Carlisle Berkley in Conversation with Gallery Director, Tabitha Philpott-Kent

Tabitha Phillpott-Kent, Director of Shapero Modern.

Images courtesy of Tabitha and Shapero Modern.

Director of the Shapero Modern Gallery, Tabitha Philpott-Kent is a Contemporary and Modern Art specialist with extensive expertise in sourcing rare and important prints. Prior to setting up Shapero Modern in 2014, Tabitha worked on behalf of major auction houses as well as other international dealers. The gallery— which specialises in Post-War and Contemporary multiples and works on paper, with a focus on American 20th Century art— runs a programme of six exhibitions a year, curated by Tabitha, and maintains a presence at international art fairs. 

The gallery’s most recent exhibition, Frank Stella: What You See Is What You Get, explored the artist’s practice in the printmaking medium and examined his relationship with master printmaker Kenneth Tyler.  

MADE IN BED contributor Carlisle Berkley interviewed Tabitha to discuss the curation of Shapero Modern’s most recent exhibition, the market for multiples and works on paper, cross-collecting trends, and exhibiting at international art fairs.

Carlisle Berkley: What was the gallery’s motivation for mounting a significant exhibition of Frank Stella’s prints?

Tabitha Philpott-Kent: We specialise in prints and multiples, mostly by American post-war artists. In 2015, I went to the Whitney in New York for the Frank Stella Retrospective. This prompted a bit of research and thought— his prints really amaze me. They are still quite reasonably priced. You can acquire a print anywhere from £7,000 to over £100,000, which is a really great range for people who want to start collecting pieces by a talented and important artist. He is not that well known in the UK, so I thought that it would be nice to have something a bit different. 

Frank Stella, Polar Coordinates for Ronnie Peterson, 1980. Complete set of eight lithographs, screen prints with letterpress.

Displayed by Shapero Modern Gallery.

CB: While he may not be as well known in the UK, he is very prominent in the US. He also has quite a large body of work. Was it difficult to select a range of pieces to include in the exhibition? 

TPK: We have been collecting pieces for nearly three years, slowly accumulating the show. It was kind of a case of given opportunity. We wanted something representative of each era, but also to really show the artist’s progression from his earlier works to some of his later pieces. We wanted to keep a balance between minimalist and maximalist works, about fifty-fifty. From a personal point of view, I actually really like the later, sort of in your face, maximalist work. Most people, even if they know Frank Stella, are more aware of his early minimalist pieces. A balance of works that communicated the transition that the artist made throughout his career would not only be important, but would be most informative to our audience and collectors.  

Frank Stella, Los Alamitos, 1972.

Screen print on Gemini rag board.

Displayed by Shapero Modern Gallery.

CB: The artist took a hands-on approach in assisting the Whitney and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas with the 2015 traveling retrospective. He has a reputation for wanting to be involved in his installations. Did you consider this when you were organising your own exhibition, and if so, how? 

TPK: As a gallery operating on the secondary market, and dealing almost exclusively in prints, we obviously were not dealing directly with the artist. We tried to look at other shows to establish a precedence for our display. Personally, I hope that visitors are captivated by the space that we created. We thought it would be a nice touch to paint a few of the walls various complimentary colours that recur throughout our selection of Stella’s prints. In beginning my research, I watched a video posted to the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth’s YouTube channel where the artist reacted to the exhibition space. I thought his reaction was very intuitive, and this did have some influence on how we organised the space.  

CB: What to you was the most fascinating aspect of researching and mounting an exhibition on such a prolific artist? 

TPK: In the forward of the exhibition catalogue, there is great detail about the artist’s working relationship with Ken Tyler, as it became one of the most important relationships of Stella’s artistic career. The two met when the artist was showing at the Leo Castelli Gallery. In 1967, when Tyler persuaded Stella to join him at Gemini Graphics, it was then that printmaking became a major part of Stella’s practice. Tyler described Stella as an unstoppable risk taker, and Tyler’s skill as a master printmaker enabled Stella to open a whole new array of artistic possibilities in his work. Tyler’s expertise facilitated Stella’s experimentation with screen-printing, lithography, woodcut, and hand-colouring. Stella stopped making prints when Ken Tyler died. His relationship with Ken Tyler was so entrenched, I suppose when he died Stella decided to move onto other things. Exploring that relationship was one of the more engaging components of putting together this exhibition, both men are very fascinating characters.  

Frank Stella, Olyka (III), 1975.

Cotton-pulp relief collage, hand-coloured with dyes and dry pigments.

Displayed by Shapero Modern Gallery.

CB: One of his most well-known contributions to Pop Art was his tendency to work in series. This inspired Andy Warhol —now one of the most prolific artists to experiment with printmaking— to similarly conduct his practice and organise his work. Is there a specific series represented in the exhibition that you prefer to the others?  

