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Ivan Karp
Ivan Karp
Ivan Karp
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Ivan C. Karp (June 4, 1926 – June 28, 2012) was an American art dealer, gallerist and author instrumental in the emergence of pop art and the development of Manhattan's SoHo gallery district in the 1960s.[1]

Key Information

Ivan Karp was born in the Bronx and grew up in Brooklyn. His career in art began in 1955, when he served as the first art critic of the Village Voice.[2] In 1956, he joined the Hansa Gallery, a downtown artists' cooperative gallery that had moved uptown to Central Park South. Karp was co-director, alongside Richard Bellamy, who later founded the Green Gallery.[3] He moved to the relatively new Leo Castelli Gallery in 1959 as associate director. While there, he helped sell the works of, popularize and market the initial generation of Pop artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg.[1]

On April 25, 1966, in Newsweek Magazine, Ivan Karp is described as the "Sol Hurok of Pop Art". He said he was devoted to this art form because the artists "transform banal objects. They see beauty in all things".[4]

Karp worked with Castelli for ten years, leaving in 1969 to open the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo, Manhattan. Karp's was the second art gallery to open on West Broadway, which ultimately became the core of the SoHo gallery district.[5] His initial focus at O.K. Harris was on Photorealism, with artists such as Robert Cottingham and Robert Bechtle. Other artists represented by the gallery included Deborah Butterfield, Malcolm Morley and Duane Hanson.[6]

In the early 1960s, Karp led efforts to salvage architectural ornament from older New York City buildings that were being demolished for new construction. He founded the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society and often drove around the streets of Manhattan and the Bronx spotting and collecting materials from building sites before they could be carted away as rubble.[7] Many of the hundreds of items recovered by Karp and his colleagues were deposited in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, displayed in the sculpture garden and the subway station adjacent to the museum.[8] The Brooklyn Museum transferred 1500 architectural artifacts to the National Building Arts Center, located in Sauget, Illinois. Others are housed in the Anonymous Arts Museum Karp founded in Charlotteville, New York.[9]

Karp wrote a 1965 comic novel, "Doobie Doo", about love among pop artists with cover art by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.[6]

He died on June 28, 2012, at the age of 86, in Charlotteville, New York.[1]

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Ivan Karp

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Ivan Karp (June 4, 1926 – June 28, 2012) was an American art dealer and gallerist known for his instrumental role in the emergence and popularization of Pop Art during the 1960s, as well as for pioneering the SoHo gallery district in Manhattan. He served as director of the Leo Castelli Gallery for a decade, where he helped introduce and promote groundbreaking artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. In 1969, Karp founded O.K. Harris Works of Art on West Broadway in SoHo, one of the first galleries in the area, which became renowned for championing photorealism and supporting a wide range of contemporary artists under his motto that “no genius should go undiscovered.” His energetic, accessible approach—reviewing slides from dozens of aspiring artists weekly—and his extensive travels to deliver speeches advocating for Pop Art helped commercialize and legitimize the movement. Beyond his gallery work, Karp was a committed advocate for architectural preservation; with his wife Marilynn, he co-founded the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society to salvage ornamental elements from demolished buildings, donating thousands of items to museums and amassing a collection that reflected his eclectic interests. He also wrote an early novel, Doobie Doo, satirizing the art world, and began his career as one of the first art critics for The Village Voice. His fast-talking, cigar-chomping persona and tireless promotion of new talent left a lasting impact on New York's postwar art scene.

