Selections From the Jane and Jay Braus Collection
Berkshire Museum to October 11
By: Berkshire Museum - May 18, 2011
Collectors’ Choice:
Selections from the Jane and Jay Braus Collection
On view May 21 – October 11
Berkshire Museum
What catches the eye of an art collector? Berkshire Museum presents some answers to that question with Collectors’ Choice: Selections from the Jane and Jay Braus Collection, on view from May 21 through October 11. This eclectic exhibition throws the doors open wide on the private collection of the Brauses, providing the public the chance to enjoy twenty-six paintings chosen by the couple, including work by a range of renowned 20th and 21st century artists.
Collectors’ Choice: Selections from the Jane and Jay Braus Collection is on view at Berkshire Museum from May 21 through October 11. Berkshire Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday; the Museum will remain open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays from May 19 through September 1.
“The joy and passion the Brauses feel toward art is written all over this exhibition,” says Interim Executive Director Maria Mingalone. “Berkshire Museum has always been keenly interested in displaying the work of innovative artists working in the 20th and 21st centuries, and this show gives us the chance to show some exciting work that wouldn’t otherwise be on view to the public. It’s a real treat.”
The Brauses have assembled their collection for the pure joy of experiencing the fulfillment of living with art. The bold influence running through their collection is the desire to sample interesting works in a variety of styles; this instinct has led them to assemble a lively, diverse collection which features many innovative artists.
Among the works included are Richard Pousette-Dart’s Circles of Life (1983-85), Sol LeWitt’s Squiggly Lines (1996), Nancy Graves’ The Drama of Inner Life (1988), Grandma Moses’ At the Bend of the River (1948), Sam Francis’ Untitled (1986), Red Grooms’ Tea Set and Case (1974), and David Hockney’s Mr. Arithmetic (1980).
Jay Braus began his collection with Israeli artist Yaacov Agam’s Untitled (1965), which is included in this exhibition. Mr. Braus was following in a family tradition—his grandfather Paul was an art dealer who ran Braus Galleries in New York City. (During the summers of 1914 and 1915, the gallery expanded into Lenox under the stewardship of Paul’s wife, Dora Braus.) Jay Braus frequently visited the gallery in the days when his father Leon worked there. Braus Galleries was a casualty of the Great Depression, but the Braus family’s interest in contemporary and modern art was firmly planted. Jay and Jane married in 1952, and Collectors’ Choice: Selections from the Jane and Jay Braus Collection displays the fruits of their many visits to galleries and art fairs through the years.
Viewing their collection as a labor of love rather than an investment, and thus untroubled by efforts to anticipate the vicissitudes of the art market, the Braus’s motivation has always been to acquire work they personally enjoy and want to display in their home. Collectors’ Choice: Selections from the Jane and Jay Braus Collection is a vibrant, diverse, thoroughly pleasing selection chosen by the couple to share with the world.
The Berkshire Museum is located at 39 South Street on Route 7 in Downtown Pittsfield. Collectors’ Choice: Selections from the Jane and Jay Braus Collection is on view through October 11. Roberto Juarez: Mural Paintings, 2000-2010 opens June 11 and is on view through September 25. Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation, Aquarium & Touch Tank, Alexander Calder Gallery, and other exhibits are ongoing.