Nicholas Walter George Wilder was an American art dealer and owner of an eponymous contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.
21 Facts About Nicholas Wilder
1.
2.
Nicholas Wilder later closed his gallery, returned to his native New York, and developed a second career as a painter.
3.
Nicholas Wilder's father was a scientist for Kodak and helped develop Kodachrome film.
4.
Nicholas Wilder's father died when Wilder was aged 11 from cancer, which Wilder believed was related to the industrial nature of his work.
5.
The Los Angeles Times says that Wilder was falsely believed to be an heir to the Kodak company, which helped create a mystique upon arrival in Los Angeles.
6.
Nicholas Wilder graduated from Amherst College in 1960, having studied under Henry Steele Commager.
7.
Nicholas Wilder developed an interest in art after working as a guard at Amherst College's museum and helping as a projectionist for slide lectures on art history.
8.
Nicholas Wilder met Marcel Duchamp at Amherst when Duchamp lectured there when the college recreated the 1913 Armory Show.
9.
Nicholas Wilder worked at the Lanyon Gallery in Palo Alto before establishing his eponymous gallery in Los Angeles in 1965.
10.
Nicholas Wilder moved his gallery from La Cienega Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard in 1970 and he entered psychotherapy.
11.
Nicholas Wilder was friends with the British artist David Hockney and became Hockney's dealer in California.
12.
Nicholas Wilder was noted for his personal style and enjoyed chili dogs from Pink's Hot Dogs on La Brea Avenue.
13.
Nicholas Wilder was gay and believed that this had a "certain sociological effect" due to the disenfranchisement that gay people experienced at that time.
14.
Nicholas Wilder was survived by his partner, Craig Cook, his mother and two siblings.
15.
Nicholas Wilder's library was acquired by the Osaka Art Museum in Japan following his death.
16.
Nicholas Wilder helped promote the work of many New York-based artists in California, including Helen Frankenthaler, Barnett Newman, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, and Cy Twombly.
17.
Nicholas Wilder displayed the work of Ronald Davis, Robert Graham, Allan McCollum, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Peter Young, Bill Pettet and several others at the early stages of their artistic careers.
18.
Nicholas Wilder estimated that he had made over 100 trips outside the United States seeking clients and selling art during the 14-year tenure of his gallery.
19.
The art market had changed by the mid 1970s and Nicholas Wilder's gallery became less financially viable, which Nicholas Wilder attributed to his "extravagance and lack of business sensibilities" and less appetite among buyers for the work of unknown and younger artists.
20.
Nicholas Wilder closed his gallery on December 31,1979, having previously given his clients a year's notice to find new representation.
21.
The archives of the Nicholas Wilder Gallery were donated to the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art in 1998 by Matthew Curtis Klebaum, a friend of Wilder's.