Profile

Otto Kallir, who founded the original Neue Galerie in Vienna in 1923, opened the Galerie St. Etienne in 1939 after fleeing from the Nazis and coming to New York. Long a champion of Austrian and German Expressionism, St. Etienne concentrates on the work of self-taught artists—Grandma Moses had her first public one-woman show here—as well as contemporary, political art like that of Sue Coe. What unites the curatorial vision is the core of humanism, invigorated by scholarship and museum collaboration. Redesigned in 1987 by architect Richard Gluckman, the handsome, modestly sized and elegant refuge has five viewing areas—three of them with slightly heightened, recessed ceilings that give an enlarged sense of space. — Michael Killeen

The annual "State of the Market" reports, written by co-director Jane Kallir, granddaughter of the gallery's founder, are a must read. The catalogue raisoné on the artists is written by Kallir as well. Also worth perusal are Sue Coe's political books and monographs on many of the other artists.