The Clark Artwork Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has acquired an infinite present of 331 works and greater than $45m from the muse of Aso O. Tavitian, a philanthropist and former trustee of the museum who died in 2020. The gifted works embody important items by a who’s-who of European artists spanning the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries—amongst them Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Andrea della Robbia, Jan van Eyck, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Parmigianino, Peter Paul Rubens and Jacques-Louis David. The cash will permit the Clark to rent a brand new curator to supervise the gathering and construct a pavilion to accommodate it, the Aso O. Tavitian Wing.
“Throughout his lifetime, Aso Tavitian was an exquisite good friend to the Clark and a beneficiant supporter who offered us with distinctive management and dedication,” Olivier Meslay, the museum’s director, stated in a press release. “We’re deeply moved by his choice to position the guts of his assortment in our belief and immensely grateful to the trustees of his basis for his or her generosity in guaranteeing that we are able to fulfil his want to share these treasures with the world.”
Works gifted to the Clark Artwork Institute by the Aso O. Tavitian Basis embody (at left) Peter Paul Rubens’s Portrait of Younger Man (round 1613-15) and (at proper) Gil de Siloé’s Saint Cecilia (round 1500) Each pictures courtesy the Clark Artwork Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
The gathering of donated works is wealthy in portrait work and drawings, in addition to sculpture, considerably bolstering the Clark’s assortment within the latter medium. In complete, the 331 works gifted embody 132 work, 130 sculptures, 39 drawings and 30 ornamental objects. Among the many notable work within the present are a Madonna of the Fountain (round 1440) by Van Eyck and his workshop, Vigée Le Brun’s Self-Portrait in Studio Costume (round 1800) and Rubens’s Portrait of a Younger Man (1613-15). Notable sculptures within the present embody Bernini’s bronze Countess Matilda of Canossa (1630s), Della Robbia’s terracotta Portrait of a Youth (round 1470-80) and a marble Saint Cecile (round 1500) by the Spanish sculptor Gil de Siloé.
The Clark has chosen the agency Selldorf Architects—which beforehand labored on renovations of two buildings on the museum’s campus, in 2014 and 2016—to design the Aso O. Tavitian Wing. It’s anticipated to be accomplished in 2027 or 2028.
Works gifted to the Clark Artwork Institute by the Aso O. Tavitian Basis included (at left) Madonna of the Fountain (round 1440) by Jan van Eyck and workshop and (at proper) Parmigianino’s Portrait of a Man (round 1530) Each pictures courtesy the Clark Artwork Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Tavitian served on the museum’s board of trustees from 2006 to 2012, and loaned greater than 30 works from his assortment for the 2011 exhibition Eye to Eye: European Portraits, 1450–1850. He additionally served on the board of the Frick Assortment and as a member of the Buddies Group for the Division of European Work on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork. Earlier than his loss of life, aged 80, Tavitian had begun discussions with the Clark about donating a good portion of his assortment to the museum. The remainder of his holdings, greater than 900 works in all, might be offered at Sotheby’s in February, in response to The New York Instances.
“My curiosity within the arts initially began from an ornamental viewpoint associated to the home I had purchased in New York, however then I got here to understand it and fell in love with it,” Tavitian instructed The Armenian Mirror-Spectator in 2017.
Tavitian, who made his fortune within the software program trade, was born in Bulgaria. He was primarily based between New York Metropolis and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, close to the Clark. He was of Armenian descent, and his Aso O. Tavitian Basis is partly dedicated to supporting schooling and peace in Armenia and the Caucasus.
