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.