Family Card - Person Sheet
NameIleana Schapira 
Birth28 Oct 1914, Bucarest, Romania
Death21 Oct 2007, New York, New York
FatherMihai Schapira (ca1887-)
MotherMarianne Schwartz (?1888-1955)
Spouses
Divorce1959
ChildrenNina (1936-2014)
Marriage1960
ChildrenAntonio (Adopted)
Notes for Ileana Schapira
New York Times obituary:
Ileana Sonnabend, whose eye, shrewdness and lasting alliance with her first husband, Leo Castelli, made her one of the most formidable contemporary art dealers of her time, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 92.
She was born Ileana Schapira in Bucharest, Romania, on Oct. 28, 1914, the daughter of Mihail Schapira, a prominent Jewish industrialist. She grew up in luxury, attended by nannies and governesses. But she demonstrated an early independence and interest in art that she may have inherited from her Viennese mother, Marianne, who years later divorced her father and married the Russian-born American artist John Graham.
Mrs. Sonnabend met Mr. Castelli when she was 17 and married him a year later, asking for and receiving a painting by Matisse instead of an engagement ring. In 1935, the couple moved to Paris, where they became part of the Surrealist circle. In 1939, Mr. Castelli, backed by his father-in-law, opened his first gallery with an interior designer named René Drouin.
After World War II broke out, the Castellis and their daughter, Nina, fled to New York, where Mrs. Sonnabend’s parents had already established themselves, having purchased a town house at 4 East 77th Street in Manhattan. The Castellis reached New York on a Portuguese steamer out of Lisbon and moved into an apartment in the building. In 1957, after dealing privately for more than a decade, Mr. Castelli opened a gallery in the couple’s living room.
Mrs. Sonnabend did not begin her own career in earnest until after 1959, when she divorced Mr. Castelli. With her second husband, an amateur Dante scholar named Michael Sonnabend, whom she had met in the 1940s while attending classes at Columbia, she moved first to Rome and then to Paris. In 1962, they opened a small gallery on Quai des Grands-Augustins with a show of Mr. Johns’s work.
There, and in a larger gallery on Rue Mazarine, the Sonnabends established a European bulkhead for new American art, often to the vehement dismay of French art critics. They introduced Pop and Minimal artists like Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Dine, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, Donald Judd and Robert Morris.”
SSDI:
Ileana SONNABEND
SS# 112-36-3881
b. 29 Oct 1914
d. 21 Oct 2007
Res. New York , New York. NY 10011
SS# issued in NY
“Après sa séparation de Leo Castelli, elle a ouvert une galerie de tableaux à paris, quai des grands Augustins. Elle a fait connaître Rauschenberg etc. puis eu une galerie à elle à New York où elle eut grand succès aussi. Voir les textes et photos dans Google et attachements scannés. Adresse de la galerie: Sonnabend, 532 W, 22nd Street, New-York, NY 10011, USA Directeur de la galerie, Antonio Homem, son fils adoptif.”
Ileana Sonnabend, whose eye, shrewdness and lasting alliance with her first husband, Leo Castelli, made her one of the most formidable contemporary art dealers of her time, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 92.
She was born Ileana Schapira in Bucharest, Romania, on Oct. 28, 1914, the daughter of Mihail Schapira, a prominent Jewish industrialist. She grew up in luxury, attended by nannies and governesses. But she demonstrated an early independence and interest in art that she may have inherited from her Viennese mother, Marianne, who years later divorced her father and married the Russian-born American artist John Graham.
Mrs. Sonnabend met Mr. Castelli when she was 17 and married him a year later, asking for and receiving a painting by Matisse instead of an engagement ring. In 1935, the couple moved to Paris, where they became part of the Surrealist circle. In 1939, Mr. Castelli, backed by his father-in-law, opened his first gallery with an interior designer named René Drouin.
After World War II broke out, the Castellis and their daughter, Nina, fled to New York, where Mrs. Sonnabend’s parents had already established themselves, having purchased a town house at 4 East 77th Street in Manhattan. The Castellis reached New York on a Portuguese steamer out of Lisbon and moved into an apartment in the building. In 1957, after dealing privately for more than a decade, Mr. Castelli opened a gallery in the couple’s living room.
Mrs. Sonnabend did not begin her own career in earnest until after 1959, when she divorced Mr. Castelli. With her second husband, an amateur Dante scholar named Michael Sonnabend, whom she had met in the 1940s while attending classes at Columbia, she moved first to Rome and then to Paris. In 1962, they opened a small gallery on Quai des Grands-Augustins with a show of Mr. Johns’s work.
There, and in a larger gallery on Rue Mazarine, the Sonnabends established a European bulkhead for new American art, often to the vehement dismay of French art critics. They introduced Pop and Minimal artists like Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Dine, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, Donald Judd and Robert Morris.”
SSDI:
Ileana SONNABEND
SS# 112-36-3881
b. 29 Oct 1914
d. 21 Oct 2007
Res. New York , New York. NY 10011
SS# issued in NY
“Après sa séparation de Leo Castelli, elle a ouvert une galerie de tableaux à paris, quai des grands Augustins. Elle a fait connaître Rauschenberg etc. puis eu une galerie à elle à New York où elle eut grand succès aussi. Voir les textes et photos dans Google et attachements scannés. Adresse de la galerie: Sonnabend, 532 W, 22nd Street, New-York, NY 10011, USA Directeur de la galerie, Antonio Homem, son fils adoptif.”