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42-729: In the fall of 1926, Edith Halpert , inspired by the art scene she encountered during her stay in France , decided to establish a platform in the United States where American artists could have similar opportunities. In 1926, with funds from with position as an executive at the S. W. Straus & Company investment bank, Halpert, alongside her friend Berthe Kroll Goldsmith, inaugurated Our Gallery in Manhattan at 113 West 13th Street. The first notable occupant of 113 West 13th Street

84-524: A 1918 collage by Max Weber, The Apollo in Matisse’s Studio. Edith Halpert Edith Halpert or Edith Gregor Halpert (née Edith Gregoryevna Fivoosiovitch; 1900–1970) was a pioneering New York City dealer of American modern art and American folk art . She brought recognition and market success to many avant-garde American artists. Her establishment, the Downtown Gallery ,

126-467: A more representational and expressionist painter post-World War I. Critic Hilton Kramer wrote of him that, in light of the remarkable beginning of his career, "Weber proved instead to be one of the great disappointments of twentieth-century American art." Others however, because of his bold "Cubist decade," hold him in the same high regard as other native modernists like John Marin , Arthur Dove , Marsden Hartley , and Charles Demuth . While lecturing at

168-525: A press release, Halpert referred to the new gallery as “a modest moment in American Art.” Halpert's business acumen helped her manage prices, and encourage collectors of modest means. Halpert also used marketing and advertising, and worked to get her artists included in museums and public collections to increase their exposure. After buying out Goldsmith in 1935, Halpert winnowed her stable of artists down to twelve, and focused on profitability. In 1940,

210-468: Is driven by quality — by what is enduring — not by what is in vogue." The American Folk Art Gallery , founded by Holger Cahill in partnership with Halpert and Goldsmith, opened in 1929 as the first folk art gallery, installing itself upstairs from the Downtown Gallery. The affinity between Halpert's artists and folk art was strong, and sales of folk art sustained the Downtown Gallery through

252-665: The Art Students League . Halpert was able to attend the National Academy of Design at such a young age because she convinced her instructors that she was actually sixteen. She was also a member of the Whitney Studio Club and John Weischel 's People's Art Guild , a radical artists' cooperative for which she served as treasurer. In 1917, she met the American painter Samuel Halpert through

294-809: The Russian Empire , Weber emigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn with his Orthodox Jewish parents at the age of ten. He studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn under Arthur Wesley Dow . Dow was a fortunate early influence on Weber as he was an "enlightened and vital teacher" in a time of conservative art instruction, a man who was interested in new approaches to creating art. Dow had met Paul Gauguin in Pont-Aven,

336-740: The School of Paris . His friends among fellow Americans included some equally adventurous young painters, such as Abraham Walkowitz , H. Lyman Sayen , and Patrick Henry Bruce . Avant-garde France in the years immediately before World War I was fertile and welcoming territory for Weber, then in his early twenties. He arrived in Paris in time to see a major Cézanne exhibition, meet the poet Guillaume Apollinaire , frequent Gertrude Stein 's salon, and enroll in classes in Matisse's private "Academie." Rousseau gave him some of his works; others, Weber purchased. He

378-619: The Clarence H. White School for Photography, Weber wrote his Cubist Poems that were to be published in 1914. In 1926, the artist released another collection entitled "Primitives: Poems and Woodcuts." Weber designed the modernist-style binding for the book, as well as providing eleven woodcuts for the illustrations. First published by Spiral Press in a run of 350 copies, original editions are now rare. Cubes, cubes, cubes, cubes, High, low and high, and higher, higher, Far, far out, out, far.. Billions of things upon things This for

420-641: The Depression. Regular devotees included Abby Aldrich Rockefeller , and Halpert drew on their relationship to convince Rockefeller to provide support for the Museum of Modern Art and, later, The Downtown Gallery. A third space, operating behind the main gallery, opened in 1930. Called the Daylight Gallery, it emphasized art and sculpture displayed in diffuse natural light, and featured elaborate iron silhouette doors Halpert had commissioned in 1929. In

462-574: The Downtown Gallery notably distinguished itself as one of the first art spaces in New York City to feature the works of African American artists like Jacob Lawrence and Horace Pippin . Notably, during World War II , when the Japanese American painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi faced classification as an enemy alien, the gallery organized an exhibition of his paintings in 1942. By 1931, the gallery had surpassed $ 100,000 in revenue. However,

