Dan Pollock

1950 - 01

Dan Pollock, passed away June 12, 2024, at his home in New York City. His father, economist Raphael Pollock, fled his native Vienna for the U.S. in the mid-1930s and married Sylvia Fried. Dan, their only child, was born in 1950 and grew up in Washington, DC, where he graduated from Woodrow Wilson H.S. (now Jackson-Reed) in 1968. He then moved, permanently, to New York City, where he attended film school at New York University With little capital or relevant experience but an acute eye and aesthetic sense, he was co-founder and creative inspiration of Van Allen Inc. (originally Van Allen Belt Co.). The firm was in the vanguard of the 1970s revival of Art Deco design and grew into a leading manufacturer of fashion jewelry. In 1984, he married prominent ceramicist Lidya Buzio, who predeceased him in 2014. In 1993, he co-founded the Cecilia de Torres Gallery in Soho, which specializes in Latin American Constructivism and the works of pioneering modernist Joaquín Torres-García and his school. Dan did not have a standard-issue liberal arts degree, but he was enormously well-read and intellectually sophisticated. He was devoted to the Sunday New York Times crossword and the Yankees. He loved classic European and American cinema, and was an ardent Marxist (Groucho and his brothers, that is). A friend with a question about a film could usually get a faster (and more accurate) answer by calling Dan than checking a database. He delighted in taking his friends to the opera, where he was an (amateur) critic for 50 years. He enjoyed sharing a nice Malbec, Chateauneuf, or fine champagne. He was exceptionally generous in word and deed when he learned someone needed help. He leaves behind many whose lives he touched, including his beloved partner, artist Marta Chilindron; his dear friend and colleague, Cecilia de Torres; lifelong pal Jim Feldman; cousin Robin Radin; and nieces Rachel and Athena Perry. A memorial is planned for a later date.