THE GIRL WITH THE GALLERY Edith Gregor Halpert and the Making of the Modern Art Market LINDSAY POLLOCK

"Riveting… Pollock paints a dynamic portrait of a neglected visionary… 'Girl' skillfully details how one woman's monomania transformed the art world, and eventually secured her place as a titan of American art. Pollock has masterfully recorded her life and times - and restored her to a place of honor."--The New York Post

"The Girl with the Gallery…resurrects the sassy, savvy art dealings of Halpert…. a highly readable, bittersweet rediscovery of an art dealer who made a difference."—Miami Herald

"The art dealer Edith Gregor Halpert liked to say she was a little girl from Odessa who got her start as an entrepreneur selling penny candy. Fleeing immigrant life in Harlem, Halpert sought refuge in art classes and in the bohemian world south of Fourteenth Street. In 1926, after it became clear that she was better at spotting good art than at making it, she opened a gallery. The Downtown Gallery soon emerged as an influential dealer, stocking the collections of wealthy patrons with works by American artists like Stuart Davis and Max Weber. Pollock's amply researched account...successfully conveys the boldness of a woman who aggressively championed her artists, buoying them through personal crises and the Depression, and helping them win the respect of the Eurocentric New York art world."--The New Yorker

"A welcome book indeed. It tells not just the story of Edith Halpert, but illuminates a whole period in American art, a period defined in large part by Halpert's Downtown Gallery… It is a rich panorama, told with a pleasing briskness belying the book's more than 450 pages. Ms. Pollock has researched her subject with formidable thoroughness, yet does not linger on minutiae. The Girl With a Gallery is an essential text on the New York art world of the 1920s through the 1960s, as well as a definitive account of a fascinating American woman."—New York Sun

"A fascinating account of how one young woman, who entered the art world with plenty of business smarts but few connections in the world of wealthy collectors, became the most powerful dealer in New York… Pollock's book tells the story in rich detail… It resurrects the energy, complexity, and optimism of that long ago time when modern art heralded a new era of creativity and hope. In its pages, Edith Halpert, the young girl with a gallery, comes back to life and gets the recognition she clearly deserves." —ARTnews

"For 40 years, Edith Gregor Halpert ran the Downtown Gallery on West 13th Street in New York, one of the first and most influential galleries of the pioneers of Modern art, including Ben Shahn, Georgia O'Keeffe and Stuart Davis. It was also one of the first galleries to show primitive and folk art. Halpert, a Russian Jewish immigrant, was an aggressive, ingenious promoter. She opened the gallery in 1926 when she was 26, surviving the Depression and competition from the new Abstractionists by tirelessly courting the Rockefellers and Guggenheims of the art world."—Los Angeles Times

"Edith Halpert arrived in New York in 1906, a penniless Jewish immigrant from Odessa. She became one of those indomitable women who refuse to let circumstance circumscribe their worlds. In 1926, she founded the Downtown Gallery, which helped give modern American art a voice—and a paycheck. Lindsay Pollock vividly brings Halpert, once in danger of being forgotten, back to life. Her book is an essential act of historical recovery."—Mark Stevens, author the Pulitzer Prize-winning De Kooning: An American Master

"Sitting squarely in the middle [of artists and collectors] and always trying to tinker with the balance of things was the enigmatic, beautiful, feisty, often brilliant, but always larger-than-life Halpert. How she accomplished all she did with the many players who floated in and out of her gallery, became her friends, lovers, and enemies but never her confidantes, is the subject of an engaging new biography."—Antiques magazine

"In her resounding first book, art journalist Pollock tells for the first time the story of Halpert's life, a tale of conviction and chutzpah that is by turns charming, historically significant, and sad… Framed by a fresh and lively chronicle of the coalescence of New York's art world, Pollock's riveting portrait celebrates an inspired defender of artistic freedom."—Booklist

"Just in time, before collective memory falters, Lindsay Pollock has given us this lively, illuminating, and wonderfully light-hearted portrait of Edith Halpert, one of the great characters in the story of American art."- —Calvin Tomkins

"In this polished work, Pollock emphasizes Halpert's steely business mind and her unflagging commitment to bringing art to ‘Mr. and Mrs. America.' A significant contribution to American beaux arts." —Kirkus

"A uniquely American story: a plucky heroine escapes Russia with her parents, grows up in New York poverty and ends up owning one of the most influential and successful art galleries of the 20th century, one that virtually created the market for American art… Most interesting in Pollock's account are Halpert's difficult interactions with others in the business and with her artists, particularly Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe. It's surprising that Halpert, who paved the way for women in a male-dominated field, is so little known today; this book is long overdue." —Publishers Weekly