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504-674: The Gallery, during which time Halpert was selling 19th-century pictures and weathervanes that she had gathered from New England. The Downtown Gallery records consist largely of correspondence with collectors, including Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Preston Harrison, Mr. and Mrs. Maxim Karolik, William H. Lane, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Beram K. Saklatwalla, Robert Tannahill, and Electra Havemeyer Webb, as well as with dealers such as Robert Carlen, Landau Gallery, Leicester Galleries, Mirski Gallery, and Isabel Carleton Wilde. In addition to showcasing artworks by women, immigrants, and Jewish artists,

546-753: The Maison Watteau in Montparnasse, then Paris's liveliest artist community. The following summer, the Halperts stayed at the artist colony founded by Hamilton Easter Field in Ogunquit , Maine . They rented a cottage from Robert Laurent , and mingled with other American artists who were residing there that summer: Stefan Hirsch , Bernard Karfiol , Walt Kuhn , Yasuo Kuniyoshi , Katherine Schmidt , Niles Spencer , and Marguerite and William Zorach , all of whom would later join her gallery. Many of

588-479: The People's Art Guild, and they married the following year. The couple remained in New York City, where Samuel continued to paint while Halpert worked to support them. In the 1920s and 1930s, marriage was still a popular goal among young women. While many young women worked, most stopped after marriage. However, Halpert continued to work to support her household while Samuel stayed home to paint. In 1925, they lived at

630-543: The adage, "The operation was successful, but the patient died." As art historian Sam Hunter wrote, "Weber's wistful, tentative Cubism provided the philistine press with their first solid target prior to the Armory Show." Weber was sustained by the respect of some eminent peers, such as photographers Alvin Langdon Coburn and Clarence White , and museum director John Cotton Dana , who saw to it that Weber

672-462: The age of 16, she worked at Bloomingdale's department store, first as a comptometer operator and then as an illustrator in the advertising department. She then worked in the foreign office of Macy's , before becoming an advertising manager at Stern Brothers , eventually working as an efficiency expert for the garment manufacturers Cohen-Goldman and Fishman & Co. Between 1920 and 1925, Halpert served in several roles with S.W. Straus & Company,

714-795: The art section of the American National Exhibition, sponsored by the United States Information Agency and the U.S. Department of Commerce ; she traveled to the Soviet Union with the exhibition, installed the show, and gave daily gallery talks in Russian. In 1952, to promote art history, Halpert established the Edith Gregor Halpert Foundation. Its activities included assisting universities to fund scholarships for

756-485: The artists in Ogunquit were interested in folk art and used it to decorate their homes and as inspiration in their work. Samuel and Halpert divorced in 1930, just before his untimely death caused by streptococci meningitis . Halpert's career began early. In order to support herself and her mother (and later, her husband), Halpert took a number of jobs in rapid succession and became a highly successful businesswoman. At

798-688: The artists' consent to the Alan Gallery, led by Halpert's assistant director Charles Alan. The Downtown Gallery relocated one last time to the Ritz Tower Concourse at 465 Park Avenue in 1965. Halpert served as organizer and director of the First Municipal Exhibition of American Art , Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1929. Her work with the WPA Federal Art Project took her to Washington D.C. in

840-463: The bank investment firm that originated real-estate mortgage bonds. "By 25, she was one of two female business executives in the city and quite well-off." Halpert had earned a substantial salary and was appointed to the board of directors. Despite her success and high status, she quit her association with Straus at her husband's urging in 1925. This left her with more time to devote to her marriage, and gave her an opportunity to refocus her ambitions on

882-483: The business of art. Upon Halpert's resignation, she and Samuel traveled to Paris, France, and stayed for nearly a year. While staying in France, Halpert noticed that French artists had more opportunities to sell and display art than their American counterparts. After returning to the U.S., Halpert decided to create a space where she could provide similar opportunities. Flush from bonuses earned in her business dealings, in

