Alma Reed facts for kids
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Alma Marie Sullivan Reed (1889–1966) was an American journalist. In the 1920s, she worked in Mexico. There, she met and fell in love with Felipe Carrillo Puerto, who was the Governor of Yucatán. Sadly, he was killed while she was in San Francisco getting ready for their wedding. Alma Reed also strongly supported the famous Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco. She wrote the first major book about him in 1932. She also wrote about other Mexican muralists.
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Early Life
Alma Sullivan was born in 1889 in San Francisco, California. She came from an Irish Catholic family. She was known for being outspoken, adventurous, and free-spirited. Her marriage to businessman Samuel Payne Reed ended because he became ill.
Journalism Career
Alma Reed became famous as a journalist while writing for The San Francisco Call newspaper. She was a strong supporter of people who were treated unfairly. In 1921, she wrote a series of articles about a 17-year-old Mexican boy who was sentenced to death. Her articles helped change the state's death penalty laws. Because of her writing, the boy's sentence was changed.
Her work impressed Mexican President Alvaro Obregón. He invited her to be his guest in Mexico City. In 1923, while traveling through the Yucatán region, she wrote more articles. These articles were about US diplomat and explorer Edward Herbert Thompson. He had taken many ancient Mayan objects from Mexico for the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. Her articles led the museum to return some of these important objects to Mexico.
Art Supporter and Gallery Owner
The New York Times noticed Alma Reed's talent. They hired her to keep reporting from Mexico and later from the Middle East. By 1928, she moved to New York City. She called her apartment "the Ashram." This name honored a peaceful Hindu place where wise people lived close to nature. It also honored Mahatma Gandhi's ideas of pacifism (peace).
Helping José Clemente Orozco
Alma Reed was a lifelong supporter of José Clemente Orozco. She met Orozco through Anita Brenner soon after setting up her studio. Orozco was living in Manhattan and struggling to make a living. Reed immediately loved his artwork. In September 1928, she gave him his first solo art show.
In 1930, Reed helped Orozco get a job painting a mural at Pomona College in California. Orozco painted a famous mural called Prometheus. Even though they sometimes disagreed about money, Reed continued to support his career.
Her studio became a popular meeting place for Mexican artists, especially those living in New York. She became friends with Jose L. Gutierrez. He was a supervisor for WPA fresco projects. Gutierrez experimented with plastic resins, which led to the first acrylic artist paints called "Politec" in 1953.
Delphic Studios Art Gallery
Soon after Orozco's solo show, Alma Reed opened her own art gallery. She rented part of the top floor of a building on East 57th Street. She named her gallery "Delphic Studios." The first art show at Delphic Studios featured works by both Thomas Hart Benton and Orozco.
She promoted many Mexican artists, including Roberto Cueva del Río. However, she remained Orozco's main supporter. In 1937, she also showed watercolors and oil paintings by Los Angeles artist Leo Politi. His exhibit helped launch Politi's career as an author and illustrator of children's books.
Selected Works
- Reed, Alma. Peregrina. Ed. Michael K. Schuessler. ISBN: 978-0-292-70239-4
- José Clemente Orozco. 1st ed. New York: Delphic Studios, 1932. Republished New York : Hacker Art Books, 1985.
- The Mexican Muralists. New York: Crown Point Publishers, 1960.
See also
In Spanish: Alma Reed para niños
