virginia dwan

ABOUT VIRGINIA DWAN

American art collector, art patron, philanthropist, and founder of the Dwan Light Sanctuary in Montezuma, New Mexico. She was the former owner and executive director of Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles (1959-1967) and Dwan Gallery New York (1965-1971), a contemporary art gallery closely identified with the American movements of Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Earthworks.

She studied art briefly at UCLA before dropping out to get married.

In 1965, the Virginia Dwan Collection, featuring artists like Willem de Kooning , Franz Kline , and Claes Oldenburg , and Lee Bontecou , was exhibited at the University of California, Los Angeles.

She was was born in Minneapolis to Charles and Laura (Israelson) Dwan. She was a grand-daughter of John Dwan, a founder of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, which became 3M. She was an heir to that family fortune. She and her first husband, Paul Henry Fischer, had a child, Candace Dwan. She later married Vadim Kondratief, whom she also divorced. But not before Kondratief urged her to follow through on her oft-stated desire to open a gallery.

She used her resources to exhibit and often support the work of Robert Rauschenberg , Louise Nevelson , Jim Dine , Carl Andre , Philip Guston , and many others