Rena Bransten, an artwork vendor whose gallery was a fixture of the San Francisco artwork scene for over 50 years, died Wednesday on the age of 92. Bransten died following a fall after a current coronary heart assault, her daughter, Trish, informed the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bransten’s eponymous gallery was based in 1975 because the successor gallery to Quay Ceramics, which Bransten and Ruth Braunstein launched the 12 months prior. Initially positioned in a 3,400-square-foot area in Union Sq., the gallery grew to become recognized for elevating artists from California, with a selected emphasis on ladies artists and artists of coloration.
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Among the many most high-profile artists represented by Bransten over time embrace filmmaker John Waters, photographer Dawoud Bey, conceptual artist Fred Wilson, poet and artist Lawrence Ferlinghetti, painter Hung Liu, and multidiscplinary artist Lava Thomas.
The gallery was compelled out of its long-time area in 2015, when a tech firm provided triple the lease, in response to San Francisco Standard. It moved first to Market Road earlier than settling within the Dogpatch in 2016, together with many different galleries.
In November, the gallery introduced that it will be leaving its Dogpatch area and that it will undertake “a nomadic mannequin” as a result of declining gross sales and foot site visitors, as Trish, a director on the gallery, informed the Commonplace. She added that the gallery would current exhibitions in momentary venues round San Francisco.
“The economics of operating a brick-and-mortar gallery—as soon as supported by a gentle circulation of gross sales, institutional partnerships, and walk-in engagement—has shifted, asking us to contemplate new fashions,” wrote Rena and Trish Bransten in a press launch on the time. “As John Waters noticed when informed we have been closing our area, ‘It’s the finish of an period.’”
Rena Bransten was born Rena Might Glazier on March 8, 1933 in New York Metropolis. Her father, William Glazier, was a accomplice in Lehman Brothers and served as a trustee on the Morgan Library & Museum. She attended the Dalton Faculty, a prestigious non-public college in Manhattan, and earned a bachelor’s diploma in artwork historical past from Smith Faculty in 1954. That very same 12 months, she married John Bransten, who labored for his household’s espresso firm M.J. Brandenstein & Co., and the couple moved to San Francisco, the place John was from, after spending a 12 months in Japan, whereas he was stationed with the US Military in the course of the Korean Struggle.
Initially, Rena participated within the artwork world on the philanthropic facet, sitting on the boards of the Oakland Museum of California and the San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork. She and John divorced in 1969, although they remained buddies till his loss of life in 2001.
Waters, who’s finest referred to as a filmmaker, informed the San Francisco Chronicle that Bransten was a “enormous assist” to his profession as a visible artist and that she was “not impressed by movie star in any respect.”
“She was such a legend—and never solely within the Bay Space artwork world, however nationally,” Waters stated. “She was an aesthetic act and an amazing artwork vendor forward of her time.”
Bransten is survived by her three kids: Peter, a accomplice on the legislation agency Glaser Weil, Trish, who labored on the gallery since 1983, and David, who’s a social providers studying and growth skilled., alongside along with her 5 grandchildren, Rena Gallagher, Sam Gallagher, Kailey Jensen, Arielle Bransten and Cecile Bransten, and nice grandchild Melody Bransten Black Elk.
