KNOWING WHAT I LIKE The Private Collection of George S. Bolge
KNOWING WHAT I LIKE The Private Collection of George S. Bolge Museum of Art – DeLand, Florida Januar y 15 – March 14, 2021
In Memory of my Family who encouraged and sustained my love and interest in the Arts.
Museum of Art - DeLand, Florida
Board of Trustees (2020-2021) Dagny Robertson, President Solomon Greene, Vice President Judith Thompson, Immediate Past President Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Treasurer John Wilton, Secretary Karen Allebach Samuel Blatt George S. Bolge Jean Burns, Museum Guild President Kelly Canova John Clifford Sal Cristofano Greg Dasher Manny De La Vega Linda Colvard Dorian Barbara Girtman Joan Lee Beth Marotte
Kieu Nguyen Moses Lisa Ogram Todd Phillips Petra Simon, Museum Guild Representative Ian Williams ADMINISTRATION Pattie Pardee, Executive Director Dorothy Dansberger, Director of Finance and Operations Darlene Shelton, Manager of Guest Services Teri Peaden, Museum Store Manager Cole Wright, Visitor Engagement Officer CURATORIAL Pam Coffman, Curator of Education Tariq Gibran, Museum Curator MARKETING Stephanie Kelly Clark, Consultant
KNOWING WHAT I LIKE The Private Collection of George S. Bolge January 15 - March 14, 2021, Museum of Art – DeLand Printing E.O. Painter Printing Co., DeLeon Springs, Florida Museum of Art – DeLand, 600 North Woodland Boulevard, DeLand, Florida, 32720 Museum of Art – DeLand Downtown, 100 North Woodland Boulevard, DeLand, Florida 32720 www.MoArtDeLand.org @MoArtDeLand On the cover: David Remfry, Dancers, 2002, Watercolor on paper, 58 x 40 inches On the title page: Georges Liautraud, Laughing Baby, 1968, Steel, 17 ⅟₂ inches Copyright ©2020 Museum of Art – DeLand. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any other method without the written consent by the Museum of Art – DeLand.
Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Collector’s Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Introduction KNOWING WHAT I LIKE: The Private Collection of George S. Bolge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Catalogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Gérard Fortune Dancing Houngan, No date Acrylic on board 40 x 30 inches
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The breadth and depth of this extraordinary exhibition is a direct reflection of the personal taste of George Bolge, art historian, curator, collector and patron. It is a collection born of George’s understanding of the cultural importance of each piece, an innate ability to create context through curatorial organization, and his sincere appreciation of the South Florida art community evidenced by his decades of support, encouragement, and promotion of these individual artists. Collectors help shape how art will be remembered for generations to come, and it is our honor to share George Bolge’s singular perspective distilled from a lifetime devoted to the visual arts. The following donors and businesses merit special appreciation for their support and their commitment to this year’s exhibition schedule: Becky Adesso, Jeff and Karen Allebach, Dennis Aylward, Robert Apgar, Denise Autorino, Joel and Sandra Bautista, Bruce Bigman and Carolyn Bigman, Samuel and Donna Blatt, Michael and Beverly Bleakly, George S. Bolge, Michael and Deborah Branton, J. Hyatt and Cici Brown, Tom and Jean Burns, Ann Brady and Rick Kolodinsky, Billy Calkins, Richard Campeau, Courtney and Kelly Canova, Edward Chambers, Miles and Stephanie Clark, John and Linda Clifford, John and Vernette Conrad, Sal Cristofano and Laura Gosper, Greg Dasher, Manny De La Vega, Gretchen Delman, Lisa DeVitto, Wayne and Jewel Dickson, Naomi