Feigen Flees
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Owner Richard Feigen was a pioneer art dealer in Chicago; he opened his first gallery here in 1957, just as the city was developing a homegrown community of young collectors interested in contemporary art. Feigen started with a specialty in surrealist and German expressionist art, but early on he took an interest in the careers of Chicagoans, exhibiting local artists like Edith Altman and Seymour Rosofsky alongside such international figures as Jean Dubuffet and the Chilean painter Matta. Feigen moved to New York in 1963, where he opened one of the first galleries in SoHo and vigorously championed some important contemporary artists, including Joseph Beuys, John Baldessari, and James Rosenquist. He now sells the work of masters from the 14th to 20th centuries.
Some local dealers view Feigen’s impending departure as a major blow to the city’s already shaky art market. “It will be a real loss, because Feigen was a gallery of quality in a shrinking River North art district,” says Ingrid Fassbender, who recently moved her gallery to the area. Richard Feigen says the decision to close the gallery was made by Kinz. “Lance is suffering from the old Second City syndrome,” says Feigen, who maintains that many Chicago collectors prefer to buy art in New York anyway. Kinz may also have felt trapped by a double standard: New York dealers insist on sharing commissions with out-of-town galleries when their artists show there, but they want to keep the entire take when artists affiliated with galleries outside of New York show in Manhattan. “Lance was tired of serving as a feeder gallery to other dealers in New York,” says Feigen.
