Pasadena Exhibition Spotlights Art Patron Galka Scheyer

Galka Scheyer may not be a household name, but the artists she championed are among the most influential figures in modern art. A focus exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, is now bringing her contributions to the foreground.

The exhibition, titled Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer, opened on February 20, 2026, and is scheduled to run through July 20, 2026.

While the Norton Simon Museum previously examined Scheyer’s professional legacy in a 2017 exhibition titled Maven of Modernism, that show focused primarily on her role as an art dealer. The current exhibition shifts the perspective to the personal relationships and friendships that made her professional work possible.

To illuminate these connections, the museum is drawing from its own archives, displaying portraits of Scheyer, exchanged letters, and other ephemera. These items are part of a broader collection of 800 documents and 450 works that was entrusted to the Pasadena Art Institute, now the Norton Simon Museum, in 1953.

Born Emilie Esther Scheyer in 1889 in Braunschweig, Germany, Scheyer began her creative life as a painter. However, her career path changed significantly after she met the Russian artist Alexei Jawlensky in 1916.

Through her connection with Jawlensky, Scheyer befriended other Bauhaus masters, including Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, and Lyonel Feininger. She eventually united these four artists under the collective name the Blue Four.

Beginning in 1924, Scheyer dedicated herself to promoting the work of the Blue Four in the United States. She settled in California in 1925, where she worked to integrate European modernism into the American West Coast art scene.

Her efforts included organizing exhibitions, developing educational programs, and delivering lectures across Los Angeles and the Bay Area. According to the museum, these activities helped establish the region as a significant center for modern art.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is a 1925 portrait of Scheyer created by artist Maynard Dixon. The piece includes a telling inscription from Dixon: To Madame Moderne Kunst, meaning To Ms. Modern Art.