Local Collectors Tom & Nan Riley to Share Collection with CRMA for Exhibition
Cedar Rapids, Iowa—Following on the heels of the Vogel collection exhibition, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (CRMA) is excited to present a collection from local collectors Tom and Nan Riley.
From Monet to Picasso: The Riley Collection is set to open on Saturday, May 22. Admission will be free all day and there will be activities for children of all ages from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. as a part of Family Fun Day: Meet the Masters.
Local collectors Tom and Nan Riley have been quietly creating an extraordinary collection of European art of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. With significant but little-known works by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissaro, Chagall, Cassatt, Dufy, Matisse, Léger, Mondrian, Miró, Dali, Braque, and Picasso, the Riley Collection has become one of the most significant private collections in the state of Iowa. These European masterworks join works by local artists Grant Wood and Marvin Cone, infusing a bit of American art into the collection. The exhibition shares, for the first time, this extraordinary collection with the public.
The story of the Riley Collection is very much a story about passion: passion for life, passion for love, and passion for art. Tom and Nan married in 1952, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that they collected their first piece of art. It was during a trip to Goodspeeds’s Book Shop in Boston to look at autographs that they stumbled upon a print by Raoul Dufy. The purchase of this Dufy print led to the purchase of other works of art, namely prints by Pablo Picasso. For more information about the collection, please see The Story of the Riley Collection (attached).
”The Riley Collection is an extraordinary local treasure that Tom and Nan are generously sharing with the entire eastern Iowa region,” says CRMA Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Sean Ulmer. “With important works by some of the greatest European artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, this exhibition traces the rise of Impressionism and explores the many art movements that followed. These movements continue to be influential to artists on both sides of the Atlantic and through seeing the works in the Riley Collection; we gain a better understanding of European and American art of the 20th century.”
We would also like to invite you to join us for Family Fun Day: Meet the Masters on opening day, Saturday, May 22 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Create your own mini-masterpieces based on some of the Great Masters, inspired by our new exhibition From Monet to Picasso. Watch or dance along as the Nolte Academy of Dance creates modern art as they simultaneously paint and dance. And don’t forget to check out the new exhibit—the galleries are free on Family Fun Day! Family Fun Day activities are sponsored by Target.
This exhibition is sponsored in part by the Momentum Fund of The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation.
From Monet to Picasso: The Riley Collection will be on display through September 19, 2010. For more information, please visit www.crma.org or call 319.366.7503.
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The mission of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is to excite, engage and educate our community and visitors through our collection, exhibitions and programs. The Museum’s collection contains more than 5,600 works of art by hundreds of artists, including the world's largest collection of works by Grant Wood. For more information on exhibitions or related programs call the Museum at 319.366.7503 or visit the Museum's web site at www.crma.org. The CRMA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with extended hours and free general admission from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday. The CRMA is also open noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, but closed Monday and major holidays.