In the present economic climate, most art dealers are struggling somewhat. At times of recession or depression it is the middle that tends to fall out of the market: there will always be billionaires who exultantly pay phenomenal amounts at auction for a prime Impressionist or Picasso, while at the other end a painting costing a hundred or so can cheer one up without breaking the bank. But in the nature of things, most dealers fall somewhere between these two extremes.
Consequently, it is a real pleasure — and something of a relief — to see two distinguished specialised dealers celebrating 25 years in their present galleries. They are the Boundary Gallery in Boundary Road, NW8 (www.boundarygallery.com), and Chris Beetles in Ryder Street, St James’s (gallery@chrisbeetles.com). The two survivors do not have much in common: neither is likely to exert universal appeal. But then, what ever does? And it is those dealers who aim to that seem the most likely to go to the wall. At least a strong specialisation provokes passionate partisanship, and if it appeals particularly to a discriminating, knowledgeable audience, they are the most likely to be determined buyers, adding to their collections through thick and thin.
Where there is a specialisation, there is likely to be a specialist. And specialists usually are, and always should be, in love with their subject. That is certainly true both of Chris Beetles and of Agi Katz, creator of the Boundary Gallery.
Beetles, a lively, energetic man for whom the word “jovial” might have been invented (unsurprisingly, he has been a writer and performer of comedy as well as, for 14 years, an inner city GP), began in the art world by imposing himself as an expert on classic British illustration from the middle of the 19th century right up to date.
He has written an erudite book on R. S. Badmin, and the increasingly chunky catalogues of his annual exhibitions of illustrators’ drawings and watercolours are an invaluable source of information as well as ravishing picture books in their own right. His gallery has expanded into other, related fields: representational sculpture, landscape watercolour, modern British — his summer show this year is devoted to two virtuoso landscape painters, Victorian Albert Goodwin and Keith Grant — and he has recently begun a series of shows devoted to senior British photographers. The taste behind what he shows is absolutely consistent, and his gallery benefits enormously from his visitors’ knowing very much what to expect.
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As a personality, Agi Katz is intense rather than jolly. That is not to say that the art she shows is always glum: visitors to her recent show of paintings by David Tress will have found themselves alternately soothed and bombarded by his dazzling observation of the colours to be found at the heart of what is usually thought to be tame, ordered British landscape. But whether glittering or glowering, the art she shows is always serious.
Before the gallery Katz ran the Ben Uri Gallery, and now it has followed her to Boundary Road, being for the moment located a few doors down. Jewish artists, Epstein to Breuer-Weil, do indeed play a large part in the Boundary’s programme, but perhaps the closest of all to Katz’s heart is Bomberg. A recent show of Bomberg, his pupils and Borough hangers-on, opened the eyes of many to the importance of Bomberg’s influence on a whole stream of modern art in Britain.
Like it or loathe it, one always knows that Katz at least loves it and stands 100 per cent behind it. As much cannot be said of many dealers. Only the best.