“I think a good dealer is also a collector.”
—Rosa Esman
Rosa and Aaron Esman assembled an outstanding collection of Modern, Post-War, and Contemporary art over the course of their seventy-year marriage. The collection’s highlights mirror that of Rosa’s career as a gallerist and print publisher (which Aaron, a psychoanalyst, strongly supported), with interests in Modernism, Dada, Russian Constructivism, and American Pop Art taking center stage. Rosa got her start publishing artists’ print portfolios in the 1960s, including the New York Ten Portfolio, 1965, and Ten for Leo Castelli, 1967, which featured works by rising contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg, and helped pioneer the field of artist’s editions and multiples. Her eponymous gallery exhibited in Manhattan for over twenty years, and she was a founding partner of Ubu Gallery, which is still in operation today.
When asked about her wide artistic tastes in 2009, Rosa emphasized her love of drawing, “the quintessential bit of the art,” which can be seen across the collection, regardless of genre.
The pair bonded over gallery visits when dating in the early 1950s. While Aaron already had begun collecting by then, the first work they purchased together was a drawing by Miró, early in their marriage. Rosa recalled: ‘sometimes we look at something, and I say, “Oh, isn’t that marvelous?”’ and Aaron would respond, ‘It’s for us.’
Founded on lifelong love, the Collection of Rosa and Aaron Esman gives a unique vision of the art movements of the 20th century that shaped New York’s art scene.
Rosa and Aaron Esman, Madrid, 1963
Literature
Joan Simon 153 (Nauman)
Catalogue Essay
Including: David Bradshaw, Tears; Stephen Kaltenback, Fire; Bruce Nauman, Record; Alan Saret, Untitled; Richard Serra, Rolled, Encased, & Sawed; and Keith Sonnier, Plaster Cast in Satin
Property from the Collection of Rosa and Aaron Esman
1969 The set of six multiples, including a painting on canvas with two nails, bronze sidewalk plaque, vinyl record with screenprinted jacket, reprocessed nylon net multiple, lead multiple and a plaster multiple cast in satin, all contained in the original wooden box with brass clasps, lacking the Eva Hesse. box 9 3/8 x 23 7/8 x 13 1/2 in. (23.8 x 60.6 x 34.3 cm) Two signed and four lettered 'A' incised and in various media, all lettered 'A' in black ink on the original identification tags, lacking the identification tag for the David Bradshaw (one of 10 artist's proof sets lettered A-J, the edition was 100), published by Tanglewood Press, Inc., New York.