Reflections on a Collection:
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February 5 - March 12, 2015
UWM Art History Gallery (now the Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery), Milwaukee, WI |
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Reflections on a Collection: Revisiting the UWM Icons Fifty Years Later examined the collection and donation of some thirty-two icons to the UWM Art Collection by Charles Bolles Bolles-Rogers. First exhibited in Milwaukee in 1965, the icons and liturgical objects have been used for decades as teach tools for students of the University. This thesis exhibition contextualized the history of icon collecting in the United States and examined the collecting history of these icons.
By first focusing on icon collecting and scholarship in Greece and Russia towards the end of the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries, this exhibition traced the growth of interest in Byzantine and post-medieval Greek and Russian liturgical objects in the West, particularly the United States. Icons and liturgical objects became increasingly desirable for large institutions and museums along with private collectors in the twentieth century. Bolles-Rogers was one such collector. This exhibition, through never before seen primary documents, shed new light on the history and acquisition of the Rogers Family Collection of icons and liturgical objects. This demonstrated that the Rogers Family Collection is not only a collection of icons but also a collection that reflects the time period in the art world in which it was assembled. |
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