Harmony in Expression

Event Type Exhibitions
Date calendar  Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Time clock  12:00pm - 5:00pm (5h)
Location Graphics Gallery
Details

Harmony in Expression: The Myron and Barbara Levine Print Collection  

This exhibition of 20th-century prints by European and American artists, including Karel Appel, Jim Dine, Ruth Weisberg, and Adja Yunkers, highlights the recent gift of Myron and Barbara Ruth Levine. As collectors, Myron and Barbara (“Mike and Bobbie”) were unified in their tastes, acquiring works that they both liked and which had expressive meaning for them. They were drawn early on to collect prints, especially those of the artist movement CoBrA, a group formed in 1948 by artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam, whose style was highly expressionistic. As avid travelers, the Levines collected at least one object or work of art wherever they went. They not only frequented local and international galleries to purchase works, but also became friends with artists, often buying directly from them. Among their travels, they often visited the Flint Institute of Arts.

Together for 62 years,  the Levines lived with their collection in a modernist Ann Arbor home. Mike (1926–2012) joined the University of Michigan’s Department of Human Genetics as Associate Professor in 1961 and remained active in the department for more than 50 years, committed to education and research. Bobbie (1929–2018) worked as the community education coordinator at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, where she started as a docent. She continued her work in the arts following her retirement in 1996 and was on the exhibition committees of the Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor and at the Turner Senior Resource Center.

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