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Gertrude Kasle was born in New York City on December 2,
1917. Even when she was younger than seven years old,
she showed signs of a remarkable talent to draw what she
saw, and studied with Gaetano Cecere. As Cecere taught
sculpture at Cooper Union, he taught her to draw from
casts. She later studied art in high school, and enjoyed
painting water colors which were sometimes sold at her
high school’s fund raising events. She took classes at
the Art Students’ League on Saturdays in drawing live
models. Although she wanted to go to the Pratt
Institute, she instead decided to study art education at N.Y.U. As she often explains, “My eye developed beyond
my hand.” After two years, her fiancé Leonard Kasle,
convinced her to transfer to the University of Michigan.
When she had finished her junior year, she interrupted
her education to concentrate on being the wife of a Navy
chaplain through World War II. In 1947, they came back
to Detroit with two children, and she resumed painting
and studies in fine arts with Sarkis at the Society of
Arts and Crafts. In 1955, after her three children were
old enough, she went back to college at Wayne University
to complete her degree in art education.
When Gertrude came to Detroit, she was appalled by the
fact that there weren’t more visual opportunities for
people to see good contemporary art. As she stated in an
interview with Dennis Barrie in 1975: “I was a very
provincial New Yorker. I thought every city had a
Metropolitan Museum and a Whitney Museum of Modern Art.”
She worked with the “Friends of Modern Art” at the
Detroit Institute of Arts, and became Vice President.
However, after her daughter was married and moved from
Detroit, she wanted to do something more challenging. In
1962, she was approached by Detroit businessman Franklin
Siden to help him open a gallery, where she would have a
one-third partnership. In the first year, she introduced
to Detroit the work of Rivers, Jenkins, Hartigan,
Goodnough, Yektai, Natkin, and Kreisberg, as well the
artists whose prints were published by Tatanya Grossman.
When Siden made it clear that he felt he no longer
needed her to introduce him to the contemporary art
world, and that she would no longer have an equal say in
what the gallery was going to promote and carry in the
future, she left.
Through 1964, Gertrude was encouraged by Larry Rivers,
Grace Hartigan, among other artists that she had
represented at the Siden Gallery, as well as several
distinguished customers, such as Herbert Barrows, and
John Ciardi, to open her own gallery. Joy Hakanson, who
was at that time the Detroit News art critic, asked
Gertrude if she would open a new gallery. Hakanson was
so positive about Gertrude’s reply that she “had to
think about it,” that the art critic stated in the
Detroit News that “Gertrude Kasle was looking for
gallery space.” As a result of that article, the Fischer
Building, in what was known as Detroit’s “New Center”
area, called her with a very attractive lease
arrangement. Her husband promised to assist with the
accounting, and she opened the Gertrude Kasle Gallery
with a combined show of Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan,
Robert Goodnough, Manousher Yektai, and Irving Kreisberg
on Saturday, April 10 1965.
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Gertrude operated the gallery for eleven years,
exhibiting many of the greatest artists of the American
art scene at the time. Some of the artists that she
promoted through those years were already well
established, such as William De Koening, some did not
become Internationally known until later, such as Jim
Dine, and a few of them have all been but forgotten,
such as William Schwedler. However, Gertrude achieved
her goal to bring great contemporary art to Detroit. She
helped the art scene in her adopted city evolve beyond
any one movement or “school.” In the process, Detroit
became more aware of its own local art scene. Many
artists who originated in Detroit, such as Al Loving,
Brenda Goodman and Michelle Doner, were given more than
just a show through the Gallery. From 1965 through April
1976, Gertrude spent countless hours promoting the art
and the artists she handled. Her gallery was greatly
successful from a cultural standpoint, if only
moderately successful financially. She closed her doors
at the end of April 1976, with very little notice, the
subject of which will be discussed by me in a latter
feature article. |
For more information about The
Gertrude Kasle Gallery,
please contact us today.
We look forward to hearing from you! |
