Helen Serger was a gallerist and

dealer Dealer may refer to: Film and TV * ''Dealers'' (film), a 1989 British film * ''Dealers'' (TV series), a reality television series where five art and antique dealers bid on items * ''The Dealer'' (film), filmed in 2008 and released in 2010 * ...

of modern art, in particular early 20th C. European

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

art. She is also known for presenting pioneering exhibitions of women artists such as

Hannah Höch Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collage in which the p ...

and

Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...

Gallery

Serger founded the gallery La Boetie on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

of New York City. She wrote and published numerous exhibition catalogs on the artists and art movements shown at her gallery, these include ''Paintings, drawings, watercolors and prints by 20th century masters'' (1972), ''Art of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

: artists and publications'' (1982), ''Hannah Höch, 1889-1978 : oil paintings and works on paper'' (1983), ''Sonia Delaunay, rythmes et couleurs'', in collaboration with Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner KG, Bremen (1987), and ''Strictly Drawings: 20th Century Masters (1985)'' The Frederick and Helen Serger Collection, Bequest of Helen Serger, in honor of William S. Lieberman is housed by the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York. Serger's Gallery also exhibited the work of

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, Constructivism (art), constructivism, surrealism ...

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...

, Egon Schiele,

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

and other masters of Modern Art. The Serger Collection, now housed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York includes works by Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall,

Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germa ...

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...

among others. Serger was a supporter of women artists at a time when there was scarce representation of women's work. Notably, in the 1980s, she organized and presented two exhibitions titled ''Women of the Avant-garde''. The critic,

Hilton Kramer Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor's degree in English; ...

reviewed the first of these shows, writing: "...the exhibition brings us into contact with the work of a significant number of artists - especially among the Europeans - who are likely to be unknown to us. And even where some of the names are well known...the particular works we are shown are not familiar." Marlow Moss of the New York Times cited several of these women as "real revelations." Serger traveled the world for business as well as to learn about art and other cultures; she continued to do so into her eighties.

Awards

In 1990, Serger was awarded a

Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award The Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award was established under the presidency of Lee Ann Miller (1978–80). Joan Mondale, artist and wife of vice-president Walter Mondale, helped to secure approval for a national award honoring women ...

Early life

Serger was born in 1901 in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

, a town that was in the Austrian-Hungarian empire at the time, and that is now part of Poland. She and her husband Frederick Serger, an artist, began collecting modern art in the 1930s while still living in Europe. She became a serious collector and would often purchase works of art in Paris. During the 1939 invasion of Poland, Serger had to abandon her collection, but bought her knowledge and passion for collecting art with her. The Sergers moved to New York City in 1941, and began a business as a private gallerist in the 1950s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serger, Helen 20th-century American women writers 1901 births 1989 deaths American art dealers Women art dealers Polish art collectors Women art collectors Polish art dealers Polish women in business People from Silesia Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States