The Reluctant GALLERIST

How a rare book seller became an under-the-radar art world powerhouse.

- KATYA KAZAKINA

Harper Levine never expected this. Now 54, he has spent most of his professional life as a rare book seller, building a business in St. Paul, Minnesota, and, since 2010, the Hamptons. Over the years artists such as Richard Prince and Eddie Martinez would come in to get advice on building their libraries or to buy books on obscure Japanese photography or Beat literature. Some became his friends.

It was at their urging that Levine began staging exhibitions at Harper’s Books, in East Hampton. In 2014, when an artist canceled, he texted Prince, asking for suggestions to fill the spot. “Figgis,” came the reply. Prince had recently discovered Genieve Figgis on Twitter and fallen for her feathery, macabre paintings. Levine took Prince’s advice, and the show sold out. “That was when I started to really think that a career as a gallerist was possible,” Levine says.