Masters of Art

...The house had a bulkhead entrance to the basement," Bernie chuckles...

...A month later, they became engaged, and were married shortly after graduation...

...Each was asked to bring just one thing—a special memory of a past seder experience...

...Would they, Dov Safrai asked, care to represent the Safrai Gallery there...

...And other Schechter parents can attest how much the Puckers' energies mattered during the early and precarious years of the school...

...We represent them here, of course, but also handle the distribution of their work to other galleries, to museums, to various competitive shows throughout the country...

...The weekend program included a variety of activities, but Michael and a fellow Schechter graduate insisted that one more be added—a celebration of Shabbat, complete with candle lighting and Kiddush...

...Her volunteer activities range from the absorption of newly arrived Soviet emigrants (through the New Americans Committee), to the Solomon Schechter Day School (she's a past president of the PTA), to pregnancy counseling (she learned Spanish to help in this), to being an expert spectator at hockey and soccer games (her sons' passions...

...They bought a house in Lexington, where they lived and worked for four years...

...They decided to return to Kansas City, Bernie's home, to teach religious school, while he struggled with the question of whether to begin rabbinic studies...

...The newest addition: a soon-to-be-installed etching press, enabling the gallery to sponsor editions of prints, enabling the artists to devote more time to the creative effort rather than the production process...

...The craftsmen are Bernie and Sue Pucker, and theirs is the story of a score of separate pieces that lock together...

...His talks weave biblical history into contemporary art, bridging one to another and the audience to both...

...The school provides much the same sense...

...At about the same time, Bernie completed his entrance application to the Jewish Theological Seminary and traveled to New York for an interview...

...Over the years, the gallery has amassed a mailing list of about 18,000 names—but they are more than names—they are real people who have displayed a tangible commitment...

...And the gallery employee with most seniority is Barbara Whalen, who was Michael's babysitter in Wal-tham...

...So much of the work coming out of Israel was exclusively for tourist consumption...

...Sue would leave her office so that Bernie could go to his teaching job at Temple Mishkan Tefila, where he established a program of high school studies...

...The first time I built a crate down there—a two day project—I made it too big to get through the door...

...Jonathan is off to nature camp for a week with his Schechter classmates...

...At midafternoon, Sue leaves for Brookline...

...They sold some work to family and friends...

...And so Eskimo and African sculpture, and the work of Americans David Aronson, Michael Jacques, Paul Nagano, Stan Washburn, Gerald Garston and Jane Lund join with that of Spanish sculptor Kieff, Austrian-born Hundertwasser, Russian emigre Mirtala Bentov, sabra Rina Rotholz, and with Israelis David Sharir, Samuel Bak, Shraga Weil, Mordecai Moreh and Naftali Bezem...

...Bernie would come home from his morning classes in time to permit Sue to get to her job as rental agent for the apartment complex...

...In contrast to the quiet elegance of Newbury Street, the warehouse reverberates with hammering, telephones, crating, pickups and deliveries...

...When the trucker began to say things like, 'I don't know how you can live like this,' and when we could no longer get from Michael's crib to the changing table, we knew we had to move," Sue laughs...

...The mix of guests included family and close friends who have shared, since its inception, the Pucker tradition of 10 years, and others—those who might have been alone, those who have never seen a seder, those who celebrated in freedom for the first time this year, students far from home,—and some who, at Sue's insistence, brought along their relatives or friends...

...His involvement with, and concern for, the artists whose work he represents, and for the patrons who will buy them, are his hallmark...

...It was at that meeting that several years of soul searching came to an abrupt end...

...That was the real beginning," Bernie reminisced...

...Art was one thing, Israeli was another...

...The Pucker household: model of comfortable eclecticism...

...Sue calls Bernie the "up front" person—the gallery is his domain...

...Light, easy to handle, inexpensive to ship, it will be part of an unframed economy group preferred by student organizations...

...I told them that was my reason for wanting to study...

...And a gracious home in Brookline, filled, predictably, to overflowing with the Puckers' extensive personal collection...

...Sue Pucker presides at the North Washington Street warehouse...

...One told of a profound family tragedy associated with the holiday, another of a seder in Korea that he, as an army physician, conducted for his famous patient, then-president Syngman Rhee...

...In the Schechter approach, and in the school, I could sense what was, for me, a real importance of 'that's where it's at' in terms of the future of the Jewish community...

...Of the Puckers' abiding commitments to Jewish communal life, Schechter is perhaps the strongest, and they have been involved with its growth almost since the beginning...

...He links his feelings to childhood and the strong influence of his rabbi, Gershon Hadas...

...Dov Safrai asked the Puckers to become his sole representatives in the United States...

...The gallery publishes a periodic newsletter to keep its customers informed about what's going on...

