Tibor de Nagy founded the gallery in 1950 with John Bernard
Myers. The gallery distinguished itself as a salon for artists and poets
through exhibitions and collaborative publications under the Tibor de Nagy
Editions imprint. The current owner is Andrew Arnot, who joined the gallery in
1989 and was mentored by de Nagy. Arnot became an owner in 1993 upon de Nagy’s
death.
The gallery has had several different locations, starting on
East 53rd Street and later moving to Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, among other
locations. In June 2017, the gallery moved to 11 Rivington Street on the
Lower East Side.
Tibor de Nagy presents exhibitions of such contemporary artists
as Sarah McEneaney, Trevor Winkfield, Susan Jane Walp and Medrie MacPhee as
well artists from the Post War Second Generation New York School such as Jane
Freilicher and Fairfield Porter, and represents the estates of John Ashbery,
Nell Blaine, Joe Brainard, Rudy Burckhardt, Shirley Jaffe, Jess, Louisa
Matthiasdottir and Larry Rivers. Over the course of its long history, the
gallery has presented the first solo exhibitions of Carl Andre, Helen
Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Red Grooms, Grace Hartigan, Alfred Leslie,
Fairfield Porter and Larry Rivers. The gallery has a history of fostering
collaborations between poets and artists and was the first publisher of the
poems by New York School Poets John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch and
James Schuyler.
The gallery has presented many significant exhibitions over the
last several years. They include Joan Mitchell (2002), Shirley Jaffe (2010),
Francis Picabia (2010), Sam Francis (2011), Jane Freilicher (2013), Hannah
Wilke (2014), Painters & Poets (2015), an historical survey of the
gallery’s history upon its 65th anniversary, Fairfield Porter
(2016), Larry Rivers (2017), Jess (2018), Joe Brainard (2019), Rudy Burckhardt
(2020) and West Coast Collage and Assemblies (2021).