The Long Curve: 150 Years of Visionary Collecting at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery will feature eighty iconic works by more than seventy-five artists from the late nineteenth century to the present, highlighting the history of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s extraordinary Collection, and the benefactors and museum professionals who made it possible. Exhibition Opens November 4, 2011.
Founded in 1862 as The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (now the governing body of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery), it is among the oldest arts organizations in America and one of the most celebrated for its long-standing commitment to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. To complement and contextualize the exhibition, the Gallery will also present The Impermanent Collection: The Room of Contemporary Art, 1939–1971. This installation tells the story of the Room of Contemporary Art, an untried approach to collecting art through which the Gallery was able to acquire, through purchase or gift, many bold and fearless works of its time—helping to create a reputation for which the museum is still known today.
Organized by Albright-Knox Chief Curator Douglas Dreishpoon, The Long Curve marks the beginning of the Gallery’s celebration of its 150th year. The history of the Collection centers around several benefactors, each of whom possessed a compelling and prescient vision and a deep commitment to contemporary art. Together, A. Conger Goodyear, Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Martha Jackson, and Natalie and Irving Forman donated more than 1,300 works to the Collection over the course of the last century and a half. Most recently, in 2008, the Gallery acquired seventy-one works of art by fifteen artists from the renowned collection of Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, through the generosity of the Panza Family and existing Gallery funds.
“This is a landmark exhibition of the Albright Knox’s Collection, one of the world’s most important modern and contemporary art collections,” Gallery Director Louis Grachos said. “The development of the Collection, here in Buffalo, is an intriguing story of generosity and uncompromising vision.” www.albrightknox.org