Leo and His Circle

by Annie Cohen-Solal

Leo Castelli reigned for decades as America’s most influential art dealer. Now Annie Cohen-Solal, author of the hugely acclaimed A Life (“an intimate portrait of the man that possesses all the detail and resonance of fiction”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times), recounts his incalculably influential and astonishing life in Leo and His Circle. After emigrating to New York in 1941, Castelli would not open a gallery for sixteen years, when he had reached the age of fifty. But as the first to exhibit the then-unknown Jasper Johns, Castelli emerged as a tastemaker overnight and fast came to champion a virtual Who’s Who of twentieth-century Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Twombly, to name a few. The secret of Leo’s success? Personal devotion to the artists, his “heroes”: by putting young talents on stipend and seeking placement in the ideal collection rather than with the top bidder, he transformed the way business was done, multiplying the capital, both cultural and financial, of those he represented. His enterprise, which by 1980 had expanded to an impressive network of satellite galleries in Europe and three locations in New York, thus became the unrivaled commercial institution in American art, producing a generation of acolytes, among them Mary Boone, Jeffrey Deitch, Larry Gagosian, and Tony Shafrazi. Leo and His Circle brilliantly narrates the course of one man’s power and influence. But Castelli had another secret, his life as an Italian Jew. Annie Cohen-Solal traces a family whose fortunes rose and fell for centuries before the Castellis fled European fascism. Never hidden but also never discussed, this experience would form the core of a guarded but magnetic character possessed of unfailing old-world charm and a refusal to look backward—traits that ensured Castelli’s visionary precedence in every major new movement from Pop to Conceptual and by which he fostered the worldwide enthusiasm for American contemporary art that is his greatest legacy. Drawing on her friendship with the subject, as well as an uncanny knack for archival excavation, Annie Cohen-Solal gives us in full the elegant, shrewd, irresistible, and enigmatic figure at the very center of postwar American art, bringing an utterly new understanding of its evolution.

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, Art History

576 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Annie Cohen-Solal is an academic and writer. For ever, she has been tracking down interactions between art, literature and society with an intercultural twist. After Sartre: A Life (1987) became an international success, she became French cultural counselor in the US, where she held her position from 1989 to 1992.

In New York, Cohen-Solal’s encounter with Leo Castelli led her to shift her interest to the art world. In the frame of a manyfold project which was to become a social history of the US artist, she published Painting American (2001); Leo Castelli & His Circle (2010); New York-Mid Century (2014), with Paul Goldberger and Robert Gottlieb; Mark Rothko (2013). In 2013, she became special advisor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure for the Nuit Sartre ; in 2014, general curator of Magiciens de la terre 2014 at the Centre Pompidou, publishing Magiciens de la terre : retour sur une exposition légendaire, with Jean-Hubert Martin. As a professor, she has held positions at Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, University of Caen, École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the Freie University of Berlin, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is working on curating exhibitions for the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, the Musée Picasso and the Musée de l’Immigration in Paris. She will soon lead, alongside Jeremy Adelman, the “Crossing Boundaries” workshop at the CASBS (Stanford University). Born in Algiers, Annie now lives between Paris and Cortona.

(Taken from the bio of her official website)

Reviews

[Richard Odier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livre passionnant et envoûtant sur le plus grand passionné de l’art contemporain

[Josh Friedlander · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third is a fascinating story of an Italian-Jewish family, wandering from Tuscany to Trieste over centuries, two world wars, and a dramatic escape from the Nazis. (Like The Hare With the Amber Eyes, with which it has much in common, it is about wealthy, cultured Jews who have the connections to organise the very difficult escape: unlike almost all of their coreligionists.)

The rest is a story of the American art world, from the end of Abstract Expressionism (Rothko mostly predates this book's timeframe) through the rise of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual Art. Castelli was a consummate schmoozer, an aesthete who ended every day with Proust, a social striver who cultivated friendships with art figures such as the MoMA's visionary founding curator Albert Barr (whose quick bio in this book made me curious to know more). A notable story is about the Venice Biennale won by Robert Rauschenberg, a 'Castelli artist' whose victory caused outrage among the Europeans. Towards the end of his life, Castelli told Larry Gagosian that he could buy his gallery, but his artists would be unlikely to stay: their connection was with him as an individual. And with his passing, his fame has mostly evaporated outside of the art cognoscenti, but anyone interested in the history of this period cannot avoid his presence.

