Perls Galleries records
name: label: Creator
content: Perls Galleries
label: Names
content: Art Institute of Chicago
label: Names
content: Fujikawa Gallery
label: Names
content: Galerie Maeght
label: Names
content: James Corcoran Gallery
label: Names
content: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: National Gallery of Art (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Pierre Matisse Gallery (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Whitney Museum of American Art
label: Names
content: Austin, Darrel, 1907-
label: Names
content: Cafritz, Gwendolyn
label: Names
content: Cafritz, Morris, 1886?-1964
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Canaday, John, 1907-1985
label: Names
content: De Menil, Adelaide
label: Names
content: Dudensing, F. Valentine, 1892-1967
label: Names
content: Ford, Henry, 1917-1987
label: Names
content: Garbo, Greta, 1905-1990
label: Names
content: Hitchcock, Alfred, 1899-
label: Names
content: Luce, Claire
label: Names
content: Luce, Henry, III, 1925-2005
label: Names
content: Miró, Joan, 1893-
label: Names
content: Perls, Klaus
label: Names
content: Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973
label: Names
content: Priebe, Karl J., 1914-1976
label: Names
content: Streisand, Barbra
topic: label: Topic
content: Art, Modern
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The records were donated in 1997 by Douglas Mayhew, associate and legal representive of Klaus G. and Amelia B. Perls.
creator: label: Creator
content: Perls Galleries
setName: label: See more items in
content: Perls Galleries records
abstract: label: Summary
content: The records of the Perls Galleries measure 75.8 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1997. Founded by Klaus Perls in 1937 and operating until 1997, the gallery dealt primarily in modern French art and the artwork of Alexander Calder. Found within the records are extensive correspondence (circa 44 linear feet) with artists, dealers, galleries, museums, and collectors; photographs and negatives of inventory and other artwork; exhibition files, scattered financial records; and exhibition catalogs and clippings.
bioghist: label: Historical Note
content: Klaus Perls (b. 1912, d. 2008) formally opened Perls Galleries in New York in 1937, and ran it with his wife Amelia until its closing in 1997. The gallery dealt in contemporary French artists of the School of Paris, such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, but also acted as the primary representative of Alexander Calder beginning in 1954. In the 1970s Mr. Perls developed an interest in art from Benin and built an important collection of African sculpture, some of which was later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amelia Perls died in 2002, and Klaus Perls died in 2008.

Klaus Perls was born in 1912 in Berlin in a house Mies van der Rohe designed for his parents, who owned an art gallery specializing in Impressionists, post-Impressionists, Old Master paintings, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and African sculpture. Perls studied Art History in Hamburg and Munich but completed his PhD in Basel, Switzerland in 1933 after the Nazi government stopped awarding degrees to Jews. His dissertation covered the complete works of 15th-century French painter Jean Fouquet.

Before moving to New York in 1935, Perls worked for his mother, Kaethe Perls, in her Paris gallery that she opened in 1932 after splitting up with Klaus' father Hugo. He spent his first two years in New York selling paintings through other art dealers, primarily paintings shipped or recommended to him by his mother from Paris that were not selling well in the Depression-era French art market. These were primarily the work of Maurice Utrillo, Marie Laurencin, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck. In 1937 he formally established his own gallery, the Perls Galleries, on East 58th Street and continued to specialize in French and European contemporary art. Around the same time, his older brother Frank opened a gallery in Beverly Hills, California.

 Klaus Perls was familiar with other New York dealers specializing in modern European art such as Valentine Dudensing and Pierre Matisse, but he tried to distinguish himself by catering to young collectors. When the war restricted the international art trade and his mother was forced to flee France during the Occupation, Perls began dealing in contemporary American artists such as Darrel Austin and Karl Priebe.

Perls married Amelia Blumenthal, fondly known as "Dolly," in 1940, and she became his business partner.

After the war, the international art market exploded, and the Perls made frequent buying trips to Europe. The Perls Galleries continued to sell primarily contemporary French art and gained an early reputation as a staunch defender of modern art by European artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Lger, Soutine and Pascin. Perls prepared catalogues raisonns on Soutine and Pascin.

Klaus Perls was one of the founding members of the Art Dealer's Association, whose initial mission was to clean up the reputation of the art market following a series of scandals involving fake antiquities that flourished in the 1960's. Perls was the Association's second president, after Pierre Matisse.