Dimmick, Robert Dorian and Linda Colvard Dorian, Susan Downer, Anthony Ehrlich, Rick and Carolyn Evans, Kelly Fagen, P.W. Fleming, Barbara Girtman, Richard and Lilis George, Stephen and Jane Glover, Mark Grantham, Solomon Greene, Susan Griffis, Lorna Jean Hagstrom, Tom Hale, Katheryn Hammer-Whitty, Patricia Heller, David and Susan Hensley, Paul and Charlene Holland, John and Karen Horn, Richard and Beth Jackson, Betty Drees Johnson, Darrin and Diana Latow, Joan Lee, Eneida Likes, Craig and Tracy Lindsey, Stanley and Claire Link, Tim and Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Elizabeth Marotte, Barbara Mars, Philip and Cynthia McConnell, David Scott Meyer and William Suddaby, Greg and Beth Milliken, Clara Montesi, Kieu Moses, Lisa Ogram, Todd Phillips, Donna Poole, Frances Porter, Hari and Jenneffer Pulapaka, Curt and Patti Rausch, Richard and Pamela Rintz, Tommy and Dagny Robertson, Stephen and Claudia Roth, Patty Schwarze, Michael and Nancy Shayeson, Ellen Smith, Peter and Elizabeth Sorenson, Clifford and Lavonne Strachman, Dr. Mac Steen and Kathy Steen, Marty Suarez, Judith Thompson, Mara Whitridge, Ian Williams and Nancy Hutson, Linda Williamson, John and Nancy Wilton, Dave and Sandy Wilson, Adams Cameron Foundation, Capital Group, Earl W. and Patricia B. Colvard Foundation, Duke Energy Foundation, Dorothy, M. Gillespie Foundation, Lacey Family Charitable Trust, Publix Super Market Charities, Inc., Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, Advent Health DeLand, Bank of America, Boulevard Tire Center, City of DeLand, County of Volusia, DeLand Breakfast Rotary Club, DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand Rotary Club, Inc., Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Deltran USA, Duke Energy, E.O. Painter Printing Company, Faith Hope & Charity, JetBlue, Junior Service League of DeLand, Krewe of Amalee, Mainstreet Community Bank, Massey Services, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Ogram, Higbee & Associates, Orange City Blue Springs Manatee Festival, Museum Guild, Orlando Sentinel, Passport Luxury Guide, Robertson Advisory, Inc., State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, Stetson University, Waste Pro USA, West Volusia Beacon, West Volusia Tourism Authority. Sincere thanks to the Board of Trustees for their dedication to the mission of the Museum, and to the staff who work continuously to present exceptional exhibitions and programs to the community. Pattie Pardee Executive Director 4
William Glackens Untitled, No date Charcoal on brown paper 9¼ x 7 inches
COLLECTOR’S STATEMENT Nothing is enduring except change, nothing is constant except death. Every beat of the heart strikes a wound in us, and life would be an eternal bleeding to death if there were not the art of poetry. It grants us what nature denies us: a golden age which does not rust, a spring which does not fade, cloudless happiness and eternal youth. – Ludwig Borne It is doubtful, however, whether collectors have ever been unmindful of the investment value of art. – Richard H. Rush
What impels me to acquire art? My fellow art historians have steadfastly turned their backs on this question, and psychoanalysts have not had much to say on the matter either. Patients, after all, do not seek psychiatric services because they are collectors. Yet to anyone at all familiar with art collectors, it is clear that our reasons for collecting are both diverse and complex. They may range from relatively pure ones like those suggested in the passage from Borne, just as applicable to art as to poetry, all the way to the much crasser ones alluded to by Rush. I am not the kind of collector who collects for profit pure