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924-531: The fall of 1926, Halpert used that money to open Our Gallery in Manhattan at 113 West 13th Street with her friend Berthe Kroll Goldsmith. The gallery featured contemporary American art, often by friends of Halpert and her husband, artist Samuel Halpert . The following year 1927, the name of the gallery changed to the Downtown Gallery at the suggestion of artist William Zorach . In early brochures, Halpert and Goldsmith described their mission thus: "The Downtown Gallery has no prejudice for any one school. Its selection

966-553: The first director of the Museum of Modern Art . In 1930, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of his work, the first solo exhibition at that museum of an American artist. He was praised as a "pioneer of modern art in America" in a 1945 Life magazine article. In 1948, Look magazine reported on a survey among art experts to determine the greatest living American artists; Weber was rated second, behind only John Marin . He

1008-745: The gallery relocated to 43 East 51st Street and, in 1945, she moved again, this time to 32 East 51st Street. As an advisor for the WPA Federal Art Project , Halpert had access to many artists outside of New York, many of whom she exhibited. She also hosted exchange exhibitions with the Boris Mirski Gallery , The Downtown Gallery's similarly avant-garde Boston counterpart. Halpert also worked to attract artists formerly represented by Alfred Stieglitz who died in 1946. She also took on artists' estates, including one from former Stieglitz artist Arthur Dove . In 1941, Halpert and "her friend Alain Locke,

1050-440: The gallery underwent a name change to the Downtown Gallery. Early promotional materials for the Downtown Gallery emphasized Halpert and Goldsmith's commitment to artistic quality and enduring value over transient trends, stating: "The Downtown Gallery has no prejudice for any one school. Its selection is driven by quality — by what is enduring — not by what is in vogue." In 1929, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller became an early customer of

1092-762: The study of contemporary American art and championing the rights of artists to control the sale and reproduction of their work. In recognition of her dedication to the arts, Halpert received the Art in America Award in 1959, a USIA Citation for Distinguished Service in 1960, and the First Annual International Silver Prize from the University of Connecticut for "distinguished contribution to the arts" in 1968. Max Weber (artist) Max Weber (April 18, 1881 – October 4, 1961)

1134-410: The subsequent year witnessed a significant downturn, with revenue plummeting by 50 per cent. In 1935, Edith Halpert became the sole proprietor of the business, overseeing its operations until her passing in 1970. Following her demise, her niece, Nathaly Baum, assumed control of the gallery until its closure in 1973. In 1934, Halpert organized the "Mile of Art" exhibition at Radio City Music Hall with

1176-554: The summer of 1936 to develop the Exhibition and Allocation Program, which facilitated nationwide circulation for works from regional art centers. In 1937, she formed the Bureau for Architectural Sculpture and Murals, a central clearing-house from which architects could review and select work by artists and sculptors experienced in working in architectural settings (similar in mission to her Daylight Gallery). Halpert served as curator of

1218-530: The support of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Nelson Rockefeller to assist artists struggling during the Great Depression. She relocated the Downtown Gallery uptown to 51st Street in 1940 and to 57th Street in 1965. Several works now in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art traveled through the Downtown Gallery, including paintings by Stuart Davis (Men and Machine; 1934), Charles Demuth (Red Poppies; 1929), Charles Sheeler (Americana; 1931), and

1260-472: The west side of Harlem , then a predominantly Jewish immigrant neighborhood, and Halpert attended the progressive Wadleigh High School for Girls . At the age of 14, she further Americanized her name to Edith Georgina Fein and began to pursue a career as an artist. She studied drawing under Leon Kroll and Ivan Olinsky at the National Academy of Design and life drawing with George Bridgeman at

1302-433: The writer and theorist of black culture, Halpert organized Negro Art in America , a survey of 41 artists that was the first such exhibition in a New York gallery. Not long after, Halpert exhibited Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series, a 60-panel memorial to The Great Migration, which is now owned jointly by MOMA and Washington D.C.'s Phillips Collection. After 1936, all of Halpert's artists were eventually transferred, without

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1344-507: Was Henry Jarvis Raymond , a young Whig journalist who, along with his wife, began raising their first son in the building within a year of its construction. Our Gallery served as a dedicated space for showcasing contemporary American art, often featuring works by artists within Halpert's social circle, including her husband, Samuel Halpert . In the subsequent year of 1927, prompted by the artistic community, particularly artist William Zorach ,

