Hillel "Helly" Nahmad (born 23 November 1976) is an independent British art dealer of Syrian and Lebanese descent.

Early life

Hillel "Helly" Nahmad was born in November 1976, the son of the art dealer Ezra Nahmad. He attended St Paul's School, before reading History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. In 1997, he had Italian nationality.

Career

In 1998 Nahmad founded an eponymous modern art gallery in Cork Street,

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

, specialising in works by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Wassily Kandinsky,

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, René Magritte,

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

and

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

among others. This gallery is not to be confused with a different gallery of the same name based in New York, opened by another Nelly Nahmad, his cousin and the son of his uncle

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, and which operates as a completely separate entity. Nahmad is a frequent commentator on the art market. In 2011 Nahmad organised and curated the first ever exhibition of highlights from the Nahmad Collection at

Kunsthaus Zurich Kunsthaus (German meaning "art house") may refer to: *Kunsthaus Graz *Kunsthaus Tacheles *KunstHausWien *Kunsthaus Zürich See also * Art gallery * Kunsthalle A kunsthalle is a facility that mounts temporary art exhibitions, similar to an art ...

. The exhibition comprised over 100 masterpieces by artists from the

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, Surrealist and Cubist movements, including

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...

, Juan Gris, René Magritte, Max Ernst,

, and

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

. Works displayed included those which have been in his family collection for decades, and which have rarely been exhibited in public before. Nahmad spoke about the exhibition to Jackie Wullschlager for Lunch with the FT. This exhibition was followed in 2013 by 'Picasso in the Nahmad Collection', at the

Grimaldi Forum The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco is a conference and congress centre located on the seafront of Monaco's eastern beach quartier, Larvotto. Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra regularly perform there. This is also the ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, an exhibition of over 120 works from the collection brought together to celebrate the worldwide 40th anniversary of the artist. The exhibition was curated by the Director of the

Musée Picasso :''This article refers to the museum in Paris. There are a number of other Picasso museums.'' The Musée Picasso ( en, Picasso Museum) is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé ( en, Salé Hall) in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district ...

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

, Jean-Louis Andral, and Marilyn McCully, an expert on the artist. Recent exhibitions at the Helly Nahmad Gallery in London have included a retrospective of

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, which featured seventeen paintings by the

, including two views of London kindly loaned by the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' called the exhibition "the best show in London this winter". This was followed by an ambitious exhibition of

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

's female

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

and included a generous loan from

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

of one painting, 'La Liseuse distraite' (1919), along with the artist's series of four monumental

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

female backs, entitled 'Nu de dos I-IV' which were conceived circa 1909–30. In 2014, Helly Nahmad London presented 'The Collector' at Frieze Masters 2014, a full scale imaginary collector's apartment set in Paris in 1968, curated by Helly Nahmad and designed in collaboration with leading British production designer, Robin Brown and creative producer Anna Pank. Scott Reyburn of

The International New York Times ''The New York Times International Edition'' is an English-language daily newspaper distributed internationally by the New York Times Company. It has been published in two separate periods, one from 1943 to 1967 and one from 2013 to the prese ...

stated that ''"London dealer Helly Nahmad evoked that "true" collecting spirit."'' Further comments and reviews of 'The Collector' at Frieze Masters 2014 can be found at Vogue Italia and The Guardian. After the exhibition, Helly Nahmad London commissioned a short film of 'The Collector', inspired by their Frieze stand; the full version is available online. Since then Nahmad has aimed to lend art works as widely as possible so that the collection can be accessed by the public.

References

External links

*
Nahmad Foundation exhibition at Kunsthaus, Zurich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nahmad, Helly 1976 births Living people People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art English art collectors Jewish art collectors Art dealers from London 21st-century British businesspeople British people of Syrian-Jewish descent English people of Lebanese-Jewish descent English Sephardi Jews

Helly Eduard Helly (June 1, 1884 in Vienna – 28 November 1943 in Chicago) was a mathematician after whom Helly's theorem, Helly families, Helly's selection theorem, Helly metric, and the Helly–Bray theorem were named. Life Helly earned his doctora ...