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Albert Eugene Gallatin
1881–1952
BirthplaceVillanova, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Death placeNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyBoth as a pioneering collector and as a painter, Albert Eugene Gallatin championed abstract, or non-representational, art. Affluent and privileged, Gallatin was a proud descendant of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Jefferson and Madison and a founder of New York University. Gallatin’s interest in art began with the family portraits that adorned his grandmother’s estate in Villanova, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. At his father’s death in 1902, he took up residence on New York City’s exclusive Park Avenue. Gallatin had already become an art connoisseur and collector, even as he cultivated the dapper image and dashing lifestyle appropriate to one of the city’s elite.
Gallatin particularly admired the elegance and aesthetic refinement of the art of James McNeill Whistler, and he published several important books about Whistler and other artists he admired. In the wake of World War I, he took up the cause of modern art. Concerned that New York lacked a museum devoted to contemporary art, Gallatin founded the Gallery of Living Art, later the Museum of Living Art, in 1927 in library space lent by New York University. Exposing the work of both American and European avant-garde artists, the institution became an influential force among the city’s younger artists.
Gallatin had tried his hand at painting in the mid-1920s after studying briefly with influential art teacher and painter Robert Henri and immersing himself in contemporary art in Paris. In 1936 he returned to the studio, painting works of refined geometric abstraction that reflect his tastes as a collector and his appreciation for the movement known as synthetic cubism, in which the forms of ordinary objects are suggested by a few simplified shapes, often arranged for decorative effect on the flat surface of the picture. Beginning in 1937 Gallatin exhibited his own works with the group American Abstract Artists. Within the organization, he and several of his associates who claimed equally privileged backgrounds comprised what a contemporary dubbed the “Park Avenue Cubists.” Gallatin’s activity as a painter coincided with some of his busiest years expanding his collection. In 1943, when New York University declined to continue hosting his museum, Gallatin donated the collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He spent his last years overseeing its installation there, acquiring new works for the museum, and helping in other ways to build its outstanding collection of modern art.
Gallatin particularly admired the elegance and aesthetic refinement of the art of James McNeill Whistler, and he published several important books about Whistler and other artists he admired. In the wake of World War I, he took up the cause of modern art. Concerned that New York lacked a museum devoted to contemporary art, Gallatin founded the Gallery of Living Art, later the Museum of Living Art, in 1927 in library space lent by New York University. Exposing the work of both American and European avant-garde artists, the institution became an influential force among the city’s younger artists.
Gallatin had tried his hand at painting in the mid-1920s after studying briefly with influential art teacher and painter Robert Henri and immersing himself in contemporary art in Paris. In 1936 he returned to the studio, painting works of refined geometric abstraction that reflect his tastes as a collector and his appreciation for the movement known as synthetic cubism, in which the forms of ordinary objects are suggested by a few simplified shapes, often arranged for decorative effect on the flat surface of the picture. Beginning in 1937 Gallatin exhibited his own works with the group American Abstract Artists. Within the organization, he and several of his associates who claimed equally privileged backgrounds comprised what a contemporary dubbed the “Park Avenue Cubists.” Gallatin’s activity as a painter coincided with some of his busiest years expanding his collection. In 1943, when New York University declined to continue hosting his museum, Gallatin donated the collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He spent his last years overseeing its installation there, acquiring new works for the museum, and helping in other ways to build its outstanding collection of modern art.