COLLECTORS CHOICE: S A M U E L B L AT T C O L L E C T I O N
Museum of Art - DeLand May 23 to August 24, 2014
“Of all the joys in my life, which include seeing my children grow up and a successful business career, I think the acquisition of art has provided a unique dimension. In some ways the passionate collector is an artiste manqué, and his world is a world by itself… full of beauty and hope in which the anticipation of each new object is an adventure which grips him to the depths every time.” - Gaston T. deHavenon
Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful for Samuel Blatt’s commitment to this exhibition of his private collection, which would not have materialized without his counsel and participation. The details involved in organizing a show of this quality and collaborating with the collector are time consuming and sensitive, however, the Staff of the Museum of Art - DeLand, carried them through with unfailing professionalism. The following donors and businesses merit special appreciation for their support of this presentation and their commitment to underwriting this year’s exhibition schedule: Dr. Grady Ballenger and Dr. Karen Cole, Dr. Bruce Bigman and Carolyn Bigman, Bill and Terri Booth, Earl and Patti Colvard, Sal Cristofano and Laura Gosper, Manny De La Vega, Dr. Wayne Dickson and Jewel Dickson, Robert Dorian and Linda Colvard Dorian, Lee and Susan Downer, Betty DreesJohnson, Richard and Lilas George, Larry G. Griffin, Christie G. Harris,William and Kathlene Hohns, John and Karen Horn, Ed Jackson and Pat Heller-Jackson, Gary Israel, Barney and Linda Lane, Doni Lennon, Daisy Lucci, Tim and Mary Jeanne Ludwig, Van and Frances Massey, Walter and Robin May, Jo McCranie, Joe and Linda Pinto, Stephen and Claudia Roth, Judith Thompson, Dr. Ian Williams and Nancy Hutson, Dr. John Wilton and Nancy Wilton, The Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation, Inc., Hohns Family Term Fund, Jaffe Foundation, Lacey Family Charitable Trust, National Automobile Dealers Charitable Foundation, PNC Foundation, Boulevard Tire Center, Fleishel Financial Associates, Florida Hospital DeLand, Lane-Lennon Commercial Insurance, Lane Insurance, Inc., Mainstreet Community Bank, Starling Chevrolet Cadillac, DeLand Breakfast Rotary, DeLand Fall Festival of the Arts, DeLand Rotary Club, Inc., The Faith Hope & Charity Society, Krewe of Amalee, Krewe Nouveau, Museum Guild, State of Florida, Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the County of Volusia. Finally, I would like to applaud our institution’s Board of Trustees, led by Judy Thompson, President, for encouraging the Museum to realize its ambitious, diverse and nationally recognized fine arts programming. George S. Bolge, Chief Executive Officer Museum of Art - DeLand, Florida
The Private Eye
A
fter the esthetic criteria have been enunciated, consensus opinion proclaimed, and the demands of fashion nodded to, in the end, the question of individual taste prevails. It remains a mystery, however, why certain individuals seem to be endowed with a sharp and discerning eye while almost everyone else prefers to be à la mode. How does the “everyone else” decide what is in and what is out? One wonders, also, how the discerning few came by their discriminative ability? 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 Concourts, 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 which, as the 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 makes ever finer discriminations. The process must be continuous and concentrated. Of course, it was easier in the preceding centuries and decades to keep in touch with what was being created in all the fields of art. Collectors living in the largest and most frantic art scene that history has ever known (the first half of the 21st Century), 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. For art collectors, “it is the best of times and the worst of times.” It is a time of new scholarship, new ideas and new visions from new parts of the world. And it is a time of stratospheric price leaps, fast deals, and multitudinous lawsuits. Big money has put a new spin on an old game that was once based largely on handshakes and promises, personal friendships and passion. Collecting is not merely a byproduct of art culture: often it stimulates and influences its development. By means of relationships and exchanges between diverse cultures, operations of selection and coordination, which imply critical judgment, are brought into play, and a clear formulation of criticism results. Collection is concerned with the evaluation of works of art, because in a well-chosen collection a single work assumes a value from the fact that it is part of a selected series; in other words, it adds to its own light that reflected from the masterpieces among which it is found. What then is left to the collector’s eye that wishes to see its way with clarity through the labyrinth of present day art? What strategies can the individual adopt to avoid the traps of vulgarity and crass materialism? One cannot know what he likes or dislikes unless one has a good sense of what is around to see. This exhibition, Collector’s Choice: Samuel Blatt Collection, is intended to showcase a group of artists who have given this collector – each in his or her own way – experiences that are pleasurable and enduring. All of the creators in Mr. Blatt’s personal collection are unique because each one makes a visual statement of quite his or her own making. They have sought art and quality by following no set path and chose to select carefully their own very private way between complex clusters of alternatives. They produced, as a result, art of profound individuality, honesty, and quality. For the collector, possessing such art allows him to participate quietly with artists of extraordinary integrity and vision in their day by day creative activity of trying to contact the divine, and to benefit, thereby, from their lifelong devotion to a particular inspiration and ideal. g.s.b.
