Ronald Feldman

Ronald Feldman was an American art dealer and advocate for the arts, especially contemporary performance and conceptual art.

Biography

Ira Ronald Feldman was born in the Bronx to Irving and Judith Feldman on April 25, 1938. His father Irving was the President of Zelart Drug Company and served as President of Toiletry Merchandisers of America. Ronald grew up on Long Island in Long Beach. He graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. degree and later from New York University Law School with a law degree.
In 1963 he married Frayda Futterman. Futterman grew up in Larchmont, New York and worked at the McCall corporation.
After law school Feldman worked for the corporate-law firm of Hefland, Lesser & Moriber and made partner there. Feldman did not enjoy being a corporate lawyer and with his wife's help opened Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in November 1971.
After running the Gallery for most of his life, he retired in 2019. He died on December 20, 2022 in Chappaqua, N.Y. at the age of 84 after struggling with Alzheimer’s disease.

Political involvement

Ronald Feldman advocated for art and artists in many ways. One was to be active in the political sphere. In the 1990s he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the National Council on the Arts which he did for five years. Feldman served on many boards as well including the boards of The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics, Creative Capital, People for the American Way, and the Art Dealers Association of America.
Feldman joined the VLC Advisory Committee in 1992 and was an inaugural member. He was affiliated with the Committee for 30 years. He supported many of the VLC programming including Sustaining Democracy, debates on the National Endowment of the Arts and the "decency clause", and forums on the American electoral system.