Galerie 1900-2000
David et Marcel Fleiss
Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie
Vallois
1018 Madison Ave,
NYC, NY 10075
Galerie 1900-2000 and Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois open their joint space at 1018 Madison Avenue
Featuring a double exhibition program presenting some of the most important French and International avant-gardes movements such as DADA, Surrealism and other Avant-Gardes (for Galerie 1900-2000) or Nouveau Réalisme, the 60s and 70s (for Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois).
New York, NY, February 19, 2023
David Fleiss along with his partner Sylvain Rouillon, Georges-Philippe Vallois, Nathalie Vallois and their partner Marianne Le Métayer, are pleased to announce the opening of their New York joint space. Located in the historically renowned building 1018 Madison Avenue, the two galleries will be sharing a two floors space (5th and 6th floor) operated by Senior Director Natalia Sacasa and Junior Director Cassie Legg. Longtime friendship and mutual respect made this association possible: sharing a space, a team, a website (www.fleiss-vallois.com) while keeping their own identity and program.
Paris based galleries, Galerie 1900-2000 www.galerie1900-2000.com, and Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois www.galerie-vallois.com, will bring more than 40 years of experience promoting internationally renowned artists.
Their first exhibitions, Air de New York and Upcycling, will open on May 12 of 2023, concurrent with the art fair, TEFAF New York.
David Fleiss says “New York was an important city for artists like Duchamp and Picabia, whose works we show. They often spent time in NYC and even lived here; during WWII, it was the home of André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, whose estate is represented by us. We have enjoyed long relationships with collectors in New York, many of whom are traveling less these days, so we know there is an audience of connoisseurs with an appetite for our program. These relationships we and our artists have with the city were motivations for us to open a space here. Our first show will be titled Air de New York, a pun on Duchamp’s 1919 work Air de Paris. The show will be a two artist presentation of Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, each represented with works from the Dada period and later.”
“Appropriation and reuse are central to the philosophy of the Nouveaux Réalistes,” says Georges-Phillipe Vallois, “the term upcycling, title of our first show, did not exist when they were working, but they would have loved it! It means to elevate a product to a higher value than the original- and that is exactly what artists such as Jacques Villeglé and Raymond Hains did. On her side, Niki de Saint Phalle, who is more known for her exuberant figurative work, made assemblage works early in her life from household items and things she found on the street, and Tinguely even had a “junk period”. The Nouveaux Réalistes were also concerned with a disdain for Capitalism and often appropriated its representations as an objective critique of commerce. This aligned their group with the American Pop Art Movement; however, ideologically they have more in common with Dada. The artists of Upcycling, all represented in major museum collections in the United States, have been at the core of our program since the inception of the gallery in 1990. It was an obvious choice to start with them for our first show in New York!”
Specializing in Dada, Surrealism, and other 20th century avant-gardes, David Fleiss has worked with works by important artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. Fleiss’s father, Marcel Fleiss, encouraged by his friend Man Ray, opened the Galerie des Quatre Mouvements in 1972. In 1981 he relaunched as Galerie 1900-2000, and broadened the exhibition program to include other international artists and avant-garde movements, such as Lettrism and Fluxus, as well as contemporary artists such as Pol Bury, Bill Copley, Al Hansen or Jean-Michel Basquiat. Notably, the last exhibition Keith Haring made before he died took place at Galerie 1900-2000. They have in recent years organized shows and booth presentations making collaboration between renowned contemporary artists such as Laurent Grasso, Sylvie Fleury, Cindy Sherman, Joseph Kosuth, Harold Ancart or Hans-Peter Feldman and works from their inventory.
For over 30 years, Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois has established a program of internationally renowned artists by bringing together contemporary art and historical French movements of the 1960s – « Nouveau Réalisme” and other French avant-garde movements. Beyond orchestrating major historical exhibitions the gallery is renowned for its reference publications and represents the estates of Jacques Villeglé, Jean Tinguely, and Niki de Saint Phalle.
The gallery has also organized the first solo shows in Paris of Californian artists such as Paul
McCarthy (1994), Richard Jackson (2002), Martin Kersels (1999). More recently, the
gallery has widened its horizon to American Photorealism and presented surveys of John
DeAndrea and Robert Cottingham’s work. International artists such as Henrique Oliveira
(Brazil), Alain Bublex (France), Tomi Ungerer (France) or Zhenya Machneva (Russia), are
represented and regularly exhibited by the gallery.
