MARVIN ROSENBAUM Marvin Rosenbaum, co-founder of Rosenbaum Fine Art, has served as chairman of the board since the company’s inception in 1979. It is an enterprise built on creativity combined with business acumen, the likes of which is rarely evident in a world where the two often do not coexist. Rosenbaum earned his Bachelor of Business Administration at the Bernard M. Baruch School of Business of the City University of New York. He began his professional career with Olivetti, a multi-national manufacturing company, as a territorial sales representative. Within 10 years at Olivetti, Rosenbaum rose through the ranks to become New York regional manager where he was responsible for all sales, service and administrative functions. Additionally, he was a member of the transition team responsible for implementing the operations and the restructuring of Olivetti’s acquisition of Underwood Typewriter Company. “I spent a lot of time in Italy working for Olivetti,” Rosenbaum says. “They were a very aesthetic company, interested in art and architecture as well as design. Their typewriters were, in fact, very functional works of art.” While in Italy, Rosenbaum bought some typical Italian Renaissance paintings from galleries in Rome and Florence, but mostly in Milan, where Olivetti was headquartered. “Friends and neighbors saw the paintings hanging in my home, and many wanted to acquire them for themselves.” He saw this opportunity and wound up leaving Olivetti to venture into the wholesale art business. “At the same time, I also found that in Hong Kong, paintings were being produced at very low prices. I started bringing those paintings in, and when you have paintings, you need frames, so I started importing frames from Mexico and began to wholesale the combination of the two to furniture stores and art galleries.” Rosenbaum Fine Art has blossomed into one of the largest distributors and publishers of art in the world, responsible for employing hundreds if not thousands of artists over the years as well as framers, salespeople, decorators, designers and printmakers. Most of the artists work out of studios owned by the company in Boca Raton, Fla., and Phoenix. In addition to allocating space for the artists in each of the production facilities, the company also provides space for its custom-framing factories. Artexpo has been a staple of Rosenbaum Fine Art’s marketing strategy. Rosenbaum’s major presence at this art fair has broadened not only the company’s own scope, but opened doors for many to enter the blossoming art world with displays featuring a plethora of artworks. Whether as accent pieces or focal points, these paintings and prints have found their way into many homes and offices around the country and beyond. The sheer volume for this kind of quality art, and the demand for it, did not exist before Rosenbaum Fine Art. An internationally recognized expert in the art world, Rosenbaum has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA). He has also served as its Chairman of the Art Committee and a Board Member of its Trade Show Committee. Additionally, he was a contributing editor to the internationally distributed art and framing trade publication Art Expressions Magazine. Rosenbaum Fine Art is a vertically integrated publisher, wholesaler, and framer of original, one-of-a-kind works of fine art for many markets, including residential, corporate, contract, decorative, furniture gallery and auction markets. Mr. Rosenbaum likens his success story to that of any other person dedicated to achievement in their chosen profession. “If a guy is in the chair business, he is always striving to build a more beautiful, better designed chair; if a guy is in the floor business, he wants to keep growing until he can put in the best floor,” he explains. “The same with Rosenbaum Fine Art: We tend to grow in our enterprise. Our desire is to continually upgrade.”
Page 28 • Artexpo Hall of Fame 2008 • Art Business News