Early Life

Birth and Family Background

Ivan C. Karp was born on June 4, 1926, in the Bronx, New York City. His father, a hat salesman, moved the family to Brooklyn shortly after his birth. Karp was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Childhood and Education

Ivan Karp was raised in Brooklyn following his family's relocation from the Bronx when he was approximately one year old. They resided in various parts of Flatbush and near Borough Park, moving frequently during the Great Depression to secure free rent incentives in new apartment buildings, a practice his father favored for their freshness and brightness. These frequent moves disrupted his social connections, requiring him to repeatedly form new friendships. Karp attended public schools in Brooklyn and enrolled at Erasmus High School, where he struggled academically. He was distracted by the onset of World War II and social interests, performing poorly in most subjects while passing the English regents exam with a score of 72. Although school officials viewed him positively and permitted him to participate in graduation ceremonies by holding the flag, he did not receive a diploma. He subsequently entered the U.S. Army Air Forces without completing high school. Karp developed an early interest in art during childhood. Starting around age six or seven, his father brought the family to the Brooklyn Museum every Sunday for band concerts, after which Karp began exploring the galleries and became particularly impressed by the Egyptian collection and the longevity of ancient artifacts. By age ten or eleven, his room contained reproductions of 1930s American painters such as Thomas Hart Benton, Luigi Lucioni, and John Steuart Curry, while the household displayed affordable prints from the New York Post, including Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers in his mother's room. He described himself as predominantly picture-oriented, focusing on illustrations rather than text in books and creating small drawings to accompany school topics.

Entry into the Art World

Art Criticism at The Village Voice

Ivan Karp served as one of the first art critics for The Village Voice in the mid-1950s. This position, which began shortly after the newspaper's founding in 1955, marked his entry into professional art commentary and provided him with direct access to the New York art world through regular reviews of exhibitions and artists. His tenure was relatively short-lived, as he transitioned from criticism to the commercial art sector around 1956 when he joined the Hansa Gallery as a dealer. After a brief stint at the Martha Jackson Gallery, he joined the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1959. This shift reflected his growing immersion in the art ecosystem beyond journalistic observation. Ivan Karp served as director of the Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959 to 1969, acting as the gallery manager and Leo Castelli's right-hand man. During this ten-year period, he played a pivotal role in the gallery's operations and helped shape its direction amid the rapid evolution of the contemporary art scene in New York. His enthusiasm and engagement with new artistic tendencies contributed to the gallery's growing influence as a key venue for avant-garde developments. This tenure represented a significant phase in Karp's career transition from art criticism to direct involvement in gallery management and the promotion of contemporary art. The Leo Castelli Gallery, under his contributions, solidified its reputation as a leading force in the emerging contemporary art world throughout the 1960s.

Promotion of Pop Art

Discovery and Advocacy for Pop Artists

Ivan Karp served as associate director of the Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959 to 1969, where he became a leading advocate for the emerging Pop Art movement. During this period, he actively promoted the work of new artists experimenting with popular culture imagery and commercial techniques, helping to position the gallery as a central force in the development of Pop Art. A 1966 Newsweek profile described Karp as “the chief salesman of the pop-art movement,” underscoring his energetic role in championing and marketing the style to collectors, critics, and the broader art world. His advocacy during these years contributed significantly to the rapid rise and mainstream recognition of Pop Art as a major artistic development in the 1960s. Karp's efforts helped shift the New York art scene toward acceptance of this bold, accessible aesthetic drawn from mass media and everyday life.

Key Relationships and Exhibitions

Ivan Karp played a crucial role in facilitating Roy Lichtenstein's entry into the Leo Castelli Gallery and the broader Pop Art movement. In fall 1961, artist Allan Kaprow arranged a meeting between Lichtenstein and Karp, during which Lichtenstein presented four early Pop paintings: The Engagement Ring, Girl with Ball, Look Mickey, and Step-on Can with Leg. Karp was initially stunned by the comic-book-derived works, reportedly remarking that he was not sure they were allowed to exist in that form, while both he and Leo Castelli found them jolting and unnerving. Despite the controversial reception, Karp defended the paintings as an intelligent and original innovation, advocating persistently for their merit against negative visitor reactions that warned such art could damage the gallery's reputation. These efforts resulted in Lichtenstein's rapid integration into Castelli's program. Lichtenstein's Girl with Ball was added to the group exhibition An Exhibition in Progress at the gallery from September 22 to October 14, 1961, marking the first public presentation of his Pop work alongside artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Soon after, Lichtenstein consigned additional paintings to the gallery, and his first solo exhibition there ran from February 10 to March 3, 1962. Karp also maintained a significant relationship with Andy Warhol during this formative Pop Art period, though it unfolded differently. In summer 1960, Karp accompanied Castelli to Warhol's studio, where the eccentric presentation and works left Castelli hesitant to represent him. Later, Karp showed transparencies of Lichtenstein's cartoon paintings to Warhol, who reacted with shock upon realizing another artist was pursuing similar imagery, prompting Warhol to abandon his own cartoon-based works in favor of the Campbell's Soup Can series. Karp visited Warhol's studio again, advising that Warhol's cooler, less expressive versions held greater power, and his ongoing enthusiasm for Warhol contributed to Castelli's eventual openness to Pop artists.

