Harbus

Issue date: 10/12/04 Section: Viewpoints

Just a stones throw away from Fifth Avenue on the Upper East side in Manhattan is Salon94, a 1,500 square foot exhibition space for emerging and mid-career artists. Built into the home of esteemed curator and art expert Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn, Salon94 looks out into a garden through a magnificent floor to ceiling bay window. When I stepped through the doors of Salon94 to meet with Greenberg-Rohatyn, I was immediately struck by the space's warmth. Unlike traditional art galleries, Salon94 is stylishly furnished in a way that invites visitors to make themselves at home. Like a frequent houseguest, I comfortably settled into a plush chair and chatted with Greenberg-Rohatyn about art and collecting.

Harbus: Why the passion for art?

Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn: I'm an art dealer's daughter and my mother is an art educator who writes books on art, so I grew up surrounded by it. At a young age, I began training my eye. When I went to college I majored in art. After college I worked at a museum and then went on to graduate school at New York University's Institute of Fine Art. While there I started working for international curator Norman Rosenthal at the Royal Academy. Later I worked for art advisor Jeffrey Deitch, before going out on my own.

Harbus: How has the art market evolved?

JGR: The art market is evolving because the art audience is evolving. Right now, American society is more of a leisure society than at any other point in its history. That means that more people not only go to movies, but they also go to museums and galleries. It's a direct result of the growing middle class. In the seventies there was not a huge art market. There were not hundreds and hundreds of people interested in collecting art. There were just a few collectors. The market really started to grow in the eighties. And just recently we have seen a proliferation of art schools and artists. When you consider that people at places like Harvard Business School are taking an interest in art, you realize that the art market is a viable industry.

Harbus: Why is Salon94 not a typical "white box" art gallery?

JGR: The opening of Salon94 grew out of my own needs; I have two children and I am a working mom. My husband and I found an old adoption agency, while looking for a gallery space, that we fell in love with. The adoption agency was perfect, because we could use it for our home and a gallery. It's a place where I can have lunch upstairs with my kids and afterwards go back down stairs and work in the gallery. Also I believe that the Chelsea gallery scene is a very cold way of looking at art. While the galleries may be filled with people, you don't get a lot of interaction and dialogue. I like the old-fashioned idea that someone can come to Salon94 and I can serve them coffee and we can discuss art.

Continued...

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