Edith Halpert, the Downtown Gallery, and the Rise of American Art

A New York Times critics’ top art book of 2019, this volume tells the fascinating story of an art-world tastemaker who effectively defined American art in the 20th century

The question “What is American art?” might conjure the hyperrealism of Raphaelle Peale and William Harnett, the bold graphic style of Stuart Davis and Jacob Lawrence, or the Precisionist forms of Charles Sheeler. Little known, however, is that such notions of American art are significantly owed to a Russian Jewish immigra...