Meet Bruce Helander, Preeminent Collage Artist

Based on his multiple interests and talents, artist and author Bruce Helander could wear many hats. Instead, he wears one – an orange bowler, like the black one made famous by Great Britain’s Winston Churchill.

Many years ago, he was walking in Manhattan and saw bowlers in multiple vibrant colors in a magic shop’s window. He was particularly attracted to the orange ones. He walked out with three.

“I attended a lot of Palm Beach events where I needed to wear a black tuxedo,” says Helander, who wanted to stand out as he was establishing himself as an art dealer and artist. “Now, when I don’t go out wearing the bowler, people ask me ‘Where’s your hat?’”

Known as America’s most preeminent creator of collages and assemblages, he hardly needs that bowler now. Much of Helander’s career has hinged on him making decisions with his gut. One of the first decisions was to accept a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design.

While there, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of glass artist Dale Chihuly, singer David Byrne, actors Seth MacFarlane and Martin Mull, Airbnb founders Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk and Joe Gebbia,designer Nicole Miller, art dealer Mary Boone and artists Shepard Fairey, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu, Kara Walker and Laura Owens.

After receiving both a bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts from RISD, at 29 he became the nation’s youngest provost and vice president for academic affairs at the institution.

During his tenure, Helander initiated academic programs and policies, and RISD satellite schools around the world from Rome to Switzerland, which 30 years later are still in effect. Helander is one of the best-known graduates of RISD, which is the number one art school in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.

He is a former White House Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and is a member of the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. He also studied at the Yale School of Journalism and Harvard University for editors. The list of accolades for his writing is almost as long as for his artwork.

Helander isn’t just a very well-known artist in Florida, New York City and the Hamptons, but he also is a well-known writer who contributed reviews regularly to The Huffington Post andcollage illustrations to The New Yorker and founded The Art Economist as well as Art Express magazine in New York City. His recent books are Hunt Slonem – Bunnies and Chihuly: An Artist Collects, and he was featured in the documentary Master of Glass: The Art of Dale Chihuly, which aired on the Smithsonian Channel.

As an artist, he is known for his collages, which include vintage images that are reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, who pioneered the medium along with Georges Braque, in 1913.

When you say collage, most people think of that project they did in junior high art class. Think again. Helander’s work pays particular attention to composition and balance of images.

“I may take an advertising image of a piece of a shoe, but once in the collage, you wouldn’t recognize it as a shoe,” explains Helander, who also sometimes incorporates watercolors into his work. “The vintage paper dictates where it will be in the collage. After I finish, I may sand the entire composition down to give it more of a vintage look. While some artists paint with brushes, I create with scissors.”

With a collage, as with all art, it is designed to draw the observer into the piece. Helander, who started his career as an illustrator, isn’t immune to being drawn in by the materials for his work. He constantly visits flea markets and antique stores to look for old magazines, lithographs and other materials. His studio contains nearly 3,000 vintage magazines alone.

He also is an avid collector of all manners of art. His interests are far-ranging. He also has advised others on art for both collection and investment, and recently joined the prestigious auction company Lion and Unicorn as a consultant.

“When collecting, I’d tell people to trust their intuition,” says Helander, 76, a former gallery owner. “

He remembers an exhibit and sale of Andy Warhol-created dollar bills that he curated in his Palm Beach gallery in 1988. The price tag was $18,000 each. He sold only two. Today, almost 40 years later, they’re worth around $600,000.

“The bills he made are the essence of pop art,” says Helander, who adds that a dealer should be curious, open-minded and informative. “But, rather than sticking [your art] in a vault, you should enjoy the object you acquire by displaying it in your home.”

That sense of curiosity has served him well. It has especially served him well when curating shows.

“Curating is like being the cook in the kitchen,” Helander explained. “You have all the ingredients and want to make sure they complement each other.”

Curating includes deciding which artwork or artists to include, how to put pieces up, how the exhibit will flow and the balance. All these things work together to both show the work at its best and to give the visitor the best experience as they view the exhibit.

Helander is the former editor-in-chief of The Art Economist magazine and is considered a reliable source for predicting the success of artists and their market values. His “Artists to Watch” column in The Art Economist received more than 100,000 views each month on the publication’s website. As a curator, he has organized more than 40 museum exhibitions and continues to be a consultant for museums, prominent art fairs, galleries and artists.

“Galleries can be more intimidating than a museum,” Helander explains. “They shouldn’t be though. Galleries should be welcoming, and staff open to answering questions and helping the casual person understand the works. In twenty years as an art dealer, I did more talking than selling.”

Helander retired from the gallery business in 1995 to become a full-time artist, writer and consultant and joined the prestigious Marisa del Re Gallery on 57th Street in New York City. During the past 25 years he has exhibited his work around the world, including shows in Rome, Paris, London, Stockholm, Venice, Taipei and Moscow, and has had 100 solo exhibitions. He most recently had two pieces shown at the Southampton Arts Center, loaned from celebrated collector Jane Holzer.

View more of his work at brucehelander.com or follow him on Instagram: @BHelander.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.