TPK: The exhibition includes quite a few pieces from The Waves series, which I really love. They are huge. We positioned three of them at the front of the space. I think my favorite is The Waves: Squid. It was really interesting to research their development. Stella was experimenting with collage and marbling. The colours he used are somewhat cacophonous, but they really work together.  

We have two complete sets, which reflect his work on the series as a whole. They are variations of each other. One set dates to the 80s, while the other was completed in the 70s. The set dating back to the seventies was on display in our secondary location. We acquired such a large stock of work by Frank Stella, that we were able to spread the pieces out through both locations. We moved to our location on Maddox Street in October of last year. The Frank Stella exhibition is really the first proper show that we have had here. The other location also deals in books. Our programme is accustomed to being spread out between multiple locations and is typically very mixed. For example, during Frieze Masters and for TEFAF in Maastricht, we usually bring with us a wide range. It is quite interesting to put everything together. We always maintain an emphasis on that we deal in works on paper.  

Frank Stella, The Waves: Squid, 1989.

Silkscreen, lithograph, linoleum block with hand-colouring, marbling, and collage.

Displayed by Shapero Modern Gallery.

CB: Cross-collecting has become a more prominent trend amongst collectors in the past few years. Has designing your program to be varied and to have a wide range been advantageous in reaching new collectors? 

TPK: I think that cross-collecting has developed into a really interesting conversation amongst art professionals. I have noticed that people at art fairs are starting to gravitate towards the dealers that bring with them a wider variety. For example, ArtAncient’s display at Maastricht usually features Asian art that strikes me as very contemporary, often alongside ancient sculptures or natural curiosities. I quite like that, their stand looks amazing. We obviously are not exactly similar as we focus on books and works on paper. When we have our display at Frieze Masters, there may be a book from the 16th century alongside a Frank Stella. There certainly is a cross over—people who appreciate books also appreciate art, and vice versa. 

Shapero Modern’s display at Frieze Masters, London, 2021. Installation shot by Carlisle Berkley.

CB: The Frank Stella exhibition—one of the largest you have done in a while—headlined your new space opening.  Stella is very well known in the United States; however, as you rightly point out, he doesn’t have quite as much exposure in the UK. Is one of the goals of your program to bring more exposure to artists like Stella? 

TPK: Definitely that is something we are considering and trying to achieve. We have plans to mount a show of Claes Oldenburg’s work next year. We are trying to bring more of these artists’ works over to the UK. A large portion of our clientele is based in the United States as well. We get to show these artists to the home crowd at the same time. It’s interesting, even in the first few days the exhibition opened, a fair number of visitors came in not knowing Frank Stella or knowing very little about him. We are not a museum or anything—we are just a small gallery— but it is nice to show people artists that are new to them. Many post-war American artists (especially the Pop artists) were very keen to explore printmaking as a medium. You find a wide breadth and depth of the practice in their working lives and in their artistic output. Americans even now tend to take printmaking a lot more seriously. It’s seen as a proper genre of its own. They are more informed about editions and printmaking techniques because many of America’s major artists were very involved in printmaking. The museums take it more seriously as well. If you go into MoMA, for example, there are more prints on display. Whereas at Tate, they are in a separate room that is sort of tucked around the corner. The British Museum makes an effort to show printmaking as a very important genre. They have an excellent department. I imagine it is also a question of funding. In reality, we will probably sell most of our Frank Stella prints to American collectors. 

Frank Stella, Fortin de las Flores (First Version), 1967.

Screen print with hand-pencil on English Vellum graph paper. Displayed by Shapero Modern.

CB: Does the gallery have any plans to take its Frank Stella exhibition directly to the ‘home crowd’? 

TPK: After the exhibition, the pieces will go on display at Frieze Masters. We are planning on attending Art Miami in December. We are lucky that travel restrictions have eased, and it looks as if we are going to be able to go. The pandemic created obstacles for us, as it has for everyone else. This exhibition was postponed twice, so it was quite difficult in that sense. Even putting it on now was a bit risky. It has been very frustrating to not see people face-to-face. We participate in online art fairs, have an e-commerce website, and maintain a presence on sites like Artsy and 1st Dibs. I think we are relatively lucky in that we sell internationally online and always have. However, I really just miss art fairs and the face-to-face connections we make with collectors. What I enjoy most about running a gallery is seeing and meeting people. That being taken away and having to revert to communication over email was one of the hardest conditions of the pandemic for me personally. I am really looking forward to going back to seeing people. I do understand, however, that there are serious environmental concerns that come with flying artworks and people all across the world and —sometimes even building entire complexes— for a five-day fair. It needs to be addressed in the future; sustainability is going to be an ongoing conversation. The materials we use to ship artworks need to be more easily repurposed, and biodegradable bubble wrap would be an ingenious idea.  

Thanks Tabitha!

For more information about Frank Stella: What You See Is What You Get, please visit the gallery website or contact modern@shapero.com

Carlisle Berkeley,

Contributor, MADE IN BED