Follow Us
Like Us
Historical records matching Judith Alexander
view all
Immediate Family
-
father -
-
brother
-
sister
-
sister
About Judith Alexander
From http://www.judithalexander.org/judith-alexander/
Judith Alexander was born in Atlanta in 1932, the youngest of four children of Henry Alexander, a prominent Atlanta lawyer, and Marian Kline Alexander. After attending local schools, she studied with the painter Hans Hoffman in Philadelphia and lived for a time in New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Returning home in the mid 1950s, the 24-year-old Alexander opened the New Arts Gallery on Peachtree Road, where she would introduce the works of Franz Kline, Jackson Pollack, Jim Dine, Ellsworth Kelly, and other contemporary artists to Atlanta. The gallery grew into the center for the city’s young arts community and a venue for talks given by New York dealers and critics. In 1978, Alexander became a pioneer in promoting self-taught artists when she opened the Alexander Gallery on East Paces Ferry Road.
Among the artists she brought to the world’s attention were Nellie Mae Rowe, Ned Cartledge, and Linda Anderson — Georgians all. She also became an advocate for local artists of virtually every stripe, buying their work and providing encouragement and critical counsel. Even after she began living most of the year in New York City from1989 through 2004 (she moved to be near her sister Rebecca), Alexander kept in constant touch with her family of artists and art-lovers back home.
Alexander died suddenly in New York in December 2004—to the end, immersed in the business of furthering the careers of a promising young artists and appreciating art in its countless forms.
In the December 17, 2004 Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Catherine Fox wound up her appreciation of the Atlanta art icon with reminiscences from friends.
“Judith had a way of building you up,” [Mario] Petrirena says. “One time, after some disappointment, she said to me ’People can be curators or dealers or critics, but never forget that you have the biggest gift of all—the ability to make art.’ She was always there. I can’t count the number of artists she helped.”
Another [artist] is Benjamin Jones. “I call her my second mama,” he says. She helped boost his career by funding acquisitions for interested museums. “They ought to erect a statue of her at the Capitol,” Jones says. She would have hated that, though. Intensely modest, Judith detested having her picture taken and detested most interviews.
She didn’t want the attention. Advocating for the artists she cared about and seeing them succeed was her reward. “Lots of people see art as added value to their life,” [Jeff] Kipnis says. “Judith saw art as essential to life.”
- Reference: WikiTree Genealogy - SmartCopy: Nov 12 2016, 0:14:09 UTC
view all
Judith Alexander's Timeline
| 1932 |
March 31, 1932
|
Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, United States
|
|
| 2004 |
December 15, 2004
Age 72
|
New York, New York, United States
|