In central Ohio, it’s never too difficult to see evidence of Les and Abigail Wexner’s commitment to public service.
But the major exhibition on view at the Wexner Center for the Arts could be considered a different kind of public service. It’s giving attendees a rare opportunity to see, in person, the influential works and career progressions of some big-name artists, most from the 20th Century.
“There are a lot of lessons for people who see the exhibition,” says Les Wexner.
Transfigurations: Modern Masters from the Wexner Family Collection, a significant part of the center’s 25th anniversary season, is on display through Dec. 31. It contains a total of 60 works by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Susan Rothenberg and Edgar Degas – more items from the Wexner collection than have ever been on display in one place besides their home.
“It is an exquisite and very finely-honed exhibition of masters,” says Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin.
Les Wexner began building his art collection about 40 years ago. The couple has long made a priority of collecting multiple works by a few artists, much of it modern and figurative. They’re glad to provide the opportunity for others to examine the artists’ trajectories as they have, Abigail says.
“We never meant to keep it private,” she says. “(We thought) here’s an opportunity, and maybe people will be interested, especially students.”
The show represents an amazing opportunity for students, as well as the community at large, Geldin says, because of the comprehensive picture it paints of each artist’s work.
“Exhibitions like this are set up so people can find their own way, discover things that they haven’t seen before,” says exhibit guest curator Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art.
The first thing attendees will notice is a Degas sculpture, La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans (French for “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”), at the exhibition space entrance. Most will then be drawn in by the ground-floor Picasso room, containing 16 paintings – from standard portraits to the abstract art for which he became known – as well as a handful of sculptures, all made between 1898 and 1959.
Dubuffet, de Kooning, Rothenberg and Giacometti have their own areas as well, each helping to chronicle the artist’s path and worldview as well as the Wexners’ own collecting preferences.
“In the Dubuffet room (for example), you see his thinking and how he saw the world, but you also see how we saw it,” Les says.
In addition to the works on display, the exhibition contains a massive timeline chronicling the careers of the artists represented, as well as a continuously playing video and a series of touch-screens that let users look more closely at some of the pieces.
“We have the materials to document the collection from the beginning,” Les says.
Les likens the effect he hopes Transfigurations will have on patrons to the effect establishments like his company, L Brands, have had on the business world. Another entrepreneur – Ron Johnson, formerly of J.C. Penney – once told Les that the Limited had a “disruptive” effect on the industry, an effect that could make a big difference in the entrepreneurial world and the art world.
When Les sees the way other worlds are colliding at OSU – information technology students working with medical recruiters, for instance – he sees means by which an exhibition like Transfigurations might inspire students in non-artistic fields to think in new ways, he says.
Storr suggests that patrons consider visiting the exhibition multiple times to get the best and most accurate idea of its scope.
“People should come at these things the same way they would examine something else they’ve never seen before in their life,” he says.
Even the Wexners themselves are having the chance to see the artwork through new eyes now that it’s on display, now that they’re looking at it as museum patrons rather than collectors, Les says.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
