Klaus Kertess, American art curator and gallerist, Died at 76

  Artists, Business

Klaus Kertess was born in 1940, and died in 2016.

He was an American art curator and gallerist.

With Jeff Byers who had been classmates at Yale College, class of 1958 together ran the gallery.

The Bykert Gallery was a contemporary art gallery in New York City between 1966 and 1975.

At first the gallery was located at 15 West West 57th Street in Manhattan, (in the same space as the defunct Green Gallery that closed in 1965); it later moved to East 81st Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues.

Some of the artists who were represented at Bykert are Brice Marden, Chuck Close, Ralph Humphrey, David Novros and Dorothea Rockburne.

Most Artists who showed there with solo exhibitions or in group shows include Jared Bark, Bill Bollinger, Robert Duran, Richard Van Buren, Alan Saret, Michael Goldberg, Ronnie Landfield, Gary Stephan, Deborah Remington, Bob Neuwirth, Paul Mogensen, Judy Rifka, Arleen Schloss, Alan Uglow, Barry Le Va, Thornton Willis and Joe Zucker.

In the 1960s Lynda Benglis started her career by working for the Bykert Gallery as a secretary before launching her own successful artistic career; and during the 1970s Mary Boone began her career by working for the Bykert Gallery as a secretary before opening her own successful gallery.

Kertess died due to complications from Alzheimer’s.

Klaus Kertess passed away at 76 years old.