Jay Leyda Portrait of Julien Levy, c. 1932 Collection of Jean Farley Levy, Bridgewater, CT

From August 13 to October 31, 1998, The Equitable Gallery will present an exhibition on Julien Levy (1906-1981), one of the most influential art dealers of the modernist era. Organized by The Equitable Gallery, and guest co-curated by Ingrid Schaffner and Lisa Jacobs, Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallerycomprises paintings, sculpture, and photographs from museum and private collections, as well as works of art and ephemera from Levy's own collection--much of which is being shown for the first time. The extraordinary selection of objects exhibited and acquired by Julien Levy invites the reappraisal of a particularly rich moment in art history that was profoundly shaped by Levy's daring and imagination.

The Equitable Gallery is sponsored by The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States.

The Julien Levy Gallery, which opened in New York in 1931 and closed in 1949, coincided with a period of transition when the cultural avant-garde left Paris and established itself in New York. Levy played an essential role in this shift as a champion of Surrealism, Neo-Romanticism, Magic Realism, Machine Abstraction, Applied Arts, as well as experimental photography and film. Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery, is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue published by The MIT Press, including essays by Schaffner, Carolyn Burke, and Steven Watson, as well as a chronology compiled by Jacobs, and reminiscences by Rosamond Bernier, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Norman Mailer, Dorothea Tanning, and others.

Joseph Cornell A Dressing Room for Gilles, 1939 Richard L. Feigen, New York

Both the catalogue and the exhibition will focus on works owned or exhibited by Julien Levy and their historic impact on the American art world of the 1930s and 40s. Artists represented in the exhibition include: Berenice Abbott, Eugčne Atget, Herbert Bayer, Eugene Berman, Ilse Bing, Peter Blume, Victor Brauner, Paul Cadmus, Leonora Carrington, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Giorgio de Chirico, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Walker Evans, Leonor Fini, Jared French, Naum Gabo, Arshile Gorky, Samuel Gottscho, Frida Kahlo, André Kertész, Fernand Léger, Tamara De Lempicka, Léonid, Mina Loy, George Platt Lynes, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Lázló Moholy-Nagy, Isamu Noguchi, Paul Outerbridge, Wolfgang Paalen, I. Rice Pereira, Maurice Tabard, Dorothea Tanning and Pavel Tchelitchew, among others.

“It is hard now,” reminisces Dorothea Tanning, “when the word ‘surreal’ is used for the merest incongruity, to understand the excitement it generated in the art world of that time. If the Julien Levy Gallery was a center of that excitement, perhaps the most excited person there was Julien himself. He had found Dada and Surrealism in Paris and had brought them home like trophies to New York…”

Julien Levy Gallery exhibition announcement Collection of Howard Hussey, New York

From the beginning, the Julien Levy Gallery was a combination curiosity shop, curated exhibition space, and crucible of fashion. Levy’s program explored culture-at-large, and drew some notable collaborators: Marcel Duchamp suggested ideas for projects; Lincoln Kirstein and Agnes Rindge curated exhibitions; André Breton, Gilbert Seldes and Edith Sitwell wrote catalogue texts; and Levy’s mother-in-law, the poet-artist Mina Loy, acted as his advisor and Paris agent. Levy also initiated the cocktail opening.

In January 1932, the gallery presented the first exhibition of Surrealist artin New York. Featuring paintings, sculptures, collages, photographs and books--including the first appearance of the work of Salvador Dalí--the exhibition instantly earned the Julien Levy Gallery the distinction of being the place to see sensationally new art. This and subsequent exhibitions laid the groundwork for The Museum of Modern Art’s Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition of 1936.

Lee Miller Untitled, 1931 The Art Institute of Chicago, Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean Levy and the Estate of Julien Levy

Levy exhibited and collected photography as art, as had Alfred Stieglitz before him. He opened his gallery with an exhibition of American photography, introduced Eugčne Atget and Nadar to New York audiences, showed modern European photographers, and promoted Surrealist photography. Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery features masterworks of modernist photography from several prominent private collections, as well as from The Julien Levy Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Levy exhibited film as well. In 1932-33, he served as president of the first Film Society of New York, whose opening program presented G.W. Pabst’s Die Dreigroschenoper in the ballroom of the Essex House. At his own gallery he showed avant-garde and experimental films, including Joseph Cornell’s Rose Hobart and Goofy Newsreels, Luis Buńuel’s Un Chien Andalou, Fernand Léger’s Ballet Méchanique and Man Ray’s L’Étoile de Mer.

The Equitable Gallery presents works from all fields of the visual arts, including exhibitions originating outside of New York that would not otherwise have a presence in the city, as well as works from New York collections that would benefit from preservation and public presentation. The Equitable Gallery is located in the Atrium lobby of The Equitable Building at 787 Seventh Avenue in New York City. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.