THE ART SHOW / MARCH 1-5, 2017
EDI TH HA L PERT A N D
THE DOW N T O W N G A L L ER Y
“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
in Greenwich Village in 1926, at a time when only
a handful of galleries in New York showed contemporary
American art. This pioneering gallery was open for more than
40 years and established or furthered the careers of many of
the most important artists of the American Modernist movement, as well as their peers. Halpert’s innovative marketing
and sales techniques, developed during her previous career as
a successful business efficiency expert, facilitated a wholly new
and dynamic approach to the gallery business. She continually
invented new marketing schemes and exhibition ideas to foster
new buyers and make sales. Some of her best clients became
the most important collectors of their time, and she sold works
to dozens of museums throughout the U.S.
Halpert created the market for American Folk Art, sales of
which helped sustain the gallery during difficult economic
times. She was instrumental in forming two of the country’s
most important folk art collections: the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection (later donated to Colonial Williamsburg) and Electra Havemeyer Webb’s collection, which forms
a critical component of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.
Halpert rediscovered the work of the great 19th century trompe
l’oeil painter William M. Harnett. Her 1939 exhibition of his
paintings was a major showcase for the artist and subsequent
sales of his work proved integral to the gallery’s success. She
also broke new ground in 1941 by presenting the first major
exhibition of African American artists, American Negro Art.
This seminal show included the work of forty-one 19th and
20th century African American artists including Romare
Bearden, Beauford Delaney, Robert Duncanson, Jacob Lawrence, 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
the large convention hall space.
Halpert was extremely dedicated to her artists and worked
tirelessly to promote their careers. She was instrumental in
securing commissions for her artists to decorate rooms in the
new Radio City Music Hall, collaborating again with Donald
Deskey. Stuart Davis (see our example here), Robert Laurent,
Yasuo Kuniyoshi and William Zorach figured prominently.
In 1934 she convinced Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to support
the first municipal art exhibition in New York City. With the
help of Nelson Rockefeller, who gave her space in the new
RCA building, she exhibited more than 1000 works of art
throughout three floors.
As Director of Exhibitions for the Federal Arts Project in
1936, Halpert organized exhibitions for the Works Progress
Administration which sent thousands of artworks by American artists to locations around the country. Halpert also promoted American artists abroad. In 1959, the U.S. government
sent her to Russia to organize and install the U.S. National Art
Exhibition in Moscow. This exhibition was part of a cultural
exchange between the two countries and was the first significant show of American art in Moscow. The exhibition was
very controversial and drew enormous crowds of more than
20,000 visitors daily.
Edith Halpert died in 1970. The artwork in her estate was sold
at Sotheby’s in 1973 and achieved sales results of $3.6 million – a
spectacular sum at the time. The auction set many sale records,
thereby putting 20th century American art on the map.
Our presentation at The Art Show is an homage to Halpert
and the many important artists she championed. It is also a
tribute to a pioneering art dealer whose devotion to her artists
and indefatigable efforts to promote their work were legendary.
Her extraordinary aesthetic vision and fierce independent spirit
transformed the American art market.
Samuel Halpert (1880-1930)
Portrait of Edith G. Halpert, 1928
Palmer Museum of Art of The Pennsylvania State University,
Gift of Joseph M. Erdelac
special thanks to The Archives of American Art
and Lindsay Pollock and her superb biography of Halpert,
The Girl with the Gallery: Edith Gregor Halpert and the
Making of the Modern Art Market.
GEORGE AULT
East River, 1925
Oil on canvas
21 x 16 inches
OSCAR BLUEMNER
Study for ‘Morning Light’
(Dover Hills, October), 1916
Charcoal wash on paper
20 x 30 inches
CHARLES BURCHFIELD
Landscape with Bird and
Cottage, 1946-59
Watercolor on paper
48 x 39 3/4 inches
RALSTON CRAWFORD
Flour Mill, c. 1937
Oil on canvas
11 x 19 inches
RALSTON CRAWFORD
Cologne, 1952-53
Pen and ink on paper
8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
STUART DAVIS
Final Study for Radio City
Music Hall Mural, 1932
Ink, blue crayon (grid) and
traces of pencil on paper
22 x 34 1/2 inches
STUART DAVIS
Windshield, c. 1930-31
Gouache on paper
12 x 17 inches sight
ARTHUR DOVE
Untitled Abstraction, c. 1939
Watercolor and ink on paper
5 x 7 inches
GASTON L ACHAISE
Standing Nude, Right Hand
Raised,
Modeled c. 1925/26,
cast c. 1930
Bronze on original black
Belgian marble base
11 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 3 5/8 inches
ROBERT L AURENT
Bathers and Sailboat, c. 1915
Carved wood panel on
ebonized mount
6 1/4 x 26 inches
MARSDEN HARTLEY
A Lady in Laughter, 1919
Oil on board
23 x 18 1/2 inches
MARSDEN HARTLEY
New England Sea View Fish House, 1934
Oil on academy board
18 x 24 inches
WALT KUHN
Joe Gomez, 1945
Oil on canvas
10 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches
YASUO KUNIYOSHI
Miss Grace, 1921
Ink on paper
12 1/2 x 10 inches
JACOB L AWRENCE
Shoe Shine Boys, 1948
Tempera on board
20 x 24 inches
GEORGE L.K. MORRIS
Airplane Factory, 1945-47
Oil on canvas
24 x 16 inches
GEORGE L.K. MORRIS
Salome’s Dance, 1948
Gouache and collage
on paper
13 7/8 x 10 inches
BEN SHAHN
Sunday Afternoon, 1949
Tempera on paper, mounted
on board
18 x 14 inches
CHARLES SHEELER
Ephrata, 1934
Tempera on Masonite
3 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches
NILES SPENCER
New York, 1922
Oil on canvas
17 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches
GEORGE L.K. MORRIS
Untitled, c. 1937-42
Watercolor on paper
11 ¾ x 9 inches
CARL WALTERS
Duck, 1933
Glazed terra cotta
6 5/8 x 10 x 5 3/4 inches
JACK LEVINE
Yehudah (King Judah),
c. 1955-57
Oil on board
10 x 8 inches
JOHN MARIN
Brooklyn Bridge Series, 1910
Watercolor on paper
15 x 17 3/8 inches
JOHN MARIN
Stonington Harbor, 1922
Watercolor on paper
16 7/8 x 19 5/8 inches
ELIE NADELMAN
Head, c. 1912-13
Wood
6 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches
11 3/4 inches (with base)
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
Toward Abiquiu, NM (Gray
Hills, New Mexico), 1930
Oil on canvas
16 x 30 inches
MAX WEBER
New York, 1912
Oil on canvas
21 1/4 x 25 1/4 inches
MARGUERITE ZORACH
Family in Boat, Study for
‘The Storm’, 1919
Pencil on paper
11 x 10 1/4 inches
WILLIAM ZORACH
Pigeon, 1935
Labrador granite
6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches
base: 7 ½ x 6 x 2 inches