ME: Portland

WHERE: Portland Museum of Art.

WHEN: On view through September 8, 2013.

TITLE: The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism

BRIEF ABOUT: This exhibition offers a master class in the key movements and figures that revolutionized art and culture of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the most important artists of the period, including Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, and Francis Bacon, are among the 24 artists whose paintings, sculpture, and works on paper grace this exhibition.

     About: William S. Paley (1901–1990), the media titan who built the CBS broadcasting empire, was also a passionate collector and a committed philanthropist. His embrace of new technologies in the communications industry paralleled his passion for vanguard art.

     Paley began collecting European art in the 1930s and, with the determination of a hunter and a keen eye for quality, amassed an extraordinary collection of modern art. At the same time, Paley became a catalytic force at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which was founded in 1929, serving variously as a patron, trustee, president, and board chairman from 1937 until his death.

     His leadership helped to forge the institution into one of the world’s premier museums for the display and interpretation of modern art. In one of his final and greatest acts of philanthropy, Paley donated his personal collection to MoMA. More on him at: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439809/William-S-Paley.

MORE DETAILS: Call 207.775.6148 or see www.portlandmuseum.org.