Hugh Sylvan Stix, who for many years owned and managed the Artists’ Gallery on East 57th Street in Manhattan, died on July 21 at Cabrini Hospital. He was 85 years old.
He died of cancer, said Miriam Kahn, his companion.
The gallery, which was founded in 1936 during the Depression, operated for 28 years, giving promising but struggling artists a showcase for which Mr. Stix charged nothing. Those who went on to wider public acceptance and fame include Willem de Kooning, Louis Eilshemus and Louise Nevelson.
Mr. Stix and his wife, Marguerite, turned their hobby of shell collecting to profit. They exhibited a collection of 15,000 shells acquired in their travels around the world, and published a book in 1969 called “The Shell: Five Hundred Million Years of Inspired Design.”
Mrs. Stix, a painter, sculptor and designer of shell jewelry, died in 1975.
In addition to Ms. Kahn, of Manhattan, Mr. Stix is survived by a son, Dave, of Fernly, Nev.; a daughter, Lisa Graeber of Larkspur, Calif., and two grandchildren.