Founded in 1960 by art dealer Allan Stone (1932–2006), the New York gallery known today as Allan Stone Projects has been admired for over half a century. Celebrated for its eclectic approach and early advocacy of pivotal artists of the 20th century, Allan Stone Gallery was a leading authority on Abstract Expressionism, the New York dealer for Wayne Thiebaud for over forty years, and showed the works of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Joseph Cornell, John Graham and John Chamberlain. Stone also promoted the work of a younger generation of artists that were in conversation with other artists in his collection, working in the mediums of assemblage, collage and new modes of abstraction. In addition to modern masterworks and contemporary art, Allan Stone also collected and exhibited international folk art, Americana and important decorative arts and industrial design.
Harris Diamant b. 1937
Harris Diamant was born in New York City in 1937. He received a B.A. in Comparative Literature from City College of New York and was awarded a Graduate Fellowship from the New York State Board of Regents in 1960. After a year of post-graduate work in communications at Yeshiva University, he taught junior high school in the Bedford- Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn for six years. During this time, he began collecting and trading antiques, and in 1966, opened a gallery on East 53rd Street in Manhattan.
In the 1980s Diamant decided to close the gallery and devote himself fully to creating sculptures. Knowledge and respect for the materials used in the construction of a wide array of objects - particularly metals and various finishes - inspired him to begin metalworking and sculpting. In the process of creating his work, he has taught himself a variety of techniques such as wood carving, silver soldering, brazing, welding, lathe-turning and gold leafing.
Diamant has been featured in several solo exhibitions at galleries throughout New York and California, including Allan Stone Gallery, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, Alexander Gallery, Giampietro Gallery, New York; Bucheron Gallery, San Francisco; and Obsolete Gallery, Los Angeles. A series of Diamant's sculptures were exhibited at New York University's Windows on Washington Square in 2000, examples of which were published in the June 1999 and January 2002 issues of Harper's Magazine.
