As Bellas Artes marks its 35th year in business, the gallery’s principles, Bob and Charlotte Kornstein, are pleased to present an exhibition of ten artists, several of whom have shown at Bellas Artes for decades. The best part of operating a gallery for all these years, the Kornsteins agree, has been the people they’ve met, from artists to clients: These days, they find themselves working with second-generation collectors. At various times, one could wander into their small, Zen-like corner of the world and find works by such significant artists as Hans Hofmann, Joseph Cornell, Joan Mitchell, Isamu Noguchi, Louise Nevelson, Antoni Tapies, Lucas Samaras, Tony Smith and Louise Bourgeois.

Natives of New York City, the Kornsteins were professionals who “spent all their free time in galleries and museums,” recalls Charlotte. They collected “everything. Art was always a passion.” A skiing trip to Taos in the 1970s led them to buy a home in Santa Fe in 1979. In 1990, Bob happened to be walking on Canyon Road when he noticed a for-sale sign near the acclaimed Compound Restaurant, and Bellas Artes has been located there ever since.

A breakthrough in their overall exhibition concept began with the textile designer and curator, Jack Lenor Larsen, whom the Kornsteins consider a mentor. Visiting Larsen over the years, from his downtown Manhattan loft to his LongHouse Reserve in East 2 Hampton, allowed his protégés to develop their own vision of living artfully. Before Larsen, they had presented African and pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese horse figures, British ceramics, and ancient textiles from around the globe. It was the renowned designer who convinced the Kornsteins to show contemporary art, curating the first of five exhibitions for them in 1986. In 2001 at Bellas Artes, artist Robert Kushner organized a show titled BEAUTY WITHOUT REGRET, in the same year that author Dave Hickey—who had suggested in the early ’90s the outrageous idea that beauty in art was far from dead—curated SITE Santa Fe’s fourth biennial. A visit to Bellas Artes is always marked by a sense of what Charlotte calls a “meditative, everlasting and diverse beauty,” from its quiet setting to the art they show. 35 Years of BEAUTY WITHOUT REGRET is simply the culmination to date of a way of life amid relationships that have blossomed over time.