MARCH 2016 (New York, NY) — X Contemporary is pleased to announce its historically key exhibition for its second edition this December 2016 timed with Art Basel Miami Beach.  The Women Who Made Art Modern, curated by X Contemporary’s Consulting Curator Michael Klein, explores the careers and programs of some sixteen art dealers all of whom women and all of whom were great innovators in their day, supporting and championing the new in American art.

The dealers include Betty Parsons, Eleanor Ward, Martha Jackson, Beatrice Perry, Terry Dintenfass, Antoinette Krashhaar, Virginia Zabriskie, Gertrude Kasle, Jill Kornblee, June Kelly, Edith Halpert, Grace Borgenicht, Virginia Dwan, Peggy Guggenheim, and Marian Willard.

50 – 60 works of art will be on view by artists including Grace Hartigan, Agnes Martin , Dan Flavin, and Malcolm Morley.  European artists include Alberto Burri, Alan Davie, and William Scott.

“We’re investigating the women in business behind Modern American art,” says X Contemporary Director Crystal Curtis.  “Very few people know that Eleanor Ward gave Andy Warhol his first New York City show in 1962 after Leo Castelli turned him down.”

X Contemporary believes that highlighting the achievements in art business is one of their main jobs as an art fair. 

“In our first edition,” Curtis continues, “Our advisory board member Michael Klein brought the Perry family collection of Grace Hartigan paintings from the early 1960s. Beatrice Perry was Hartigan’s primary dealer out of Washington D.C.  Personally, I was struck by these large Abstract Expressionist paintings dripping in moody magentas and reds.  Michael pointed out to me that maybe that was Beatrice’s preference in Hartigan’s work.”

Michael Klein’s approach to sourcing the work in this exhibition depends on over forty years of relationships in art business.  The artists these women dealers promoted, supported, and exhibited now represent the pantheon of American art and artists. 

Klein adds, “This might be an untold story or even an unchartered history of the many small entrepreneurial businesses and personalities that help develop and promote American visual culture both here and abroad.”

ABOUT

X CONTEMPORARY (X) is an art fair characterized by historic exhibitions launched in 2015, holding its second edition in 2016 in Miami timed during Art Basel Miami Beach. 

We’re proud to be known as “the beautiful fair.”  Our mission is to connect the growing art audience with today’s most prolific artists and the intrinsic relationships that support them.

Our leadership team calls on multiple decades of experience in private art dealing, gallery direction, curation, scholarship, artist management, event production, and global business initiatives.  This storied expertise helps us finesse far reaching relationships and work fast.

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