Inaugural Exhibition: Looking Back
This Saturday, May 18, 11-5, the Pizzuti Collection will open with our first Member Preview day, an opportunity to come and see the exhibitions before our official grand opening on September 7. We open with a pair of exhibitions: Inaugural Exhibition: Looking Back and Looking Forward and Cuban Forever. In the Inaugural Exhibition: Looking Back, we connect the
threads of experiences, artists and galleries, which helped form Ron Pizzuti as
a collector.
A chance encounter with a painting show of Frank Stella’s in Paris some
30 years ago captured Ron’s attention and resulted in a relationship that
became an important cornerstone of his collection. He was immediately intrigued
with the paintings and wanted to learn more. Subsequent research at the
New York Public Library illustrates how he balances reading with seeing. He has
continued to follow and collect Stella’s work ever since.
Karel Appel Circus People 1970 Silkscreen 28 x 20 inches
The first purchase of a piece of art reveals what blossomed into a
significant gallery relationship. Karel Appel’s lithograph ‘Circus People’ was
purchased from the Pace Gallery in Columbus in 1974, with a hundred dollars
down and paid off in monthly installments. Eva Glimcher, mother of Pace founder
Arne Glimcher, opened a branch of the seminal New York gallery here and brought
leading artists and their works to Columbus. Pace artists represented in this
group include: Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson, Jean Dubuffet and John
Chamberlain.
Susan
Rothenberg’s work led Ron to the Sperone Westwater gallery in New York in 1987
on the occasion of a solo show, which included the painting ‘Spider’. While
visiting the gallery, he met with Angela Westwater and discovered that she was
the daughter of his next-door neighbor! Angela subsequently introduced Ron to
other artists featured here: Richard Tuttle and Guillermo Kuitka.
Glenn
McMillen is a long-time friend and aided Ron in finding important works and
meeting interesting dealers. It was through Glenn that Ron met then young
gallerist Matthew Marks and bought the first Brice Marden drawing the dealer
had by the artist and had sold.
Over
the years the scope of the collection has grown, as has his network of
galleries. CRG Gallery, Matthew Marks Gallery and Friedman Benda have
introduced him to important works by Gerhard Richter, Jim Hodges, Ken Price, Ai
Weiwei and Ron Arad. While much of Ron’s current focus has changed, he
maintains the same approach of seeking out the brightest and best of young
artists and galleries from around the globe.
Duke Riley But Then Something Evil... 2010 Ceramic, glass, and tile on 2 panels 33 x 114 inches
Inaugural Exhibition: Looking Forward
Over the years Ron’s interest in contemporary art
has increasingly focused on the next generation of emerging artists from around
the globe. He is open to a wide range of media and this part of his collection
reflects the breadth and richness of the contemporary art world.
Flags, Maps and and Politics in the 1st
floor main gallery is a playful selection of works by contemporary artists that
represent the diversity of approach, material and subject that interest Ron
today. Politics and other “hot” issues are not avoided. Rather, ‘difficult’,
‘challenging’ and ‘tough’ are adjectives that Ron has never shied away from and
describe many of the important works in the collection. |
