This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
The records of Mercury Galleries measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1943. The collection sheds light on the gallery's brief existence through printed material including exhibition catalogs, announcements, press releases, and newspaper clippings, correspondence with artists, museums, and galleries, photographs of artwork, one transcript from a radio discussion, and flyers from WPA art tours.
Portions of the collection are available on 35mm microfilm reels 3890 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
Mercury Galleries was established in 1938 in New York, New York, by Sidney Paul Schectman (also known as Paul Kollmer) and Bernard Braddon. The gallery exhibited contemporary drawings, paintings, and sculptures and was known for its abstract expressionist and surrealist art shows.
Cornell graduates Schectman and Braddon opened Artmart Galleries in late 1937 in the loft of a building owned by family. They priced contemporary art between $5 and $50 regardless of who created it and any artist could exhibit and sell their original work there for a fee. Artists who exhibited there included Cleo Hartwig, Stanley William Hayer, and many more. Schectman and Braddon repeated this business model at Mercury Galleries the following year, and later organized the Circuit Art Association using the same idea.
Located in close proximity to the Whitney Museum, Mercury held
Another notable Mercury Galleries group show was
In addition to those mentioned above, other artists exhibited at Mercury during its short existence included Henri Matisse, Zoltan Hecht, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, poet Rachel Mack Wilson, Hananiah Harari, and John Rood.
The gallery closed in 1940.
The collection was donated by Bernard B. Braddon, co-owner of Mercury Galleries, in 1981.
Mercury Galleries, 1937-1943. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Christopher DeMairo in 2022.
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Bernard Braddon and Sidney Paul Schectman conducted by Avis Berman, October 9, 1981.
Found here is correspondence with artists, museums, and gallery visitors; newspaper clippings, bulletins, and flyers from Artmart Galleries and Mercury Galleries; exhibition schedules, catalogs, announcements, and some press releases; photographs of artwork by Cleo Hartwig, John Rood, Nicholas Takis, M. Rizzuto, and Rachel Mack Wilson; and a transcript from the radio discussion titled "Whats Wrong with American Art" featuring Schectman, Braddon, and "The Ten" artist Louis Harris.
Also found are flyers from the WPA art tours, an inventory of artwork, and an artist file for Harold Anton, which includes a promissory note, an exhibition catalog, a draft of an essay entitled "Antonism," and two photographs.
Exhibition Announcements, Catalogs, and Press Releases