The Edward R. Broida Bequest

February 28th – May 31st 2009

The Edward R. Broida Bequest, Gift of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Broida tended to collect in depth if an artist's work impressed him.  One such artist was Philip Guston, whose late-period paintings he bought when they were out of favor with the art establishment.  Be the beginning of the 21st century, the critics had come around and museums were clamoring for Guston's late work.  At the end of his life, Broida bequeathed many of these works to the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

lois lane maskUntitled (mask), 1981. Lois Lane. Oil and graphite on canvas. 2008.068

 

The remainder of his collection, Broida bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in large part due to a friendship with MFA curator, Barry Walker, curator of modern and contemporary art and of prints and drawings.  "What set Ed Broida apart as a collector was his independence from critics and art dealers," explained Walker.  "Unconcerned that Guston's work was totally out of critical favor in the 1970s, Broida trusted his own instincts, a tactic that established the pattern of his collecting.  He preferred to commune directly and silently with the works that interested him.  he bought artists' works in depth-often long before the artists had attained any critical recognition-with a particularly good eye for sculpture, a medium to which private collectors are traditionally resistant."

The Museum of Fine Arts accepted the entire collection, knowing that it could not keep it all.  As it did with the Richard and Nona Barrett Collection of Texas Art in 2003, the MFAH invited a group of seven Texas art museums to come to Houston to choose works from the remainder for their own collections.  In January 2008, the museums convened for the selections process.  At the end, the Old Jail Art Center received 14 works.  It took 11 into the permanent collection, releasing three for the OJAC's Biennial Auction.

We are pleased to introduce these works to our audience this spring.  Most of the Broida works offered to the seven museums were done in the 1970s and 1980s, when Broida was looking most broadly.  taken together, they form a view of the art scene in those decades when abstraction in many guises still reigned, but realism and conceptualism were beginning to vie for ascendency.

stuart diamondRemnant, 1976. Stuart Diamond. Painted construction. 2008.065

 

Among the highlights of the work that came to the Old Jail Art Center is an untitled painting by Lois Lane (American, b. 1948), whose work was heralded in New York City in the early 1980s as an example of the so-called New Realism, a brief movement that bridged abstract painting and a new interest in realism.  The constructed works of Stuart Diamond (American, b. 1942) reflect an interest of the time (1970s) in pushing painting into sculptural form.  It echoes Frank Stella's work, but adds a richer, messier imagery.  The mature sculpture (1970s) of Lila Katzen (American, 1932-1998) is grace itself.  Trained by Hans Hoffman, Katzen translated abstract gesture into sculpture.  Her monumental work can be found in public and private collections throughout the United States and around the world.  Alfonse Borysewicz (American, b. 1957), a former seminarian, painted abstractions with spiritual themes, like the haunting Gethsemane acquired by the OJAC.  The latests works in OJAC's Broida group are two by American artist Judy Tuwaletstiwa (b. 1941) done in 2003.  These mixed media pieces on canvas invite contemplation with intriguing titles that reference sound, music, and literature: Text: Silence and De Harmonia Mundi: Canto, Terra.