Sidney Janis
Sidney Janis (July 8, 1896 – November 23, 1989) was a wealthy clothing manufacturer and art collector who opened an art gallery in
New York in 1948. His gallery quickly gained prominence, for he not only exhibited work by the
Abstract Expressionists, but also European artists such as
Pierre Bonnard,
Paul Klee,
Joan Miró, and
Piet Mondrian. As the critic
Clement Greenberg explained in a 1958 tribute to Janis, the dealer's exhibition practices had helped to establish the legitimacy of the Americans, for his policy "not only implied, it declared, that
Jackson Pollock,
Willem de Kooning,
Franz Kline,
Phillip Guston,
Mark Rothko, and
Robert Motherwell were to be judged by the same standards as
Matisse and
Picasso, without condescension, without making allowances." Greenberg observed that in the late 1940s "the real issue was whether ambitious artists could live in this country by what they did ambitiously. Sidney Janis helped as much as anyone to see that it was decided affirmatively."
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