Alma Reed

Alma Marie Sullivan Reed (1889–1966) was an American journalist. While working in Mexico in the 1920s, she fell in love with the Governor of Yucatán, Felipe Carrillo Puerto; however, he was assassinated while she was home in San Francisco preparing for their wedding. Reed was a promoter of the career of Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco and wrote the first monograph on the artist in 1932, as well as a biography about his life. She also wrote more generally on Mexican muralists.

Art patron and gallerist The New York Times took notice of the young journalist and hired her to continue reporting from Mexico and later, the Middle East. By 1928, she settled in New York City and dubbed her apartment "the Ashram" to honor the Hindu hermitage where sages lived in peace among nature and to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi's pacifism.

Support for José Clemente Orozco Reed was a lifelong supporter and patron of José Clemente Orozco. Early after establishing the studio, Reed was introduced to Orozco by Anita Brenner. Orozco had been living in Manhattan and doing poorly in making a living. She immediately fell in love with his work and gave him a one-man show in September 1928. In 1930, Reed arranged a commission for Orozco to paint a mural in the new dining hall at Pomona College in California. Orozco painted Prometheus. She nonetheless continued to support his career.

Her studio became a gathering place for Mexican artists especially those living in New York. She became friends with Jose L. Gutierrez who was a WPA fresco supervisor and was experimenting at Sherwin-Williams laboratories with plastic resins, which led to plastic paint formulas developed in 1953 as the first acrylic artist paint called "Politec."

Delphic Studios Not long after her solo Orozco exhibition, Reed rented a portion of the top floor of the building on East 57th Street and established a formal gallery called "Delphic Studios." Reed's first exhibition in the gallery was a two-man show of Thomas Hart Benton and Orozco.

Selected works Reed, Alma. Peregrina. Ed. Michael K. Schuessler. José Clemente Orozco. 1st ed. New York: Delphic Studios, 1932. Republished New York : Hacker Art Books, 1985. The Mexican Muralists. New York: Crown Publishers, 1960.