Richard J. Rosenfeld, longtime gallery owner, art dealer, and artist benefactor, has died at 84
His shows drew hundreds of visitors and featured the work of dozens of creators, including former Inquirer artists Tony Auth and Signe Wilkinson.
Richard J. Rosenfeld, 84, formerly of Philadelphia, artist, longtime co-owner of the Rosenfeld Art Gallery in Old City, popular art dealer, artist benefactor, and volunteer, died Monday, Jan. 13, of heart failure at a rehabilitation center in Gainesville, Fla.
Mr. Rosenfeld and his wife, Barbara, opened their 2,400-square-foot gallery at 113 Arch St. in April 1976. He promoted the refurbished loft as a dynamic alternative to the older Center City galleries and labeled it a “destination” for discerning art and jewelry collectors.
And, for 40 years, until it closed in 2015, it was. His shows, such as "Small Works," "New Talent," “Noah’s Art,” and the annual “Fantasy and Humor Show” all drew hundreds of visitors and featured the work of dozens of creators, including former Inquirer artists Tony Auth and Signe Wilkinson.
He championed local artists from day one and displayed, promoted, and sold their work at his gallery, other shows, fundraisers, and auctions with extra vigor. He valued aesthetics over his own profits, his family said in a tribute, and several of his clients stayed with him for decades. Wilkinson called him “the tentpole for gathering and displaying contemporary Philadelphia artists.”
He helped establish a local art dealers association, and galleries flourished in Old City in the 1970s and ’80s. He supported better resale royalty rules for artists and served as a volunteer auctioneer at fundraisers and a judge for art competitions.
A painter as a young man, Mr. Rosenfeld won an art award in high school, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and spent a year painting in Mexico. But he said he found greater satisfaction as a gallery owner and artist advocate.
“The love, encouragement, and support they have shown to countless artists is beyond compare. They are a Philadelphia art institution.”
“I was proficient at painting, but I really didn’t have any inner drive to create my own imagery,” he told The Inquirer in 1994. “I later found I enjoyed being around art and promoting it, and organizing shows.“
He was especially adept at mentoring young artists. “I vicariously enjoy seeing their development,” he said in 1994. “Becoming an art dealer was a nice change for me. I’m still very close to the creative process but from a different angle.”
To make his gallery distinctive, Mr. Rosenfeld embraced Old City’s First Friday promotional campaign and sold original cartoons, fantasy sculptures, drawings, and paintings every summer at his eclectic “Fantasy and Humor Show.”
In 1994, he hosted a benefit for the Philadelphia Zoo called “Noah’s Art: A Loving Tribute to Our Fellow Voyagers.” It featured the zoo’s white lion cub, a chattering parrot, and other animals mingling with guests at the gallery.
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In 2001, he hosted 88-year-old commercial artist Joseph Teller’s only solo show. In 2005, he sponsored an artist-made holiday ornament contest to benefit an AIDS nonprofit.
He was patient and good-humored, colleagues and customers said, and former Inquirer art critic Victoria Donohoe said in 1976 that his magnetic personality defined his “readiness for a tradition-oriented project of this kind in a ‘new’ neighborhood.”
He and his wife appeared often in The Inquirer and other publications, and he complained to then-Mayor John F. Street in a 2000 op-ed about inadequate city funding for the arts. In 1979, the Daily News described the Rosenfeld Gallery as “long and elegant with warm wooden floors, exposed brick, and classical music adding to the ambiance.” He never charged families to stage weddings or nonprofits to hold fundraisers in the space, his wife said.
Earlier, he and his wife ran the gallery from their home in Huntingdon Valley. Before that, he worked at the Langman Gallery in Wyncote and Jenkintown.
“His sweetness and lovingness nurtured me. He’s embedded in my heart. He is my cornerstone.”
“He mentored and encouraged so many through their careers,” his family said, “and in doing so helped shape the cultural life of the city.”
Richard Joel Rosenfeld was born May 31, 1940, in Germantown. He graduated from Central High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962 and a master’s degree in fine arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1964.
After a brief marriage and divorce, he met Barbara Thornberry at the Langman Gallery, and they married in 1974. They had daughters Alexandra and Samantha, and lived in Glenside, Huntingdon Valley, Society Hill, and Lafayette Hill before moving to Gainesville in 2015.
Mr. Rosenfeld was an avid baseball fan, and he followed the Phillies and knew their statistics by heart. He would even stop the car sometimes, his wife said, when he passed a Little League game to watch a few batters take their swings.
He read all kinds of books, listened to jazz, completed crossword puzzles, and never missed an episode of Jeopardy! He studied psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia in 2003, and he and his wife visited Australia, Canada, Hawaii, and elsewhere.
He doted on his granddaughters and told jokes every single day. “He had a curiosity about life,” his wife said. “He found humor in situations. Caring and funny are the two words for him.”
In addition to his wife and daughters, Mr. Rosenfeld is survived by five granddaughters, a sister, and other relatives. A brother died recently.
A memorial service is to be held in July. For more information, email [email protected].
Donations in his name may be made to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Attn: Development Department, 128 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19102.