First united by their love of editions, Carole and Alex Rosenberg cultivated an outstanding New York collection of graphic art, a reflection of their decades-long engagement with the art world and living artists. In 1969, Alex began to publish artists’ prints under the name Transworld Art, pivoting to the art world after selling the telephone answering service he co-owned, Anserphone. Carole Halsband soon joined the venture as an Associate Editor in 1973, after the two became acquainted at her Upper West Side gallery; her first exhibition featured Salvador Dalí’s Memories of Surrealism, the first print portfolio that Alex published. From 1968 to 1988, Transworld Art published more than 700 editions by over 60 artists, many of whom the couple also represented as partners at Alex Rosenberg Gallery. Married in 1977, Carole and Alex Rosenberg’s collection of prints and multiples reifies their personal and professional relationships with great names in modern and contemporary art, including Alexander Calder, Romare Bearden, Salvador Dalí, and Willem de Kooning.  

Alex, who developed a reputation as an expert in the field of prints, passionately worked as a lauded art appraiser from 1986 until the day he died, passing away at the mighty age of 103 in 2022. His over 60-year career across art and business was ripe with great honors and accomplishments – serving as a pilot in World War II, advancing a plethora of progressive political and social causes, and serving as president of the Appraisers Association of America, to name a few. In the context of these many impressive feats, publishing editions through Transworld Art still stood out to Alex as one of his greatest and most meaningful. “I can’t avoid a feeling of extreme nostalgia over my chance of having been able to work with so many gifted artists,” he recounted. “That was perhaps the greatest privilege of my life.”

“I always felt he was waiting for me to come and discuss the latest political trends in the world.”

—Alex Rosenberg, on Alexander Calder

In 1963, Alex Rosenberg joined the New York branch of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), an organization founded to promote the outlawing of nuclear weapons. At his very first national board meeting, freshman member Alex Rosenberg proposed that the artist Alexander Calder be nominated for the Eleanor Roosevelt Peace Award, an award given to an individual who demonstrated leadership in the cause of peace. Chosen by a close vote to be that year’s honoree for his anti-war efforts, it was at the 1964 award dinner where Calder and Rosenberg first met, marking the beginning of a decade-long friendship. As Rosenberg recalled, he went up to the artist and said “I am Alex Rosenberg, you probably don’t know me.” To which Calder responded, “I sure do and I owe you one. When you are in France, come and visit me.”ⁱ

 Alex and Carole took Calder up on his offer, visiting the artist and his wife at their home in Saché, and hosting them in turn when they would visit New York. Over the course of their friendship, Calder also supported the Rosenbergs’ endeavors and projects through Transworld Art – Flies in the Spider Web was published as part of the first volume of Transworld Art’s bicentennial portfolio An American Portrait, 1776-1976. The print was published mere months before Calder’s death in November 1976, a loss which deeply affected the Rosenbergs; the two couples even had a lunch date set in New York the day before his passing. “He was a uniquely great artist and man,” Rosenberg recalled fondly. “I still miss him and wish he was here.” 

ⁱ Alex Rosenberg 100, 2019, p. 67.