Triangle Gallery records, 1950-2011, undated

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Summary

Creators:
Triangle Gallery and Van Hiele, Jack, 1917-2011
Extent:
10 linear feet (7 cartons, 5 boxes, and 1 oversize folder)
Language:
English , Japanese , Dutch; Flemish .
Preferred citation:

Triangle Gallery records, BANC MSS 2011/185, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Scope and content:

The Triangle Gallery records, 1950-2011; undated [bulk 1960s-2011] consist of artists' files, correspondence, gallery records, and personal papers charting the creation of gallery in 1961 to the time of its closure in 2011 due to the death of the owner Jack Van Hiele. The Artist Files are broken down in to two subseries: Represented (artists who were formally represented by the gallery and/or had at least one exhibition) and Inquires (artists seeking representation) and are comprised of correspondence to/from the artist and gallery, exhibition announcements, records of sales, inventories, photodocumentation of artworks, and ephemera. Correspondence is mainly of a personal nature, but does include some correspondence with gallery clients.

Gallery Records consists of exhibition announcements from the entire course of the galley's operation, files regarding select group exhibitions, guest book registers, mailing lists, client address cards, sales records, inventories, press releases, works on consignment and loans, resale certificates, leases and insurance policies, secondary market sales records, news clippings of reviews and articles about the gallery, miscellaneous catalogs, and general miscellany. The series Personal includes diaries, notebooks, passports, obituaries, a home lease, a folder of materials collected on a trip to Japan, news clippings on various subjects (both art and non-art related), and miscellany.

Biographical / historical:

Born in Assen, Netherlands in 1917, Jack [Jakob] Van Hiele graduated with a law degree in 1938 from the University of Leiden, but abandoned a career in law to work at the Salzburg Opera. Starting as a stagehand he rose to become an assistant to the director. When WWII overtook Europe, Van Hiele avoided military service because of his employment, yet was forced into factory labor, finally ending up in a refugee camp at the close of the war. Unable to find work in Holland, his language skills earned him employment in Stockholm as a tour guide to Mediterranean countries. These travels south found him acquiring artworks and antique furniture in Italy and leading Van Hiele to open Gallerie Venezia in Stockholm for ten years.

While planning his immigration to the United States in the late 1950s, Van Hiele made a trip to San Francisco and decided to make the city his home. Upon arrival, he subsequently opened Triangle Gallery in downtown San Francisco in 1961; the gallery's focus being on contemporary American and Asian artists. In championing modern Japanese and Chinese artists, Van Hiele soon becoming recognized as a leader in new Asian art well before the international art world took interest. He was equally devoted to artists of the San Francisco Bay Area. Van Hiele, became beloved for his independent taste and lasting commitment to artists he admired.

Though moving to six different addresses within the downtown area of San Francisco, and at one point in the early 70s considering a move to New York City, the gallery was to stay in business for 50 years becoming in the process an icon in the Bay Area arts community. Being the proprietor of the longest-lived contemporary art gallery in San Francisco, Van Hiele cited his "Dutch stubbornness" as the secret to the gallery's longevity.

Still ardently working at the gallery as its sole employee six days a week, Jack Van Hiele died in January of 2011 at the age of 93.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Ty Gurler in 2011.
Processing information:

Processed by Dean Smith in 2023.

Physical location:
Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
DACS

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For additional information about the University of California, Berkeley Library's permissions policy please see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies

Preferred citation:

Triangle Gallery records, BANC MSS 2011/185, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
Contact:
510-642-6481
bancref-library@berkeley.edu
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