John Gibson Gallery: The Early Years

The rise of Fluxus and Conceptual Art in the 1960s opened up many new possibilities for artists. The John Gibson Gallery, established in 1967, quickly made a reputation for itself by exhibiting some of the most challenging examples of these new developments.

Born in Chicago, John Gibson (1933–2019) came to New York as a traveling salesman for Barney Rosset’s ground-breaking publishing house Grove Press. Gibson soon met his future wife (and later gallery collaborator), Susan Sien, who, as an art student at Cooper Union was already part of the growing New York art scene. The John Gibson Gallery first opened on the Upper East Side, and then moved to West Broadway in Soho in 1972, as one of the pioneers in what would soon become New York’s primary art district.

Gibson liked the challenge of being a dealer of difficult art, and once bragged that he was “interested in selling people the Brooklyn Bridge or the Eiffel Tower.” He initially named his gallery John Gibson Commissions, Inc. with the goal of convincing collectors to commission large-scale sculptures and one-time events like Happenings and Performances. While this sometimes happened, more often he had to be content with selling photo documentation like that produced by Christo for his ambitious wrapping projects.

The Gibson gallery was one of the first in New York to show Joseph Beuys assembling what was billed as the “largest collection of Joseph Beuys’ multiple objects, prints, posters, books and catalogues.” Gibson participated in the “Land Art” movement with exhibitions by Richard Long and Dennis Oppenheim, and also organized an exhibition of “Body Art” with works by Vito Acconci and Dan Graham. Many of his gallery artists practiced “Narrative Art” — Roger Welch interviewed people to create “Memory Maps” of towns and neighborhoods; and James Collins caused controversy with an exhibition of photos and films showing himself staring at women whom he spotted on the street and then persuaded to pose.

Gallery 98 has recently acquired a large collection of Gibson Gallery art ephemera. You can see more on our special John Gibson collection page.

Collins had great success in the mid 1970s exhibiting photographs and films of himself staring at women. The inscription to Moore reads “Hope you’re around to come to opening. Alan, I’d love to see you. You got to have ‘young turks’ of criticism at your first N.Y. show. Love, James.”