4 ;1
Taking A Look At
The Local Art Scene...
Golden Collectors
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
C
ollectors of rare and important works
of art are making a very personal
commitment to the 50th anniversary
celebration of the University of Michi-
gan (U-M) Museum of Art.
They are loaning some of their favorite
pieces for the Feb. 8-April 13 exhibition "Michi-
gan Collectors." U-M graduates, individuals
involved with the university and those with
special interests in the museum are contribu-
tors.
Some will talk about their offerings during
a "Conversation With Collectors" tea at 3 p.m.
92
viewers learn, and I like to learn from the art
I live with."
Wendy and Jeffrey Roth will be showing
two prints of very different styles an Alex
Katz rendering of a woman in a wedding dress
and a Frank Stella abstract print of pillars and
cones.
"I like a good mixture because that adds in-
terest, but I also like to have more than one
piece by any artist whose work we collect," said
Jeffrey Roth, who keeps an "art cart" to fre-
quently move individual works to different
spots in his home.
Margaret H. Demant, a former
owner of Walter Herz Interiors, also
likes to move her artwork to differ-
ent locations.
"Each time someone rehangs a
painting or moves a sculpture, the
effect is like a whole new piece of art,"
said Demant, who is giving one work
to the museum in addition to loan-
ing two. "The moved piece is seen
from a different angle, and it's nev-
er static."
Demant is giving the museum a
Charles Hinman acrylic on shaped
canvas, Desert Butterfly. The canvas
projects from the wall and provides
different views to people who walk
around it.
On loan from Demant will be
African sculptures — a female in an
intricate headdress and a four-sided
helmet mask representing the four
stages (youth, adolescence, maturi-
ty and old age) of a woman's life.
Bamana People, Mali: African "Chi-Wara" Antelope Carving, wood.
Demant is accustomed to loaning
Collection of William and Ellen Kahn.
her art to museums, including the
Detroit Institute of Arts, where she
Friday, Feb. 21, in Arm Arbor. A sampling of serves on the board. She currently has an
participating Jewish collectors were happy to African sculpture on display at the Smith-
talk about their treasur ed works before the sonian.
exhibit opens.
Other examples of the nearly 100 works to
Marc Schwartz enjoys prints that date "from be exhibited include photography by Ansel
the 1960s to last week," and he has offered two Adams, drawings by Egon Schiele, folk art and
for the exhibit — Eric Fischl's Year of the Tiffany lamps.
Drowned Dog and Georg Baselitz's Orange
Highlights include an abstract by Richard
Eater.
Diebenkorn on loan from Dr. Herbert Sloan
"If you see these on a wall and choose not to former head of thoracic surgery at U-M Hos-
study them, they're beautiful and warm," pital; a collage by contemporary artist Chris-
Schwartz explained about his prints. "At the to, on loan from Chicago art lawyer Scott
same time, there are intellectual elements that Hodes; a Greek bronze vessel dating from 300
can be studied and debated."
B.C.E., loaned by Barbara and Lawrence Fleis-
Ruth Rattner, an art appraiser and con- chman; Oriental carpets and 17th-century
sultant who has taught art history, is loaning Dutch tiles, loaned by I Iistory of Art Profes-
an abstract expressionist painting by a favorite sor Emeritus Marvin Eisenberg; and illus-
American artist.
trated books dating from the 15th-20th
"I've been interested in contemporary art centuries, loaned by Margaret Winkelman.
for 30 years, and the piece on loan is small with
Et "Michigan Collectors" will be featured
monumental quality," Rattner said. "There
are a lot of pinks and reds, and I constantly
at the University of Michigan Museum of
see new things in it.
Art Feb. 8-April 13. For information, call
(313) 764-0395.
"There is an ambiguous quality that lets
Video
Visions
"Being & Time:
The Emergence of
Video Projection,"
an exhibition
which features five
room-sized instal-
lations and one
free-standing pro-
jected video sculp-
ture, runs through
March 29 at the Bruce Nauman: Clown Torture, video projection.
Cranbrook Art Museum.
The largest exhibition of video-based installation work ever shown in
Michigan was organized for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in I 3uffalo,
N.Y. Among the subjects are the violence in Ireland, an electronic por-
trait gallery, communication without speech, clown satire, impression-
istic gardens and a New Testament story. (810) 645-3312.
Distaff
Design
The ceramic vessels
of Donna Polseno,
figurative quilts
of Cynthia Nixon,
raku sculptural
forms of Phyllis
Magal and decora-
tive teapots of Julia
Kirillova are par
of "Woman by
Women," an exhib-
it and sale cele-
brating the female
form as interpreted
by 10 women arti-
sans.
Cynthia Nixon:
The mixed media collection—formed from clay, fiber
Crash Quilt, fiber. and wood will be featured through March 9 at the De-
troit Gallery of Contemporary Crafts, 104 Fisher Build-
ing. The gallery has extended evening and Sunday hours to accommodate
Fisher Theatre audiences. (313) 873-7888.
Spirit and Oppression
A collaborative exhibition of works by Cana-
dian artists Rochelle Rubinstein and Lanny
Shereck responds to the Holocaust. Rubin-
stein's woodblock prints of felt and silk and
Shereck's large-scale sculpture and painted
plaster figures portray the Holocaust as a
representation of the profanity of oppression
and the sacredness of spirit, faith and tran-
scendence. "Sacred and Profane" runs
through Feb. 27 at the Janice Charach Ep-
stein Museum/Gallery at the Maple Drake
Jewish Community Center. (810) 661-7641.
Rochelle Rubinstein/Lanny Shereck:
The Hunting Torah, wood and fabric.