Longtime Gagosian Director Dies at 75

Gagosian curator Bob Monk died on December 15 at the age of 75. Bob Monk worked at the gallery for more than 20 years, working closely with artists such as Ed Ruscha and Richard Artschwager. His ex-wife, Wendy Monk, said the cause of death was complications from a heart condition.

Munch was a quiet force on the New York art market, with a resume that included work for dealer Leo Castelli and Sotheby’s, not to mention the gallery he co-founded. Over the decades, he established himself as a quiet force in the city’s market ecosystem.

Born in 1950, Monk grew up on Long Island before moving to Brooklyn with his family. He attended Pratt Institute in New York, where he studied photography.

He began his career in the art market at Leo Castelli Gallery, initially as an assistant, before becoming Director of Prints in 1978 at Castelli Graphics, a company specializing in printmaking. “I went to art school as a practicing artist and later to the Castelli Gallery,” Munch said in a 2015 oral history. “Leo became an incredible mentor to me, as did Ileana Sonabend, whom I met through Leo, of course.”

Through Castelli Graphics, he met the stars of the era, including Robert Rauschenberg, who became friends with Munch. “If he could embrace everyone in the world, he would,” Munch once said of Rauschenberg.

In 1985, Munch parted ways with Susan Lorence and founded his own SoHo gallery. The Lorence-Monk Gallery exhibited works by artists such as Jasper Johns, Alan Saret, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Bruce Nauman and David Hockney and remained open until 1992 In 2001, Munch joined Sotheby’s as head of the contemporary prints department. In 1995, he was promoted to head of the Department of Contemporary Art.

By the late 1990s, Munch joined Gagosian, where he connected with his old friend Ruscha, who by then had joined the gallery’s roster. The two have collaborated on projects including Ruscha’s 2022 MoMA retrospective. Before Artshwager, another Gagosian artist, died, Munch also helped him conceive an elevator set for the Whitney Museum. Munch left Gagosian in 2024.

“I have had the pleasure of working with Bob Ed Ruscha for many years,” Gagosian Gallery Director Leta Garzan said in a statement. art news. “Always eager to share his decades of experience, Bob brought extraordinary dedication, generosity and integrity to everything he did. His spirit and countless contributions to Gagosian will long be remembered.”

Monk is survived by his three children, Andrew, Spencer and Julia, and his grandchildren Lucy and Ellis.