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45-706: 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

90-516: 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 ,

135-626: A huge effect on her art, influencing her to paint even more abstractly than she had in the past, sometimes even completely flat. She also began to produce brightly colored Fauvist landscapes with thick black outlines. The trip ended with a return to California in 1912. After Thompson returned to Fresno, she spent July and August in the mountains to the north-east of Fresno around Big Creek and Shaver Lake . The lower Sierra Nevada mountains appealed to her because of their immensity and natural beauty. Ultimately, her parents' disapproval of her artistic pursuits would end her time there and cause her to destroy

180-513: A large amount of her work. Upon her return to the US, she exhibited in Fresno and Los Angeles. Soon, she moved to New York City and married William Zorach the same day, December 24, 1912. The couple immediately began to collaborate artistically. Both entered artwork in the 1913 Armory Show . Their success continued as both were invited to participate in the 1916 Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters. It

225-467: A nice girl would paint such wild pictures." After Paris, she took a lengthy tour of the world with her aunt in 1911–12. They visited Jerusalem, Egypt, India, Burma, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Hawaii. Impressed with the foreign places she had seen and eager to write about her experiences, she sent articles to her childhood newspaper, the Fresno Morning Republican . This trip would also have

270-422: A positive response. Using textiles as a medium followed the modernist patterns of the turn of the century as new art became increasingly less narrative. It broke down the barriers between crafts and fine art, and William and Marguerite's collaboration broke down gender barriers. Her works were popular and interesting to the public, but art critics gave them mixed reviews because of the low status of embroidery within

315-519: 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,

360-894: A prolific artist until the end of her life. In later years, she worked for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression . Her 1938 oil-on-canvas mural in the lobby at the Peterborough, New Hampshire post office , entitled New England Post in Winter, showed her modernist talent. In 1940, she completed the mural Autumn for the WPA in Ripley, Tennessee . Marguerite also taught at Columbia University. Later in life, she suffered from macular degeneration in her eyes. This greatly inhibited her ability to produce textiles, however she

405-674: A style that was uniquely her own. She exhibited at the 1910 Société des Artistes Indépendants , and the 1911 Salon d'Automne , both renowned for their modernist themes. While in Paris, she socialized with Pablo Picasso , ex-patriate Gertrude Stein , Henri Rousseau , and Henri Matisse through her "Aunt Addie's" connections. At the Académie de La Palette , she first met her future husband and artistic collaborator, William Zorach . William admired her passionate individuality, and he said of her modernist Fauvist artwork "I just couldn't understand why such

450-460: 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

495-634: 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

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540-623: 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

585-559: 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,

630-669: 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,

675-730: 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

720-597: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has several Zorach oils and watercolors. The Monticello, Indiana post office contains her 1942 Section of Fine Arts mural entitled Hay Making . In 1964, Zorach received a D.F.A. from Bates College . In 2007, the Gerald Peters Gallery held a retrospective exhibition of her work. In 2010, her watercolors were exhibited at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. In 2011,

765-475: 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

810-462: 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,

855-746: 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

900-480: 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

945-652: 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

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990-463: 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

1035-460: The birth of their daughter, Marguerite found that working with textiles would allow her to give more attention to her children. While both William and Marguerite experimented with textile art, Marguerite was more prolific and better-known for her work. She created mainly embroideries or batiks that stylistically resembled her Fauvist paintings. Her embroideries were first shown in New York in 1918, to

1080-479: 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

1125-531: 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

1170-429: The family spent the summers in the countryside of New England. In 1922, they visited Gaston Lachaise at Georgetown, Maine , and later bought a house . They were friends with Marsden Hartley , F. Holland Day , Gertrude Kasebier , and Paul Strand . Marguerite also served as the president of the modernist New York Society of Women Artists in the mid-1920s. One of Marguerite and William's most influential summers

1215-430: The fine arts. Today they are celebrated for their feminist subjects and innovative style. Zorach's first exhibition was at Charles David's gallery in New York. Many times the sales of Marguerite's textiles are what kept the family from poverty. Zorach also took great delight in making clothes for her husband and children, although they were not always the conventional style of the times. Marguerite Zorach continued to be

1260-732: 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,

1305-440: 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

1350-507: The invitation of her aunt, Harriet Adelaide Harris. Marguerite visited the Salon d'Automne the very day that she arrived in Paris. Here, she saw many works by Henri Matisse and André Derain , known as the Fauvists , or Wild Beasts. The Fauvists became known for their use of arbitrary colors and spontaneous, instinctive brushwork. Thompson's encounters with these works had a strong impact on her. It

1395-756: 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. Marguerite Zorach Marguerite Zorach (née Thompson ; September 25, 1887 – June 27, 1968)

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1440-410: 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

1485-544: 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

1530-522: 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

1575-464: 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

1620-483: 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

1665-502: 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 ,

1710-559: Was able to continue painting. She died in New York in 1968. While Zorach was an impressive and prolific artist, it was not until after her death that she received the same recognition as her husband. She was a talented painter who was influential in progressing artistic Modernism in the United States. Many art historians consider her the "First Woman Artist of California." The Smithsonian American Art Museum has over two hundred pieces of Zorach's in their collection. The collection of

1755-519: Was an American Fauvist painter , textile artist, and graphic designer, and was an early exponent of modernism in America. She won the 1920 Logan Medal of the Arts . Marguerite Thompson was born in Santa Rosa, California . Her father, a lawyer for Napa Valley vineyards, and mother were descended from New England seafarers and Pennsylvania Quakers . While she was young, the family moved to Fresno and it

1800-519: Was at this time that William and Marguerite began to experiment with other art forms such as poetry. Marguerite gave birth to a son, Tessim Zorach, in 1915, and a daughter, Dahlov Zorach , in 1917. Eventually, the pair settled in Greenwich Village and fondly called their house the "Post-Impressionist" studio. It became a meeting place of sorts, reminiscent of small salons in Paris for artists to collaborate and share ideas. At Marguerite's insistence

1845-484: 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

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1890-540: Was in 1920 when they spent the summer in Yosemite Valley , painting the landscape. The couple, with their family, hiked, sketched, and painted the beautiful national park in the Fauvist style. The trip greatly moved the two, and themes from the trip would appear in many of their later works, including Marguerite's works Memories of my California Childhood (1921) and Nevada Falls, Yosemite Valley, California (1920). After

1935-892: 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

1980-652: Was the intention of her aunt that Thompson attend the École des Beaux-Arts , but Thompson was turned away as she had never drawn a nude from life. Harris then attempted to have Thompson enrolled at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, to study under the academic painter Francis Auburtin. Thompson had no interest in the formulas of academic painting and instead she chose to attend the Post-Impressionist school Académie de La Palette , where she studied under John Duncan Fergusson and Jacques-Emile Blanche . The academy encouraged her to pursue her own interests and paint in

2025-487: Was there that she began her education. She started to draw at a very young age and her parents provided her with an education that was heavily influenced by the liberal arts, including music lessons in elementary school, and four years of Latin at Fresno High School . She was one of a small group of women admitted to Stanford University in 1908. While at Stanford, Thompson continued to show aptitude for art, and rather than completing her degree, she traveled to France at

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