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CULTURE
Contessa Gallery
By Jodie Skillicorn
You’re walking down Euclid Avenue and you’re overcome by a sudden desire to buy a Rembrandt, or perhaps a Picasso, but you’re stuck in Cleveland wishing you lived in New York City or, better yet, Europe where your Platinum American Express’ limitless limit could buy you some history and art at a moments whim. You decide to stop by the box office at Playhouse Square to see what cultural events are heading your way, appeasing yourself with the knowledge that Cleveland does after all have the second largest theater district outside NYC, when you notice the Contessa Gallery and decide to take a look. Can you believe it? There are the modern masters -Chagall, Rembrandt, Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec - right here in Cleveland!
The gallery was opened by the golden-haired, vivacious and hard-working sisters Sharon Hitlebrant and Contessa, more commonly called Karen, Tscherne. They’d been dreaming of such a venture since graduating from college, but instead used their finance, marketing and psychology degrees to pursue careers in corporate America. Karen worked as divisional vice president for Christiane Dior and her sister worked in the marketing department for Diebold.
But their passion was art. They grew up with it. Their parents, both from Austria, took them to galleries all around the world. It was their mutual enthusiasm for the arts that brought these two otherwise differing personalities together. Sharon described her sister as being more “refined and aristocratic.” Karen had, after all, been schooled in a cloister run by nuns in Austria, where she’d learned about and experienced the arts, theater and opera. Of course, she was also responsible there for cleaning and scrubbing the floors. Her three-year younger sister wanted nothing to do with that. “What? Me go over there? No way.” Being more rebellious and “mouthy” , and, according to her sister, more “ outdoorsy and athletic,” Sharon chose to stay in the Cleveland area and attended public school.
Despite their differences, they share their love for art, and this is instantly obvious to anyone who walks into their gallery. They wanted to share this passion with others. They thought, “why don’t we bring the art we love to Cleveland?” Last year “all the conditions were right” and they began scouring the city for a location. Born and raised in the Cleveland area they’d witnessed the gradual transformation of downtown Cleveland and Playhouse Square. They were excited by the changes, believed strongly in its prospects and decided they wanted to “put their roots down here and grow with the community.”
The sisters take great pride in being an international gallery that “combines the greatest masters that ever lived with modern day masters.” “There are so many good modern day masters that haven’t been recognized yet,” Karen noted. They believe they are on the path to finding and collecting some of these masters, hopefully at attainable prices. They find a lot of their talent overseas. “I live for finding new artists,” Sharon stated gleefully.
Karen raved about what an excellent eye her sister has for art. “You do too,” her sister acknowledged. “No, her eye is amazing,” Karen reiterated. Laughing Sharon noted her sister’s attraction towards paintings of beautiful women. “I tell her, come on, we’ve got enough beautiful women.” She waved her hand around the gallery, and, indeed, the walls are covered with paintings and sculptures of colorful and beautiful women. Later Sharon enthused about Karen’s gift for framing the artwork. “She’s phenomenal. It’s some of the best framing you’ll see.”
Regardless of who’s got the better eye for art and framing, the collection they’ve acquired is impressive, and in the relative terms of the art world even affordable. While Chagall paintings were being sold last week at an international art show in Basal, Switzerland for fifty thousand to over a million dollars, here one can buy a painting from Chagall’s Exodus series for the bargain price of eight thousand dollars. Or perhaps you’re more interested in owning a Rembrandt? “This is phenomenal. It’s a piece of history here,” Karen gushed as she pointed to Rembrandt’s portrait of his father entitled “Bald Headed Man in Profile”. It can be yours for $22,800.
The staples of their business, however, are the as yet unrecognized, and therefore more affordable, masters like the sculptor Frederick Hart, and the painters Royo, Malcolm T. Liepke, Ken Hamilton and Charles Dwyer. If you haven’t heard of them or seen their work it’s definitely worth a trip to Playhouse Square. The sisters believe it is these works, especially Hart’s, that sets them apart from other galleries . Best known for The Creation Sculptures inside the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and the Three Soldiers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the New York Times recently compared Hart’s work to that of Rodin’s. Several of his uniquely patented cast acrylic resin works are displayed around the gallery space. Ethereal figures sculpted from light and shadow magically emerge from translucent acrylic. It’s like being offered a glimmer at the soul.
Want to see how one of these sculptures or paintings would look on that empty wall in your living room or floor space in your front foyer? They will bring the art to your home so you can live with it for 48 hours. Through their services, stories and history about the artist and the piece, they hope to “build a romance between the customer and a piece.” If you can bare to part with it after your time together perhaps the relationship is not strong enough to last and you might be better suited with another artwork.
Do they have a favorite piece that’s hard to relinquish? “How do you pick when you’re surrounded by so much beauty?” Sharon asked. They have to all their favorite paintings for their personal collections, which do, continually remind themselves that they run an art gallery and cannot keep however, include one piece from each artist they sell as well as a couple Picasso’s, which Karen said she “will never, never part with.”
Sharon said she loves all the artists in their collection, but she is especially drawn to Ken Hamilton’s work. “People just don’t paint like that anymore.” She pointed towards a small, darkly colored portrait, reminiscent of a Rembrandt, of a porcelain-faced gypsy girl staring boldly off the canvas with a scarf over her head and an earring dangling off one ear.
Karen loves Charles Dwyer’s large intricately detailed and colorful serigraphs of intensely beautiful and powerful women. In one a woman dressed in a black dress seductively looks over her shoulder and out at the viewer. “It’s really about the weather and the different temperatures a woman will give a man,” she explained. “Men love it.” In the background are muted portraits of weathermen and signs of various weather conditions. “He’s the next blue chip artist,” she asserted.
A woman entered the gallery interested in French poster art from a temporary exhibit. Karen pulled out a Picasso poster with a picture of his son. “It’s called The Little Joker.” It’s an original and $4800. She pulled out another one. “Here’s a Sherlock Holmes poster. His face is a thumb print. Isn’t that cool?” The woman looked at some of the smaller unframed ones selling for $250, still obviously more than she cared to spend. “Do you have any reprints?” she asked. They didn’t, but gave suggestions for where she might find some.
Clearly Karen and her sister love their jobs and the privilege of being surrounded by such great art. They fantasize about someday having a Contessa Gallery chain, but for now they are happy to be in Cleveland, in the heart of the theater district. Actors, actresses and directors are among their diverse clientele. And one of their greatest rewards? “New Yorkers actually buy art in Cleveland! We love that!”
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