«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Having read an early version of Cohen-Solal's biography, (which first appeared in French), Jean said Cohen-Solal viewed Leo's immigration to the United States, and his subsequent cultural assimilation, as the quintessential Jewish story of the 20th century. Cohen-Solal, he said, was exploring his father's influence as an art dealer within the centuries-long context of his family's Jewish heritage.This struck me as strange. After all, wasn't Leo, the tireless early promoter of such larger-than-life talents as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist--not to mention one of the chief architects of the American contemporary art market as we know it--also a font of contradictions? That he remained so staunchly loyal to his artists, for example, but was, at the same time, a serial womanizer; that he could be so gracious publicly and such a private tyrant; that he revered intelligent, strong-willed women, while acting so appallingly sexist; or that he so often appeared confident, smooth, jaunty, but could, and would, behave so helplessly--this was more than enough fodder, it seemed to me, for a fascinating account of his life

-Dorothy Spears
Huffington Post
June 17 2010