[Kevin McDonagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Godfather of America's contemporary art world is also the quintessential 'late bloomer' in his 50s. What personally interested me was the closeness, variety and length of Leo's relationships. Although it's often commented upon how he started his gallery so late, he had cultivated an artist and collector network all his life. Leo Castelli's gallery was the first globally networked business model and the prototype for the mega galleries of the future. This lovingly researched bio fleshes out a leisurely ladies' man character and a different art world in which he established his artists and American art within the current of art historical movements.

I wrote a more extensive piece exploring some of his biz model innovations here:
https://kevinmcdonagh.posthaven.com/g...

[Iniville · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit to skimming a lot in this book due to stodgy prose. But the research was extensive. Why the publisher/editor insisted that the city of Siena is spelled with two "n's" is beyond me. So easy to look it up...

[Yusei158 · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

[Tommy Bat-Blog Brookshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leo Castelli had a very long successful career as an Art Dealer for many decades and also played an important part in American Art History. His list of Artists he represented are pretty impressive: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, etc.... almost all the major Pop Artists! Later, in the 70's, he handled some of the difficult Minimalists like Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, etc.

OK, I wanted to read this book for awhile because I've always been a Fan of Leo Castelli. He was a very fascinating guy. But this book was a slight let down & then later it became a joy to read. Here's why. First, I recommend that if you read this book that you only read the 1st few pages and then skip to Chapter Ten. I'm not kidding! The book gets heavily into his Family's past history and it drones on and on forever! I kept wondering who the Editor was on this thing because they needed to be fired, ha! I mean, we're talking 600 years past history and it's a nightmare to read. Then, it starts to get to Leo and the book is very enjoyable!

Now, reading about Leo's life and how connected it was to Modern Art History is interesting. If you love ART then you'll be familiar with most of the Artists he represented and there's a lot of nice stories about them as well. I actually wish it could have got into the ART a lot more or maybe had more photos. But I think the "600 year history" part of the book hogged-up any chance of that. Now, I'm not saying this book is bad, it's just one where you need to modify your reading. Otherwise, it's great!

[Jonathan Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the mid-1950s until his death in 1999, Leo Castelli, the renowned New York gallery owner who discovered and promoted such now-famous artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein, exerted a profound and transformative influence on the aesthetic tastes and commercial practices of the contemporary art world. A beneficiary and instigator of American art’s postwar emergence on the international stage, this Italian-born impresario, with his perceptive eyes and enviably bespoke suits, is generally acknowledged to have been the most important art dealer of the late 20th century.

It is therefore surprising that one can follow Castelli’s story for the first 230 pages of “Leo and His Circle,” a mammoth new biography by the French critic and historian Annie Cohen-Solal, without even reaching the point at which the man opens his gallery. But while Cohen-Solal, author of a well-regarded life of existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, lavishes more attention on Castelli’s early, pre-professional period than other writers might, she reaps abundant rewards in the process.

Cohen-Solal expands Castelli’s life story into one of sufficient historical and cultural resonance to interest not just art lovers but a general audience as well...

The rest of my review is available online at Boston.com:

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articl...

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stole this from Emily and read it on vacation in Los Angeles. Great poolside reading prose. Of course, I read it from a painter's perspective, and it is actually instructive--and a cautionary tale--for those who wish to be involved in the gallery/dealer system. I enjoyed the last half of the biography where we see Castelli--after sixteen years in NYC developing his aesthetic, persona, connections to artists, gallerists, collectors, et al--burst onto the NYC art world with his Jasper Johns show, only Castelli's second show in which he sold a Johns painting to the MOMA before the show opened~! One might say Castelli was a sixteen year overnight success.

