PARIS.- On 18 and 19 October, auction house
Thierry de Maigret will offer 800 paintings and sculptures along with 150 prints and photographs gathered by Rodolphe Stadler. He was the founder of the famous gallery of the same name located at the heart of Paris from 1955 to 1999.
Tapiès, Appel, Saura, Pane, Luthï, Rainer, Falkenstein, Bluhm, Budd, Shiraga, Imaï… The most celebrated artists of the second half of the 20th century in Europe, United States and Japan will be featured in this important auction.
Nothing predisposed Rodolphe Stadler to become a main figure of the second half of the 20th century Parisian artistic scene. After studying law without any real interest and a few short trips to Paris during which he discovered art from his time, he got the idea of opening an art gallery. His father bought a space for him, located on a central road of Paris, rue de Sèvres. His artistic adventure could then begin, choosing to bring a fresh eye and no bias to the business, considering himself as a pioneer.
His 15-year collaboration with Michel Tapié (1909-1987), another main figure of the second half of the 20th century, strongly impacted the gallery’s identity. Michel Tapié was Toulouse Lautrec’s great cousin who published in 1952 a manifesto entitled Un art autre – où il s’agit de nouveaux dévidages du réel in which he defended Hartung, Wols, Mathieu, Dubuffet, Fautrier, Soulages, Tobey, Pollock, Riopelle and Michaux among ohers. The two men offered a new perspective on art through the artists that they had chosen and together defended this “other art” without any established structure or composition.
The Stadler gallery featured Antoni Tàpies, Karel Appel, Serpan, René Guiette, Horia Damian, Christo Coetzee, Luigi Boille as well as artists from the Gutaï Japanese group, Sofu Teshigahara and even American artists like Claire Falkenstein, David Budd, Paul Jenkins, Norman Bhlum and Alfonso Ossorio.
Strongly in favor of abstraction, Stadler did not exclude figurative art as long as it was done vehemently. He therefore organised Antonio Saura’s first solo exhibition in 1959 in France and supported his painting during 40 years.
During the 70’s, after Michel Tapiès’ departure, the dealer got passionate about body art, standing as a turning point in the gallery’s history. He dedicated an exhibition to body art in 1975 and regularly featured Michel Journiac, Gina Pane, Urs Lüthi, Hermann Nitsch or Chris Burden’s works. His interest for this transgressive and emerging movement put the gallery back at the top of contemporary artistic researches.
Gérald Thupinier, Jean Paul Huftier, Alexandre Delay, Rafael Mahdavi and Rutjer Rühle were part of the artists featured by the gallery during the following two decades.
The Stadler Gallery permanently closed in 1999.
