Max Protetch Gallery: 1969-2009, documents the influence that the Max Protetch Gallery had in the art world over the course of forty years, three cities, eight gallery spaces, and nearly five hundred exhibitions, as it served as a vibrant gathering place for art, architecture, politics, and ideas. To understand the gallery’s history is to understand important moments in post-war and contemporary art history and the formative years of so many influential artistic voices. 

This publication chronicles the history of the Max Protetch Gallery from a number of perspectives. The book begins with a richly illustrated chronology that marks the key moments in Protetch’s upbringing that shaped his interest in art, traces the events that led up to opening his first gallery, and recounts the activities of the gallery as it evolved over the years. Important events in the artworld, in the careers of Max Protetch Gallery artists and architects, and in politics fill in the narrative of the chronology. Photographs, exhibition publications, reviews, exhibition announcements, and other documents from the gallery archive accompany the chronology and add additional voices to the account.

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Tracking alongside this year-by-year narrative are Max Protetch’s own words—stories short and long—that reveal his influences, motivations, and the sometimes unpredictable, but always interesting, life of an art dealer. The chronology is followed by four essays by figures who each had a distinct relationship to the gallery over the years: James Wines, an exhibiting gallery architect; Irene Hofmann, a museum curator and director; Fred Bernstein, a journalist and critic; and Stuart Krimko, a long-time member of the gallery staff. The essays not only speak to the spirit of the gallery but also to a time in the artworld when everything was smaller and art dealers like Protetch were dedicated to nurturing careers and championing new ideas.

Max Protetch Gallery: 1969-2009, is published by Radius Books, Santa Fe.