel Ronis, was a Jewish refugee from Odessa, and ...

. In 1994 Daitz selected a portfolio of photographs, published in a limited edition to mark the Witkin Gallery's 25th anniversary. In 2000 she curated a show of Cuban photography at Cuban Art Space in New York. Daitz was also an artists' agent, representing photographers Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Wendell MacRae, and Colette Urbajtel. She was technical advisor to the Manuel Alvarez Bravo Foundation.

Personal life

Eveline Zoller married Howard C. Daitz, a photography dealer, in 1962. Evelyne Z. Daitz died in 2019, aged 83 years, in New York City. The Witkin Gallery's papers, including artists' files, exhibition materials, and gallery records, are archived at the

Center for Creative Photography The Center for Creative Photography (CCP), established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona's Tucson campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American pho ...

in Tucson.

References

External links

Evelyne Daitz
at the British Film Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Daitz, Evelyne 1936 births 2019 deaths American art dealers Women art dealers Swiss emigrants to the United States People from the canton of Geneva