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Edith Halpert and the Downtown Gallery

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THE ART SHOW / MARCH 1-5, 2017 EDITH HALPERT AND THE DOWNTOWN GALLERY “Our Gallery has no special prejudice for any school. Its selection is directed by what is enduring – not by what is vogue.” edith halpert, 1926 Edith Halpert opened the Downtown Gallery Yasuo Kuniyoshi and William Zorach figured prominently. in Greenwich Village in 1926, at a time when only In 1934 she convinced Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to support a handful of galleries in New York showed contemporary the first municipal art exhibition in New York City. With the American art. This pioneering gallery was open for more than help of Nelson Rockefeller, who gave her space in the new 40 years and established or furthered the careers of many of RCA building, she exhibited more than 1000 works of art the most important artists of the American Modernist move- throughout three floors. ment, as well as their peers. Halpert’s innovative marketing and sales techniques, developed during her previous career as As Director of Exhibitions for the Federal Arts Project in a successful business efficiency expert, facilitated a wholly new 1936, Halpert organized exhibitions for the Works Progress and dynamic approach to the gallery business. She continually Administration which sent thousands of artworks by Ameri- invented new marketing schemes and exhibition ideas to foster can artists to locations around the country. Halpert also pro- new buyers and make sales. Some of her best clients became moted American artists abroad. In 1959, the U.S. government the most important collectors of their time, and she sold works sent her to Russia to organize and install the U.S. National Art to dozens of museums throughout the U.S. Exhibition in Moscow. This exhibition was part of a cultural exchange between the two countries and was the first signif- Halpert created the market for American Folk Art, sales of icant show of American art in Moscow. The exhibition was which helped sustain the gallery during difficult economic very controversial and drew enormous crowds of more than times. She was instrumental in forming two of the country’s 20,000 visitors daily. most important folk art collections: the Abby Aldrich Rocke- feller Folk Art Collection (later donated to Colonial Williams- Edith Halpert died in 1970. The artwork in her estate was sold burg) and Electra Havemeyer Webb’s collection, which forms at Sotheby’s in 1973 and achieved sales results of $3.6 million – a a critical component of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. spectacular sum at the time. The auction set many sale records, Halpert rediscovered the work of the great 19th century trompe thereby putting 20th century American art on the map. l’oeil painter William M. Harnett. Her 1939 exhibition of his paintings was a major showcase for the artist and subsequent Our presentation at The Art Show is an homage to Halpert sales of his work proved integral to the gallery’s success. She and the many important artists she championed. It is also a also broke new ground in 1941 by presenting the first major tribute to a pioneering art dealer whose devotion to her artists exhibition of African American artists, American Negro Art. and indefatigable efforts to promote their work were legendary. This seminal show included the work of forty-one 19th and Her extraordinary aesthetic vision and fierce independent spirit 20th century African American artists including Romare transformed the American art market. Bearden, Beauford Delaney, Robert Duncanson, Jacob Law- rence, Norman Lewis, Archibald Motley, Horace Pippin and Hale Woodruff. Halpert also exhibited Lawrence’s Migration Series and later brokered the sale of these works evenly between The Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection. Edith Halpert made major contributions to developing the American art market beyond the walls of the Downtown Gallery. With an exhibition in Atlantic City in 1929, Halpert introduced the concept of the municipal art exhibition to publicly promote the work of contemporary artists. Halpert gathered the leading artists of the day, collaborated with other prominent dealers and enlisted the progressive young designer, Donald Deskey, to provide décor to enliven Samuel Halpert (1880-1930) Portrait of Edith G. Halpert, 1928 the large convention hall space. Palmer Museum of Art of The Pennsylvania State University, Gift of Joseph M. Erdelac Halpert was extremely dedicated to her artists and worked tirelessly to promote their careers. She was instrumental in special thanks to The Archives of American Art securing commissions for her artists to decorate rooms in the and Lindsay Pollock and her superb biography of Halpert, new Radio City Music Hall, collaborating again with Donald The Girl with the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the Deskey. Stuart Davis (see our example here), Robert Laurent, Making of the Modern Art Market. STUART DAVIS GEORGE AULT Windshield, c. 1930-31 BEN SHAHN East River, 1925 Gouache on paper GEORGE L.K. MORRIS Sunday Afternoon, 1949 Oil on canvas 12 x 17 inches sight Airplane Factory, 1945-47 Tempera on paper, mounted 21 x 16 inches GASTON LACHAISE Oil on canvas on board Standing Nude, Right Hand 24 x 16 inches 18 x 14 inches Raised, Modeled c. 1925/26, cast c. 1930 Bronze on original black Belgian marble base ARTHUR DOVE 11 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 3 5/8 inches OSCAR BLUEMNER Untitled Abstraction, c. 1939 CHARLES SHEELER Study for ‘Morning Light’ Watercolor and ink on paper Ephrata, 1934 (Dover Hills, October), 1916 5 x 7 inches Tempera on Masonite Charcoal wash on paper ROBERT LAURENT GEORGE L.K. MORRIS 3 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches 20 x 30 inches Bathers and Sailboat, c. 1915 Salome’s Dance, 1948 Carved wood panel on Gouache and collage ebonized mount on paper 6 1/4 x 26 inches 13 7/8 x 10 inches NILES SPENCER MARSDEN HARTLEY New York, 1922 A Lady in Laughter, 1919 Oil on canvas Oil on board JACOB LAWRENCE 17 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches 23 x 18 1/2 inches CHARLES BURCHFIELD Shoe Shine Boys, 1948 Landscape with Bird and Tempera on board Cottage, 1946-59 20 x 24 inches GEORGE L.K. MORRIS Watercolor on paper Untitled, c. 1937-42 48 x 39 3/4 inches Watercolor on paper 11 ¾ x 9 inches CARL WALTERS Duck, 1933 MARSDEN HARTLEY Glazed terra cotta New England Sea View - 6 5/8 x 10 x 5 3/4 inches RALSTON CRAWFORD Fish House, 1934 Oil on academy board Flour Mill, c. 1937 Oil on canvas 18 x 24 inches JACK LEVINE 11 x 19 inches Yehudah (King Judah), c. 1955-57 Oil on board ELIE NADELMAN 10 x 8 inches Head, c. 1912-13 Wood MAX WEBER 6 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches New York, 1912 11 3/4 inches (with base) Oil on canvas 21 1/4 x 25 1/4 inches RALSTON CRAWFORD Cologne, 1952-53 WALT KUHN Pen and ink on paper Joe Gomez, 1945 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches Oil on canvas 10 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches JOHN MARIN Brooklyn Bridge Series, 1910 GEORGIA O’KEEFFE Watercolor on paper Toward Abiquiu, NM (Gray MARGUERITE ZORACH 15 x 17 3/8 inches Hills, New Mexico), 1930 Family in Boat, Study for Oil on canvas ‘The Storm’, 1919 16 x 30 inches Pencil on paper 11 x 10 1/4 inches STUART DAVIS Final Study for Radio City Music Hall Mural, 1932 Ink, blue crayon (grid) and YASUO KUNIYOSHI traces of pencil on paper Miss Grace, 1921 22 x 34 1/2 inches Ink on paper JOHN MARIN 12 1/2 x 10 inches Stonington Harbor, 1922 WILLIAM ZORACH Watercolor on paper Pigeon, 1935 16 7/8 x 19 5/8 inches Labrador granite 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches base: 7 ½ x 6 x 2 inches.
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