Legendary Art and Photography Collector Sylvio Perlstein Has Died
Artist Dan Marcolina’s "Diffused Reality" Is on Exhibition
Summer Sale Only has One Month to Go Here with 30% Off on Nearly 3,500 Photographs
And a Last Note
Sylvio Perlstein
An important--if not "legendary", as Artnews called him—experimental art and photography collector and patron Sylvio Perlstein, died August 6 in Antwerp, Belgium at the age of 94. Perlstein was passionate about collecting Dadaism, Surrealism, minimalism, conceptual art, Nouveau Réalisme, Arte Povera and Between-the-Wars photography.
Perlstein was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1931; his family moved to Brazil in 1939 to flee the Nazis. He grew up in Rio de Janeiro, where he changed his name from Sylvain to Sylvio and acquired his first artwork as a teenager. Later, he joined his family's diamond business in Antwerp, where he eventually took over the diamond-cutting firm.
Reportedly, Perlstein first met the surrealist Man Ray at a gallery in Vence, in the south of France, in 1969, that was exhibiting the American artist's drawings, gouaches, and watercolors, and immediately bought several works. Their friendship continued until the artist's death in 1976, and Perlstein acquired many Rayographs and other iconic photographs, including the famous image of a nude woman as a violin.
I had the fortunate opportunity to get to know Sylvio and first met him at an important auction of the photography of surrealist artist Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) in Paris in November 2000 at the Baron Ribeyre auction house.
While his name was whispered among the aficionados and dealers, he was largely unknown to the general public prior to a 2007 exposition titled "Busy Going Crazy", held at the La Maison Rouge in Paris. He later published a book on his collection in 2009, called "La photographie n'est pas l'art", which is when a lot of people started to notice Perlstein.
He became a frequent attendee with his long-time companion Simone Swaab to the Paris Photo dinners that I and the Paviots (Alain and Francoise) held for collectors and curators during that week in November at Restaurant Maceo's.
I was invited myself to his Garches-Paris home in November 2013 for a wonderful reception and viewing of some of his amazing collection. Perlstein notably kept 100 black-and-white photographs by Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt, Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy displayed on the walls of an oval room in his home. It was rather intimidating to walk into that room surrounded by such photographic masterworks. But his home was filled with art, including important drawings by Douglas Huebler, Mel Bochner, On Kawara and Agnes Martin, among others.
The gallery Hauser & Wirth confirmed news of Perlstein's passing with a post on Instagram, calling Perlstein "a visionary collector who shaped one of the most important art collections of the past century."
In 2018 Hauser & Wirth's locations in Chelsea and Hong Kong exhibited 380 pieces from the Perlstein collection for 'The Sylvio Perlstein Collection--A Luta Continua', which highlighted his "bold, intuitive approach to collecting and his close ties with artists."
The exhibition was featured in the New York Times, which noted its expansive inclusion of "Dada and Surrealism (Max Ernst, Man Ray, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle); American minimalism and post-minimalism (Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, Brice Marden, Fred Sandback); and Land art (Richard Long, Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Gordon Matta-Clark)."
Perlstein once said, "I feel passionate about things that unsettle me, that intrigue me, make me uncomfortable."
Novak has over 49 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society in NYC. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.
Novak has published numerous photography articles and columns in several newspapers, including the Photograph Collector, Focus magazine and the Daguerreian Society Newsletter. He has been interviewed extensively on the photography art market by the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Classic magazine, Maine Antique Digest, the Art Newspaper, Art News, Art Business News, Focus magazine, PDN, Black & White magazine, Photographie Internationale, Antiques & the Arts Online, Art Critical and the Photograph Collector newsletter, as well as by many other publications, television programs and websites, both in the USA and in France. He was quoted extensively in the book, "Collectingphotography" by Gerry Badger. He has spoken at numerous photography events and programs.
He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, the Daguerreian Society, etc.
Legendary Art and Photography Collector Sylvio Perlstein Has Died
Artist Dan Marcolina’s "Diffused Reality" Is on Exhibition
Summer Sale Only has One Month to Go Here with 30% Off on Nearly 3,500 Photographs
And a Last Note
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