George S. Bolge is not the kind of collector who “collects for profit pure and simple, who buys works of art in wholesale lots, only to stash them away in a warehouse where they have risen in value.” Rather, our former CEO (and current Board of Trustees member) collects art for art’s sake, seeing each acquisition as “the record of a vivid experience, either a long pursuit or a struggle, in which mounting desire has conquered prudence and economy.”

With few exceptions, most of the works in Bolge’s collection are small to medium in scale, but covering an extensive artistic scope in terms of cultural and aesthetic content, technique, style, and media. The art represented in this impressive exhibition was assembled over 40 years of personal interactions with artists – those with both national and international reputations, and those whose talents have yet to be discovered. Familiar names include M.C. Escher, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Denis Smith, and Arnold Newman.

In Bolge’s words, “This exhibition is an attempt to select, from as personal point of view as possible, a group of painters, sculptors, and photographers who have given me – each in his or her own way – experiences that are pleasurable. All of these are for me unique, because each one makes a visual statement quite of their own making.”