Memories of Jytte Allen

In memory of

Jytte Allen

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

February 20, 1938 - July 17, 2020

Feb 20, 1938 - Jul 17, 2020

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Gregg Simpson

With Jytte and Pierre Coupey at the Seymour Art Gallery, 2019.

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Nico Dufort

Shared a heart

Nico Dufort

Missing you and thinking of you often as I look out the window and stare at El Cid from my desk. Thinking of you when I walk down the street, missing our chats just around the corner as you were walking Jazz.
I still have not tackled Krishnamurti's The First and Last Freedom, but I think of you each time I see the book on my shelf. Will get to it, eventually; and I trust that by the time I read it, I'll tell myself: "you were so right, Jytte."
Much love. nico

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Dina Goldstein

Miss you so much!! Can’t walk by your apartment building without nearly crying.
Would have celebrated your birthday with pleasure.
Love,
Dina

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Nico Dufort

Deirdre Hofer

I had the good fortune to meet Jytte a few years ago, at the gallery where I worked. Shortly after, I had an open studio and she arrived with a gift of a beautiful sunflower. Days later, as we were having a glass of wine at the Sylvia, she gave me the best and most concise advice I have ever received as an artist, including: "you must make painting priority number ONE". I hear her voice telling me this every day and it keeps me going. She was, warm, fun, direct, fearless and fascinating, and it was a true privilege to know her. She is deeply missed.

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Cian Quayle

I had the privilege to meet Jytte (via our mutual friend the sculptor Michael Sandle) in 2017/18 when I first visited Vancouver from the UK and we had a wonderful day visiting galleries together - a wonderful woman full of vitality, energy and life. I hope someone can retrospectively publish Jytte's book on Vancouver artists.

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Constance DeGrandmaison

2018, El Cid, Comox Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Jytte and friends celebrating her birthday

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Nico Dufort

Pierre Coupey

Jytte was a great friend and a champion of so many artists in Vancouver, and always such a pleasure to see at openings, to have a glass of wine with, such great stories. Especially loved her Francis Bacon story, which she told with such verve you were right there, in that bar in swinging London, giving Bacon what-for. She knew everyone and brought a generous loving spirit to all. We miss you Jytte. Your book of interviews will be a welcome gift to the city.

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Dina Goldstein

Nico Dufort

Dina Goldstein

2018, Jytte’s home

Lynne Crandall

I am so sorry to hear of the passing of this vibrant, intelligent, fascinating woman. I was only 20 when I went to work for Jytte as an "au pair" and spent a wonderful year with her and the children in Copenhagen. I met her when i first came there and she was the manager of the prestigious Palace Hotel. I met many fascinating people and Jytte was one of the most fascinating among them. She invited me to dinners with her friends who were actors, movie directors, novelists, artists, theater directors, set designers, international journalists, documentary makers and on and on. She always told the best stories of any of them. She showed me the charm of Copenhagen and its hostory. She was compassionate, intelligent, gracious and always had time to talk if i was feeling homesick. When I think of my travels during those years when i lived in London, Copenhagen, and NYC, i remember best our outdoor lunches in the sunlight with open faced Danish sandwiches, Carlsberg Elephant beer and Aquivit and listening to her talk about her youth spending summers with famiky in Sweden and years living in Paris. Her life included famous friends from the ballet world, the theatre, the literary scene in Europe and the world of journalism. She made all of us feel at home at those dinners in her beautiful apartment and we all considered her a friend.
To her great credit, she never made me feel like I worked for her, she always included me in everything like a family member. She was a noble spirit with a great gusto for life and new adventures.
Godspeed my beautiful friend on her journey home.

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Torrie Groening

Lynne Crandall

Shared a heart

Eric Metcalfe

i will remember a few of us accompanied Jytte some years ago
to go down Bellingham, WA to see the great tenor saxophonist
Dexter Gordon whom she knew from her Copenhagen days.
Dexter all 6 ft 5 would join us between sets to 'wet his whistle'
and Jytte would reminisce about those days . myself i was fan since my high school days and had to ask him about Wardell Grey
his sparring partner in those famous sax battles.

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Torrie Groening

Vic Stapelberg

We all have one common thing here. We lost a great friend. To me Darling Jytte, was more a mother to me than my own mother was to me. I could tell her anything and so did she. She took me down her path and so many times through her memory box lane. In English, French or even German. I am blessed to be able to think I as a special type of son to her as she told me thirty minutes before deciding to take her last journey of deep sleep. Against someone who disagreed she told me " You always were my favourite man" For the past twelve years I was there for her and Jazzy in the shadow in person, in spirit and often with real means when needed be it food or money. She was a very proud Lady and I know where she came from like myself from a 7000sq feet owned home to a 2500sq rental. Sadly I am now astounded she seemed to have compartmentalized her friends and made sure my path never crossed any one but one shortly. As all stars she made sure her hair and make up were done before granting an appointment . We shared a birthday and as she spoke softly into the speaker phone and I confirmed " Yes, we two Pisces will share many more birthdays to come"

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Torrie Groening

Vic Stapelberg

2016

My interpreation of one her beautiful movie star portrait

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Torrie Groening

Dina Goldstein

1975

Jytte by William Featherston

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Torrie Groening

Dina Goldstein

The Polygon Gallery, Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Torrie Groening

Birgitte Brickenden

Birgitte Brickenden.
Jytte was my neighbour and danish confidante. Sharing her stories about her rich life in the art world both in Copenhagen and Vancouver with her unique sense of humour was always enriching.
Vraiment une femme extraordinaire.
She will be so missed.

