In addition to running, for more than 20 years, Keith Sherman & Associates – a public relations and marketing communications firm with its roots on Broadway – the founder and namesake of the company is also a passionate art collector. In 2008, Sherman and his partner Roy Goldberg, a physician and equally avid aficionado and collector for three decades, established Helicline Fine Art, specializing in 20th-century American and European modernist paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, in the styles of social realism, mural studies, industrial landscapes, regionalism, abstraction, and more.
In keeping with its mission to connect people with art, Helicline takes its name from the curved ramp that connected the Trylon and Perisphere structures at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair – two monumental sculptures and entertainment venues the size of huge buildings. The theme of the gallery’s current digital exhibition likewise makes a connection between Sherman’s two areas of expertise. You’ll Be Swell! You’ll Be Great! The Fine Art of Performance features three dozen works depicting theater, film, dance, music, and circus arts.
“While I have operated Helicline Fine Art since 2008, my life-long work has been, and continues to be, running a Times Square communications firm. From day one of my professional life, I have been working in entertainment, primarily the theater, selling two hours of magic in a dark room. Some of these artists were friends, even clients. Their work has great significance to me, and I believe it will resonate deeply with those who love entertainment and the arts. These works are fine art,” said Sherman.
Featured works, created between the 1920s-1970s, include paintings, costume and set design drawings, illustrations, photographs, and sculpture from iconic Broadway shows, films, dance, and more. They include: Hello Dolly!, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, The King & I, Cabaret, On The Town, Bye Bye Birdie, Day and Night, and The Defiant Ones; portraits of Josephine Baker and Carmen Miranda; and works depicting dancers, film sets, performers, playwrights, audiences, backstage, and Times Square.
Among the artists represented are such internationally renowned modernists and iconic Tony Award-winning designers as Boris Aaronson, Leon Bibel, Cecil Beaton, Jean Chassaing, David Fredenthal, William Gropper, Al Hirschfeld, Roddy McDowall, Paul Meltsner, Jo Mielziner, Hugo Scheiber, Oliver Smith, Miles White, Freddy Whittop, Richard Whorf, and Louis Wolchonok.
You’ll Be Swell! You’ll Be Great! is online through Wednesday August 31, 2022, on the Helicline Fine Art website, artsy.net, and 1stDibs.com. The gallery, located in a private space in Midtown Manhattan, is also open by appointment. To schedule an in-person visit, call (212) 204-8833, or email [email protected]. The art on the site represents only a small fraction of Helicline’s available works.
It was just announced that the exhibition has been extended for another two months, through October 31, 2022, and additional art works have been added.