and simple, who may even buy works of art in wholesale lots only to stash them away in a warehouse where they have risen in value. This breed, which has increased apace with the feverish growth of the art market in recent years, does not collect art for art’s sake. But for a few exceptions, most of the works of art in my collection are small to medium size in scale. Their cultural and aesthetic content varies as does the techniques, styles and media in which they are rendered. The art represented in this exhibition was assembled over 40 years of interactions with artists – those with both national and international reputations and those whose talents have yet to be discovered. The ownership of these paintings, drawings, sculpture, graphics and cultural artifacts mostly serve to remind me of my friendships with their creators and how these associations have contributed to my connoisseurship and understanding the value of pursuing a career in the Arts. George S. Bolge
Gina Lollobrigida Diana, 1998 Bronze Ht. 9” 5
INTRODUCTION KNOWING WHAT I LIKE The Private Collection of George S. Bolge “The Book of Art” tells the ultimate truth about a place, or image. – John Ruskin In the end, after the aesthetic criteria have been enunciated, consensus opinion proclaimed and the demands of fashion nodded to, the question of individual taste prevails. It remains, however, a mystery why certain individuals seemed to be endowed with a sharp and discerning eye while almost everyone else prefers to be “a la mode.” How does the “everyone else” decide what is in and what is out? Equally, one wonders, how did the discerning few come by their discriminations? We know of many such connoisseurs who perceived what was best and most interesting in their own times. We admire some of the Medicis, some of the Popes, Diderot, the Goncourts, Vollard, Roger Fry, Alfred Barr, Jr. and Clement Greenberg, for example, whose tastes were their own and admirable. They all knew art as a direct, immediate experience and this, as an American philosopher William James pointed out, is the only true method by which the eye trains itself, develops its capacity to “see” what is there, and thus make ever finer discriminations. The process must be continuous and concentrated. Of course it was easier in the centuries and decades preceding our own twentieth to keep in touch with what was being created in all the fields of art. We, in the latter half of the 2020’s, living in the largest and most frantic art scene history has ever known, are harder pressed to follow the advice of James and that other great philosopher, John Dewey. There are so many people calling themselves artists and so much “product” in hundreds of galleries that the task of concentrated looking has become enormous. The “private eye”, the individual sensibility is assailed by the clamor of publicity, and has difficulty ignoring the success and popularity of artists who little deserve either. There is the market, its gigantism, its capacity to inflate reputations and to seemingly give the “Good Housekeeping Seal” that guarantees immortality. And then there are the collectors, some of whom fortunately are both cultivated and reserved – a sharp contrast to all the rest who use their “spoils” to elevate their social positions, get photographed by the press, and who are in constant touch with the auction houses. Reading art criticisms in newspapers and magazines tends to further discourage the “private eye” from the direct experience, rather like reading articles about Proust instead of Proust (a widespread vice). It is often said that the quality of an artist’s work is established through consensus. This of course is true after a