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Torrie Groening

Gigi Chocolat

2020, The Teahouse restaurant in Vancouver

He last photo of Jytte, on her 82nd birthday, just before the confinement.

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Torrie Groening

Dina Goldstein

Gigi Chocolat

2015, Roberts Creek, BC, Canada

Torrie Groening

Dina Goldstein

Gigi Chocolat

I met Jytte in 1970, at the opening of her first exhibit in Gastown. Geoff Massey was refitting an old mill and had offered her wood molds that were attractive abstract sculptures. Jytte became a great friend of Geoff’s partner Arthur Erickson, whom she interviewed for a magazine.
When she returned from Copenhagen, she needed $5000 to start,
in Gastown again, an antique store. She got a job selling used cars. At the end of her first month, she got what she needed and quit, to the dismay of her boss. As soon she made a bit of money, she bought an apartment and a year later, sold it to put money into the business. And again, each year, for several years, back and forth. I can’t recall how many times we helped her move ... and then Portobello Antiques was established on south Granville, and she became our neighbour near Granville Island. After we moved to Roberts Creek, she decided she liked the Sunshine Coast and bought an old house which she renovated. She had desperately wanted a garden , and created a beautiful one to enjoy in the weekends. Great garden parties!
But, alas, the antique business collapsed, and she had to sell everything.
She went back to her first love, art and artists. Visual arts and books, great conversations around a glass of wine, living simply, with her last dog, the smallest one her ever had. Remember her, walking on South Granville, with her Great Dane?

The book which is ready for publication is her last bow to Vancouver’ artists, just like her first Galerie Allen, was her first.

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Torrie Groening

Dina Goldstein

Comments:

Gigi Chocolat

I am sorry, gigichocolat is my Facebook name!....this is Geneviève I am sorry, gigichocolat is my Facebook name!....this is Geneviève I am sorry, gigichocolat is my Facebook name!....this... Read more

Dina Goldstein

Thanks for this background .. lots of new stories to discover. Thanks for this background .. lots of new stories to discover. Thanks for this background .. lots of new stories to... Read more

Torrie Groening

Short bio of Jytte Allen
for: Interviews with Vancouver and B.C. Artists

By the time she was fifteen Jytte Allen was contributing to and editing a youth insert for a major Copenhagen newspaper featuring children's views on art, politics, immigration, literature and education. A few years later she moved to London to work for publishers Faber & Faber where she worked under T. S. Eliot. In her twenties she worked in film and theatre in London and Peru and founded a popular literary cabaret in the famous Copenhagen jazz club 'Montmartre'. In the 1960s she opened her first 'Galerie Allen' in Copenhagen.
Immigrating to Vancouver in 1970, she opened ‘Galerie Allen’ Vancouver, exhibiting major national and international artists. In 1979 Ms. Allen founded 'Documenting the Arts', a venue for the introduction and promotion of Canadian artists. She has travelled extensively lecturing on Canadian and international art. In the 1980s France and Japan selected her high-end 'Portobello Antiques' as Vancouver's foremost antique gallery. Ms. Allen has been a significant contributor to the Canadian art scene for close to fifty years. She was selected into the prestigious 'Art Dealers Association Of Canada' and the 'Antiques Dealers Association Of Canada'.

Interviews with Vancouver and B.C. Artists
SYNOPSIS
Interviews with Vancouver and B.C. Artists is the definitive collection of unique thoughts from B.C.’s leading artists on inspiration, politics, religion, individualism, the future of art and other contemporary issues. In response to eleven inquiring questions, seventy-five of our important artists reveal their opinions on how original thinking alters our world; the things that influence our lives; how creative minds give rise to innovation; and the experiences and beliefs that make us individuals. These are riveting insights of interest to people of all ages and backgrounds. Dedicated to Gordon Smith with a foreword by Ian Wallace and an introduction by Catherine Soussloff, Interviews with Vancouver and B.C. Artists is the modern guide to the visionary mind, a realistic and profound portrait of human creativity, the inspirations that inspire the visual arts and bring forth the societies of the future. Essential inputs in our time of rapid change, personal media, commercialism and modern politics.

Jytte Allen

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Torrie Groening

2017

note from Gordon Smith

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Dina Goldstein

Comments:

Torrie Groening

Jytte had dedicated her new book project to Gordon Smith. Jytte had dedicated her new book project to Gordon Smith. Jytte had dedicated her new book project to Gordon ... Read more