L&M Arts, a modern and contemporary art gallery located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was founded when Robert Mnuchin and Dominique Lévy merged their two distinct but complementary firms in 2005. While Mnuchin is best known for his close association with Abstract Expressionism, Lévy has been more focused on the cutting-edge contemporary market. This classic and contemporary fusion positions them as one of the most important galleries in the world.Robert Mnuchin, a notable collector of modern art, founded C&M Arts in 1993, after retiring as a Managing Partner of Goldman Sachs. His gallery became widely known for its impressive inventory of major 20th century paintings, drawings and sculpture, as well as for its historically significant exhibitions and catalogues.
Dominique Lévy built a formidable reputation as the former International Director of Private Sales at Christie's New York where she brokered the sales of major works of 19th and 20th century art. She continued to increase her influence in the international art market when she founded her own art advisory service, Dominique Lévy Fine Art in 2003.
L&M Arts maintained the tradition of mounting historically focused exhibitions with its inaugural exhibition, Yves Klein: A Career Survey, mounted in the fall of 2005. This survey included important monochromes and anthropometries that spanned the artist's short but influential career. With this show, L&M Arts announced that it is the representative of Yves Klein in North America.
Other exhibitions of considerable impact have included:
• Tom Wesselmann: The Sixties – the first major exhibition of this iconic Pop artist's work since his death in 2004 and the first comprehensive survey of the period ever held in New York
• Willem de Kooning: Paintings (1975 – 1978) – a re-examination of this controversial period in the artist's career that was also the subject of C&M Arts's founding exhibition
• Elemental Form – a large scale survey of works from the Sixties and the Seventies, by a broad group of artists who reconsidered the basic question of painting and sculpture
•Franz Kline - a compelling selection of paintings and drawings created by the Abstract Expressionist artist
In addition to Yves Klein, L&M Arts also represents the Estate of Joseph Cornell. Though L&M Arts is well known for its dealings in the secondary 20th century market, the gallery is increasingly committed to working with living artists. Recent exhibitions of contemporary art have included a Jeff Koons retrospective in 2004 and, in 2007, the gallery exhibited new works by David Hammons and Richard Wathen. Additionally, L&M Arts is proud to represent internationally the talented Chinese artist Tianbing Li, who works in a remarkable range of medium and subject.
