Cavalier Galleries: A History
by Ron Cavalier, President, Cavalier Galleries

My passion for art began the first time I visited the Hirshhorn estate in Greenwich, Connecticut some 34 years ago. My father, whose art foundry had been serving the art world since the late 1950s, restored the sculpture at the Hirshhorn estate prior to the collection being delivered to the Smithsonian Institution’s new art museum, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, on the mall in Washington, D.C. I can remember it as if it were yesterday, driving up the stone drive through the gates, and there to my left I was introduced to the heroic Rodin work The Burgers of Calais. I was in a new world. As my father went about his work, I was free to wander amongst one of the world’s greatest sculpture collections - Henry Moore’s King and Queen, Rodin’s Balzac, the majestic work of George Rickey, Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, David Smith, Aristide Maillol, Alberto Giacometti - on and on it went. Of all the great masterpieces I saw that day, the work that intrigued me the most was a sculpture of a man whose body was on two sides of a door, Man Pushing Door by Jean Ipousteguy. I thought, “Now this is really cool.”

It was my numerous visits to the Hirshhorn home, and the subsequent study of this immense collection that includes important examples of virtually every major painter from 1870- 1970 including John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, Pablo Picasso, William De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper and Jasper Johns, that led to my diverse interest in art.

I joined the family business in 1978 and learned all aspects of foundry work, from mold making to pouring molten bronze at 2000 degrees and becoming a master at patinization. In the early eighties, I began spending time on the road as a salesman for the foundry, visiting artists, museums and galleries on a regular basis. It was the time that I spent visiting various artists’ studios and their galleries that inspired my interest in selling art. In the summer of 1985 while getting a passport in Stamford, Connecticut, I happened into the Komar Furniture store were I met Herb Kohn. After a lengthy conversation, Herb agreed to take in some small bronzes on consignment. My relationship with Herb led to my first space, located next to the passport office in One Landmark Square. Cavalier Galleries, Inc. became a reality on October 25, 1986, with the opening of our premier exhibition Seven Woman Artists. The exhibition received a favorable review in the Stamford Advocate and we had several sales. Despite the fact that the mid-eighties were a very good time in the art world, starting a new business with working capital of less than $15,000 borrowed from credit cards proved to be rather challenging.

In the early years, the gallery put forth a number of notable exhibitions, including the first U.S. exhibition of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1987. We were honored to have Duncan Robinson, Director of the Yale Center for British Art, cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony. The exhibition was favorably reviewed by the New York Times.

The gallery became successful selling paintings and sculpture to corporations as well as real estate developers during the late 1980s. It was during this period that I developed a friendship with Frank Rich, Jr. and his family. The Rich family was instrumental in the redevelopment of downtown Stamford and very supportive of the arts. Their Landmark Square office complex boasted a submerged skating rink similar to Rockefeller Center in New York City. When the rink closed, the Rich Family gave me the opportunity to use the space for an outdoor sculpture garden. The Cavalier Sculpture Garden was open in June of 1988 with a wonderful celebration attended by artists, collectors, business and political leaders. This was to be the first of many public art projects that the gallery would endeavor to create during the following years.

As we moved into the 1990s, the gallery found itself in the middle of a recession that affected the real estate market, and subsequently the art market, particularly hard. We continued to have a series of group shows at the gallery and worked extremely hard to develop new clients for the gallery. Most, if not all, of the commercial building projects slated for our area were either put on hold or cancelled altogether. One that was not, however, was the new Stamford Center for the Arts Rich Forum which opened in 1992. Frank Rich, Jr., who was the driving force behind the new performing arts center, once again provided me with an opportunity: to curate the art exhibitions to be held in the Rich Forum. The most significant of these exhibitions was The Borglums of Fairfield County. This was the first time that works by Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of Mount Rushmore fame) and his brother Solon Borglum were exhibited together. The exhibition was underwritten by the Frank Mercede and Sons Inc.; the Mercede family would continue to play an important role in bringing world-class sculpture to the community for many years to come. The exhibition received notable attention and our relationship with the Stamford Center for the Arts was expanded to my founding and curating the Emerging Artist Exhibition Series at the Sackler gallery in the Stamford Center for the Arts Palace Theatre. These exhibitions were designed for young artists to have shows of their work in the gallery space. What was unique about these exhibitions was that the artists were involved in all aspects of mounting their shows, which gave them firsthand experience in how galleries function. It was a very rewarding program.

