Avrom Isaacs

Avrom Isaacs, CM (March 19, 1926 – January 15, 2016) was a Canadian art dealer.

Avrom Isaacs
Born	(1926-03-19)March 19, 1926 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died	January 15, 2016(2016-01-15) (aged 89) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Known for	Art dealer
Awards	Order of Canada

Born Avrom Isaacovitch[1] in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he moved to Toronto with his family in 1941. Isaacs graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Toronto in 1950.

Isaacs roomed with artist Graham Coughtry in 1955 and Coughtry, along with Michael Snow, persuaded him to open the Greenwich Gallery that year. The inaugural show, understandably, had paintings by Coughtry and Snow.[2] The gallery was renamed the Isaacs Gallery in 1959 and in it he represented numerous Canadian artists, including Michael Snow, William Kurelek, Graham Coughtry, Gordon Rayner, Jack Chambers, Joyce Wieland, Mark Prent, John Meredith, Dennis Burton, Robert Markle and Gathie Falk.[3] The Isaacs Gallery was noted for the broad range of work it showed, running from contemporary art to the art of New Guinea and west-coast Indian artists and even to Asian costumes. Isaacs was famous for his "young talent" shows. Isaacs opened the Inuit Gallery in Toronto in 1970, where he gave solo exhibitions to such distinguished artists as Karoo Ashevak and Jessie Oonark. In August 1991 Isaacs consolidated his two galleries to form the Isaacs/Inuit Gallery. The gallery closed in 2001.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate by York University in 1992, and was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

References

1. "In Memoriam: Av Isaacs, leading art dealer in contemporary Canadian art, dies at 89". Globe and Mail.
2. Hale, Barry (1976). Graham Coughtry Retrospective. Oshawa: Robert McLaughlin Gallery. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
3. "Avrom Isaacs fonds".

External links

• The Isaacs Gallery & The Isaacs/Innuit Gallery
• Avrom Isaacs archives at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario