I am very pleasantly surprised to see the
depth and breadth of the art that has been
added to the permanent collection since
the days I had inside knowledge of the
museum. Would I wish there had been
more focus on major ?guration? Well, yes,
but I have so much very rich stuff to work
with here.
TH: You looked at more than 2,000 works
in the collection and I know it was painful
to narrow it down to 83. What were some
of the criteria you were looking for?
SA: What criteria were applied? Art to
artists, at least to me, is quite subjective.
Some art takes more time to “get,” to
speak to me than others might take. And
I always am eternally appreciative of the
criteria that were instilled into me by my
high school mentor, Gerard Tempest. He
said, “In approaching a work of art it was
only fair to ask oneself three questions,
so always do so. First, what is the artist
trying to say? Often that takes one out
of one’s comfort zone or established
criteria, especially with contemporary art.
Secondly, how well did the artist achieve
his or her vision/intention? And lastly,
does the work mean anything true or deep
to you? Do you like/love it or are you
indifferent to it? Only after applying these
three mental questions can you decide to
stay with or choose to walk away from a
work of art, in fairness to the particular
work of art and its maker.” Instinctively,
I have worked hard to approach all art in
that manner, ever since my teens.
I truly thrive on art of humans by humans
for humans and this personal, perhaps too
narrow view for some, is how and why I
picked what I picked. I simply delight in
seeing personal or fresh ways to tackle the
human ?gure in the unique hands of a
sensitive, individualistic artist. Each piece
I selected satis?es, amazes, tickles, and
puzzles me, and a few I now have burned
into my mind’s eye.
SA: I would love to own and live with
the sassy and bold Paula Rego colored
lithograph, to take it home with me.
The Chuck Close is sheer magic, his
engaging portrait of Philip Glass created
with Close’s ?ngerprints, for sure is
innovative, fresh and contemporary. I
adore the rich painterly way Paul Wonner
wrought a space-?lled landscape with
Abstract Expressionist means. Who does
not admire the observation, intensity
and compositional might of the Philip
Pearlstein major scale painting? To
include some “heroes” I actually knew
was so satisfying, namely Jack Levine,
Paul Cadmus (I was honored to have been
placed on his one side, with Chuck Close
on the other at Cadmus’ 90th Birthday
dinner at the National Academy) and
Isabel Bishop, a teacher who became a
friend.
TH: What are some of your favorite
pieces in the exhibition?
Read the full interview on our website,
columbiamuseum.org.
and honest to perhaps a fault to my own
tastes/needs/choices/desires.
The Human Clay, a poem by Auden, sums it
up and to which I say, Amen.
“To me Art’s subject is the human clay,
And landscape but a background to a torso;
All Cézanne’s apples I would give away
For one small Goya or a Daumier.”
Opposite, top: Sigmund Abeles examines objects from the Museum’s collection with chief curator Todd Herman
Opposite, bottom: Paula Rego, Mother and Daughter, 1997
Museum purchase with funds provided by Ethel S. Brody (CMA 1999.13.6)
Below: Edward Hopper, Night Shadows, 1921, Museum purchase (CMA 1980.6)
In the three decades of my being a
university professor, by the very nature of
the job and fairness to the varieties of my
students and their personal aspirations,
I had to be consciously open minded, as
catholic as I could possibly be, staying
informed about all the new twists and
turns in the visual art world. But now in
the long-earned solitude of my studio life,
I am more and more inwardly focused
columbiamuseum.org
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