1386-528: Was a Jewish-American painter and one of the first American Cubist painters who, in later life, turned to more figurative Jewish themes in his art. He is best known today for Chinese Restaurant (1915), in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art , "the finest canvas of his Cubist phase," in the words of art historian Avis Berman. Born in the Polish city of Białystok , then part of

1428-698: Was a devoted student of Japanese art, and defended the advanced modernist painting and sculpture he saw at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. In 1905, after teaching in Virginia and Minnesota, Weber had saved enough money to travel to Europe, where he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and acquainted himself with the work of such modernists as Henri Rousseau (who became a good friend), Henri Matisse , Pablo Picasso , and other members of

1470-533: Was also closely acquainted with Wilhelmina Weber Furlong and Thomas Furlong , whom he met at the Art Students League , where he taught from 1919 to 1921 and 1926 to 1927. Weber died in Great Neck, New York in 1961. He was the subject of a major retrospective at the Jewish Museum in 1982. Weber evidently was a prickly personality even with his allies. He and Stieglitz had a falling-out, and Weber

1512-421: Was an occasion for "one of the most merciless critical whippings that any artist has received in America." The reviews were "of an almost hysterical violence." He was attacked for his "brutal, vulgar, and unnecessary art license." Even a critic who usually tried to be sympathetic to new art, James Gibbons Huneker , protested that the artist's clever technique had left viewers with no real picture and made use of

1554-488: Was born Edith Gregoryevna Fivoosiovitch to Gregor and Frances Lucom Fivoosiovitch in Odessa (then Russia , now Ukraine ) on April 25, 1900. She had a sister, Sonia, five years older. Shortly after the deadly pogroms of October 1905 , Halpert immigrated to New York City in 1906 with her mother and sister (her father died in 1904 of tuberculosis ). At this time the family name changed to Fivisovitch. They initially settled on

1596-648: Was not represented in the famous Armory Show because his friend, Arthur B. Davies , one of the show's organizers, had only allotted him space for two paintings. In a fit of pique at Davies, he withdrew entirely from the exhibition. Other artists in the Stieglitz circle kept their distance, especially after Weber told people that there were only three indisputably great modern painters: Cézanne, Rousseau, and himself. "Almost without exception, they found him obnoxious: opinionated, rude, intolerant." In time, Weber's work found more adherents, including Alfred H. Barr, Jr. ,

1638-411: Was responsible for Rousseau's first exhibition in the United States. In 1909 he returned to New York and helped to introduce Cubism to America. He is now considered one of the most significant early American Cubists, but the reception his work received in New York at the time was profoundly discouraging. Critical response to his paintings in a 1911 show at the 291 gallery, run by Alfred Stieglitz ,

1680-900: Was the first commercial art space in Greenwich Village . When it was founded in 1926, it was the only New York gallery dedicated exclusively to contemporary American art by living artists. Over her forty-year career, Halpert showcased such modern art luminaries as Elie Nadelman , Max Weber , Marguerite and William Zorach , Stuart Davis , Peggy Bacon , Charles Sheeler , Marsden Hartley , Yasuo Kuniyoshi , Ben Shahn , Jack Levine , William Steig , Jacob Lawrence , Walter Meigs, Arthur Dove , John Marin , Georgia O'Keeffe , and many others. Halpert later expanded her business to include American folk art, and certain nineteenth-century American painters, including Raphaelle Peale , William Michael Harnett , and John Frederick Peto , whom she considered to be precursors to American modernism. Halpert

1722-403: Was the subject of a major traveling retrospective in 1949. He became more popular in the 1940s and 1950s for his figurative work, often expressionist renderings of Jewish families, rabbis, and Talmudic scholars, than for the early modernist work he had abandoned circa 1920 and on which his current reputation is founded. Not everyone believed that Weber fulfilled his early potential as he became

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1764-513: Was the subject of a one-man exhibition at the Newark Museum in 1913, the first modernist exhibition in an American museum. For a few years, Weber enjoyed a productive if rocky relationship with Stieglitz, and he published two essays in Stieglitz's journal Camera Work . (He also wrote Cubist poems and published a book, Essays on Art, in 1916.) So poor was Weber in these years that he camped out for some weeks in Stieglitz's gallery. Weber

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