Selections from the personal art collection of A. Alfred and Judith Taubman will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21, from 12-5 p.m. in the gallery of the University Technology and Learning Center at Lawrence Technological University (LTU), 21000 West Ten Mile Road, Southfield. Admission is $5.
“Buste de Diego” is a bronze sculpture created by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti in the early 1960s. It will be on public display April 20-21 as part of the Taubman art exhibit at Lawrence Technological University.
This exhibit from the Taubmans’ art collection, the first in a university setting, includes works by Giacometti, Feininger, Munch, Tiepolo, Burchfield and Bonnard.
A pioneer in innovative retail development and a noted philanthropist, Taubman has been an avid art collector for most of his life. His collection includes paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. He has been involved with the Detroit Institute of Arts since 1975 and has donated a number of works to the museum’s collection. For many years he served as the chair of the City of Detroit Arts Commission.
Taubman said the 17 works in the exhibit demonstrate that his interests as an art collector are eclectic. “I’m fascinated by artists, what they create and how they create it,” he said. “The artists represented here lived in different time periods, worked in different countries, and used very different creative techniques. All, in my opinion, influenced art in their own special ways.”
The oldest piece in the exhibit is “The Toothpuller,” a late 1740s painting of a dentist at work in a public square of Venice by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. The newest works are American contemporary artist Tom Wesselmann’s “Great American Nude No. 63” created in 1965, and a 1974 wall hanging incorporating unpainted branches by American Charles Arnoldi.
There are works by three sculptors, Alberto Giacometti from Switzerland, the Frenchman Jean Arp, and American David Smith.
The exhibit also includes paintings by Italian futurist Giacomo Balla; French impressionist Pierre Bonnard; Charles Burchfield, considered America’s finest impressionist; German-American Lyonel Feininger; French-American Reginald Marsh; Norwegian impressionist Edvard Munch, whose iconic “Scream” sold last year for $120 million; American William McGregor Paxton; Egon Schiele, a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement; French pointillist Paul Signac; and Russian-French Chaïm Soutine.
“Collecting art should be, above all else, fun. Buy what you love (and can afford) and try to learn as much as you can about the talented people who are able to express their ideas and emotions through art. The reward will be a lifetime of pleasure,” Taubman said.
Taubman studied architecture at LTU and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in architecture in 1985. He has been a generous contributor to LTU.