The author highlights Castelli's real love and loyalty to artists, as well as his shrewd acumen for self-promotion. Castelli was the first superstar gallery owner, and he knew it. It's fun to read about his ascendence to power in NYC, the insanely successful POP ART years, and the eventual leveling of his kingdom due to age, influx of "vulgar" money, new Harvard MBA dealer practices, and simply world changes that left him befuddled at the new way galleries do their thing.

Fun and informative read.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know much about Castelli before I read this book. I loved the details about Castelli's galleries in NYC and how he played a major role in the careers of artists such as Robert Rauschenburg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Warhol, Judd, Serra, etc. The list goes on. I also liked the connections with current gallerists and delaers, such as Dietch and Larry Gagosian. Much of the book was on Castelli's life, and his family history, in Europe. I think this was more interesting to the author than to me, but it did support her thesis which was that Castelli's unique background greatly contributed to his success as an international art dealer. I will keep it on my shelf for reference.

[David Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a long story (Castelli died at age 91). If you’re not inclined towards the visual arts, perhaps too long. Leo was fifty before he opened his famous Manhattan art gallery in 1957. Few would have any idea what lay behind his extremely kind manners: the tragic loss of his parents in war-torn Europe, his flight to America, or his prolonged struggle to establish himself as a preeminent art dealer. His profound influence on 20th-century art cannot be overestimated. The book is heavy going at times, perhaps because it’s a translation. Question: why the red sticker on the front cover and binding?

[Scott Pittendrigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie Cohen-Solal’s new biography of Leo Castelli, the art dealer who will forever be associated with the meteoric rise of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg in the years around 1960, has set me to thinking about the interest that men and women who run galleries inspire among a fairly wide public. It seems that even people with no burning interest in the buying and selling of paintings and sculptures are curious about the lives of art dealers, or so one would be led to assume based on the substantial number of books by and about dealers published over the years. Some of these memoirs—especially the recollections of Paris and New York by Peggy Guggenheim, Julien Levy, and John Bernard Myers—achieve the rollicking charm of picaresque novels, reminding us that formidable tastemakers are often considerable characters, and that artistic or intellectual perspicacity is not all it takes to be an arbiter of the avant-garde. It goes without saying that dealers, even the ones who start out with money, are interested in making money, but their financial operations have nothing whatever to do with the corporate mentality that now dominates our world. Art dealers maintain an antediluvian approach to commerce. They reject the impersonality of the boardroom; they are free agents, the most glamorous of small business owners, do-it-yourselfers in a mass-market world.

Art dealers used to come in two groups: the entrepreneurs, who are the moneymakers, and the evangelists, who are the tastemakers. Now there is a third group: let us call them the opportunists. The entrepreneur is essentially a dealer in luxury goods, selling rarity and pedigree in much the same way as a jeweler or a furrier, except that art is a luxury item with some appeal to transcendence. The ultimate entrepreneur was Joseph Duveen, who in the early twentieth century made his money selling old masters from cash-strapped European aristocrats to people with new money, often in the United States. The evangelist is essentially a member of the avant-garde, or—in the years since the collapse of the avant-garde—of a strenuously envisioned counter - avant-garde. The great evangelists were figures such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Julien Levy, who presented the work of unknown or lesser-known artists, Picasso and Braque in Paris or Gorky and Cornell in New York, and through their support for these artists made an argument about the present and the future of art. The evangelist can be an intellectual on the model of Kahnweiler, who produced two classics in the literature of twentieth-century art, The Rise of Cubism and a monograph on Juan Gris. Naturally, every successful dealer incorporates elements of both types. Evangelists want to make money. And entrepreneurs often give an evangelical spin to their moneymaking, as Duveen did when he hired as a key advisor Bernard Berenson, whose aestheticism was itself an avant-garde vision in the years around 1900.


But who is the opportunist, the most perfect representative of the type? He is Leo Castelli. Although Castelli—who died in 1999 at the age of ninety-one—has been described as both an entrepreneur and an evangelist, the facts do not support either characterization. Many people have testified that money was never for Castelli the primary thing, so he is not exactly an entrepreneur. And the range of stylistically contradictory artists and movements that he supported—Pop, Minimal, Conceptual, Neo-Expressionist—suggests that he lacked the focus of an evangelist, who tends to stand ardently for some particular artistic viewpoint. What really interested Castelli was making a sensation. What he wanted most of all was attention.

