Douglas Flanders, champion of famous and unknown artists, dies at 75

Longtime gallery owner Douglas Flanders loved giving unknown artists a chance. He hosted the “State Fair Rejects” show for those who didn’t get into the Minnesota State Fair’s Fine Arts Competition.

“He became such a powerhouse by supporting local artists and encouraging people to just go for it,” said Syril McNally, executive director of Douglas Flanders & Associates.

Flanders, the longest-running gallery owner in the Twin Cities, brought in big names like David Hockney, Judy Chicago and Pablo Picasso, but he loved the little guy.

He was driving home from the gallery on Nov. 12 when he had a cardiac event, lost consciousness and crashed. Medics resuscitated him, and he was placed on life support and put into a medically induced coma.

Flanders died surrounded by friends and family on Nov. 13 at Fairview Southdale Hospital. He was 75.

McNally will run the gallery, which has exhibited the works of or had dealings with more than 500 artists, including 145 local and regional artists.

Flanders helped foster young artists and that meant being honest when the work wasn’t good. But he still gave everyone a chance.

Born Douglas Wray Flanders on April 14, 1950, in Willmar, Minn., Flanders grew up the oldest of four in Richfield.

His grandparents, Margaret Howard, a painter, and Malcolm Howard, an art collector living in Spain, nurtured his love of art. During summers in Spain (1958 to 1964), he met Picasso, had lunch with Joan Miró and visited the Prado Museum.

Flanders graduated from Minnehaha Academy in 1968 and worked odd jobs as a graphic designer for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Playboy Magazine.

In 1972, he moved to New York City to work with French gallerist Denise René and returned to Minneapolis later that year.

With the financial help of his friend Matthew Schiller, he opened the Unicorn Gallery at his apartment at 32 Spruce St. Flanders exhibited then-unknown artists such as Eric Fischl, Susan Rothenberg and Julian Schnabel.

“At the Unicorn Gallery, he wasn’t really working with local artists, he was working with Robert Mapplethorpe,” said his sister, Juanita Flanders, 73, of Gibsonville, N.C. “He was kind of before his time.”

Douglas Flanders, Schiller and their friends went to Minneapolis’ first gay Pride parade in 1972.

“We were all hiding under the bed afterwards thinking our parents would see us on TV,” Schiller said.

In 1977, Flanders moved Unicorn Gallery to 1204 Harmon Place. The gallery moved around for several years and moved into the Wyman Building at 400 1st Av. N. in 1986.

As Flanders moved through the art world, he always kept family close and very much a part of the gallery. He loved spoiling his 11 nieces and nephews.

He named his dogs after artists and, for a time, kept only bulldogs.

Artist and former Wyman Building gallerist Kellie Rae Theiss called him “the real deal and father of the art scene in Minneapolis.”

Flanders struggled with heart problems for decades. After a heart attack in 1993, he planned to close the gallery but bounced back.

He gave young and unknown artists a chance, but he also sold art by big hitters for huge price tags. In 1996, he sold a painting by impressionist Mary Cassatt for $400,000. But he was always humble.

“Doug could have been driving a Mercedes, but he didn’t,” Theiss said. “Everything was about the art and the artist.”

“This is a total fluke,” Flanders told the Star Tribune at the time. “I’ve been in business since 1972, and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. We have a very good alarm system, but this happened right in front of me.”

Police found it weeks later hidden in a false ceiling inside a downtown Minneapolis men’s bathroom.

“During roughly 40 years in the Twin Cities, Doug kept moving and innovating, mixing nationally recognized names with local talent and occasional unknowns,” former Star Tribune art critic and reporter Mary Abbe said. “He was always a survivor, one of those rare guys who surfed Artland’s endless economic turmoil with his equilibrium intact.”

He’d planned to move the gallery to New York in 2001, but 9/11 thwarted his plans. In 2004, the gallery moved to 3012 Lyndale Av., and in 2008 the business filed for bankruptcy.

Less than a year later, Flanders lost his partner Billie to leukemia and their home to the bankruptcy court.

“In a world where people are screwing each other all the time in this art business, he was a gentleman, and people didn’t get screwed,” said Lentsch, who had his first solo show with Flanders in the late 1990s. “People got paid.

“He was one of the good ones.”

Flanders was preceded in death by his longtime partner Wolvert, and his parents Dorothy and Russell Flanders. Other survivors include his brother Steven Flanders of Ash Fork, Ariz., brother Gordon Flanders of Missoula, Mont., and many nieces and nephews.