Alfred Mira

(1900-1981)

I first became aware of Alfred Mira seeing a small 12" x 16" New York City scene in a local Connecticut gallery. “Wow, this guy is good,” I thought, “really good. He can paint cars so they don’t look like bugs or VWs” To my surprise the dealer’s father knew Mira as a Grand Central Gallery artist who specialized in realistic, identifiable and often gritty New York City street scenes. Like many artists, he had talent and was well respected, but he struggled to make ends meet. He often exhibited at the Greenwich Village outdoor sales. A little-known fact provided by my dealer friend’s father: Mira also exhibited under a different name, painting Paris street scenes under the name “Gigney.” They were superficial, somewhat pot-boilers, but I guess they helped pay the bills. I love it when I come across “an original Gigney” and listen to a dealer fabricate a story about this “fine French painter.” The first Mira I found in 1989 at a typical New York gallery; I was intrigued by this little-known (at the time) master city painter depicting a lower Manhattan street scene, dated 1943. Several years later in 2001, Mira’s work began appearing more regularly at auctions and started generating serious attention. I discovered a small number of works appearing at a modest New Jersey auction and was again taken by this very ambitious composition depicting the complex sweeps of rail yards, the West Side Highway, docks, Hudson River, and Jersey skyline. I know of no other New York City painter attempting such a sweeping vision of the city.