It is interesting that the reviews of Cohen-Solal’s life of Castelli, many of them written by people who knew Castelli to some degree, almost invariably leave one with the impression that, as Peter Schjeldahl put it in The New Yorker, “something impenetrable survives the best efforts of Cohen-Solal.” This impenetrability is inherent in the art business, of course: dealers have many reasons for keeping much of what they are thinking to themselves. In the case of Castelli, however, the impenetrability is built into the role of the opportunist that he did so much to define. For the opportunist, the most important thing that is going on is the illusion that things are going on. The opportunist is basically a social animal, a scene-maker, a trend-spotter, an enemy of all fixed or even evolving concepts of value. And that was Leo Castelli. Whatever was happening, he wanted to be there. And if it was no longer happening there, he would go elsewhere. And finally he would go anywhere.

[Govaert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Op basis van een zeer grondige research schetst de auteur een boeiend portret van wellicht de voornaamste galeriehouder van de tweede helft van de 20ste eeuw.
Het boek start met een zorgvuldige reconstructie van de familiegeschiedenis tot en met de vlucht naar Amerika bij het uitbreken van WOII. Meteen gaat de schrijfster op zoek naar de typische eigenschappen die mee het latere succes van Leo Castelli helpen verklaren.
Vervolgens beschrijft het boek de gestage opgang van Castelli als galeriehouder, als ontdekker van nieuwe artiesten en stromingen, als mecenas van zijn kunstenaars,... Gaandeweg wordt het boek een who is who van de New Yorkse en bij uitbreiding Amerikaanse kunstwereld na de Wereldoorlog.

[Peter Pinelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author is way too breathless to write this book. The story is fatally compromised by her love for Castelli. They were friends in real life. At one point he jokingly mentions that she should go visit a European graveyard where some of his family is buried. And she does.

I'm only about halfway finished. I'm not sure I'll continue. So far there hasn't been a single critical statement about Castelli.

I recently read Florence Rubenfeld's biography of Clement Greenberg. That work is dramatically better. If you want to generally know about the birth of the NY art world, check that one out.

[Edith Vaisberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very recommended for anyone who is passionate about the art world. Interesting insights into Leo's effect on contemporary galleries and the introduction of American Artists in the global scene.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

A puff piece that avoids many of the dark truths.

[Paul Henkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

a excellent and detailed story of the giant who built the art world as we know it today

[Aidan Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definition of a boss. Awesome work!

[Matteo Cordero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leo & C. Storia di Leo Castelli," scritto da Annie Cohen-Solal e pubblicato da Johan & Levi, è una biografia di uno dei più celebri galleristi italo-americani, e forse il vero fondatore del mercato dell'arte negli Stati Uniti dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Il testo, relativamente breve per una biografia, racconta le antiche origini di Castelli, risalendo ai suoi più lontani antenati nella Toscana del 1600. Offre una cronologia dettagliata degli spostamenti ed esperienze dei suoi antenati, dalle origini fino al definitivo trasferimento forzato in America durante l'inizio della Seconda Guerra Mondiale in Europa. Una volta in America, Castelli getta le basi per il più grande mercato dell'arte al mondo grazie alla sua galleria, eleganza e relazioni - sia con altri galleristi che con artisti, dei quali fu un vero e proprio mecenate. Ho trovato questa biografia molto interessante, non solo per la descrizione completa della sua esperienza a New York come gallerista, ma anche, e forse soprattutto, per il ritratto della sua personalità, costruita attraverso le esperienze delle generazioni passate, dettagliatamente descritte in questo libro. I suoi antenati gli hanno tramandato eleganza e grandi doti relazionali, fondamentali per la costruzione del suo impero nel Nuovo Mondo.

[Skady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si te interesa la historia del arte, te apasionará la historia de una de las personas que contribuyó al auge del arte contemporáneo americano y a otorgar el valor simbólico y económico que hoy tienen las obras de algunos pintores; y entenderás cómo lo hizo.

