Martha Jackson


Martha Jackson was an American art dealer, gallery owner, and collector. Her New York City based Martha Jackson Gallery, founded in 1953, was groundbreaking in its representation of women and international artists, and in establishing the op art movement.

Biography

Jackson was born Martha Kellogg on January 17, 1907, in Buffalo, New York. She was born into two prominent Buffalo families, the daughter of Cyrena and Howard Kellogg. She had two brothers, Spencer Kellogg II and Howard Kellogg, Jr. Jackson's mother's family founded and operated W. A. Case & Son Manufacturing Company which was eventually purchased in 1952 by what is now Covanta. Jackson's father was president of Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc., a linseed oil firm founded by his father, which became a division of Textron in 1961.
Jackson attended Smith College from 1925 to 1928 where she studied English. She moved to Baltimore during the war where she studied art history at Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1949, following her interest in making art, Jackson moved to New York to attend the Hans Hofmann School of Art. Already an art collector, she took Hoffman's advice to become an art dealer, using sales from her personal collections to fund her gallery.
Jackson was married to John Anderson of Buffalo with whom she had two children, Cyrena and David. The marriage ended in divorce. She was married a second time to attorney David Jackson of Buffalo from 1940 to 1949.
Martha Jackson died at age 62 at her Mandeville Canyon home in Brentwood, Los Angeles on July 4, 1969, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while swimming in her pool. She is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, NY.

Collection and legacy

Following her death in 1969, works from Jackson's personal collection were donated to the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY. The gift includes works by Norman Carton, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Grace Hartigan, Alfred Jensen, Piero Manzoni, Claes Oldenburg, Antoni Tàpies, and Robert Motherwell.
Artworks from the Martha Jackson Collection were exhibited at the National Museum of American Art in 1985. The show featured 127 paintings and sculptures by Americans in Jackson's collection, including works by Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, Frank Lobdell, Michael Goldberg, John Hultberg, Eldzier Cortor, Marisol, Sam Francis, James Brooks, Julian Stanczak, and Alex Katz's sets for Kenneth Koch's 1962 play, "George Washington Crossing the Delaware." All of the works in the exhibition had been donated to the museum in 1980 by Jackson's son, David Anderson.
Prints from Martha Jackson's collection were exhibited in "Martha Jackson Graphics" at the University of Buffalo Anderson Gallery in 2015.
In 2021 the Hollis Taggart gallery presented the exhibit Wild and Brilliant: The Martha Jackson Gallery and Post-War Art. The exhibition was organized by independent curator Jillian Russo, accompanied by an eponymous essay and catalog.
Martha Jackson is portrayed in the 2022 Geraldine Brooks best seller historic novel, Horse, based upon the life of the race horse Lexington.