Born in Budapest, Hungary, Martin Friedman (1896-1981) took part in the mass
immigration to Ellis Island, experienced by 12 million people between 1892-1924, at the age of nine years old. His upbringing was modest, with his parents described as lower-middle class, moving to the United States in homes of financial success. In an interview with Dorothy Seckler for the Smithsonian Institution’s Archive of American Art, Friedman recalled being the only “foreign-born” family in the neighborhood and not speaking any English while attending school in Yonkers, New York.     Read more.

Harry Hilson: Master Artist

Sheafer + King Modern recently acquired an extensive collection by late American artist Harry Hilson (1935-2004). Though Hilson has seemingly slipped through the cracks of art history, research has proven that his career was

undoubtedly successful during his lifetime with showings at the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others. Hilson displayed his work at Purdue University during the 1960s and later kept a residence local to Indianapolis for a short period of his life around the year 2000. 

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In my previous blog post, I introduced you to the life and work of artist Juliet Holland. Juliet Holland’s partner, Cortland Jessup, was the owner and operator of Cortland Jessup galleries in Provincetown, Massachusetts and New York City. Since January, Sheafer + King has continued to work with Holland’s son, local photographer Mark Nickerson, to bring attention to and sell works previously held in Jessup’s private collection. One such artist is the prominent American feminist artist and writer Kate Millett (1934-2017). She remains best known, much to her chagrin, for her 1970 feminist written work Sexual Politics. What began as her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University soon effectively initiated the second wave of the women’s liberation movement, more commonly known as second wave feminism.

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