Guy Lyman Fine Art: An Artist and Dealer in The Big Easy

Prior to opening his eponymous bricks and mortar gallery on Magazine Street, a well-known cultural hub in New Orleans, Lyman was an artist and single parent of two young daughters living in Dallas, Texas. This is a challenging situation for anyone, but especially for people who have chosen art as their path in life. 

However, Lyman embraced the challenge. “I’ve been learning about, making, and collecting art since my teens. I didn’t major in art. I went to Sewanee College in Tennessee where I was a literature major. When I went to New York City with my Art History class, it expanded my world view.”

It was this experience, visiting museums in NYC, that triggered Lyman’s interest in collecting art, relying on his personal taste and an eye for “beauty” to guide him, rather than any formal study of the art market, and no academic training in studio art. 

“I dabbled in painting. I was not even showing my own work. I was making my career as a writer.” That “dabbling” gradually became all-consuming, and Lyman describes the evolution of his own aesthetic sensibility. “I have been painting for about 30 years, since before I was a dealer. I always was and remain most drawn to so-called ‘painterly’ painters, whose interest is less in the formal aspects of painting than in the paint itself, and signs of the artist’s hand in its application. 

Initially, I was drawn to paintings from the magical period between New York Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine, and Cy Twombly. In the 80s, it was New York neo-Expressionists such as Julian Schnabel, Terry Winters, and Donald Baechler.”

Lyman grew up in New Orleans, but traveled around the U.S. and Europe expanding his cultural horizons before opening the charming gallery on Magazine Street. In addition to providing a venue for selling his own work, he initially specialized in art and artists that had a connection to New Orleans, or Louisiana painters whose subject was often these two locales.   

“I frequently trade in works by such stalwarts as Clementine Hunter, Robert Rucker, George Dureau, Knut and Colette Pope Heldner, Ellsworth Woodward, and others.” These artists were a discovery for this reviewer, and I was surprised by the stylistic range and overall quality of the work, given the modest price points established by Lyman.

While Lyman continues to be the go-to dealer for these Louisiana-based artists, he has diversified by carrying an inventory of traditional landscapes, still life, nudes, and portraits from the late 19th century through early 20th century. In addition, the largely two-dimensional work in his Modern and Contemporary Collection after 1950 continues the same traditional painterly approach seen in earlier work. 

Lyman ran his art business from his Magazine Street location for eight years. During this time, he admits, “I was lazy about developing my online presence. I like to talk to people and have personal contact with buyers.” Despite this, he started to explore the growing opportunities of selling work without the overhead of maintaining a bricks and mortar location, and in 2017, he decided to close the gallery and move to online sales.

He also sells work out of his New Orleans home. He explains, “I have over 60 paintings on the walls and more on the floor and over 300 works stored.” At this point, he estimates that approximately 80% of his sales are online. 

Demand for Lyman’s own paintings has increased significantly over the years and now that his children have grown and are independently pursuing their own careers in the arts (his son is a figurative painter showing his work in a gallery on Julia Street in New Orleans, and one of his daughters went to RISD and is working as a designer), he is more prolific than ever. 

Lyman prides himself on providing a “125%” Guarantee on all the work he sells. “I want my customers, who tend to be buyers, rather than “collectors,” to be happy with the art they intend to live with. Buying art online requires trust, and sometimes the work may prove not to be a good fit. I will always take back a painting.” 

Asked whether he might consider opening a physical space again sometime in the future, as opposed to a virtual gallery, Lyman replied, “I may move back into owning a gallery. I used to live behind my gallery. We also ran a frame shop. Real estate is pricey now. That may change. But, I will always consider it a privilege to be an artist and to make my living selling art.”