...There were only 40 families in the school in 1964," Bernie recalls...

...It is not unusual for Bernie to leave the gallery at about the same time, cycling off to a meeting of the Metropolitan Hillel Council (which he chairs) or to Hebrew Teachers College or the Board of Jewish education (on whose boards he sits) or to the Schechter School (which his children attend and which he now serves as a vice president, having been a member of the board of trustees for a record 13 years...

...Michael Pucker was graduated from Schechter, is now a sophomore at the Commonwealth School, a small secular preparatory high school...

...Some remembered the holiday as a difficult and oppressive time...

...The tourists who visit us are not only the Newbury Street browsers," Bernie continues, "they're our tourists...

...The show was beautiful...

...When they protested, saying that they really couldn't devote enough time to the effort, he said simply, "Do what you can...

...The art director and designer of catalogs for the gallery—and one of its major exhibitors—is Paul Nagano, whom Bernie met back at Columbia, and who was best man at the Pucker wedding...

...And we provide a sort of supermarket of services for them...

...There is a lecture to be delivered to Temple Israel's adult education classes, shows to be crated and shipped to Birmingham and Seattle, the Passover dishes to be stored away until next year, and a letter to be written to Victor Garibaldi, detailing the history of a skilled Eskimo sculptor...

...the more knowledgeable someone is, the more comfortable he feels about his own taste...

...She demonstrates "shrink packaging," equating the wrapping to the technique used in a meat market...

...Louis...

...Most galleries spend substantial amounts of money in promotion through the major art journals," Bernie says...

...Beginning with three sons—Michael, 15, Kenneth, 14, and Jonathan, 12—it includes an ever-changing cast of characters—a newly arrived family from the Soviet Union, young nieces and nephew from around the corner, parents of new students at the Solomon Schechter Day School, or (as it did last month) those 48 assorted friends, relatives and acquaintances for the first seder...

...Bernie began his studies, and the gears began to mesh, for the art business, to grow from hobby to livelihood, required a base of knowledge, understanding, expertise, a thorough foundation in the Jewish history from which it evolved...

...They spent the first year of their marriage in Israel—a year of study, of learning and browsing and sightseeing—motivated by a strong commitment to their Jewish roots...

...Collectors smirked...

...Tall, slim, bearded, he fits the image in leather pants, widesleeved flowered shirt...

...He delights in sharing his own expertise, in explaining, for example, the points of commonality that exist in the surrealist strength of Samuel Bak's canvases and the lyric polished bronzes of Kieff...

...And all the parts fit, like a miniature model so carefully crafted that the glue is invisible, the seams don't show...

...And it is the shipping and framing warehouse in the center of commercial Boston, from which traveling exhibitions of Israeli art, some 40 to 50 each year, are sent to temples, museums, organizations, universities, community centers and Israeli expositions in the United States and Canada...

...And much more...

...This involves a massive effort in public relations, in keeping in touch with people who have special interests...

...He believed that Judaism survived because of the beauty in it—an ethic and aesthetic sense...

...As she hoists wrapped paintings on dollies marked Houston, Minneapolis, Winnipeg and Los Angeles, she checks the packing lists that outline the requirements for each custom-designed show, often planned around specific themes, worked out by mail and phone months in advance...

...Cross-referenced card files are maintained, so that someone who has expressed an interest in the work of a particular artist will receive his catalogs, updates on his work, reviews of his shows...

...If I were a client," Bernie explains, "I'd like to know about the art I bought...

...We invest in our own people, and they bring others...

...And to his customers, buyers or browsers, Bernie Pucker is patient teacher, knowledgeable guide...

...It's our job to provide that access...

...His role: to match art to buyer, relying on the sensitivities of both...

...But say 'yes.'" The delivery trucks began to arrive almost daily, and the apartment looked more and more like a warehouse...

...And it soon became clear to Bernie, whose commitment to quality was paramount, that not only was it close to impossible to put together eight or nine shows of first rate Israeli work each year, but also that the really outstanding work, to be taken seriously, had to be viewed in concert with other efforts of similar quality, each to enhance the other...

...Notepapers in two dozen varieties, reproductions of the most popular work of the Israeli artists, are stacked for shipment to organizations which realize funds from their sale...

...the other was to Bran-deis University, to ask them if they'd reinstate the application I'd made a year earlier, to the graduate program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies...

...It was great for sending and receiving the crates for shows...

...As an entering freshman, he attended a fall weekend held annually to introduce new students to the school and each other...

...K'lal Yisrael...

...Red-haired, Canadian-born, it is she who orchestrates the arrivals and departures of the hundreds of paintings, prints, catalogs, note cards, and biographical materials to accompany each work of art in the traveling shows...

