Almine Rech

Almine Rech Ruiz-Picasso (née Rech) is a French art dealer and owner of the eponymous contemporary art gallery. The gallery has exhibition spaces in Paris, Brussels, London, New York and Shanghai.[1] The gallery opened in 1997 in Paris.[2]

Early life and education

Almine Rech was born in Paris to a Vietnamese-French mother and a French father, Georges Rech,[3] who founded one of France's first ready-to-wear labels in the 1960s. She took up painting and drawing in high school and while at boarding school in Switzerland[4] before studying art, cinema and literature at Faculté des lettres de Paris and the École du Louvre.

Career

Early in her career, Rech did provenance research for Parisian auction houses. By the mid-1980s she was married to her first husband, businessman Xavier de Froment, for six years[5] and had started selling art, helping friends and clients part with modernist artworks from the likes of Pierre Bonnard, Kurt Schwitters, and Félix Vallotton.[6]

Rech began her career as a gallerist with her second husband Cyrille Putman, the son of Andrée Putman, opening a gallery in the Marais in 1989 where they presented a single work by James Turrell, who did not have a European dealer at the time;[7] Robert R. Littman, the director of Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, a private museum in Mexico City, bought the work.[8]

Alongside other galleries including Air de Paris and Galerie Perrotin, Rech opened her own gallery on Rue Louise Weiss in the 13th arrondissement in 1997, as part of a city-sponsored initiative.[9] At the time, she worked with artists Ugo Rondinone, Joseph Kosuth, and other artists with minimalist and conceptual leanings,[10] including John McCracken.[11] Most notably, Rech has shown Jeff Koons since 2009.[12]

In 2006, the gallery moved to a larger, two-story space in the Marais district, before launching its current space in rue de Turenne in 2013. In 2008, Rech opened a second gallery in Brussels.[13] In 2014, she opened a 225 m2 (2,420 sq ft) gallery in London,[14][15] and added a 280 m2 (3,000 sq ft) space [16] – in New York in 2016.[17][18] In 2019, the gallery expanded to Shanghai, where it operates a 370 m2 (4,000 sq ft) space in the Amber Building — a three-story former People's Bank of China warehouse at 27 Hu Qiu Road –, sharing the floor with Lisson Gallery.[19][20] In January 2021, Almine Rech opened a second Parisian space at 18 avenue Matignon, in the 8th arrondissement, with an inaugural exhibition by Kenny Scharf. On the gallery's expansion, Rech has noted, 'Each step in expanding our platform has increased our ability to support and invest in a new generation of artists, which is a consideration at the very core of our gallery's DNA.'[21]

Other activities

Recognition

Rech is a member of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[23]

Personal life

Since 1997, Rech has been married to Bernard Ruiz-Picasso.[24] They have been living in Brussels since 2006[25] but also maintain apartments in Paris and New York as well as a French country estate inherited from Picasso called Boisgeloup.[26]

Since 2002,[27] Rech and Ruiz-Picasso have been serving as co-chairs of the Madrid-based Fundación Almine Y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Para El Arte (FABA), which holds a collection of works by Pablo Picasso.[28] FABA also supports some of the couple's favorite institutions, including Le Consortium in Dijon, France, Serpentine Galleries in London and the New Museum in New York.[29]

References
  1. "Almine Ruiz-Picasso". Alain Elkann Interviews. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  2. Tarmy, James. "Gallery Owner Almine Ruiz-Picasso, and Her Blockbuster Art Shows, Are Taking New York". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  3. Figaro, Madame (2014-09-18). "Mon petit déj' avec Almine Rech". Madame Figaro. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  4. Christopher Bagley (March 1, 2013), The Mixologist W.
  5. Christopher Bagley (March 1, 2013), The Mixologist W.
  6. James Tarmy (October 27, 2016), Gallery Owner Almine Ruiz-Picasso, and Her Blockbuster Art Shows, Are Taking New York Bloomberg News.
  7. Echos, Les (2013-03-15). "ALMINE RECH-PICASSO : "J'OFFRE UNE BOÎTE BLANCHE AUX ARTISTES"". lesechos.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  8. "ALMINE RECH". HUMANITY Magazine. 2015-11-26. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  9. Anna Sansom (July 29, 2019), ‘Grand Paris’: new art complex to open in Parisian suburb The Art Newspaper.
  10. Bagley, Christopher. "The Mixologist". W Magazine. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  11. "Almine Rech in Conversation | Ocula". ocula.com. 2019-04-28. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  12. Georgina Adam (June 10, 2016), The Art Market: A dealer with staying power Financial Times.
  13. "rech - Art Brussels". www.artbrussels.com. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  14. Georgina Adam (June 10, 2016), The Art Market: A dealer with staying power Financial Times.
  15. "La galerie Almine Rech ouvre un nouvel espace à Londres". Le Quotidien de l'Art (in French). Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  16. Nate Freeman (October 26, 2016), Almine Rech Discusses Expansion of Her Gallery Empire, as Upper East Side Space Opens ARTnews.
  17. "Parisian Dealer Almine Rech Opens Her New York Space". Cultured Magazine. 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  18. "La galerie Almine Rech ouvre un espace à New York - 14 juin 2016 - lejournaldesarts.fr". Le Journal Des Arts (in French). Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  19. Annie Armstrong (June 19, 2019), Almine Rech Heads to Shanghai ARTnews.
  20. Melanie Gerlis (February 8, 2019), The art market’s move to the east Financial Times.
  21. Gaskin, Sam (8 November 2019). "Almine Rech-Picasso Goes Global". Ocula.
  22. The Drawing Center Welcomes New Board Members Artforum, April 3, 2019.
  23. "Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres hiver 2017 - Ministère de la Culture". www.culture.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  24. Alexa Brazilian (February 11, 2015), Gallerist Almine Rech’s Eclectic and Elegant Paris Apartment The Wall Street Journal.
  25. Christopher Bagley (March 1, 2013), The Mixologist W.
  26. Alexa Brazilian (February 11, 2015), Gallerist Almine Rech’s Eclectic and Elegant Paris Apartment The Wall Street Journal.
  27. Christopher Bagley (March 1, 2013), The Mixologist W.
  28. Henderson, Violet (2018-09-19). "At home with Picassos: gallerist Almine Rech on living with the legacy of the most celebrated artist of the 20th century". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  29. Alexa Brazilian (February 11, 2015), Gallerist Almine Rech’s Eclectic and Elegant Paris Apartment The Wall Street Journal.
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