2025/04/01 by Janis Staggs · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Art, Politics, and Modernism #Art, Technology, and Culture #Cultural History and Identity Formation
paper · doi:10.5325/jaustamerhist.9.1-2.0070
openalex publication_date 2025/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Viennese-born socialite Friederike Maria Beer-Monti (1891–1980) is known today largely as being the only person painted by both Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. This article considers her unknown role as director of The Artists’ Gallery, a nonprofit organization founded by Hugh Stix that she managed in New York City from its opening 1936 until its closure in 1962. There has been little critical study of Beer-Monti’s time in the United States. This article provides an overview of the history of The Artists’ Gallery; sheds light on Beer-Monti’s instrumental role in the gallery’s success; considers her role in introducing European émigré artists to America, such as Josef Albers, Eugenie and Saul Baizermann, Hans Böhler, Holcha Krake, and Max Oppenheimer, as well as promoting American artists, including Selma Burke and William H. Johnson; and assesses Beer-Monti’s sizable impact on the promotion of modern art in the United States. Her success was due in part to her Viennese connections; she helped friends and acquaintances to find an audience for their work. The Artists’ Gallery was also an important venue to see the work of marginalized artists, including Künstlerinnen, such as Irma Rothstein and Lisel Salzer, who existed on the periphery of their male peers.