Nicholas Wilder

Nicholas Walter George Wilder (1937 – May 12, 1989) was an American art dealer and owner of an eponymous contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. He later closed his gallery, returned to his native New York, and developed a second career as a painter.

Biography Wilder was born in Rochester, New York. His father was a scientist for Kodak and helped develop Kodachrome film. His father died when Wilder was aged 11 from cancer, which Wilder believed was related to the industrial nature of his work. The Los Angeles Times says that Wilder was falsely believed to be an heir to the Kodak company, which helped create a mystique upon arrival in Los Angeles. Wilder met Marcel Duchamp at Amherst when Duchamp lectured there when the college recreated the 1913 Armory Show. He continued to sell art privately. Wilder's first solo show was at Los Angeles's James Corcoran Gallery in 1986, his last was in Chicago at the Compassrose Gallery in 1988.

Wilder was noted for his personal style and enjoyed chili dogs from Pink's Hot Dogs on La Brea Avenue. Wilder was gay and believed that this had a "certain sociological effect" due to the disenfranchisement that gay people experienced at that time. Wilder felt that despite his "natural instincts" being those of "a politician, entrepreneur and gambler" he had to look for a profession where he could be deemed acceptable and that "being an art dealer is an occupation for disenfranchised people" concluding that he "never knew a good one who wasn't a woman, Jewish or gay". In 1962 Wilder established a gallery in San Francisco before opening the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in 1965 at 814 North La Cienega Boulevard, in Los Angeles. Wilder displayed the work of Ronald Davis, Robert Graham, Allan McCollum, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Peter Young, Bill Pettet and several others at the early stages of their artistic careers. Wilder also promoted painter John McLaughlin.