It may be counterintuitive, but it can be harder for art museums to secure 20-year-old artworks than 200-year-old works.
That’s why the July opening of a new modern art exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art on the University of Georgia campus is such a coup.
The exhibition, which opened July 17, features paintings, photographs and sculptures donated to the museum in late 2019 by Terry College of Business alumnus John Shlesinger and his wife, Sara Shlesinger, a longtime arts patron.
“Neo-Abstraction: Celebrating a Gift of Contemporary Art from John and Sara Shlesinger” will be on display through December.
Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, the museum’s curator of American art, describes the show as a way to observe how contemporary artists have redefined abstract art over the past two decades.
“Through sculpture, painting, mixed media and photography, the artists in this collection are taking very traditional ideas from the canon of 20th-century art and refashioning them in new and experimental ways,” Richmond-Moll said.
The Shlesingers’ donation also aids the museum’s vision of enhancing students’ and the public’s appreciation of abstract art.
“(This gift) gives us the means not only to teach and to exhibit the cutting-edge art of the past 25 years but also allows us to help students and our general audiences to find, to understand and to step beyond that edge,” said William U. Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art. “Overnight, due to their generosity, we are able to extend our collection planning and augment our ability to teach in an age when visual-arts education has become more and more necessary.”
The exhibition highlights the resurgence of abstract art among contemporary artists, including an early spin painting by Damien Hirst and a photographic abstraction by Walead Beshty.
Cutting-edge art like Sarah Braman’s “Coexist,” a striking juxtaposition of commonplace objects, will be on view alongside more familiar approaches to abstraction, like Daniel Hesidence’s paintings.
A 1983 MBA graduate of the Terry College, John Shlesinger is a vice chairman in the advisory and transaction services occupier practice of CBRE, a commercial real estate and investment services group. With fellow Terry alumnus Sam Holmes — his business partner of more than 30 years — Shlesinger has completed over 2,200 sales and lease transactions and has been involved in 8,600 acres of land transactions, all with a total value of more than $15 billion.
Shlesinger said he was more interested in the financial side of the art market, but he became fascinated in learning how different works of art are made after marrying Sara. She grew up surrounded by realist and impressionist art and studied art history abroad, earning a bachelor’s in fine arts from Brandeis University.
The couple began their collection in 1997 with an early spin painting by Damien Hirst — now part of the gift to the museum. The couple first focused on the Young British Artists movement, amassing works by Hirst, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris and Gavin Turk. They expanded their vision, developing relationships with gallerists, dealers and the artists themselves in order to fully to understand and appreciate the art they collect.
After 23 years, the couple has amassed a collection of several hundred works by emerging and established contemporary artists from around the world.
The Georgia Museum of Art is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (including on home game days), Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Register for free tickets at georgiamuseum.org. The museum is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on UGA’s East Campus at 90 Carlton St.