Dan Klein at the podium, where he presided over major art sales at Christie's and Phillips auction houses, as well as benefits for glass institutions. (photo from the website of Dan Klein Associates)
UPDATED 06/30/2009
Dan Klein, founding director of North Lands Creative Glass in northeast Scotland, prolific author on art made from glass, art dealer, and the former director of 20th century decorative art for Christie’s auctions, died of complications resulting from cancer on Sunday, June 28. With his passing, the world of art made from glass loses one of its most eloquent presenters, whether from behind the auction podium, in one of his many exhibition catalog essays, or quoted in a major newspaper such as The Financial Times, where, earlier this month, Klein was the subject of an article on the “breakthrough” of glass onto the contemporary art scene.
Impeccably groomed and tailored, Klein brought a refined British pedigree to the sometimes scruffy world of glass art and sculpture as he applied his considerable energy to advance the acceptance of glass as an expressive medium. As auctioneer for the Penland and UrbanGlass benefits, among others, Klein was a polished and, at times, demanding presence, always quick to remind glass collectors that they were attending a charity event and not bargain hunting. His uncompromising tone was an expression of his strong conviction that important work in glass was currently undervalued in the marketplace, and he worked tirelessly to change that.
Born on November 4, 1938, in Mumbai, India, Klein attended Westminster School (1951-1957) in London and Wadham College, Oxford University (1957-1961), where he earned a bachelor of arts degree and graduated with honors. After leaving Oxford, Klein studied singing and pursued a successful career as an opera singer from 1966 to 1978.
In 1978, he opened a gallery in London that specialized in 20th century decorative arts and contemporary glass. Among the most important exhibitions he produced were shows of work by Christopher Dresser and one titled “Masters Of Czech Glass”, which, in 1983, introduced the world to the full scope of work being done behind the Iron Curtain, helping to launch the Western careers of Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova.
In 1984, Klein joined Christie’s auction house in King Street, London, as director of 20th century decorative arts. Over the next 11 years, Klein organized auctions that set record prices for work by Lalique and Galle, records which remain unbroken to this day. Even as he climbed the ranks of experts in decorative arts, Klein always maintained his special interest in all kinds of Post-War and contemporary glass since the mid-1970s, and he was one of the first people in England to collect and write about it. In 1984, just before joining Christie’s, his private collection of 1950s glass was sold at Sotheby’s.
Dan Klein is the author and editor of many notable books including Glass: A Contemporary Art, published in 1989. His 2001 book, Artists In Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters In Glass, features the work of 80 artists and remains a valuable reference to many experts in the field. After Klein left Christie’s in early 1995, he worked with the German glass and ceramic company Rosenthal, and as an art consultant for an international law firm. In January 1996, he was named “Professor In Glass” at the University Of Sunderland, now based at the National Glass Centre, and was also appointed as a founding director of North Lands Creative Glass, an annual international summer school for contemporary glass in north-eastern Scotland at Lybster which he helped to create. That same year, Klein also started in partnership with Alan J. Poole as Dan Klein Associates, promoting contemporary glass with an emphasis on the work of artists from Britain and Ireland.
In 1997 Klein began consulting for Phillips International Auctioneers & Valuers and was appointed international executive director in 1998. Later that year he returned to Venice for the second time to organize and curate the second Venezia Aperto Vetro – International Biennale, following up on the success of the first event he organized there in 1996
After leaving the auction world in 2001, Klein worked as a freelance writer, lecturer, exhibition curator, guest auctioneer, and specialist on contemporary glass matters together with his partner Alan J. Poole. Klein was a patron of The Guild Of Glass Engravers, a lifetime honorary member of the Contemporary Glass Society and president of the Scottish Glass Society.
Contacted by email, Jennifer Opie, former senior curator of ceramics and glass at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London told GLASS that: “Dan was full of plans for glass when I last saw him about two weeks ago. He was as enthusiastic as ever about British glass in particular, which he was very active in promoting as you know — as well as being so much in demand in the States, Europe and Australia for glass events of all sorts.”
On Monday, Iain Gunn, president of the board of directors of North Lands Creative Glass, sent out an announcement that captured the mood shared by so many in the glass community.
We shall all miss Dan tremendously as a friend and colleague. He was a man of many talents and great company who made an outstanding contribution to the appreciation and development of Studio Glass both in the U.K. and worldwide … Dan has made a particularly valuable contribution to North Lands over the past 18 months as honorary artistic director, giving freely of his advice and time in spite of failing health. He will leave an enormous gap in our lives.
