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Adams And Abstracts

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By KATHY L. GREENBERG

Tribune correspondent

Published: June 29, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - East meets West in two new exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

"Art, Friendship, and the New York School: The Benjamin Gollay Collection," which opened Saturday, features paintings, sculptures and works on paper by artists including Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell.

In July, the museum will introduce "Ansel Adams and the American West," which celebrates the artist's contributions to photography as well as his activism in preserving the American Western landscape.

The Benjamin Gollay Collection

"Art, Friendship, and the New York School" consists of approximately 40 works on loan from the Gollay family. Artists represented include the better-known de Kooning and Motherwell, as well as Norman Bluhm, Ibram Lassaw, Syd Solomon and Hedda Sterne.

The New York School art movement was established in the 1950s by a group of artists who were sometimes called abstract expressionists. Individuality was a key component in the group; viewers were meant to bring their own experiences to the work rather than being told what to think.

"Many of these artists became tools for the State Department to fight the Cold War. Their work went to the Soviet Union to show how free American artists were. In this exhibition, freedom of expression is the common thread, but the styles are very different," said Jennifer Hardin, chief curator for the museum.

Hardin selected works from the collection of the late Benjamin Gollay, a lawyer with a deep appreciation for the arts. Gollay was friends with art critic Harold Rosenberg and through him met many abstract expressionists.

Though most of the artists were destitute, Gollay rarely bought pieces to offer support; rather, he donated legal services and often received a creative return.

"According to his daughter Elinor and widow Jean, artists would leave things for him on his doorstep or ask him to come to their studio to pick out something," Hardin said.

"He helped them with their legal problems: with landlords, galleries, ex-wives. He built a collection out of the goodness of his heart."

Ansel Adams

According to the official Ansel Adams Web site, the artist once said, "I hope that my work will encourage self-expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us."

His words echo the message his photographs convey: awesome power, the beauty of nature and the need to preserve it.

"Ansel Adams and the American West" features 30 images by Adams plus 28 works by artists such as Edward Weston and his son Brett Weston, Laura Gilpin, Eliot Porter and Jerry Uelsmann.

The exhibition documents the artists' individual interpretations of the American West and their abiding respect for the environment. In particular, it captures the romance often associated with the region.

"I think we have a nostalgia for that landscape," Hardin said.

A visit to Yosemite National Park in 1916 sparked Adams' lifelong interest in photography.

After later adopting the "straight photography" method, which limits manipulation of the image during processing, Adams virtually enshrined the national park system.

His efforts have inspired artists and politicians alike, even prompting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to make California's Kings Canyon a national park.

"He did amazing work sponsored by the government. He photographed all of the national parks, except for the Florida Everglades," Hardin said.

ON VIEW

WHAT: "Art, Friendship, and the New York School: The Benjamin Gollay Collection," through Sept. 28; and "Ansel Adams and the American West," Saturday through Nov. 30

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Drive N.E., St. Petersburg

HOW MUCH: $12; $10 for ages 65 and older; $6 for students; (727) 896-2667, www.fine-arts.org

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