DELAND, FL – January 7, 2021 –
The Museum of Art – DeLand will open the exhibition
Knowing What I Like: The Private Collection of George S. Bolge on Friday, January 15, 2021 and it will run through March 14, 2021.
George S. Bolge is not the kind of collector who “collects for profit pure and simple, who buys works of art in wholesale lots, only to stash them away in a warehouse where they have risen in value.” Rather, the former Museum of Art – DeLand CEO and Director Emeriti of the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale and the Boca Raton Museum of Art, collects art for art’s sake, seeing each acquisition as “the record of a vivid experience, either a long pursuit or a struggle, in which mounting desire has conquered prudence and economy.”
With few exceptions, most of the works in Bolge’s collection are small to medium in scale, but covering an extensive artistic scope in terms of cultural and aesthetic content, technique, style, and media.
The art represented in this impressive exhibition was assembled over 40 years of personal interactions with artists – those with both national and international reputations, and those whose talents have yet to be discovered. Familiar names include M.C. Escher, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Denis Smith, and Arnold Newman. The collection includes exceptional examples of Haitian and Primal art, as well as Modern and Contemporary pieces.
In Bolge’s words, “This exhibition is an attempt to select, from as personal point of view as possible, a group of painters, sculptors, and photographers who have given me – each in his or her own way – experiences that are pleasurable. All of these are for me unique, because each one makes a visual statement quite of their own making.”
Pattie Pardee, Museum of Art – DeLand’s Executive Director, notes that “collectors help shape how art will be remembered for generations to come, and we are honored to share George Bolge’s singular perspective distilled from a lifetime devoted to the visual arts.”
* Please note that due to continued COVID-19 precautions, there will be no opening reception for this exhibition.
