Tilton Gallery announced on Wednesday (24 September) that its next show, dedicated to the German-born American conceptual artist Ruth Vollmer, will be the gallery’s final exhibition.
The closure comes eight years after the death of the gallery’s founder Jack Tilton, who for decades was a leader of the New York art scene and staged many early-career shows for important artists. Since his 2017 death from cancer complications, the gallery has been run by his widow and partner Connie Rogers Tilton. Following the Vollmer show, scheduled to run from 30 September to 15 November, she said she plans to “reformulate” her role in the art world and transition to “a more private setting”, whether it be private sales or research projects.
“I am incredibly grateful for the support, friendship and enthusiasm of gallery artists, staff, collectors, museums and fellow dealers during these years,” she said in a statement, adding she hopes to “continue to offer support to artists and to focus more on my family”.
The gallery has represented Vollmer’s estate since Tilton opened his gallery in 1983, according to the exhibition announcement, which says it will be the most comprehensive gallery show of her work to be staged since the 1980s.
Prior to founding his gallery, Tilton worked for the pioneering dealer Betty Parsons, and after her death opened his space on West 57th Street before relocating the gallery to Soho and later to the Upper East Side, where it remains today. The gallery also opened a Los Angeles space in the late 1990s.
Tilton was an early backer of young artists including Marlene Dumas, David Hammons and Kiki Smith, who went on to become art market powerhouses. Tilton Gallery is the latest in a string of gallery closures, including LA Louver, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery’s Los Angeles outpost, Clearing, Blum, Venus Over Manhattan and Kasmin (the last of which will transition into a new venture called Olney Gleason).