Quizá le falta un poco de profundidad psicológica al retrato de Castelli, pero es una biografía que engancha.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annie Cohen-Solal writes a biography of the great gallery owner and luminary of the modern art world, Leo Castelli. The book, at 450 pages,is long and detailed but parts of it fascinated me.

Leo Castelli,born Leo Kurtz, with a Hungarian father and an Italian mother,grew up in Trieste, at the beginning of the 20th century. The first 100 pages are not about art, but rather about the history of the Italy and Austria, and his escape from the Nazi's. The rest the of the book covers his development as an art dealer who found and nurtured many of the great American modern artists such as Johns, Warhol,and Rauschenberg. It is full of good gossip and some astute observations of the New York art market. It is a very loving portrait by an obvious fan.

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A LOT of background to get through that is probably important if a work is to qualify as a biography. But day'um, it's dull. And it took up most of the first third of the book, which I believe is too much to expect of a reader. After that, though, you get a lot of information about artists those of us who make art will find interesting. Informative without being gossipy or dishy, mercifully! One thing, I figured it out myself, for obvious reasons, but if you're going to call a book about a famous gallerist "Leo & His Circle" and your going to make it nearly 500 pages, you really should at some point explain the meaning behind the circle. Nope. It's not in there.

[Ximena Apisdorf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los primeros capítulos delo libro, que hablan sobre los antecesores del galletita Leo Castelli resulta en demasiada información, que al parecer por el tiempo de investigación que le tomó a la autora lo mete casi a calzador dentro de la narrativa, que en la última parte del libro se queda demasiado corta, después de toda la precisión con la que desarrolla ciertos temas.
Da por sentada mucha información, que el lector ya debería de conocer, por lo que no es un libro sencillo para alguien que no se dedica al mundo del arte, en pocas palabras no es una biografía sencilla.

[Stash · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good look into the art world via the dealer who "discovered" Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and many others. However, it is focused a bit too much on him (I know its a biography of him but I would have liked to have "seen" more). It was also a bit to deifying of the man as well; we hardly see any flaws or faults of the man. I think that this book is also unlikely to be of interest to the casual reader.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I was daunted by the size of this book about an art dealer. The tome seemed more appropriate for a major artist. As I began to read the book, the flow of the work captivated me and made all the details worthwhile. In fact I liked the first half of the book before Castelli became an art dealer far better than the second half which, unless you are interested in brand name artists, is predictable. That is why I gave it three stars instead of five stars.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have difficulty reading biographies and this was no exception. Cohen-Solal provides important but tedious family background and historic context. Castelli led a remarkable life and his impact on the progression of modern American art is beyond compare. So, while it was a tough read I'm glad I tackled this one. I borrowed this from the New York Public Library but may purchase a good quality, used hardbound for my permanent collection.

[Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though a bit long (especially the early years) an illuminating portrait of the premier gallerist of the 20th century. His foresight in embracing American Art at a time when it was still about the Europeans speak to that. Raushenberg, Johns and Lichtenstein:they made him as much as he made them. (or did they)? His plunge into Soho led the way for revitalizing an area that Robert Moses saw as nothing but a highway site. Though an effort at times, worth it.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the first section of the book, which tracked the Castelli and Krausz family to their roots in the hill towns of Italy and the Ottoman Empire, was a bit slow going at first, Cohen-Solal's bio of Castelli was in the end difficult to put down. As the bio makes clear, it is almost impossible to separate Castelli from the trajectory of the art world / market in 20th century America.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look into Leo Castelli's life as an Tuscan Jew from Trieste going all the way back to his ancestors in the 17th century in Tuscany. A thick read that requires, perhaps, purchasing the book. 2 weeks is not long enough to read it from the library.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and lots of history. Written well but know that it is 463 pages. I preferred the second part that was more about the gallery life and artists than the beginning which was Leo's history. However, it was interesting to see where he came from.

[Ellie]

Dry and rambling on and on - couldn't get into it and put it down after 1/4 of the way through. Maybe I'll pick it up again, since despite the book itself, I find Leo Castelli to be an interesting character.