Collector’s Choice: Samuel Blatt Collection Catalogue Arms, John Taylor; Spanish Profile; 1948-1950, Etching, 13.675” x 6.875” Bombois, Camille; On the Banks of the Siole River; c. 1900, Oil on a canvas, 8.75” x 10.5” Bonnard, Pierre; Jeune FIlle Lisant; Print, undated, 8” x 5” Bouquet, Andre; Serteuil; 1974, Oil on canvas, 14.5” x 17” Braque, Georges; The Black Gueridon; 1950, Etching, 12” x 23” Cabanel, Alexandre; Study for a Mural in the Panthéon, Paris “St. Louis Fonde I’ Hopital des Quinze-Vingts”; undated, Black chalk on tan paper, 19.875” x 10” Carpeaux, Jean; Figure Studies with Putti; Drawing, undated, 5.25” x 8.125” Carpeaux, Jean; Studies of Putti and a Classical Figure; Drawing, undated, 5.375” x 8.125” Carpeaux, Jean; Study for Dante and Virgil; Drawing, undated, 7.375” x 5.125” Carpeaux, Jean; Study for Dante and Virgil and a Dragon; Drawing, undated, 6.75” x 5. 125” Carpeaux, Jean; Study for Dante at the Inferno; Drawing, undated, 7.375” x 5.125” Carpeaux, Jean; Study of a Dragon; Drawing, undated, 6.75” x 5. 125” Carpeaux, Jean; Three Studies of Putti; Drawing, undated, 7” x 4.375” Cousturier, Lucie; Still Life with Chrysanthemums; c. 1900, Oil on canvas, 32.25” x 25.625” Delacroix, Eugene; Moroccan Scene; Drawing, undated, 6” x 3.75” Delacroix, Eugene; Studies for “Alexander Preserves Homer’s Poems” (Palais du Luxembourg); c. 1841, Pencil, Image: 5.875” x 9” Dufy, Raoul; Portrait of a Woman in an Armchair; 1930, Pen and ink on paper, 25.25 x 19.25 Dufy, Raoul; Woman in Profile; Pencil on paper, 24” x 18” Dunoyer de Segonzac, André; Still Life with Apples; Watercolor on paper, 13” x 12” Fleury, Albert; Corner Garden; c. 1909, Oil on canvas, 12” x 18” Gerome, Jean-Leon; Study for “Camels at the Fountain” c. 1860, Pencil on paper, 9.125” x 14” Gerome, Jean-Leon; Study of a Draped Figure; c. 1860, Pencil on paper, 9” x 5.75” Hollestelle, Jacob; Path of Trees; Oil on panel, Image: 9” x 15” L’hermitte, Leon-; Mother Nursing her Child; 1895 Charcoal on paper, 14.25” x 11” L’hermitte, Leon-; The Calvary at Hervelingen (In from the Fields); 1905, Pastel on paper, 15.375” x 20” Lacombe, Georges; The Brook at the Pierrechiens; Oil on canvas, 25.75” x 19.75” Laurencin, Marie; The Couple; Pen and ink on paper, 11.375” x 8.125” Laurencin, Marie; Three Young Girls; c. 1932, Watercolor and pencil on paper, 12.875” x 16” Leger, Fernand; Based on a 1919 oil painting; c. 1950, Lithograph, 21.5” x 15.25” Mangin, Dym; Harbor Scene with Sailboats; c. 1900, Oil on canvas, 12.5” x 16” Martin-Ferrieres, Jacques; Interior Scene; 1944, Oil, 31.75” x 25.5” Miro, Joan; Le Coq; c. 1935, Porchoir, 21” x 16” Moiselete, Gabriel; Snow Scene; c. 1900, Oil on canvas, 19.25” x 24.75” Morren, George; Vase of Flowers; undated, Oil on board, 21” x 27” Pascin, Jules; Etude de Cuba; c. 1916, Pen and ink on cream wove paper, 8.125” x 10” Pascin, Jules; Les Arabes; 1924, Pencil on cream wove paper, 8.75” x 6” Picasso, Pablo; Artist and Child; 