Naumann, Francis M

Francis M. Naumann, an art historian and curator, collected this material in preparation for How, When and Why Modern Art Came to New York, by Marius de Zayas (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), which he edited. Naumann specializes in Dada and Surrealism in Europe and the United States, and runs a gallery, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, in New York City.

Marius de Zayas (1880-1961), an artist and gallery operator, was born in Veracruz, Mexico, the son of Rafael de Zayas, a noted historian, orator and lawyer. He gained a reputation as a caricaturist, exhibiting his work in Alfred Stieglitz's "291" gallery in 1909; two years later he wrote to Stieglitz from Paris advising him on trends in modern art. With Paul Haviland, he wrote A Study of the Modern Evolution of Plastic Expression, published in 1913, an early study of modern art. By 1914, he had met Apollinaire and Gertrude Stein in Paris, and had organized exhibitions at 291 of African Negro art, as well as of work by Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. With Picabia and others in 1915, he brought out the publication 291, an avant-garde magazine, and opened the Modern Gallery, which operated first as a branch of 291, and then on its own. After the Modern Gallery closed in 1921, de Zayas organized shows for the Whitney Studio Club and the Wildenstein Gallery, and worked for a time for the Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg. Marius de Zayas died in 1961 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

From the description of Marius de Zayas Research Collection for How, When and Why Modern Art Came to New York, ca. 1910-1936. (Whitney Museum of American Art). WorldCat record id: 122630391