s3e18 on representing artist estates with dealer Susan Teller

In s3e18, host Ann Shafer talks with dealer Susan Teller, whose eponymous gallery operates out of the Mana Fine Arts facility in Jersey City, NJ. Susan specializes in American paintings and works on paper of the mid-twentieth century. She also works with multiple artists’ estates including Peggy Bacon, William Baziotes, Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Sue Fuller, Michael J. Gallagher, Peter Grippe, Fannie Hillsmith, Hugh Mesibov, Angelo Pinto, Anne Ryan, Louis Schanker, Karl Schrag, Judith Shahn, Ben Shahn, Mitchell Siporin, Harry Sternberg, Ansei Uchima, and Lynd Ward.

Ann was eager to talk with Susan about managing artists' estates. How do family members approach a pile of stuff in the attic by aunt so-and-so? And, of course, Susan’s relationships with families of many of the women who worked at the New York Atelier 17 in the 1940s and 1950s was too intriguing for Ann to pass up.

https://instagram.com/stg568

https://www.susantellergallery.com

Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ.

Peggy Bacon (American, 1895–1987). Had Sung their Last Song and Related their Last Poem, 1931. Pen and ink. 8 x 6 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Guerrilla Girls (American, New York based, originated 1985). Guerrilla Girls’ 1986 Report Card, 1986. Offset lithograph. Sheet: 559 x 432 mm. (22 x 17 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Fritz Eichenberg (American, 1901–1990). Day Care Center from the portfolio Dance of Death, 1980, printed 1983. Wood engraving. Image: 9 ¾ x 12 in.; sheet: 14 x 17 in. Brier Hill Gallery, Boston.

Charles Keller (American, 1914–2006). The Latest Dirt, 1937. Lithograph. Sheet: 9 x 7 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Stanley William Hayter (British, 1901–1988). Cinq personnages, 1946. Engraving, softground etching, and scorper; printed in black (intaglio), green (screen, relief), orange (screen, relief), and purple (screen, relief). Sheet: 488 x 668 mm. (19 3/16 x 26 5/16 in.); plate: 376 x 605 mm. (14 13/16 x 23 13/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Fannie Hillsmith (American, 1911–2007). Garden Plan I, c. 1945. Etching, softground etching, and open bite etching. Sheet: 482 × 327 mm. (19 × 12 7/8 in.); plate: 377 × 174 mm. (14 13/16 × 6 7/8 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Dorothy Dehner (American, 1901–1994). The Barn in Bolton, 1952. Etching and aquatint. Sheet: 498 x 379 mm. (19 5/8 x 14 15/16 in.); plate: 352 x 252 mm. (13 7/8 x 9 15/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

David Smith (American, 1906–1965). Women and War, 1941. Etching and engraving. Sheet: 255 × 330 mm. (10 1/16 × 13 in.); plate: 173 × 227 mm. (6 13/16 × 8 15/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Anne Ryan (American, 1889–1954). Abstract for Elie, 1945. Engraving. Sheet: 285 × 224 mm. (11 1/4 × 8 13/16 in.); plate: 144 × 94 mm. (5 11/16 × 3 11/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Anne Ryan (American, 1889–1954). Primavera, 1946. Color woodcut on black paper. Sheet: 11 x 15 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Louis Schanker (American, 1903–1981). Musical Clowns, 1939. Color woodcut. Sheet: 356 × 458 mm. (14 × 18 1/16 in.); image: 289 × 380 mm. (11 3/8 × 14 15/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Sue Fuller (American, 1914–2006). Cacophony, 1944. Etching, softground etching, and aquatint. Sheet: 424 × 293 mm. (16 11/16 × 11 9/16 in.); plate: 300 × 225 mm. (11 13/16 × 8 7/8 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Kett (Margaret Kettunen Zegart; American, born 1926). Boulder Landscape. 1953. Engraving. Plate: 12 x 13 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Hugh Mesibov (American, 1916–2016). Space Venture, 1951. Woodcut. Image: 8 x 10 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Albert Heckman (American, 1893–1971). Storage Tanks at Rondout, 1933. Lithograph. Image: 10 ¾ x 13 ¼ in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

William Baziotes (American, 1912–1963). Untitled, c. 1948. Etching and softground etching. Sheet: 11 x 9 1/2 in. (27.9 x 24.1 cm.); plate: 5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. (14.9 x 20 cm.). Reading Public Museum, Reading.

