Dr Stephen Kelly
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Art Deco Under The Stars at Stephen Kelly Gallery
Geoffrey Bradfield, and Cynthia MurphyDr. Stephen Kelly graciously opened his gallery, as well as his beautiful rooftop to a number of his guests from the art and design industries, last Tuesday evening. Visitors were shown some of his most recent collection of French Art Deco from Jean Dunand, and Jean Goulden. Jean Dunand (1877–1942) was a Swiss lacquer artist, a master metalworker, who created furniture and decorative arts. His contemporary, Jean Goulden (1878 – 1946), was a painter, designer and enameller who “excelled in the art of champlevé enameling”. Notables from the evening included, Geoffrey Bradfield, Jared Goss, high end gallery dealers from the New York tri-state area, executive members from various auction houses in the city, and many others.
Renowned interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield and his guest
Stephen Kelly Gallery
Judith Gura, Design historian from The New York School of Interior Design
Vyna St. Phard
Christina Japp, Cynthia Murphy
Photo credit: High End Weekly™ -
Tête-à-Tête with Art Deco Collector, Dr. Stephen Kelly
Stephen Kelly, M.D.Photo credit: Josh GaddyQ & A with Dr. Stephen Kelly
For over thirty years Dr. Stephen Kelly, a successful ophthalmologist with a Manhattan practice has been quietly assembling a collection of rare and important Art Deco furniture, fine art and design and filling his ca. 1915 landmark limestone and brick townhouse with these treasures. Last month, I paid a visit to the doctor at his upper east side gallery, which housed an impressive collection of fine art deco, and modern works of art.
High End Weekly™: What is your greatest art deco extravagance?
Stephen Kelly, MD: Certainly the greatest one would be the Eileen Gray six panel screen. I think it’s really a wonderful piece. It’s a fine example of a great decorative art but it’s also a very important fine art. This piece came at a point in her career when she was changing from figurative to a more abstract, linear, geometric sort of work. This also was a very important point in the history of art. Paris was the center of decorative arts and fine art during that period. Eileen did all of her work in France. She was Irish, but was sort of adopted by the French. Her pieces are relatively rare and unique. Unlike Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, she didn’t create a lot of models.
Eileen Gray, six-panel screen, circa 1922-25 HEW: The decorative arts that you have in your gallery, I imagine, have a story behind them. Is there one in particular that carries a story you’d like to share?SK: One of the most interesting stories is about a pair of ceramic pieces that were made by Sèvres in 1925. They were from outside of a Paris exhibit that was adjacent to Ruhlmann’s. These were purchased by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. They brought them back to their New York City home. These pieces were their first experience with modernism, when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. built 740 Park Avenue, which is right here on 71st Street & Park. The building became a very prestigious address. The couple lived there in a triplet for many years. I brought the ceramic pieces at an auction at Christie’s, and to my delight, they had the original card which stated their address, and on the back, there was Mrs. Rockefeller’s handwritten note with the description on it. Of course, this piece was their original interest in the modernist movement because he went on to built Rockefeller Center in the art deco style, his wife co-founded the Museum of Modern Art. Their son Nelson Rockefeller did the famous Jean Michel Frank apartment on 5th avenue in the modernist style. This story is fascinating, especially because they lived only a block away from where I reside.HEW: When did you begin collecting Art Deco and why did you choose this particular style?
SK: I started in 1982, and collected primarily because of the interior design concept that Geoffrey Bradfield and Jay Spectre came up with for my apartment. They had a modernistic art deco style of design for my home, and I liked the renovation. It was a kind of design that appealed to me and it grew as I started an art deco collection that compliment the interiors.
Photo credit: Josh Gaddy for the Wall Street Journal HEW: As a seasoned collector, what advice do you have for young collectors? Why should they start with art deco?
SK: The best advice is to collect something that you really love. It’s a mistake to collect things that you think you’re going to make money on. Whether that’s art deco or some other form of art. For me, I happen to think that art deco is a good area because it works well with contemporary art. There is such a big trend to contemporary art these days, and art deco furnishing works well with contemporary art, whereas a lot of the 19th century period English or French furniture doesn’t work so well with contemporary art. For young collectors who are interested in contemporary art, I think choosing art deco is a good way to start furnishing your apartment.HEW: Tribal art also looks good with art deco.
SK: Yes, it does. I’m not a tribal art collector, but I really like to mix it with my art deco. Asian art is a good compliment to these pieces as well. Especially the Asian ceramic pieces.HEW: What do you make of all the various art deco fairs that followed the 1925 art deco exhibition in Paris?
SK: After the great depression, most of these pieces became too difficult to sell, and the more modernist sort of design surfaced in the late 1930s. The war came and put a hold in the whole thing. So art deco went out of favor for a while. In the 1950s, it was completely out of favor. Then the interest started again in the 1970s. I recall that the Eileen Gray auction brought great interest in the market. That was one revival, and it revived even more in the 1980s which is when I started collecting. Since then, the interest hasn’t waned, and it’s been pretty consistently strong. And of course the Yves St. Laurent auction in Paris in 2009, gave the art deco movement a tremendous boost. The highlight of that auction was the Eileen Gray dragon chair which sold for $28 Million – the highest paid for a 20th-century piece of furniture. By the way, I visited the Eileen Gray exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in February. It’s a wonderful show where they go through the phases of her life: the furniture, the lacquer work, architecture, textiles and carpets. Even the photography. I loaned my Eileen Gray screen to the exhibition. The one that I purchased through the Steven Greenberg sale last year in December.
