Exhibitionist: Earl Stendahl, Art Dealer as Impresario
No one was more passionate than Earl Stendahl about turning a client on to the joy of the hunt and the satisfaction of the perfect art acquisition. Stendahl’s discovery in the 1930s of the beauty and mystery of Pre-Columbian art led to the Stendahl Galleries reputation as the foremost authority and promoter of ancient art of the Americas.
The Stendahl story (featuring more than two hundred photographs) is at its heart a Los Angeles story, peopled with celebrities, rocked by scandal, full of failure and triumph. The book is also personal. Stendahl was author April’s husband’s grandfather. She knew him—the exhibitionist who prevailed against all odds and inspired a family business that has lasted more than one hundred years.
Angel City Press, 2011
#ISBN-10: 1883318866
#ISBN-13: 978-1883318864
Praise
“Author April Dammann is Stendahl’s granddaughter-in-law, so she knows all the juicy details that make this book such a fun read.”
—ARTWORKS Magazine, Spring 2011
“This is a long-overdue book about the most important art dealer in California. Earl Stendahl represented the most noteworthy artists of the California Impressionist Style. These included Franz A. Bischoff, Alson Clark, Edgar Payne, Jack Wilkinson Smith, William Wendt and Guy Rose, to name just a few. He also began a gallery tradition with important showings of African and Pre-Hispanic Art, a tradition that continues today still as the Stendahl Gallery.
The text, by April Dammann, Earl’s granddaughter-in-law, is clear, concise, accurate and very readable. The book is fully illustrated by personal photographs of the man, as well as the artists he represented and their incomparable art. As an art historian and director of the Irvine Museum, a museum dedicated to California Impressionist art, the “Stendahl Gallery” label on the back of a painting is an unquestioned endorsement that the artist was an important painter and that the painting is among the finest by that artist.
This book illuminates the rich, but relatively unappreciated cultural heritage of California and American art.”
—Jean Stern, Executive Director, Irvine Museum
“I am head-over-heels in love with this book—and thrilled for what it means in terms of capturing the history and significant contributions of Stendahl Galleries.”
—Carol Soucek King, M.F.A., Ph.D., former Editor in Chief of Designers West magazine and author of award-winning books on design
Read reviews of Exhibitionist in Southern California Quarterly (Winter 2011-2012) and Tribal Art Magazine (Spring 2012)