Werner Drewes (American, born Germany, 1899–1985). Praying Mantis, 1944. Engraving. Sheet: 264 × 362 mm. (10 3/8 × 14 1/4 in.); plate: 198 × 301 mm. (7 13/16 × 11 7/8 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Sybil Andrews (British, 1898–1993). Racing, 1934. Color linoleum cut. Sheet: 295 x 382 mm. (11 5/8 x 15 1/16 in.); image: 260 x 345 mm. (10 1/4 x 13 9/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926). The Banjo Lesson, c. 1893. Drypoint and color aquatint with monoprint inking. Sheet: 404 × 324 mm. (15 7/8 × 12 3/4 in.); plate: 299 × 299 mm. (11 3/4 × 11 3/4 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Martin Lewis (American, born Australia, 1881–1962). Shadow Dance, 1930. Drypoint and sandpaper ground. Sheet: 330 × 373 mm. (13 × 14 11/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975). The Fence Mender, 1940. Crayon lithograph. Image: 254 x 354 mm. (10 x 13 15/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Isabel Bishop (American, 1902–1988). Soda Fountain, 1950. Etching. Plate: 6 ¼ x 4 1/8 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Alice Trumbull Mason (American, 1904–1971). White Scaffolding, 1946. Etching, softground etching, and roulette. Sheet: 447 x 329 mm. (17 5/8 x 12 15/16 in.); plate: 342 x 244 mm. (13 7/16 x 9 5/8 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Minna Wright Citron (American, 1896–1991). Squid Under Pier, 1948. Etching, softground etching, engraving, and scorper; printed from two plates in three passes: on plate with background texture in blue (intaglio), on image plate in brown (stencil, relief), and on same image plate in black (intaglio). Sheet: 497 x 620 mm. (19 9/16 x 24 7/16 in.); plate: 378 x 458 mm. (14 7/8 x 18 1/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Anne Ryan in Christina Weyl, The Women of Atelier 17: Modernist Printmaking in Midcentury New York. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.

Louise Nevelson (American, born Ukraine, 1899–1988). Flower Queen, 1953. Etching and aquatint. Sheet: 600 x 508 mm. (23 5/8 x 20 in.); plate: 498 x 403 mm. (19 5/8 x 15 7/8 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Angelo Pinto (American, 1908–1994). Pole Vaulter, 1932. Wood engraving. Image: 6 x 8 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

William E. Smith (American, 1913–1997). Awai Ueg, Belgium, 1945. Watercolor over graphite. Sheet: 9 x 7 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Page from James McNeill Whistler catalogue raisonné (University of Glasgow) with impressions of Nocturne, 1879—80. Etching and drypoint. Plate: 202 x 294 mm.

https://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/

Harry Sternberg (American, 1904–2001). Blast Furnace #1, 1937. Etching and crayon aquatint. Plate: 11 3/4 x 8 3/8 in. Susan Teller Gallery, Jersey City.

Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) and Stéphane Mallarmé (author, French, 1842–1898). Fan and Gloves (published state on page proof for Poésies de Mallarmé), 1930–31. Etching. Sheet (folded): 330 x 250 mm. (13 x 9 13/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). Fan and Gloves (study for tailpiece in Poésies de Mallarmé), 1930–31. Graphite. Sheet: 330 x 251 mm. (13 x 9 7/8 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Ben Levy trying to take a good picture of a very shiny copper plate (with cancelling marginalia visible) by Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) from Poésies de Mallarmé, 1930–31. Etched copper plate. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Stanley William Hayter (British, 1901–1988). Cascade, 1959. Open bite etching; printed in black (intaglio), blue-pink-blue gradient (relief), yellow, green, and blue, unblended (offset, relief). Sheet: 794 x 584 mm. (31 1/4 x 23 in.); plate: 489 x 489 mm. (19 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Stanley William Hayter (British, 1901–1988). Plate for Cascade, 1959. Open bite etched zinc plate. Plate: 489 x 489 mm. (19 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

Ian Hugo (American, 1898–1984). Lightly, 1941. Engraved copper plate. Plate: 97 x 113 mm. (3 13/16 x 4 7/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.

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