310:. 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. The art market had changed by the mid 1970s and Wilder's gallery became less financially viable, which Wilder attributed to his "extravagance and lack of business sensibilities" and less appetite among buyers for the work of unknown and younger artists.
237:. Wilder was sanguine about his AIDS diagnosis saying that "the bad news is that I have AIDS. The good is that I am going to live to be 80. ...I don't feel cheated. I never have. My whole life has been adventure and this is just one more". He was survived by his partner, Craig Cook, his mother and two siblings. Wilder's library was acquired by the
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in 1988, a year before his death, Wilder spoke of the early years of his gallery saying that "In those days, art was all about art and artists. Now it's all about institutions and money" and commentated that one of the reasons for the closure of his gallery was that "Big name artists were getting too expensive".
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was the subject of the inaugural show at the gallery. A new exhibition was shown for every month of the 14 years that Wilder's gallery was open. In the initial years of the gallery Wilder was selling $ 2 million of art annually (equivalent to $ 17,523,445 in 2023) and later stated that there were
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Wilder closed his gallery on
December 31, 1979, having previously given his clients a year's notice to find new representation. Following the closure, several of his most important clients moved to the James Corcoran Gallery for representation. Wilder returned to his native New York. In an interview
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that gay people experienced at that time. Wilder felt that despite his "natural instincts" being those of "a politician, entrepreneur and gambler" he had to look for a profession where he could be deemed acceptable and that "being an art dealer is an occupation for disenfranchised people" concluding
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described him as "a genteel man of impeccable manners with a hippie bent" and that "...those who knew him best, particularly his artists, came away impressed with his modesty, frankness, humor and the purity of his passion for art. He seemed blessed with an ability to find gifted artists and home in
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In 2005, the
Franklin Parrasch Gallery and Joan T. Washburn Gallery of New York City showed an exhibition in tribute to Wilder of works associated with his gallery. The catalogue to the exhibition featured an essay by art historian Katherine Bishop Crum.
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and developed a second career as a painter, creating "abstract assemblages". He continued to sell art privately. Wilder's first solo show was at Los
Angeles's James Corcoran Gallery in 1986, his last was in Chicago at the Compassrose Gallery in 1988.
273:, in Los Angeles. To help finance the opening of the new Los Angeles gallery Wilder sold shares in his venture to his friends, and bought the shares back following the gallery's successful opening.
165:, but immediately changed his degree to art history. Wilder worked at the Lanyon Gallery in Palo Alto before establishing his eponymous gallery in Los Angeles in 1965. Wilder moved his gallery from
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in 1998 by
Matthew Curtis Klebaum, a friend of Wilder's. The bulk of the records date from 1968 to 1979 and include inventory cards, correspondence and financial records.
153:. He 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. Wilder met
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says that Wilder was falsely believed to be an heir to the Kodak company, which helped create a mystique upon arrival in Los
Angeles. He suffered from
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in Los
Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. He later closed his gallery, returned to his native New York, and developed a second career as a painter.
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film. His father died when Wilder was aged 11 from cancer, which Wilder believed was related to the industrial nature of his work. The
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before its closure in 1979. Wilder's gallery suffered financial problems before its closure. Wilder displayed the work of
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177:. Despite his profligate spending on artists, he had difficulty paying bills in the late 1970s and he was pursued by the
269:. In 1962 Wilder established a gallery in San Francisco before opening the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in 1965 at 814 North
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David
Hockney; Sarah Howgate; Barbara Stern Shapiro; Mark Glazebrook; Marco Livingstone; Edmund White (2006).
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as his taxes were three years late. In the last decade of his life, Wilder lived in New York on
Manhattan's
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on their best works". Wilder was gay and believed that this had a "certain sociological effect" due to the
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only "about six galleries and 30 artists that counted". In 1970 the gallery moved to 8225 ½
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Nicholas Wilder
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Wilder helped promote the work of many New York-based artists in California, including
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at Amherst when Duchamp lectured there when the college recreated the
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that he "never knew a good one who wasn't a woman, Jewish or gay".
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161:. Determined to live in California, Wilder began a law degree at
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The archives of the Nicholas Wilder Gallery were donated to the
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564:"Pacific Standard Time: Nicholas Wilder Gallery (1965–70)"
400:"Nicholas Wilder; Was Contemporary Art Dealer in L.A."
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Wilder was noted for his personal style and enjoyed
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127:. His father was a scientist for
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539:. The David Hockney Foundation
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195:Portrait of Nick Wilder
173:in 1970 and he entered
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280:Santa Monica Boulevard
220:. His obituary in the
171:Santa Monica Boulevard
513:Yale University Press
404:The Los Angeles Times
362:The Los Angeles Times
151:Henry Steele Commager
699:American gay artists
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271:La Cienega Boulevard
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251:Helen Frankenthaler
163:Stanford University
131:and helped develop
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623:The New York Times
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333:References
267:Cy Twombly
210:chili dogs
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102:Craig Cook
119:Biography
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199:Friends
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