Founding of OK Harris Works of Art

Ivan Karp founded O.K. Harris Works of Art in 1969 after departing from his role as director of the Leo Castelli Gallery. The gallery opened in the SoHo district of Manhattan as one of the earliest fine arts spaces on West Broadway. This move allowed Karp to pursue an independent vision for contemporary art presentation. O.K. Harris became renowned for championing photorealism and other realist approaches starting in the early 1970s. Karp preferred the term Radical Realism to describe this style and its emphasis on precise, objective representation. The gallery's philosophy centered on exhibiting the most significant artwork of the era, without prejudice toward style or materials, with the sole criteria being innovation of concept and maturity of technique. Karp characterized hyper-realism—closely aligned with the gallery's focus—as related to Minimalism but stripped of intellectual pretensions, describing it as stoically unpretentious, starkly matter-of-fact, and anti-sensibility in nature. He noted that such works typically record previously unrecorded places and objects of everyday life, with humanity rarely in evidence. The gallery maintained a commitment to presenting the finest contemporary painters, sculptors, and photographers, operating with an open application process while relying on Karp's discernment to identify works of lasting consequence.

Represented Artists and Exhibitions

O.K. Harris Works of Art, founded by Ivan Karp in SoHo in 1969, championed photorealism and other realist approaches in the years following its establishment. Karp became an early advocate for photorealism, a painting style that sought to achieve a precise photographic effect through meticulous technique. The gallery represented several key figures in this movement, providing them with regular solo exhibitions that helped define and popularize the genre during the 1970s and beyond. Prominent among these was Robert Cottingham, whose first solo exhibition at O.K. Harris took place in 1971. Cottingham continued to show with the gallery, contributing to its reputation as a leading venue for photorealist works focused on urban signage and vernacular typography. Richard McLean, another core photorealist represented by the gallery, held multiple solo exhibitions there starting in 1971 and continuing through 1973, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1994, 1997, and 2008. These shows highlighted McLean's detailed depictions of equine subjects rendered with photographic precision. John Baeder joined the gallery's roster after Ivan Karp visited his studio in 1972 and immediately offered him a solo exhibition, prompting Baeder to leave his advertising career to paint full-time. Baeder's photorealist paintings of classic American roadside diners, motels, and related vernacular architecture were exhibited at O.K. Harris to considerable acclaim until the gallery closed in 2014. These solo presentations, along with the gallery's consistent support for realist and photorealist artists, underscored its role in advancing representational art during a period dominated by other tendencies.

Influence on the SoHo Art Scene

Ivan Karp was instrumental in the development of Manhattan's SoHo gallery district during the late 1960s and 1970s, helping transform the formerly industrial neighborhood into a major center for contemporary art. As one of the first art dealers to relocate to SoHo, he participated actively in the emergence of a new downtown arts district and scene. In 1969, Karp opened OK Harris Works of Art on West Broadway in SoHo, establishing the gallery as a pioneering presence and early anchor in the area. Described as a cornerstone of New York's contemporary art world, OK Harris exemplified the shift of galleries from uptown to the burgeoning SoHo scene. His pioneering move earned him the nickname "Mr. SoHo" in the early days of the West Broadway art corridor, reflecting his influential role in catalyzing the neighborhood's growth as a gallery hub.

