Virginia Zabriskie

Virginia Zabriskie, an art dealer whose New York and Paris galleries specialized in modern and contemporary American works of the non-blue-chip kind, and who helped establish photography as a fine art, died on May 7 2019 at her home in Manhattan. She was 91. Her death was confirmed by the critic Martica Sawin, a close friend. In 1957 Ms. Zabriskie formed a partnership with Robert Schoelkopf, which lasted until 1961. He established his own respected gallery shortly afterward. Ms. Zabriskie became one of the youngest dealers in New York in 1954, at age 27, when, with no major backer, she bought the Korman Gallery on Madison Avenue for $1 from its owner, Marvin Korman, whom she knew from graduate school. Ms. Zabriskie was born Virginia Marshall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on July 15, 1927, the oldest child of Arthur A. Marshall Sr., a restaurateur, and Agnes Ione (Walters) Zabriskie, who acted in silent movies before her marriage. Her younger brother, Arthur Jr., became a state’s attorney in Maryland. Her marriages to George Zabriskie (1952) and Arthur Cohen (1970) ended in divorce. No immediate family members survive. She attended the High School of Music and Art and studied art history at New York University. After graduating in 1949, she began graduate school at the university’s Institute of Fine Arts.