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The Bodley Gallery was an art gallery in New York City, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. The Bodley specialized in contemporary and modern art. David Mann was director of the gallery during its heyday and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Braun (a.k.a. Georgie Duffee), were the owners.
Several of Andy Warhol's earliest exhibitions in New York were at the Bodley during the 1950s, starting with two in 1956. Max Ernst had a major solo exhibition at the Bodley Gallery in 1961, after his works were exhibited together with those of Yves Tanguy in a 1960 Bodley Gallery show. Also in 1960, Roberto Matta had a solo show at the Bodley, entitled "Matta, from 1942 to 1957". Other artists who exhibited at the Bodley under Mann's directorship include Victor Brauner, Charles Bunnell, Clarence Holbrook Carter, Thomas Chimes, Louis Delsarte, Jane Frank, Charlotte Gilbertson, Eugenio Granell, Shirley Hendrick, Hank Laventhol, Mina Loy, Larry Rivers, Onni Saari, Ethel Schwabacher, Bettina Shaw-Lawrence, Thomas Sills, and Ahmed Yacoubi.
Although the gallery emphasized the work of living artists, exhibits were not limited to such works—as evidenced by its showing of paintings by Tanguy in 1960, and a 1970 show including works of René Magritte. A 1971 exhibition entitled "Modern Master Drawings" included works by Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Matisse, and Picasso. The Bodley exhibition record shows a general preponderance of surrealists (including Jorge Noceda Sanchez).
Apparently David Mann was not the first director of the Bodley Gallery, which seems to have existed already in the late 1940s. According to at least one source, Mann was still director of the Bodley as late as 1981. [1]
According to many sources (including warholstars.com and the 1961 Max Ernst exhibition catalogue listed below), the Bodley Gallery was located (through the 1950s and until at least November 1963, according to the catalogue for a 1963 Jane Frank show) at 223 East 60th Street, in Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side neighborhood. This would place it between Second and Third Avenues. Presently the storefront is occupied by Dejavu Boutique & Gallery, a luxury fashion boutique selling mostly European clothing. To acknowledge the building's past, the boutique preserved the 2nd floor of the space as an Art Gallery to showcase artwork by established artists and the interior is lined with décor by Mackenzie-Childs.
As of no later than April 1964, the Bodley Gallery had relocated to 787 Madison Avenue (an ad on page 15 of the April 1964 issue of Art in America gives this address). This put it in an even more exclusive section of the Upper East Side, at Madison and 67th Street. That is now the address of Jacadi, which sells upscale children's clothing.
A third address, 1063 Madison Avenue (at 80th Street), seems to have been in effect by about 1975, if not earlier (but no earlier than 1967). 1063 Madison is now the address of a women's fashion boutique called Agnes B.
Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France.
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