The Brooklyn Rail

The singular longtime SoHo art dealer Margarete Roeder, 84, passed away on 11 December, 2023 at her home in Cologne. She was notable for her fragile bohemian elegance and quirky charm with a touch of wit and a notable refinement of taste. Born in Neukirchen, Austria, in 1939, she lost both of her parents at a young age and eventually came to New York via a circuitous route, beginning with a boat trip at the age of 18 to Edmonton, Canada, which exposed her to the kind of vision that would characterize much of the art she eventually exhibited in her gallery.

Roeder studied Urban Planning at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where she fell in with artists and musicians, including singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen. She then moved on to Cincinatti, Ohio, in the 1970s and began to work with art dealer Carl Solway, becoming his gallery’s director. Solway introduced her to John Cage and Merce Cunningham, who went on to become core figures in Roeder’s gallery program. Along the way, she had joined the New York branch of California-based Crown Point Press which supported print-making and encouraged Cage to make his first etchings. These became the Where R = Ryoanji series. In 1986 Roeder opened her own gallery at 545 Broadway up a rickety elevator. A spare space, the gallery showed the work of such purist artists as Rudolf de Crignis, Tom Marioni, and Jill Baroff, showcasing along the way the spirit and synchronism of European and American artists. Christine Hiebert, Jill O’Bryan and Allyson Strafella have installed a tribute exhibition at the gallery which is on view January 19 and 20.