Meet the Specialist

What do you do at Bonhams?

I am Director of the Prints & Multiples department in New York where we hold two live auctions and multiple online-only auctions per year.

Where are you from? And what inspired you to go into the art world?

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area. In the 1980s, I met a collector who urged me to go to New York to expand my awareness of the arts and everything stemmed from there.

What was your first job?

I was the secretary to Richard Solomon, the President of Pace Prints, New York. Pace Prints published many of the artists represented by the illustrious Pace Gallery such as Louise Nevelson, Jean Dubuffet and Jim Dine. So as a first job, I was lucky enough to meet these artists and learn firsthand about their approach to printmaking. Jim Dine worked with the great intaglio printer Aldo Crommelynck, who, as a young man along with his brother Piero, printed numerous etchings for Picasso.

 Name one of your triumphs.

As Director of Editions Ilene Kurtz in New York, we published Jeff Koons’ first prints, a portfolio entitled Luxury and Degradation, 1986. Later as Director of Landfall Press, Chicago, I published the first portfolio of prints by Marilyn Minter entitled Hands Dumping; Hands Dumping; Hands Folding, 1989.

What has changed in your area of the business since you first started? 

The popularity of digital printing has been momentous and has, unfortunately, lead to fewer works being published in other media such as etching, woodcuts and lithography since those traditional methods are more expensive. Even more disconcerting is that the printers who have this specialized information are not able to sustain their ateliers so there are fewer publishing houses, and less variety of works.

What is your strength as a specialist? 

I have been in the art world for almost 30 years, so I have had a chance to see many works and meet wonderful dealers, publishers, and collectors along the way.

Do you have a hidden talent?

In college I aspired to be a journalist. I have been fortunate to be able to write extensively about art both as a collector and as a specialist.

Which work of art has changed your life?

The early prints of Andy Warhol really opened my eyes to his political awareness. In his 1968 portfolio Flash - November 22, 1963, which documented the assassination of JFK, Warhol’s images taken from newspapers show how mythmaking and celebrity can alter public perception of events, and thereby history itself. Our current political climate is an acute reflection of this.

Deborah Ripley is the Director of the Prints & Multiples department in New York. She can be reached at Deborah.Ripley@bonhams.com

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