...And the discussion turns, inevitably, to the seder of the previous week...

...Then, they were asked to put together an exhibition for the Jewish Community Center...

...He was never a doomsayer...

...She travels via moped—Bernie has one, too— and she cycles back to Brook-line, to the boys, and dinner preparations, and a few things more...

...The question, and the arrangement that followed, was casual, informal...

...The development of the approach was a conscious decision," Bernie explains...

...It is a slow process, but it is based on our own following and clientele...

...The human dynamics of the art business are as important and interesting to him as his product...

...She is working with a Sharir print...

...In his 18 years of association with Dov Safrai, while literally millions of dollars worth of art have been exchanged, there has never been any form of written agreement...

...Each step of the Pucker way has been built on the steps that came before—and nothing that matters is discarded...

...specifically, it is the story of an art gallery, and of a rich way of life...

...Jonathan sits, content to follow the conversation, interrupting with recollections, comments about his school ("the boys are better at t'fillot than the girls"), concern that his parents not leave anything, or, more important, anyone, out in the telling of their story...

...My graduate work had led to research about the founding years of the American Jewish Committee, and from there to the whole structure of the organized Jewish community...

...Kenneth laces the interview with quarterly updates of the final, crucial Celtics game, which he watches "in preparation" for beginning a rabbinics paper...

...I left the interview and made two phone calls...

...They told me I wasn't 'frum' enough...

...And the kids felt good about it, and about themselves...

...And everything flourished—though not without some rocky moments...

...And there it ends, as it began, in the middle...

...Customers, whether they've bought at the gallery or at a traveling show, receive letters after they've made a purchase...

...Others spoke of rich memories of grandparents...

...Through the years, Bernie Pucker has established an impeccable reputation in the art world, a world in which a formal contract is a rarity...

...The tiny apartment in Kansas City began to fill with paintings and crates—"no furniture," Sue says, "but terrific art...

...For Bernie and Sue Pucker, the story began some 19 years ago at a conference of college leaders that he attended as president of the student body at Columbia, and she, as his counterpart at Skidmore...

...Encouraged by its modest success, they accepted a similar invitation from a congregation in St...

...It is a satisfying experience, a comfortable alternative for parents and kids, really an extraordinary place...

...I believe that art tends to bring out the best in people," he says...

...We could not, in good faith, open a gallery on Newbury Street and show 'shlock.' We certainly don't serve Israel by showing anything but the best it can offer...

...I'd guess that nothing quite like that had ever happened at the Commonwealth School," Bernie says, "but it came from a strong conviction, and a sense of pride in being Jewish...

...Meanwhile, in Boston, a Hawaiian Christian named Paul Nagano and 47 other people are preparing for a seder...

...We had help from people who were professionals in design and architecture, and the results were exciting...

...Every undertaking—the business, the early years of child-rearing—was a joint venture," Bernie says...

...In 1967, Bernie and Sue summoned courage and resources and took two giant steps, moving almost simultaneously into the Newbury Street gallery and into their Brookline home...

...The whole enterprise was viewed, by some, as a contradiction in terms...

...Bernie has developed another means of access—he is a popular lecturer at synagogues and organizations...

...It has made the children richer human beings, richer Jews...

...When the gallery opened, it handled only Israeli art...

...It is covered with plastic film and sealed to a foam-core board...

...And, while they were there, a wedding check arrived, with instructions that the sum should be spent on an art purchase...

...Paul Nagano, a "regular," told about a seder that he shared in a Columbia dormitory room with his homesick friend from Kansas City...

...At this point," Bernie explains, "we represent only about 15 artists in depth, some Israeli, some American and Canadian...

...Louis, Missouri, the art show chairman and four helpers have spent the morning unwrapping the contents of a very large crate...

...A dozen employees piece frames, selecting moldings from a stock of about 120 styles, a service primarily for other galleries and museums...

...I wanted to be a part of that, and we wanted it for the boys...

...Of course, the sum of ingredients that make up a whole Jewish experience can't be based on Schechter alone, but it certainly helps the kids to grow with involvement and commitment...

...The traveling art shows began to catch on...

...It gets people to stretch beyond where they may be in their everyday settings...

...Each sale has a potential at an educational level...

...The middle is the Pucker/Safrai Gallery on Boston's fashionable Newbury Street, recognized by many as the finest gallery in the city...

...To understand the story, it is best to begin in the middle...

...One was to Sue, to tell her that we'd not be living in New York next year...

...They moved into their Wal-tham, Massachusetts apartment in September 1961, with one-month-old Michael and with still more of Dov Safrai's art...

...Thus began their relationship with Dov Safrai, who served as mentor for that purchase, and who changed the course of their lives...