1949, Frame: 29.625” x 23” Picasso, Pablo; Bacchus and Outstretched Nude Woman; 1934, Etching and dry point on paper, 11.75” x 9.5” Picasso, Pablo; La Danse des Faunes; 1957, Lithograph, 16.125 x 20.875 Picasso, Pablo; Plate 54 from 347 Series; 1968, Eitching, 11” x 15” Picasso, Pablo; Venus as a Strolling Player; 1966, Etching and aquatint on paper, 13” x 16.5” Piranesi, Giovanni Battista; Plate XZI; The Pier with Chains – Unforgiving View of Prisons; 1749-1761, Etching and engraving, 16” x 21.75” Pissarro, Camille; Child Holding a Stick in his Hand; undated, Drawing, 8.75” x 6.5” Pissarro, Camille; Workers and Horse; undated, Drawing, 10” x 7.875” Ray, Man; Black Marker: Drawing for Little Julie; 1940, Drawing, 20” x 15.5” Ray, Man; Elizabeth; Pen, undated, 20” x 15.5” Ray, Man; Julie; Ink on mylar, undated, 20” x 15.5” Shuffenecker Émile; Brittany Cliffs; Pastel on paper, undated, 15” x 18.5” Shuffenecker, Émile; Madame Rouchefoucauld, undated, Pastel on paper, 24.625 x 18.75” Shuffenecker, Émile; Mother and Child; undated, Pencil on Paper, 9.5” x 6” Shuffenecker, Émile; Peasant on a Country Road; Pastel on paper, undated, 18.875 x 14.75” Shuffenecker, Émile; Portrait of a Young Girl; Patel and pencil on paper, undated, 14” x 10.5” Shuffenecker, Émile; Jeanne, Studies of Children; c. 1888, Pencil on paper, 12” x 8” Shuffenecker, Émile; Jeanne, Studies of Children; c. 1888, Pencil on paper, 12” x 8” Shuffenecker, Émile; Woman in Oriental Costume; Chalk and pencil on paper, 13” x 10” Sloane, Phyllis; The Straw Hat; 1983, Serigraph, 15” x 14.5” Unknown artist; Mediterranean View; 20th Century, Oil on canvas board, 9” x 7” Vuillard, Edouard; Study for “Madame Adrien Benard”; c.1928, Pencil and ink on paper, 7.75” x 4” Whistler, James Abbot McNeill; Nurse Maids; 1894, Lithograph, 11” x 8.5”
Museum of Art - DeLand
600 N. Woodland Blvd. (top) Downtown Satellite 100 N. Woodland Blvd. (above) The Museum of Art – DeLand, Florida, formerly known as the Museum of Florida Art, is a vital and interactive nonprofit community visual arts museum dedicated to the collecting, preservation, study, display and educational use of the fine arts. In addition to the permanent collection, the Museum is host to several rotating exhibits, gallery talks and receptions, educational programming, master artist workshops and special events throughout the year. The Museum of Art - DeLand, Florida, Inc. is recognized as Exempt under Section 501(c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Gallery Hours / Admission
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Front, Joan Miro, Le coq, c.1940, Pochoir, 21” x 16” Page 2, Raoul Dufy, Woman in an Armchair, 1930 Pen and ink on paper, 25.25” x 19.25” Page 3 top, George Lacombe, The Brook at Pierre Chiens, c.1900, Oil on canvas, 25.75” x 19.75” Page 3 bottom, Marie Laurencin, Three Young Girls c.1932, Watercolor and pencil on paper, 12.875” x 16”
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