Angels at the window

sometimes when you open a box….

I should fill in a little about my late friend Ron Jehu mentioned in a post about Eva Hesse.  I had the amazing good fortune to meet Ron shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1980 - perhaps this obit from one of the SF papers (i don’t know who wrote it - sorry) can explain a tiny bit about the way Ron was about people and art and style - he remains one of the magicians in my life.

We had some great adventures together and not a day goes by that I don’t think of him.

Ronald “Ron” George Jehu 70, passed away April 4, 2007 in his art-filled San Francisco studio/residence, from cancer. Born January 5, 1937 in Toronto, Canada to WalterJehu and Lillian Cassell Lytle; naturalized U.S. citizen 1957. Ron Jehu was a man of extraordinary talent and exceptional charm and taste. He was the center of a galaxy of friends and will be remembered for his generosity of spirit, painstaking attention to detail, and great love of the arts. He had a remarkable ability to enhance our lives with his superb, informed, witty sense of design and style. Raised in Boston, Ron attended public schools in Newton, MA. In 1960, he received his BFA in interior design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY; he was senior class president and recipient of numerous honors and awards. He joined the prestigious Park Avenue Armory Rainbow Division of the National Guard Reserves. Ron began his professional career in New York, apprenticing for the preeminent design firms of Michael Greer, Inc., Audre Fiber Interiors, Inc. and Valerian S. Rybar, Inc. During this period, Ron designed luxury residences for café society including Jerry Zipkin and Mrs. I. Walton Killam and prominent theater personalities including Ethel Merman and Mary Martin. In 1968, he formed the partnership of Fiber-Jehu, Inc. Notable projects include a grand San Salvador residence (El Salvador), the presidential suite at the Waldorf-Astoria (NY), and custom furnishings for the White House (Washington DC). Seeking a simpler lifestyle, Ron moved to San Francisco in 1970 and, with artist friends, opened the Upper Market Street Gallery in 1971. Showcasing contemporary California artists, the gallery attracted wide media attention for its avant-garde art and hip events including performances by Sylvester and Divine. The business later evolved into the Jehu Gallery and in 1978, Ron and business partner, Wylie Wong, formed the Jehu-Wong Gallery. Featuring Contemporary California Art and Asian Art & Antiquities, the gallery was acclaimed for its pioneering art exhibitions including solo shows by Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Schwartz, Masami Teraoka and Yoshitoshi. In 1985, Ron and design partner, Annelore Heerdt, formed the interior design firm of Jehu & Heerdt. Noteworthy projects include the International Press Center & Club (Moscow, Russia), Lands’ End Corporate Headquarters & Sports Activity Center (Wisconsin), and The PBN Company (California and Moscow). Wherever he traveled, Ron pursued his passion for antiquing and collecting. His taste ranged from refined Chinese porcelains to American folk art and photography, fine miniatures, and oddities. He was instinctively drawn to “outsider art”-works of the naïve and untrained, the incarcerated and the developmentally disabled. Ron was a generous donor to many museums including the Baltimore Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum, and SFMOMA