The Bottom Line
The Girl with the Gallery is a biography of Edith Gregor Halpert, who owned and ran the Downtown Gallery in New York for 44 years, helping to create the market for contemporary American art. Her gallery open in 1926, predating Moma, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim museums.
It takes you into a part of the art world that's crucial for every successful painter wanting to sell their work, yet not generally covered in books on the 20th century art. I found it a riveting read, dropping names of artists I recognized and didn't, details of what it takes to be successful, and snippets on the artist-dealer relationship.
Pros
- Biography of a key 20th century figure in the gallery side of the art world.
- Provides painters will an insight into what it takes to run a successful gallery.
- Deals with the development of the market for modern American as well as folk art.
Cons
- Limited color section with reproductions of art (but then it is a biography not a catalog).
- If you like gossipy biographies, rather than factual, you may find it a bit dry.
Description
- Published by Public Affairs, ISBN 9781586483029 (hardback), 9781586485122 (paperback), 464 pages.
- Black-and-white photos sprinkled through the text. Eight page color insert featuring a few of the works / artists mentioned.
- Color insert includes two paintings of Edith Halpert by her husband Sam Halpert.
- Author's notes are listed by page, not by footnote number, which can make finding a particular reference cumbersome.
- Author Lindsay Pollock is an arts journalist based in New York.
- The Downtown Gallery Records can be accessed online at the Archives of American Art
Guide Review - The Girl with the Gallery by Lindsay Pollock
Many painters fantasize about having a New York gallery owner chasing after them and their paintings, and we certainly take for granted that there is a market for contemporary painting. But when Edith Halpert started her gallery in New York in 1926, there wasn't much demand for American art at all, it was for paintings by European artists. The Girl with the Gallery takes you into the other side of 20th century art, into the life and work of a gallerist who contributed much to the establishment of the modern art market and approaches to selling art.
I found it a riveting read on multiple levels, including the "women makes it in a man's world" aspect, the insights into the NY gallery world, and the look at an art dealer's relationship with her artists, collectors, and competitors.
Thanks to Halpert's donation of her papers to the Archives of American Art (part of the Smithsonian) and interviews, author Lindsay Pollock was able to do a lot of thorough research. But the book moves along at a pace and doesn't get bogged down in detail. Pollock also makes it clear when she's skeptical about a claim or fact.
Spanning the central decades of the 20th century, it deals with famous and obscure painters; art patrons with annual art budgets; the creation of a market for folk art; aiming for affordable prices (of original, and print) and allowing payment by installment; the drive of a workaholic devoted to her gallery's success and to getting her favorite artists into the collections of important museums.
Halpert's gallery survived the Depression, the Second World War, and the anti-communist McCarthy era, but faded with her decline in old age, until she and it were forgotten. This book reinstates a significant chapter in the 20th century art timeline. Read it and be astounded by the energy and drive of this woman.