Stephen Kelly
Photo credit: Josh Gaddy for the Wall Street JournalHEW: How do you think your collection changed since you started buying?SK: Your taste changes, so you sort of learn and tend to sometimes change the direction that you’re going. For example, when I first started collecting, I chose Lalique vases. They were mass produced at the time, but I only collected the period ones from 1945. After a while, I stopped since they were so many of them on the market. I ended up selling all of my Lalique pieces, which were featured recently in Quest Magazine. Since then, I’ve collected a number of ceramic pieces from the auction block. That’s a good example how things have chance.The Kelly Gallery is located at 154 East 71st Street (Between 3rd and Lexington Avenues), New York City. Hours of operation are: Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Tel: 212.744.0004.
- Art Deco, Decorative Arts, Dr Stephen Kelly, Fireplaces, Galleries, Geoffrey Bradfield, Interior Design, Shagreen, Silver, Townhouses, Upper East Side of Manhattan
A Doctor’s Best Kept Secret Unleashed!
Kelly Gallery Study with Jourbet et Petit cerused oakand marble table and Andre Frechet CabinetI’ve long been fascinated with art deco particularly because of its preoccupation with lavish ornamentation, its superb craftsmanship and fine materials. And I feel fortunate to live in a town that is home to some of the most trustworthy art deco dealers in the world, namely Delorenzo, Maison Gerard, Friedman & Vallois, to name a few. Exactly one week to this day, I attended the opening of a gallery that can easily take its place among the rank of the illustrious establishments named above.
For over thirty years Dr. Stephen Kelly, a successful ophthalmologist with a Manhattan practice has been quietly assembling a collection of rare and important Art Deco furniture, fine art and design and filling his ca. 1915 landmark limestone and brick townhouse with these treasures. Now in his 60s, Dr. Kelly has embarked on a second career as a gallery owner.His treasured art deco gallery is nestled between the three floors of his dramatic six-story Upper East Side home. The gallery has now been opened since Wednesday, December 12th. The doctor’s entire collection is an impressive one to be sure. And art deco enthusiasts and collectors now have the opportunity to possess some of the most rarest pieces on the market – a variety of objects by such famed French Art Deco craftsmen as Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Jean-Michel Frank, Jean Dunand, Sue et Mare, A.A. Rateau, Eugene Printz, Edgar Brandt and Albert Cheuret, and others.
Salon Kelly Gallery with Ruhlman Lorcia Table Center and LeftMost of the fine art deco on view are between 1918 and 1939. Dr. Kelly puts particular emphasis on this period in France between the two world wars as one of the greatest and most productive times for fine and decorative arts. Pieces from this period lend a certain elegance and patina of age to a modern interior, without an 18th or 19th century antique look, and work well with all forms of 20th century fine art.
Kelly Gallery Assorted English Shagreen and Ivory Boxes ca 1925
KG Cardeillhac Sterling, Tortoise and Ivory Wine Caddies ca 1930Particular gems from the gallery include a monumental Sèvres urn by Ruhlmann that was one of four from the ocean liner Ile de France – only one other survives and is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Also on view is a spectacular straw marquetry cabinet by Jean-Michel Frank; a Rateau giltwood daybed from the home of Jeanne Lanvin; a one-of-a-kind silver and champlevé enamel clock by Jean Goulden, which was exhibited in the Art Deco Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2003; a coquille d’oeuf lacquer vase by Dunand from the 1925 Art Deco Exhibition in Paris and exhibited in the 1926 Art Deco Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and a unique amboyna wood table by Ruhlmann originally designed for the French actress Gabrielle Lorcia ca.1930, as well as modernist paintings and works on paper by Christian Bérard, Fernand Leger, Max Ernst and Sonia Delaunay juxtaposed against contemporary masters like Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns and Jean Dubuffet.
Important Jean Luce Glass VasesThe gallery features a vast array of vintage silver or alligator photograph frames, crystal and silver perfume bottles and dressing sets, period ceramics and glass, period sterling silver serving pieces, bookends, lamps, classic American guilloche enamel sterling silver doubles cufflinks, 18kt gold doubles cufflinks, shagreen and ivory boxes, cubistic pewter dinanderie vases and other vintage Art Deco gift items that start at around $150, with median prices of $1000 to $10,000.
“I particularly like the rare and beautiful woods used in furniture during this period, frequently decorated with shagreen, ivory, parchment, tortoiseshell or lacquer,” says Dr. Kelly. “I am drawn to the handcrafted artistic quality of the wrought-iron work and lacquered dinanderie vases. It was also one of the greatest periods in fine art with the advent centered in Paris of cubism, surrealism and orphism.”Dr. Stephen KellyThe space features a spectacular interior that was originally designed by Geoffrey Bradfield and the late Jay Spectre. It includes a large two story solarium and more recently updated by Mr. Bradfield with a parchment-paneled drawing room, Venetian plaster foyer and macassar ebony-paneled library.
The Kelly Gallery is located at 154 East 71st Street (Between 3rd and Lexington Avenues), New York City. Hours of operation are: Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Tel: 212.744.0004Photo courtesy Josh GaddyAll rights reserved