long passage of time and the astonishing capacity of some works of art to survive the ravages of cataclysm and drastic social change. But can durability and quality be ascertained through so-called general agreement on what is most acceptable as contemporary art? Many people believe this because, for them, traditional standards of quality and value exist only minimally. What then is left to the “private eye” that wishes to see its way with clarity through the murky labyrinth of present day art? What strategies can the individual adopt to avoid the traps of vulgarity and crass materialism? He cannot know what he likes or dislikes unless he has a good sense of what is around to see. Practice has taught him to make categories of the possible; experience has shown him that the “outdoor art fair” is a waste of time, as are a great many galleries which deal exclusively in “schlock.” He learns to distinguish between professional, 6
committed artists and daubers. He pays as little attention as possible to publicity handouts and is wary of any artist that The New York Times features regularly as symptomatic of “where art is at.” The present 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 arrives at a visual statement quite of their own making. Should I attempt to analyze a common attribute among these artists, I would say that what I found in their work is an avoidance of noisy rhetoric. Bombast has been substituted with their own introspective way of working towards images which express the logic of the forms that emerge in each work as it moves to completion. The way in which these artists use the means and techniques for finding their images is the expression. None of them uses “appropriated” material: quotations from other artists. There is an absence of parody, jocularity, commercial satire, half baked borrowing from serious craft artists – all this plus the avoidance of the bane of fashionability keep them idiosyncratically themselves. Hence the delight of the observer in seeing a picture or an object in unexpected ways. As a collector, each acquisition is the record of a vivid experience, either a long pursuit or a struggle in which mounting desire has conquered prudence and economy. It has been brought home in triumph and placed, after many experiments, in the right company and the right light. It is true that after a few months have gone by, I probably will forget all about it for days on end. But each time a sympathetic visitor looks at one of my “prized possessions” something of my first rapture returns; it becomes once more a friend, fetish and familiar and there is re-established that complex human relationship which gives my private collection its life. George S. Bolge Director Emeriti Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida
Sandro Chia Angel Carrying a Heart, circa 20th century Bronze Ht. 19” 7
PLATES
Dorothy Gillespie Portrait of George Bolge, 1980 Oil on canvas 72 x 24¾ inches 8
Jill Cannady Portrait of Elyse Nemerever, 2020 Oil on canvas 40 x 30 inches 9
Mark Tobey Portrait of a Woman, No date Charcoal on paper 19½ x 15 inches
Eugene Spiecher Nancy, No date Charcoal on paper 16 x 11½ inches 10
Conrad Marca-Relli Untitled, 1955 Collage 25 ⅞” x 19 ½”
George McNeil Dancer with Red Shoe, 1979 Oil on canvas 58” x 48” 11
Bhutan Lord of Death Mask, 20th century Painted carved wood with detachable antlers 28 x 10 x 11 inches
Santal People, (Nepal) Tribal Lute (Dhodro Banam), 20th century Wood and hide 33 x 12 x 5 inches 12
Tibet/Nepal (Collected in Kathmandu) Mahakala Mask, 1970 Painted wood, pin holes where flags or cloth were attached 22 x 18 inches
Leon Kroll, Sunlit Sea and Rock, 1913 Oil on panel 15 x 19 ½ inches