In 1954 Perls Galleries moved to 1016 Madison Avenue, a building that served as both gallery and home for the Perls. The same year Perls became Alexander Calder's dealer after the death of Calder's previous dealer, Curt Valentin. Perls explained his inclusion of Calder, a rare American among his stable of European artists, by saying that Calder's roots lay in France and that Calder bridged Europe and America the way Perls felt he did himself. In 1970, Calder designed the terrazzo sidewalk in front of the gallery and often resided in the Perls' home during long visits to New York City. Perls Galleries later handled Calder's estate and functioned as a quasi-archives of Calder's works, holding more than 7,000 negatives depicting Calder's art and preparing a Calder catalogue raisonn.

Klaus was named as a third-party defendant in the 1969 World War II looted art case Menzel v. List. When Erna Menzel sued Albert List for ownership of a Chagall painting confiscated from Menzel by the Nazis, List in turn sued Perls, who had sold him the painting in 1955, having purchased it himself from a Paris art dealer. The court awarded the Chagall painting to Menzel and ordered Perls to pay List the appreciated value of the painting.

Perls began building an important collection of African artwork and fell in love with art from Benin in the 1970's. In 1991 he donated more than 150 pieces of royal art from Benin to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Perls closed their gallery in 1997; Amelia Perls died in 2002, and Klaus Perls died in 2008.
function: label: Function
content: Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 75.8 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1937-1997
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.perlgall
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Illustrated letters
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 7 series:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1937-1995 (Boxes 1-44, OV 81-83; 43.6 linear feet)

Series 2: Negatives, circa 1937-1995 (Boxes 44-57; 11.9 linear feet)

Series 3: Photographs, circa 1937-1995 (Boxes 60-75, OV 84; 16.1 linear feet)

Series 4: Exhibition, Loan, and Sales Records, 1937-1995 (Boxes 76-78; 2.1 linear feet)

Series 5: Clippings Files, 1943-1989 (Box 78; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 6: Exhibition Catalogs, 1939-1980 (Boxes 78-79; 1.4 linear feet)

Series 7: Drawings by John Canaday, circa 1967-1972 (Box 80; 0.3 linear feet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: This collection was sealed until the death of Klaus Perls in 2008. The collection was processed by Julie Schweitzer in 2008.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Illustrated letters
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The records of the Perls Galleries measure 75.8 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1997. Founded by Klaus Perls in 1937 and operating until 1997, the gallery dealt primarily in modern French art and the artwork of Alexander Calder. Found within the records are extensive correspondence (circa 44 linear feet) with artists, dealers, galleries, museums, and collectors; photographs and negatives of inventory and other artwork; exhibition files, scattered financial records; and exhibition catalogs and clippings.

Correspondence primarily discusses sales (and includes invoices), loans, and exhibitions, as well as more routine activities such as gallery maintenance, the printing of exhibition catalogs and letterhead, and the shipment, framing, or restoration of artwork. Many letters enclose photographs, negatives, or slides of artwork, and clippings. A few letters contain oversize architectural or engineering drawings, and a small handful of letters are illustrated. 

Correspondents include artists such as Darrell Austin, Joan Mir, Pablo Picasso, and Karl Priebe; galleries such as the Corcoran Gallery, Fujikawa Galleries, Galerie Maeght, and the Pierre Matisse Gallery; museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art; collectors such as Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, Adelaide de Mnil, Valentine Dudensing, and Henry Ford, II; and celebrity clients such as Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, Henry and Clare Booth Luce, and Barbra Streisand. 

The records contain around twenty-eight linear feet of photographs and negatives. Photographs are of artists and the inventory of the gallery's artwork. Additional photographs represent artwork either by artists not represented by the gallery or not included in the gallery's inventory. Most of the photographs are black and white. Over fifteen linear feet of negatives are of gallery stock. Photographs are also found in the exhibition files. 

There is a relatively small amount of records relating to exhibitions, loans, and sales. Found are exhibition lists, schedules, invitations and announcements, photographs of exhibition installations, press releases, and records of loans to other institutions and galleries. Sales records include artist lists, inventory lists, invoices, pick up and delivery receipts, and price lists.

Printed materials include a large number of clippings and an incomplete run of catalogs from Perls Galleries exhibitions between 1939 and 1980.

The collection also includes ten original pencil drawings from John Canaday's series entitled My Beautiful Girls and a reproduction of eight drawings from the same series
relatedmaterial: label: Related Material
content: Among the resources relating to the Perls Galleries in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Klaus Perls done by Mona Hadler on January 19, 1993.