—Andrew Page (with additional reporting by Brett Nuckles)
Dan was also one of the most generous and devoted people in the Glass Art world. He consistently supported the field through his charitable work, donating his skills as an auctioneer to a variety of organizations dedicated to glass. He will always be remembered as a presenter of our history, as well as founder of the secondary market for contemporary glass, an important step in the recognition of a movement.
—Geoff Isles
I first met Dan at the Kurland/Summers Gallery in Los Angeles in the mid 1980s, when he was the head of 20th Century Decorative Arts at Christie’s auction house in London. Already at that time, he was recognized internationally for his expertise in 20th-century glass. As a young curator, I was so excited to meet him, and he, Ruth Summers, and I have shared a friendship since that time that was and is very important to me.
Dan was an independent and very well-respected art dealer in London. I want to mention, in particular, his 1983 exhibition on mid-20th-century Czech glass (with Art Centrum in Prague). It was groundbreaking, and it was typical of the high quality of his exhibitions. Until that time, there was very little known about this very important period in 20th-century design because, as an Iron Curtain country, Czechoslovakia was still closed, for the most part, to the West.
Dan had a remarkable career over the 24 years that I knew him. He was an incredibly prolific lecturer and writer, and his many publications have provided much-needed information about, and documentation of, the history of 20th-century glass. He has been a tireless promoter of contemporary studio glass in Europe and America. He curated the influential contemporary glass Biennales in Venice (the Venezia Aperto Vetro) in 1996 and 1998, and he was instrumental in the formation of the glass department at the University of Sunderland in England. He is a sought-after juror, who has contributed his knowledge to the awarding of prestigious prizes, such as the Jerwood Prize, the Bombay Sapphire Prize, and the Coburg Glaspreis. I was honored to invite him to serve as a juror for the Corning Museum’s “New Glass Review” in 2005.
When Dan began to focus on Sunderland, and subsequently on the founding of a small glass school in the northern Highlands of Scotland (North Lands Creative Glass), he focused his attention on contemporary glass in Britain. For many years, British contemporary glass was under-represented in the international glass community, and it is safe to say that without Dan, there would be much less recognition of what is going on in British glass. On the contrary, British glass today enjoys a high profile because of Dan’s activities, and North Lands Creative Glass has gained an excellent international reputation that is the direct result of his efforts. Of all the historians, curators, artists, and collectors that I am acquainted with around the world, Dan was the most active and the most effective in promoting the glass of his own country, and in disseminating information about it.
Over the past six years, I have visited Scotland every summer to attend the North Lands Conference, but it was really Dan and the other wonderful people associated with that charming place who drew me there. I always looked forward to seeing him, and for me, he made every event special, whether it was an auction at Penland or Glass Weekend at Wheaton. I will miss Dan, and I will miss his prolific and lucid writing. The international glass community will not be the same without his distinctive voice, so full of wisdom and humor.
Tina Oldknow
It’s hard to know where to begin. So I’ll pick a tiny corner…
Among his endless talents and contributions to our field – and they have been summarized so well by Andrew and Geoff above – a single, simple one endeared Dan to many of us. I covet it to this day: his ability to tell the truth with scathing charm. Even if it wasn’t one’s own truth, he delivered it with a panache that left you defenseless. A small thing maybe, but just one of many that made the man a prince.
I am very, very sad to hear the news.
Dan, we will miss you at Glassweekend…..and all the glassweekends to follow. We will miss your intellect and wit. You were an “elegant man”.
I am so sorry to hear we have lost a great person
in this field. He was always kind to everyone.
There can be no one that can fill his shoes.
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I was lucky enough to meet Dan Klein last June when visiting London, I had no idea he was sick. This news comes to me as a shock. I was very impressed that he not only made time to meet me on short notice, but also was very gracious and supportive to a total stranger. During the ten minutes I spent chatting with him casually, I could tell this was a person very dedicated to art. We have lost a force of nature.
Dan was a mentor and friend. I first met him when I started at Christie’s and we later connected through the glass world. Dan was kind enough to write the introductions for our exhibition catalogs of Joel Philip Myers and Mark Peiser and for that I will be forever grateful. I will miss his honest and straightfoward advice. We will all miss his charm, wit and intellect.
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