Wolf Kahn, Cabin Below a Rise, 1990 Oil on canvas 16 x 28 inches 13
CATALOGUE *Illustrated in the catalogue
Haitian Art: Prefete Duffaut, Harbor Scene, 1997, Acrylic on canvas, 10” x 24” Lionel Elie, The Happy Figures, No date, Acrylic on board, 21 ½” x 25 ¼” Levoy Exil, Dancing Figure, 1996, Acrylic on board, 10” x 8” Levoy Exil, Odalesque, 1996, Acrylic on board, 8” x 10” Levoy Exil, Three Figures, 1987, Acrylic on board, 24” x 24” *Gérard Fortune, Dancing Houngan, No date, Acrylic on board, 40” x 30” Jean-Baptiste Jean, Angel Composition, No date, Acrylic on board, 20” x 25” Nacius Joseph, Mermaid (La Sirena) Holding a Fish, No date, Wood, Ht. 14 ½” *Georges Liautraud, Laughing Baby, 1968, Steel, Ht. 17 ½” Prospere Pierre Louis, Seated Loa, 1998, Acrylic on canvas, 36 ½” x 24 ½”
Bali, (Indonesia), Ornamental, Multi-Figure Carving, 20th century, Painted wood, Ht. 50” *Bhutan, Lord of Death Mask, 20th century, Painted carved wood with detachable antlers, 28” x 10” x 11” Bhutan, Kira (Kishutara) Woman’s Dress, 20th century, Textile, 8’ x 4’ Bhutan, Padmasambhara Mask for Charm Dance, 20th century, Painted papier mache and gauze, 11” x 9” x 6” Efe Ba Mbuti-Pygmies, (Zaire, Africa), Barkcloth, 20th century, Ficus bark and pigment, 30 ½” x 9 ½” *Santal People, (Nepal), Tribal Lute (Dhodro Banam), 20th century, Wood and hide, 33” x 12” x 5” Tamang People, (Nepal), Mask, 20th century, Dense wood, 8” x 11” x 5” *Tibet/Nepal (Collected in Kathmandu), Mahakala Mask, 1970, Painted wood, pin holes where flags or cloth were attached, 22” x 18”
Antoine Oleyard, Ceremonial Embroidered Voodoo Flag, 1989, Textile and Sequins, 40 ¼” x 33 ¹/₃”
Tibet, Wooden Manuscript Cover with Carved Buddhas, 17th - 18th century, Carved dense wood, richly painted, 16” x 6 ¼” x ¾”
Dieuseul Paul, Three Loas, 1988, Acrylic on board, 24 ¼” x 24”
Modern and Contemporary Art:
Antilhomme Richard, Purple Figure with Open Mouth and Chin Whiskers, No date, Acrylic on board, 24 ¼” x 24”
Peter Agostino, Horse, No date, Watercolor on paper, 11” x 8 ½”
Denis Smith, Saluting Green Woman, 1988, Acrylic on board, 30” x 24”
Calvin Albert, Seated Female Figure, No date, Charcoal on paper, 11” x 8”
Denis Smith, Woman Flanked by Two Cats, 1989, Acrylic on board, 23 ¾” x 24”
Henry Alken, Hunters and Dogs, No date, Graphite on paper, 7 ⅛” x 9 ½”
Lionel St. Eloi, Angel with Sash, No date, Metal, 36” x 24”
George Bellows, Bolton Brown, No date, Lithograph, 15 ¼” x 13 ¼”
Lionel St. Eloi, Prayer to Grand Bois, No date, Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 18” Louisiane St. Fleurant, Woman Holding a Basket Flanked by Two Houses, 1989, Acrylic on board, 24 ¼” x 24 ¼”
Primal Cultures: Atoni People of Western Timur, (Indonesia), Ceremonial Incised ‘brinis’ (cotton mangle), 20th century, Wood, 18 ½” x 22” 14
Henri-Cartier Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazara, 1932, Gelatin silver print, 14 ½” x 9 ¾” James Brooks, Untitled, 1977, Gouache on paper, 30” x 22” *Jill Cannady, Portrait of Elyse Nemerever, 2020, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30” Paul Caponigro, Stonehenge, 1969, Gelatin silver print, 32” x 47”
Clarence Carter, Icon #6 , 1968, Acrylic on canvas, 30” x 22”
Clarence John Laughlin, The Bat, 1940, Gelatin silver print, 14” x 10”
*Sandro Chia, Angel Carrying a Heart, circa 20th century, Bronze, Ht. 19”
Marco Ledola, Piccoli Indian, 1995, Plexiglass, 50” x 38 ½”
Sandro Chia, Untitled, No date, Gouache on paper, 32 ¼” x 20 ¾”
*Conrad Marca-Relli, Untitled, 1955, Collage, 25 ⅞” x 19 ½”
Willem De Kooning, Clam Digger, No date, Lithograph 29/100, 17” x 22”
*Reginald Marsh, In the Subway, 1951, Egg tempera on board, 6” x 7”
