Ron began his career in 1971 at First National Bank in Ft Worth as a trader in the municipal bond department. Two weeks later while in Houston bidding on water and sewer bonds, he stumbled into the Meredith Long Gallery and with zero knowledge in art stumbled out with his first art purchase, a $325 Leroy Neiman print. With no money, Meredith let him pay it out at $50 per month. Two weeks later, back in Houston to bid on more bonds, excited about his new found interest in art, he introduced himself as a collector to Frank Pearson at the Brass Door Gallery. Two hours later, he was the owner of a Texas bluebonnet painting by California artist Robert Wood. In a life changing move, he knowingly wrote a hot check for $3,500 that he covered with a 90 day loan from the bank where he had just received his first monthly salary check for $500. On the 89th day, with his job in jeopardy, he miraculously sold the bluebonnet painting for $5,500. He paid off the loan, saving his job, then took a look in the mirror and saw himself an art dealer.
Four years later, he opened the Ron Hall Gallery in downtown Ft. Worth’s new Hilton Hotel. In 1985, the gallery relocated to the Crescent Center in Dallas as the anchor for Caroline Hunt’s new art and antique destination location. His 49 year art dealing career has taken him many times around the world buying and selling impressionist, modern, and contemporary master’s art. During the 80’s, 90’s and turn of the 21st century, he owned galleries in Ft.Worth, Dallas, Santa Fe, Taos, and New York City. Ron Hall Galleries has also exhibited at top art fairs around the world in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Having sold much more than one hundred million dollars of art by masters such as Monet, Renoir, Picasso, and Warhol, his art legacy is probably the last monumental work in private hands by Alexander Calder, the 40 foot tall EAGLE, now roosting in downtown Seattle. In 2019, he settled back in his Dallas gallery with a collection of great masterpieces to offer collectors and museums.
In addition to his role as an art dealer, he found time to write several books including a #1 New York Times bestseller, SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME. A Broadway play of this story is being adapted as well. His newest work, soon to be published, FOR ART’S SAKE, is an action adventure behind the scenes art thriller with names changed to protect the guilty. In 2017, he wrote and produced a movie SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME with Paramount starring Rene Zellweger as the late Deborah Hall with Greg Kinnear playing the part of Ron. It also starred Jon Voight and Djimon Hounsou who played a crazy homeless man who would forever change Ron’s life. Now, an advocate for the homeless, Ron has helped raise more than one hundred million dollars hoping to make a difference in the lives of the nearly one million homeless men, women, children, and veterans. Check out his foundation: