NOW ON VIEW
Museum Honors Generous Collectors
in A Tale of Two Sisters
By Brian J. Lang, Curator of Decorative Arts
Within the world of art collecting,
there have been several notable siblingcollectors. Among these are Claribel and
Etta Cone of Baltimore, pioneer collectors
of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist
artworks, as well as Gwendoline and
Margaret Davies of Wales, who amassed
one of the great British art collections
of the twentieth century, highlights of
which appeared in the landmark traveling
exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art
in 2009, Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces
from the Davies Collection, National
Museum Wales.
Top: Sam Maloof, American, 1916-2009, Rocking Chair #13,
1999, walnut and ebony, Fiftieth Anniversary Acquisition,
Gift of Ethel S. Brody and Leona Sobel, CMA 2000.5
Above: Bridget Riley, British, born 1931, Blue Dominance,
1977, screenprint in colors, 18/100, Fiftieth Anniversary
Acquisition, Museum purchase with funds provided by
Ethel S. Brody, CMA 2000.21
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columbiamuseum.org
This fall, the Columbia Museum of Art
pays tribute to its own sibling-collectors,
Leona Sobel and Ethel (Sobel) Brody,
in the exhibition, A Tale of Two Sisters:
Gifts from Ethel S. Brody and Leona Sobel,
on view through November 27, 2011.
Throughout more than thirty-five years of
sustained giving to the Museum, the Sobel
sisters have provided generous financial
support toward museum operations,
exhibitions, object conservation (see next
article), and public programs, and have
volunteered countless hours of research
time. They have also played an active and
integral role in shaping the growth of the
permanent collection by donating objects
and providing funds for the purchase of
artwork. From Leona Sobel’s donation in
1976 of a Royal Doulton ewer to the recent
acquisition of American photographer
David Hilliard’s triptych from Ethel Brody,
more than 175 individual artworks have
been acquired through their generosity.
Their donations represent all media and
range from Old Master paintings to
contemporary art.
Born in the 1920’s and raised in New
York City, Ethel and Leona spent their
early childhood surrounded by art and
credit their mother with instilling them
with their “good taste.” As for their love
of museums, Ethel praises her aunt, “a real
New Yorker,” who took the sisters to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art as children.
There, Ethel and Leona enjoyed “getting
lost” in the galleries and traveling the world
through the artwork on display. The sisters
later moved to South Carolina—Ethel in
1947 following her marriage to Reuben
Brody of Sumter, and Leona in 1969
following her retirement as a swimwear
buyer for Sears. From 1969 to 1979, the
sisters owned and operated the Sign of the
Salamander, a home goods and furnishing
store in Myrtle Beach, which carried goods
gathered on their trips abroad. The sisters
moved permanently to Columbia in 1980
and have been integrally involved with the
Columbia Museum of Art ever since.
A Tale of Two Sisters is a unique exhibition,
in that it is truly a museum-wide
installation, enabling us to illustrate
the depth and breadth of their support
for the collections. The majority of the
exhibition will be on view in Gallery 15,
with additional works on display in the
Garden Terrace, the Administrative Wing,
and second floor atrium. To help visitors
identify works acquired through the
generosity of Sobel and Brody, a special
logo has been designed and placed adjacent
to the work (the red square at the top
left corner of this page). We encourage
visitors to look for it on their next visit to
the Museum, and enjoy taking a “treasure
hunt” through the galleries, looking for
objects acquired from Ethel and Leona.