Pino Deodato, Un Piccolo Quadrucci’s Sobtollibin, 1997, Oil on canvas, 47” x 39 ½”
Fletcher Martin, Seated Model, No date, Ink on paper, 15” x 11”
Albrecht Durer, Small Passion - Bartische #21, No date, Woodcut, 5” x 3 ¾”
Henri Matisse, Female Head, 1938, Linocut, 11 ¾” x 9”
Alfred Eisenstaedt, Marilyn Monroe, 1953, Gelatin silver print, 12 ¼” x 9 ¼”
*Gina Lollobrigida, Diana, 1998, Bronze, Ht. 9”
Roberto Matta, Untitled, No date, Etching 36/100, 26” x 9 ½”
M. C. Escher, Belvedere, 1958, Lithograph, 18 ¼” x 11 ⅝”
*George McNeil, Dancer with a Red Shoe, 1979, Oil on canvas, 52” x 48”
Walker Evans, H, 1971, Gelatin silver print 66/400, 7 ¼” x 9 ¼”
John Mills, Tenements, circa 1920, Oil on board, 28” x 19”
Lucien Freud, Portrait, No date, Etching 3/3, 10 ½” x 8 ½” Daniel Garber, Illyria, 1944, Etching 2/50, Plate 8 ⅞” x 12”
Benn Mitchell, Humphrey Bogart, 1943, Gelatin silver print, 16” x 20”
Paul Gauguin, Untitled, No date, Lithograph, 11” x 9”
Henry Moore, Untitled, No date, Etching 33/50, Image 9 ½” x 7 ½”
*Dorothy Gillespie, Portrait of George Bolge, 1980, Oil on canvas, 72” x 24 ¼”
Doug Moran, Untitled, No date, Mixed media on paper, 19” x 43 ½”
*William Glackens, Untitled, No date, Chalk on brown paper, 9 ¼” x 7”
Malcolm Mosley, The Boxer, 1972, Lithograph 90/100, 4 ½” x 19 ½”
Gordon Grant, Two Fishermen, No date, Watercolor on paper, 14” x 12 ½”
Robert Motherwell, Untitled, No date, Lithograph 94/200, 25” x 19 ½”
David Hockney, Peter at Odiles, 1972, Etching 1/80, 16 ¼” x 13”
Barbara Neijna, Untitled, No date, Aluminum with spectrum roll and graphite, 48 ½” x 40” x 8”
George Hurrell, Jean Harlow on a Bearskin Rug, No date, Gelatin silver print 46/170, 13 ¼” x 10 ¼”
Arnold Newman, Igor Stravinsky, 1946, Gelatin silver print, 7” x 13”
*Wolf Kahn, Cabin Below a Rise, 1990, Oil on canvas, 16” x 28”
Eliot O’Hara, Untitled, No date, Watercolor on paper, 21” x 15 ¼”
Alex, Katz, Susan, 1976, Screen print, 26” x 19 ½”
Robert Rauschenburg, Tropic Magazine Cover, 1979, Lithograph, 12” x 21”
Wilford Langdon Kihn, Portrait of an Old Indian, 1923, Pencil and wet chalk on paper, 15” x 20” Kathe Kollwitz, Untitled, 1921, Etching, Image 15” x 19 ¾”
*David Remfry, Dancers, 2002, Watercolor on paper, 58” x 40”
*Leon Kroll, Sunlit Sea and Rock, 1913, Oil on panel, 15” x 19 ½”
Elmar Rojas, Leccionas De Pintura, 2000, Oil on canvas, 9 ½” x 8”
Leon Kroll, Self-Portrait, No date, Sepia crayon on paper, 8 ¾” x 7 ¾”
Herberto Sanchez, Eight Images of the Bull Fight, 1999, Gouache on paper, 42” x 26 ½”
Salvatore La Rosa, Untitled, 1989, Mixed media on canvas, 38 ½” x 40”
Emilio Sanchez, Window Altar, No date, Oil on canvas, 24” x 30” 15
Joseph Scorselo, Mago Giorgio, No date, Collage of watercolor fragments, 37 ½” x 50”
Robert Thiele, Bakaty, 1986, Glass, laminated canvas, pigment, mixed media, 9 ½” x 23 ½” x 12 ½”
Aaron Siskind, Untitled, No date, Gelatin silver print, Image: 6 ½” x 6 ½”
*Mark Tobey, Portrait of a Woman, No date, Charcoal on paper, 19 ½” x 15”
Paul Soldner, Wall Plaque, No date, Ceramic, 20” x 25 ¾”
Unknown artist, Portrait, circa 17th - 18th century, Chalk on brown paper, 8” x 6 ¼”
Syd Solomon, Atlantic Shoreline, 1989, Oil and acrylic on black etching paper, 21” x 31” *Eugene Spiecher, Nancy, No date, Charcoal on paper, 16” x 11 ¼” Graham Sutherland, Untitled, No date, Lithograph on handmade paper 20/70, 29” x 30 ½”
Vaclav Vytlacil, Arab Village, No date, Charcoal on paper, 18 ½” x 24 ½” Purvis Young, Two Portraits of the Clergy, No date, Acrylic on board, 64 ¾” x 47 ¼”
Henri-Cartier Bresson Behind the Gare Saint-Lazara, 1932 Gelatin silver print 14 ½ x 9 ¾ inches 16
Reginald Marsh In the Subway, 1951 Egg tempera on board 6 x 7 inches 17
Photograph by Klara Farkas.