Julien Levy (1906-1981) was one of the most influential art dealers of the twentieth century. The Julien Levy Gallery, which opened in New York in 1931 and closed in 1949, played an essential role in the shift of the cultural avant-garde from Paris to New York. It was the first American gallery to sponsor a show on Surrealism and to champion Neoromanticism, Magic Realism, and Machine Abstraction. Luis Buñuel's film Un Chien Andalou and Joseph Cornell's Rose Hobart were first screened in the gallery. Among the artists Levy exhibited were Eugene Atget, Constantin Brancusi, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dali, Walt Disney, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Walker Evans, Leonor Fini, Naum Gabo, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Frida Kahlo, Fernand Léger, René Magritte, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea Tanning. Levy also initiated the cocktail opening.