Saidie May

Saidie Adler May (née Saidie Adler; 1879 – 1951) was an American art collector, of Surrealist and early Abstract Expressionist art. She was a major benefactor to the Baltimore Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She was also known as Saidie Adler Lehman.

Biography Saidie Adler was born in Baltimore in February 1879. Her father, Charles Adler, a wealthy shoe manufacturer

May preferred a life of independence and art rather than the traditional role of mother and wife. She had the opportunity to travel to Europe in 1924, where she met the artists Hans Hofmann and Alfred Julio Jensen, which had a significant impact on her artistic tastes. She studied art at Académie Scandinave in Paris, under Othon Friesz.

When Blanche died in 1941, May began to focus on amassing more modern works. She has been described as "particularly adventurous" in her tastes. May also acquired early pieces of work by Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell (later to become important Abstract Expressionists), namely Pollock's "Water Birds" (1943) and Baziotes' The Drugged Balloonist (1942-43).

May died on May 28, 1951, in New York City.