As the gallery continued to build relationships within the community, I began regular discussions of my desire to create a public sculpture walk throughout downtown with Frank Rich, Jr. Though funding such an exhibition was extremely challenging, I was committed to bringing art to the public on a grand scale, so ahead the project went. We received encouragement and approvals from the Mayor’s office, Stamford Center for the Arts and the recently-formed Downtown Special Services District. Frank Mercede and Sons Inc. graciously offered to donate their equipment and manpower to install the large-scale works. In 1993, the nationally-acclaimed exhibition Stamford Sculpture Walk, a program dedicated to public interaction, education, enrichment and enjoyment, began. My involvement with the Stamford Sculpture Walk culminated with the 1999 exhibition Important Sculptors of the Late Twentieth Century which included major works by artists such as Moore, Botero, Smith, Oldenburg, Segal and Nevelson. These important sculptors' various approaches were combined to create an exciting, interesting and complete survey of late twentieth century sculpture. I am extremely honored that the foundation and public art program that we worked so hard to create was embraced by the City of Stamford as its own and continues to this day.

Cavalier Galleries Inc. moved to Greenwich Avenue in May of 1994. The gallery’s focus immediately began to change, as private buyers and collectors became the mainstay of the business. The gallery expanded to the second floor in 1995 and we began exhibiting sculpture outdoors both at Pickwick Plaza (Greenwich & Putnam Aves.) and on lower Greenwich Avenue adjacent to the gallery. We spent the next six years developing our stable of artists and relationships with new and old clients; the business was at last flourishing. With involvement with the Stamford Sculpture Walk winding down in 1999, and the gallery business continuing to grow, the time was right for us to consider expanding the business to a second location.

I had been well aware of Nantucket as a promising market for a second gallery for 10 years; in fact, I had a joint venture with two other dealers during the summer of 1989 on the island. In addition, many clients would come in each fall and tell us of their summers on Nantucket and that they had acquired paintings while visiting the island. Nantucket it would be, I decided, if we could find an available space on Main Street. This proved to be impossible; however, I was offered a location on Salem Street that included an outdoor garden area for sculpture. Cavalier Gallery opened on Nantucket on June 1, 2000, and the gallery was an immediate success. We were selling art and meeting new clients from all over the country. More importantly, we were meeting a large number of clients from Fairfield and Westchester counties who were unfamiliar with our Greenwich gallery. During the next four years, the gallery continued to grow to a point where I felt we should expand to a third gallery, this time in New York City.

We opened Cavalier Gallery LLC in the fall of 2004 at 1100 Madison Avenue between 82nd & 83rd Streets. It was a very small street-level space with wonderful windows just one block from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I expected that it would take us a few years for the gallery to become profitable as our overhead was quite considerable. During the fall of 2005, I received a phone call offering us the premier location on Main Street in Nantucket, over 5,500 square feet of world-class exhibition space. I had wanted to be on Main Street in Nantucket for years and this was a rare opportunity that I could not let pass. The challenge for me was that I would now have to focus a great deal of my energy and time on Nantucket, while at the same time a similar effort was needed in New York if that gallery were to become financially successful. After careful consideration, I made the decision to close the NYC gallery and focus on the new Nantucket gallery for the next few years.

Over the past two decades, we have developed relationships with a world-class group of painters, sculptor and photographers. Works by the artists represented by Cavalier Galleries Inc today, collectively, have either been exhibited at or are in the permanent collections of most major museums in the United States, Europe and Asia. It is our mission to continue to present significant exhibitions for our clients to enjoy and exceptional works in painting, sculpture and photography worthy of their consideration.

Cavalier Galleries services include art consultation and the acquisition and installation of works in corporate, public and private settings. Artist commissions, site-specific work, portraiture and sculpture preservation and restoration are available. As a member of the Appraisers Association of America, Mr. Cavalier is qualified to appraise contemporary works as well as American and European 20th century sculpture.