Six Decades of Artistic Success
Alumnus George Shechtman, who is celebrating 60 years as a champion of contemporary realism, says Rutgers helped him find his passion for art.
It was in his first studio art class—when he picked up a paintbrush, studied the palette in front of him, and applied paint to canvas—that George Shechtman discovered his passion.
“Rutgers helped me envision the art world because I took studio courses, which I had never done,” says Shechtman, who grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. “I used to transpose musical scores into oil paintings.”
First, he would choose a color. “For (composer Claude) Debussy, it was blue, and if it was a quarter note, it would be a small square,” Shechtman says. “If it was a whole note, it would be four times that square.”
He says it was the art history program at Rutgers in New Brunswick that further influenced him, first as a painter and then as a dealer and gallery owner. This year, the Rutgers College 1964 graduate is celebrating 60 years in the art world as a gallery owner and proponent of art that features lifelike representational depictions of the modern world.
Shechtman, who first majored in economics, decided to take time off after his sophomore year to embark on a formative trip to Europe and Africa, where he befriended a group of artists. “I took a Yugoslavian freighter from Brooklyn, New York, to Tangiers, Morocco,” he says.
In his travels, he was influenced by the artwork in the great museums of Madrid, Paris, and London, leaving a lasting impression.
He went to Morocco first, traveled to England, France, and Germany, and settled in Spain for eight months, becoming fluent in Spanish. “I stayed in a little fishing village in a place without heat or running water,” he says. “Spain is such a beautiful country. I went to Sevilla, Pamplona, and Valencia.”
Weekends in NYC, Inspiration at Rutgers
Back at Rutgers and inspired by art, he often visited New York City and the painters he had befriended earlier.
The artists would show their work at the Washington Square outdoor exhibition every spring and fall, as well as in various galleries in Greenwich Village. He would go to the village every weekend to look at art, mostly focusing on realism. Eventually, he bought into one of the galleries on Christopher Street for $500. The art there sold from $5 to $50 apiece.
On campus, he encountered the work and legacy of influential alumni artists, including George Segal, Lucas Samaras, and Robert Watts. He found that his interests turned toward objective realist painters, whom he deeply admired for their technical mastery and commitment to observed reality.
He also credits his many art professors at Rutgers for inspiring him. Taking studio art courses and art history courses was just part of it, he says. Some of the professors invited him to exhibitions and events at Rutgers and in the city.
He fondly recalls modern art professor Robert Rough, an art historian and academic known for his scholarship in medieval art and his interpretation of the work of Dutch post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh; art history professor and department Chair James Stubblebine, who was an early Italian Renaissance scholar specializing in 13th and 14th century painting; and art history Professor Alan Kaprow, a pioneer of performance art, who hosted Happenings, or unscripted art events. “New Brunswick was a happening town back in the ’60s and ’70s, and I met painters and musicians,” Shechtman says.
Shechtman, who played saxophone with the Rutgers marching band, had two brothers who were also musicians. Elder brother Robert Shechtman RC’62 studied composition at Sarah Lawrence before becoming a professor of music at Drew University and at Grand Valley State in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He died in 2002. Younger brother Carl Shechtman was also a professional musician. As a jazz trumpet player, he backed up many of the most influential vocalists of the ’80s and ’90s. He is currently retired and living in Bermuda.
New Gallery
George Shechtman’s partnership in a gallery eventually led to the opening of his own space in the village, Christopher Street Gallery. By the mid-1970s, Shechtman had relocated to Madison Avenue. The renamed Christopher Gallery continued to feature emerging and established realist artists.
In 1982, he again relocated, this time to SoHo, opening Gallery Henoch during an era when the neighborhood had become synonymous with photorealism. He expanded his roster to include leading photorealists while maintaining a broader commitment to realist painters, sculptors, and artisans.
In 2000, as Chelsea, a neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan, emerged as New York’s newest art center, he moved the gallery to West 25th Street, where it remains today.
Shechtman, who currently divides his time between Chelsea and his home in western New Jersey, says he now buys a portion of the art for his gallery at auction. He has relationships with talented painters around the world. He showcases 30 to 40 works at his gallery at a time and has donated a few paintings, including one by artist Mel Leipzig, to the Zimmerli Art Museum.
Perhaps one of the most important moments in his life was the day in SoHo when he walked into a wine bar and by chance met future wife Nancy Hicks, a psychologist from Minnesota who received her doctoral degree in psychology from the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology in 1989.
60th Anniversary
The couple recently celebrated Shechtman’s 60th anniversary as an art dealer and gallery owner with a party.
Jennifer Argenta LC’96, who studied art history and anthropology at Rutgers, worked with Shechtman at his gallery before becoming director of school partnerships for the Pace University School of Education. “He is a distinguished Rutgers alumnus whose career embodies business acumen and a lifelong dedication to the power of seeing,” she says. “His career reflects entrepreneurial vision and the lasting influence of his Rutgers education.”
Support the Zimmerli Art Museum
Your gift to the Museum’s Director’s Fund supports the Zimmerli's mission to educate and inspire our communities by providing direct experience with art in its many forms.
