Aaron Levy (1899-1972)

Aaron Levy was born in New York City in 1899. After a successful corporate career, in 1951 he retired as president of the textile manufacturer E. Milius & Co. to further explore his interest in painting.

A Park Avenue resident with a summer home in East Hampton, Levy was acquainted with many of the preeminent artists of the New York School who also spent significant time in East Hampton. He was a member of the Camino Gallery, which operated out of the East Village from 1956 to 1963. Camino was one of the galleries that would come to be known collectively as the “10th Street Galleries.”  The galleries were run co-operatively by the artists, with very little or no full-time staff. Many artists who would eventually achieve significant renown were exhibiting members of one or more of the 10th Street Galleries. In particular, many important female abstract expressionists leveraged the benefits of the cooperative, during a time when women and minorities were marginalized and often precluded from reaching the upper echelons of the art ecosystem. Elaine de Kooning and Alice Neel - two of the most important painters of the 20th century - were both members of Camino Gallery, alongside Levy.

When Camino closed in 1963, Levy joined Phoenix Gallery, which by that time, had moved to a new, more established location on Madison Avenue.  

Aaron Levy passed away at his Manhattan home in 1972 at the age of 73.