Marcuse "Cusie" Pfeifer (November 4, 1936 – July 17, 2020) was an American

gallerist An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells Work of art, works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and build ...

. Pfeifer was an important person in recognition of photography as a fine art, founding member and art exhibition director of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston, New York, and a supporter of the

Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...

. She opened the Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery on Madison Avenue in 1976, and later moved to 568 Broadway. She helped people, including

Sally Mann Sally Mann HonFRPS (born Sally Turner Munger; May 1, 1951) is an American photographer who has made large format black and white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death. Early life and e ...

Peter Hujar Peter Hujar (October 11, 1934 – November 26, 1987) was an American photographer best known for his black and white portraits. He has been recognized posthumously as a major American photographer of the late-twentieth century. Yet Hujar's work r ...

, and

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (born February 16, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker and portrait photographer based in New York City. The majority of his work is shot in large format. Early life Greenfield-Sanders was born on February 16, ...

to launch their careers as contemporary photographers. In 1978, she curated a show of male nudes, with work by Robert Maplethorpe, Lynn Davis and Peter Hujar, prompting ''The New York Times'' reviewer to call for a return to "old-fashioned prudery". Pfeifer died on July 17, 2020, at age 83.

References

Art museum people American curators 1936 births 2020 deaths People from Little Rock, Arkansas Place of death missing American women curators 21st-century American women {{United-States-bio-stub