ATLANTA, Sept. 25, 2014 ― The High Museum of Art will celebrate the opening of the exhibition “Cézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection” with “An Evening in Provence Gala” on Friday, Oct. 17, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The black-tie event will be a festive evening of cocktails, dinner and dancing, plus the chance to view extraordinary masterpieces by some of the most famous artists of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements, including Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. The gala will also feature French food and music and an outdoor Provencal-style market on the Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza.
Gala tickets are available at several benefactor levels: $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500. Tables for 10 are available at the $25,000 benefactor level. To register, contact Lauren Johnston at the High at 404-733-4346 or lauren.johnston@woodruffcenter.org.
A major traveling exhibition organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, “Cézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection” features 50 masterworks that offer a distinctive and extraordinary visual survey of European modernism. On view Oct. 25, 2014 through Jan. 11, 2015, the exhibition showcases the extraordinary vision of Henry Pearlman (1895-1974), a modest American entrepreneur who amassed an astonishing collection of art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including perhaps the greatest collection of watercolors by Cézanne outside of France.
The Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection has resided at the Princeton University Art Museum since 1976, and this exhibition marks the first international tour of the entire collection since Pearlman’s death in 1974.
“Cézanne and the Modern” features 24 works by Cézanne, including an exceptional set of 16 watercolors. The exhibition also features paintings and sculptures by Manet, Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Oskar Kokoschka, Wilhelm Lembruck, Jacques Lipchitz, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Chaïm Soutine.
To complement the seven works by Soutine on view in the exhibition, the High will present five portraits by the artist, generously on loan from the Lewis Collection. The paintings are exemplary examples of the nearly 200 portraits Soutine created throughout his career, and together they mark the largest number of works by the artist to ever be on view at the High.
Gala Support
Generous support for the Gala is provided by Lead Gala Sponsor, Northern Trust; Presenting Sponsor, Delta Air Lines; Gala Design Partner, Tony Brewer and Co.; and Media Sponsor, The Atlantan. In-kind support provided by L’OCCITANE.
About Henry Pearlman
Pearlman assembled his collection of European art, one of the finest remaining in private hands, over the course of three decades. A lifelong New Yorker, Pearlman founded the Eastern Cold Storage Company in 1919, which made important contributions to marine shipbuilding during World War II. He began seriously collecting avant-garde art in the 1940s with the purchase of a canvas by Soutine, the Lithuanian-born artist known for his bold use of color and the intensity of his brushwork.
Pearlman quickly became interested in Modigliani, another artist of the so-called School of Paris, and eventually began to collect works by some of the artists who influenced them, including Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne.
By building close relationships with a number of dealers in the U.S. and abroad and befriending artists directly, Pearlman was able to secure numerous paintings that today are deemed masterpieces. He relished the hunt for secreted masterworks and was fascinated by the networks of aesthetic influence and personal relationships among artists.
Exhibition Organization and Tour
“Cézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection” has been organized by the Princeton University Art Museum in cooperation with the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation. The exhibition premiered at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, England (March 13–June 22, 2014), then traveled to the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France (July 11–Oct. 5, 2014) and to the High Museum of Art (Oct. 25, 2014–Jan. 11, 2015). Following its presentation at the High, the exhibition will be on view at Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (Feb. 7–May 18, 2015), and the tour will culminate at Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, N.J. (Sept. 12, 2015–Jan. 3, 2016).
The exhibition is co-curated by the Princeton University Art Museum’s Betsy Rosasco, research curator of European painting and sculpture, and Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, curator of prints and drawings.
Exhibition Support
Support for this exhibition is provided by lead sponsors The Coca-Cola Company and Delta Air Lines. The exhibition is also made possible by the Livingston Foundation, the Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Endowment Fund, the Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Endowment Fund, and the Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund. A special thanks to lead patron Ruth Magness Rollins. Additional support provided by Ms. Louise Sams and Mr. Jerome Grilhot, Gordon and Linda Ramsey, Mrs. Frances Bunzl and Friends of Cézanne.
About the Pearlman Foundation
The mission of the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation is to broaden the public reach and deepen the personal experience of art while conserving the original works for future audiences.
About the Princeton University Art Museum
Founded in 1882, the Princeton University Art Museum is one of the leading university art museums in the country. From the founding gift of a collection of porcelain and pottery, the collections have grown to more than 92,000 works of art that range from ancient to contemporary and concentrate geographically on the Mediterranean regions, western Europe, China, the United States, and Latin America. Committed to advancing Princeton’s teaching and research missions, the Art Museum serves as a gateway to the University for visitors from around the world. The Museum is intimate in scale yet expansive in scope, offering a respite from the rush of daily life, a revitalizing experience of extraordinary works of art, and an opportunity to delve deeply into the study of art and culture.
About the High Museum of Art
The High is the leading art museum in the Southeastern U.S. With more than 14,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography, folk art and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists. For more information about the High, visit high.org.
About The Woodruff Arts Center
The Woodruff Arts Center is one of the largest arts centers in the world, home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art and Arts for Learning. Each year, these arts organizations play host to over 1.2 million patrons at the Woodruff Arts Center’s Midtown Atlanta location, one of the only arts centers in the U.S. to host both visual and performing arts on a single campus. Through its work with educators and schools, the Woodruff Arts Center serves over 300,000 students annually and is the largest arts educator in Georgia.
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Media contact:
Marci Tate
High Museum of Art
Tel: 404-733-4585| E-mail: marci.tate@woodruffcenter.org