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Art: Hot Ticket
By MARY ANN MARGER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 20, 2001
Exhibit brings family's artwork together
The Museum of Fine Arts is keeping it all in the family. Just beneath Pierre Daura's 1929 painting Pear and Grapes is a 1958 painting by his wife's brother-in-law, Jean Helion, titled Portrait of Jacques Lusseyran. The works, acquired during Michael Milkovich's long tenure as director of the museum, have come together in a show titled "Collecting for the Community: 20 Years of Treasures," celebrating these accessions.
The Daura work is part of a larger collection donated by the artist's daughter, Martha R. Daura. The Helion was a gift of Eleanor and the late A. Reynolds Morse, founders of the Salvador Dali Museum nearby. They acquired it from Lusseyran, the subject, who met them in Cleveland when he was teaching at Case Western Reserve. An intellectual, blinded in childhood, Lusseyran was one of 30 survivors of 2,000 interred with him at Buchenwald concentration camp. His character as well as his visage are expressed in Helion's bold, sculpting brush strokes.
Though the painting has been in a staff member's office for several years, as is customary since the permanent collection is too large for gallery space, it will likely remain on display to the public after the exhibit ends Jan. 6.
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