Arnold Herstand & Company

Arnold Herstand (1925-1989) was a painter, educator, administrator, and art dealer, who opened Arnold Herstand & Company in 1983 in New York City.

The gallery closed in 1992. Prior to his career as a dealer, Herstand studied art in Paris after serving in WWII, taught at Colgate University and the City College of New York, was director of the Minneapolis School of Art, 1963-1968, and president of the San Francisco Art Institute, 1974-1976.

Arnold Herstand (1925-1989), university administrator, art dealer, and painter, opened the Arnold Herstand & Co. gallery (1983-1992) in New York City. Herstand was born in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from high school in 1943, he was inducted into the army and served in Europe during World War II. Under the G. I. Bill, he studied painting in the studio of Fernand Léger in Paris from 1948 to 1949. Herstand received his B.F.A. from Yale University in 1952 and his M. A. from Columbia University in 1954. He was also a lecturer at City College of New York from 1952 to 1954. In 1952 Herstand joined the Fine Arts faculty at Colgate University, where he remained until 1963.

From 1963 to 1969, Herstand served as Director of the Minneapolis School of Art, where he met and married his second wife, Nancy McDermott Herstand. From 1969 to 1974, he served as President of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (formerly known as Minneapolis School of Art). In 1974, Herstand accepted the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco Art Institute. He served there until 1976, when he resigned due to student and faculty discontent about his policies.

Throughout Herstand's career as a university administrator and educator, he continued his artistic activities and exhibited his paintings and prints in museums and galleries both in the United States and Europe. He held a solo exhibition at the Il Camino Art Gallery in Rome in 1962, and participated in many faculty shows while at the Minneapolis School of Art and Colgate University, as well as in numerous regional shows. Herstand gave lectures and interviews and published articles on education and art which appeared in publications such as Art Journal, Art News, Eastern Arts Quarterly, and Journal of General Education, among others. He also served on the Board of Directors for The Ben and Abby Grey Foundation and for the National Association of Schools of Art. Herstand was a member of many associations including the American Association of University Professors and the College Art Association.

In 1983, Herstand founded the Arnold Herstand & Co. gallery located at Fifty-Seventh Street in New York. Among the artists he represented were Pol Bury, Gonzalo Fonseca, Katsura Funakoshi, Jenny Lee, Ann McCoy, and Paul Rotterdam. The gallery also exhibited the works of many international artists including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Gargallo, Rene Magritte, Roberto Matta, Isamu Noguchi, Pablo Picasso, and Joaquín Torres-García. The gallery was particularly strong in exhibiting modern European artists. After Herstand's death in 1989, his widow Nancy McDermott Herstand assumed the presidency of Arnold Herstand & Co. The gallery closed in 1992.