Preservation Activities

Anonymous Arts Recovery Society

Ivan Karp founded the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society and served as its president, leading efforts to rescue architectural ornaments from buildings facing demolition across New York City. He began salvaging these elements in the early 1950s after discovering a discarded terra-cotta cherub head at a demolition site, which revealed the widespread destruction of decorative features amid postwar urban redevelopment. The society was named in homage to the anonymous immigrant artisans who crafted the unsigned ornaments during the late-Victorian and Beaux Arts era, roughly 1880 to 1910, a period marked by extensive use of stone carving, terra cotta, and cast iron for facade embellishment. The group patrolled streets, monitored demolition schedules, and often raced against crews to salvage items before destruction, using methods ranging from clandestine nighttime extractions with crowbars and hand winches to negotiations with contractors. By 1964, activities had expanded from Manhattan to Brooklyn and the Bronx, supported by a pickup truck and tax-exempt status that allowed contractors to donate pieces for tax deductions based on appraised values. The society ultimately rescued approximately 1,500 artifacts, including keystones, plaques, friezes, grotesques, mythological creatures, allegorical figures, lions, griffins, and portrait-like heads. Around 400 fragments were delivered to the Brooklyn Museum for storage, with roughly 200 installed in 1966 in the Frieda Schiff Warburg Memorial Sculpture Garden, forming the city's only major public collection of late-Victorian and Beaux Arts architectural ornament at the time. Notable salvaged pieces included a roaring zinc lion from the El Dorado carousel in Coney Island, a granite figure of Night from the original Pennsylvania Station, ornamental capitals from a Louis Sullivan building on Bleecker Street, and four stone atlantes from an East Sixties town house. These efforts preserved historical traces of New York's architectural texture and artisanal heritage against the prevailing shift toward unadorned modernist design.

Later Career and Activities

Lectures, Publications, and Public Speaking

Ivan Karp was a prolific public speaker and educator who frequently lectured on contemporary art, Pop art, and the art business. From 1966 through 2011, he delivered over 300 lectures on fine art subjects at universities, museums, and other art venues nationally and internationally. He also taught contemporary art history at Finch College and the School of Visual Arts from 1966 to 1969. As Pop art gained prominence, Karp made hundreds of speeches promoting the movement and appeared on television programs including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as well as BBC, NBC, PBS, and CBS. In addition to his speaking engagements, Karp published writings on art and literature. He authored the romantic novel Doobie Doo, published in 1965 by Doubleday in New York and Heinemann in London, with a front cover by Roy Lichtenstein and back cover by Andy Warhol. His short stories appeared in literary reviews including the Cambridge Review and the Evergreen Review. Karp wrote and published extensively on art and the art business throughout his career.

Film Appearance

Ivan Karp made a rare on-screen acting appearance in the 1978 comedy-drama An Unmarried Woman, directed by Paul Mazursky, where he played the character Herb Rowan. This marked his only credited acting role in a narrative feature film. Karp more frequently appeared as himself in documentaries examining the New York art scene and its prominent figures. These included Andy Warhol (1987), Art City 1: Making It in Manhattan (1996), Who Gets to Call It Art? (2006), Certifiably Jonathan (2007), and The Cool School (2008). He also featured as himself in an episode of the television series Independent Lens in 2008 and appeared in archive footage in Brillo Box (3 ¢ off) (2016) and Andy Warhol's Factory People (2008).

Death and Legacy

Death

Ivan Karp died of natural causes on June 28, 2012, at his home in Charlotteville, New York. His wife, Marilynn Karp, confirmed that the death was due to natural causes. Born on June 4, 1926, he was 86 years old at the time of his passing.

