James Cox Gallery Online Fine Art Auction
Sunday, December 12 at 1 pm
4666 State Route 212
Willow, NY 12495
www.jamescoxgallery.com

WILLOW, N.Y. — Forty photographs from the collection of acclaimed gallerist Marcuse “Cusie” Pfeifer (1936-2020) will be showcased at an upcoming fine art auction hosted by the James Cox Gallery. The sale is the latest in a series of bi-annual online only auctions sponsored by the art gallery. The event is slated for Sunday, December 12, beginning promptly at 1 pm EST.
Fine art from seven prominent collections and six estates will be offered along with the Pfeifer photographs, which will be sold in a separate section during the final portion of the auction, Cox explained.

Marcuse Pfeifer was born in Little Rock, Ark., where her family owned the M.M. Cohn Department Store. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Pfeifer initially claimed that she “never liked photography,” which, as a young student, she considered “mechanical and boring.” However, after working at New York’s New School and the Museum of Modern Art, Pfeifer developed a deep appreciation for the art form. It was at this point in her early career she began working for prominent Madison Avenue art dealer Robert Schoelkopf, who planned to stop including photography in his inventory, due to lack of interest among his clientele.

Pfeifer acquired Schoelkopf’s photography space, eventually opening her own eponymous gallery on Madison Avenue in 1976. It was here that she championed young, then unknown talents like Peter Hujar, Sally Mann and Robert Mapplethorpe who later became icons in the world of fine art photography. Showcasing the medium at a time when it was not widely recognized by the art world, Pfeiffer went on to become a founding member and president of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD).

Pfeiffer took a special interest in the work of female photographers, including Carlotta Corpron, Nell Dorr and Lois Connor. She also introduced the New York art world to the German photographer Lilo Raymond, a female photographer who escaped Nazi Germany in 1938. Another renowned photographer first brought to the art world’s attention by Pfeifer was Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, who had never shown in a major gallery before Pfeifer exhibited his portraits. One photograph by Corpron, two by Raymond and three by Greenfield-Sanders will be included in the December sale.

After 14 years on Madison Avenue, Pfeifer moved to Kingston, N.Y., where she meticulously restored a pre-revolutionary stone house on historic Maiden Lane. A dedicated activist, Pfeifer co-founded the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in uptown Kingston in 2005, where she directed various art programs.

In April 2019, the Samuel Dorsky Museum, located on the campus of SUNY New Paltz, unveiled a major exhibition of Pfeifer’s collection titled “In Celebration: A Recent Gift from the Photography Collection of Marcuse Pfeifer.” The gallerist’s untimely death occurred just a few months later. Cox was engaged to coordinate the wide-ranging dispersal of her estate. Proceeds from the sale of Marcuse Pfeifer’s estate will be donated to her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College.

In addition to the 40 photographs from Pfeifer’s estate, the fine art auction will include more than 200 paintings, prints and sculpture by an eclectic array of prominent artists, including Adolf Gottleib, Rolph Scarlett, John F. Carlson and Philip Guston. “Many were drawn from Woodstock collectors,” Cox noted, pointing out that the local real estate market is very hot, and many area collectors are in the process of downsizing, “a process that frees up dozens of quality pieces for our highly successful online auctions.” He added that the gallery’s May 2021, Collectors/Estate auction attracted 1,100 bidders from 20 countries. “We sold 96 percent of the art offered during that sale,” he said.

James Cox Gallery is at 4666 NY-212. For more information, www.jamescoxgallery.com or 845-679-7608.

Lot 163: John Whorf, $5,000-7,000
Lot 172: Quentin Bell $1,000 – 2,000
Lot 171: Marion Greenwood, $2,500 – 3,500
Lot 193: Anna Atkins, $6, 000-8, 000
Lot 100: John Chamberlain
Lot 189 Nikolas Muray
Lot 170 Rolph Scarlett
Lot 165 Jehudith Sobel
Lot 150: Philip Guston $7,000 – 9,000
Lot 84: James Chapin $3,000 – 4,000
Lot SO: Konrad Cramer, $200 – $300
Margery Ryerson Joseph Garlock Elaine Wesley Mary Anna Goetz Yasuo Kuniyoshi Anthony Krauss Bert Stern
Doris Lee Florence Henri Adolph Gottlieb Janet Fish
Lilo Raymond John Fenton Ronald Searle Mary Frank Zulma Steele Peggy Dodds Josef Sudek Harold Altman Anne Harvey Charles Rosen Jeffrey Milstein Carlotta Corpron Sasha Stone Robert Henri Moses Soyer Philippe Lejeune Lucille Blanch Otto Bierhals Peter Max
Julio De Diego Kathe Kollwitz John f. Carlson Adelphoi Zangaki Dorothy Denher John Carroll Hausi Kawase Gabriele Basilico Sol Wilson
W.R. Locke
Ethel Magafan Karl Blossfeldt Louise M. Kamp Olivia Parker Paul Rohland Alice Neel Reeves Brace Ben Benn
Alan Janus Geofrey James

(845) 679-7608
info@jamescoxgallery.com
Yasuo Kuniuoshi
Albert Pels
A.R. Pench
John Chamberlain