If you drive up Benedict Canyon and wind through the wavy hills up to Cento Angeli, the home of the DeVorzon Gallery you will be greeted by bougainvilleas that wrap around the terra cotta facade and welcomed by succulent plants and palm trees shading iron sculpture as fluid as moving water within the garden’s horticulture.
This is the feeling of being taken back in time. Inside a setting within a setting known as the DeVorzon Gallery. Upon entering the front doors, you pass “Ambient Trap” by Laddie John Dill, welded and polished aluminum that flows 96 inches along with the visitor down the entry into the main foyer. That is where the smell of vanilla candles welcomes you. The candles are flameless, remote-controlled new technology. The old world/new world charm of the gallery is furnished with contemporary art and period pieces, as art buyers are invited to wander and enjoy lunch al fresco on French Faience Quimper, a lemon yellow pottery with Breton figures made over a century ago.
Visitors notice right away that this is no ordinary gallery. Art is uniquely presented. A striking red oil on canvas “Prescenze Rossa” has a gold frame floated with a six-inch relief. That’s another hallmark of DeVorzon Gallery. The unique framing lifts the entire painting by Fulvia Levi-Bianchi into a unique emotion. Next to it are the translated and provocative works of renowned artist Emma Ferreira. Framed in steel, they depict dancers floating in glass and bring the viewer further away and into a separate world altogether. As if traveling up the hill didn’t take your breath away, the art exceeds the expectation. But isn’t that what an art gallery should do?
A recent art buyer enjoyed a demitasse as they viewed “Lirios (Lillies)” by the last of the Spanish royal painters Enrique Seniors-Oliver.
His “Kimono Morado” is a wrapped kimono that was painted on linen that is so appropriate in the master bedroom that Barbara DeVorzon has placed it there as the perfect setting for the painting
That is the essence of the DeVorzon Gallery. A setting like Cento Angeli is so original because the beautiful quality of the art is alluringly represented in personal space. No details overlooked. It’s as the artists imagined their work to be appreciated. It gifts the art buyer with the ability to contemplate the quality and value in privacy and solitude much like the artists themselves painstakingly created the work for them.
The unique link between creator and buyer is very much part of the DeVorzon Gallery’s success. For the artist, the past is still in the present and for the buyer, they can travel back in time to a place where an art piece can speak, if you are quiet enough to listen.
The charming Carol Bishop’s “Les Petite Carres” pigment in beeswax on wood, line the red-walled breakfast area inside the kitchen. Her sensual and spectacular seven-foot-high triptych line the hallway.
For forty years gallery owner and art patron Barbara DeVorzon has presented the most interesting and provocative work with one eye on investment…the other eye, and the heart of the gallery focused on the opening of new windows that bring joy and beauty to its clients
The master bedroom has the personality of Barbara that art buyers have come to cherish and adore. The whimsy of fleshed colored walls and lace and satin bedroom set appeals to the visitor to relax and tune into Salvador Dali’s and Pablo Picasso’s fine and subtly nuanced works
Once inside don’t underestimate the value of taking a peak in the water closet. Both guest bathrooms have exceptional visual pieces by Philip Tsiaras, Josef Albers, and Alexander Calder.
The gallery office carries the last of “Les Campagnards” the print on Vichy cloth by Joan Miro, an item so rare it’s even more appropriate in a room made for serious discussion and to be enjoyed daily with the workday flow. That’s also a credit to the gallery’s taste for juxtaposition and its sense of humor.
Art up close and personal is the most powerful.
Barbara explained that the history of the gallery is closely linked to the art history of Los Angeles. In the gallery are Joe Goode, Ed Ruscha, Robert Graham, Laddie John Dill, and Judy Stabile the legends of the Los Angeles art scene. The gallery opened in 1968 on La Cienega Boulevard’s “Gallery Row,” specializing in 20th-century master prints and more. In addition to a large collection of Chagall, Picasso, Miro, and Matisse, Barbara DeVorzon also introduced Albers and Vasarely to Los Angeles. The gallery enjoyed a marvelous success, expanding several times at the original location.
In 1980, DeVorzon Gallery was invited to move to the premier location in the Pacific Design Center. This extraordinary new space enabled Barbara DeVorzon to showcase the paintings, sculptures, and works on paper of the new California art movement. Among those she represented were Joe Goode, Ed Ruscha, Sam Francis, and John Kennedy. Her clientele encompassed old and new collectors, interior designers, plus film and television production companies. Barbara DeVorzon created the corporate art collections for many major corporations including Xerox, Cyprus Mines, Avery International, Ameron, Shell Oil, and Continental Telephone that would enhance the working environment.
Embracing an old-world concept of showing art in an elegant home setting, the DeVorzon Gallery relocated to Cento Angeli in 1994. In recent years the gallery has added exciting new artists from Spain, Italy, France, South America, and the United States. Included in the addition – Fulvia Levi Bianchi, Carol Bishop, Charles Cleeton, Berenice D’Vorzon, Laddie John Dill, Emma Ferreira, Yossi Gorvin, Philip Tsiaras, Tanya Ragir, Fabio Hurtado, John Kennedy, Enrique Seniors-Oliver, Zdenek Sorf, Francisco Zuniga, Vertes, and Vasa.
The privacy and salon atmosphere of the gallery has attracted an international following including Baron and Baroness H.H. Thyssen. The gallery is open by appointment only. Please call and come and enjoy our collection