Legacy in Art and Preservation

Ivan Karp's legacy in the art world stems from his pivotal contributions to the promotion and popularization of Pop Art and Photorealism. As co-director of the Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959 to 1969, he played a key role in launching the careers of major Pop artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, and John Chamberlain. In 1969, he founded O.K. Harris Works of Art in SoHo, where he positioned the gallery at the forefront of the Photorealist movement, exhibiting prominent figures such as Ralph Goings, Robert Cottingham, Robert Bechtle, and others including Duane Hanson and Deborah Butterfield. By opening one of the first galleries on West Broadway, Karp helped catalyze SoHo's emergence as a central fine arts district, inspiring the area's transformation into a hub for contemporary art. Karp's influence extended beyond commercial galleries into architectural preservation, where he earned recognition for safeguarding New York's historic building ornaments. In the early 1960s, he founded the Anonymous Arts Recovery Society to rescue decorative elements—such as keystones, plaques, friezes, grotesques, and terra-cotta cherubs—from demolished late-Victorian and Beaux Arts structures during post-war redevelopment. He and his collaborators salvaged approximately 1,500 fragments, viewing them as valuable artworks created by anonymous immigrant artisans that deserved protection from destruction. Many pieces were initially stored and later displayed at the Brooklyn Museum, including about 200 in the Frieda Schiff Warburg Memorial Sculpture Garden, featuring examples like a zinc lion from Coney Island and a granite figure from Pennsylvania Station. In 1985, Karp established the Anonymous Arts Museum in Charlotteville, New York, to house around 150 artifacts in a dedicated display, underscoring his commitment to creating lasting repositories for these architectural works. His preservation efforts, which began amid accelerating demolitions and involved negotiating with contractors and securing public placements, highlighted the cultural significance of these often-overlooked embellishments and left a documented legacy through the society's activities and related collections. The records of his galleries and preservation work are preserved in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

References

  1. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/arts/design/ivan-karp-pop-art-dealer-dies-at-86.html
  2. https://revolverwarholgallery.com/affiliates/ivan-karp/
  3. https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/ivan-karp/
  4. https://www.aaa.si.edu/download_pdf_transcript/ajax?record_id=edanmdm-AAADCD_oh_211988
  5. https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/blog/new-american-paintings-remembers-ivan-karp
  6. https://plioplys.com/2019/04/ivan-karp-so-original-ive-never-seen-art-work-like-this-before/
  7. https://www.essentialvermeer.com/interviews_newsletter/karp_interview.html
  8. https://observer.com/2012/06/dealer-ivan-karp-dies-at-86/
  9. https://www.frieze.com/article/king-new-york
  10. https://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2012/06/ivan_karp_86_the_most_uncommer.html
  11. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/ghosts-of-new-york/308096/
  12. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/05/26/a-good-eye-and-a-good-ear
  13. https://www.lichtensteincatalogue.org/chronology/
  14. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/collector-walls-a-tale-of-love-requited
  15. https://www.myartbroker.com/opinion/articles/reflections-ivan-karp-founder-pop-art
  16. https://greg.org/archive/2010/03/30/on-being-ivan-karp-in-1962.html
  17. https://warholstars.org/warhol1/11roylichtenstein.html
  18. https://www.okharris.com/about.htm
  19. https://www.nyc-arts.org/organizations/ok-harris/
  20. https://yalereview.org/article/jonathan-griffin-photorealism
  21. https://contemporaryartandeditions.com/artists/robert-cottingham/
  22. http://www.okharris.com/artists/mclean/resmclean.htm
  23. https://acagalleries.com/exhibitions/8-john-baeder-looking-back-1972-2018/
  24. https://hyperallergic.com/ivan-karp-is-dead/
  25. https://observer.com/2015/06/the-smithsonian-acquires-the-complete-records-of-pioneering-soho-gallery-ok-harris/
  26. https://artlyst.com/ivan-karp-art-dealer-behind-warhol-and-lichtenstein-dies-in-ny/
  27. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/11/14/anonymous-art
  28. https://www.merenessputnamfuneralhome.com/obituaries/ivan-karp
  29. https://sova.si.edu/record/aaa.okharr
  30. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078444/fullcredits/
  31. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0439927/
  32. https://obituaries.thedailystar.com/obituary/ivan-karp-733193742
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