Off the Walls: Gifts from Professor John A. Robertson
Saturday, November 7, 2020 - Sunday, March 14, 2021
How does someone build an art collection? For John A. Robertson (1943–2017), a renowned bioethics scholar and distinguished professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, the process was both dynamic and highly personal. Robertson’s wide-ranging collection of modern and contemporary works on paper, nurtured by his own passion for art, his friendship with esteemed UT art historian Richard Shiff, and a longstanding relationship with the Blanton, grew to include works by international, Texan, and UT-affiliated artists.
This exhibition celebrates Robertson’s generosity and legacy with a selection of prints, drawings, collages, and photographs from the nearly ninety works of art he donated to the Blanton. With pieces by Michael Ray Charles, Sue Coe, Philip Guston, Dorothy Hood, Terry Winters, Glenn Ligon, Peter Saul, and Richard Serra—many of which will be on view for the first time—Off the Walls presents a unique slice through recent decades of art on paper.
Gallery TextThis exhibition celebrates Robertson’s generosity and legacy with a selection of prints, drawings, collages, and photographs from the nearly ninety works of art he donated to the Blanton. With pieces by Michael Ray Charles, Sue Coe, Philip Guston, Dorothy Hood, Terry Winters, Glenn Ligon, Peter Saul, and Richard Serra—many of which will be on view for the first time—Off the Walls presents a unique slice through recent decades of art on paper.
How does someone build an art collection? For John A. Robertson (1943–2017), a renowned bioethics scholar and distinguished professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, the process was both dynamic and highly personal. As his friend, esteemed UT art historian Richard Shiff notes, “The law and the arts as Robertson knew them were united by a sense of the ethical—by experience filtered through human emotion, acknowledging fundamental human needs. Art enriched Robertson’s intellectual and moral life as much as it enhanced his aesthetic life.”
Robertson’s passion for art and longstanding relationship with the Blanton Museum of Art nurtured his wide-ranging collection of modern and contemporary works on paper. It grew to include works by international, Texan, and UT-affiliated artists including Vito Acconci, Michael Ray Charles, Sue Coe, Philip Guston, Dorothy Hood, Glenn Ligon, Peter Saul, and Richard Serra.
This exhibition celebrates Robertson’s generosity and legacy with a selection of prints, drawings, collages, and photographs from the nearly ninety works of art he donated to the Blanton. The works on view—many for the first time—present a distinctive panorama of five decades of art on paper.
A dedicated resource which includes reflections by Richard Shiff and Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, as well as an annotated checklist of the exhibition can be explored here.
A dedicated resource which includes reflections by Richard Shiff and Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, as well as an annotated checklist of the exhibition can be explored here.
¿Cómo se logra reunir una colección de arte? Para John A. Robertson (1943–2017), famoso académico de la bioética y distinguido profesor en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Texas en Austin, fue un proceso tanto dinámico como sumamente personal. Como comenta su amigo, el estimado historiador del arte de la Universidad de Texas Richard Shiff: “El derecho y las artes, como los entendía Robertson, estaban unidos por un sentido de lo ético, por la experiencia filtrada a través de las emociones humanas en reconocimiento de las necesidades fundamentales del ser humano. El arte enriqueció la vida intelectual y moral de Robertson, además de mejorar su vida estética”.
La pasión que sentía Robertson por el arte y su duradera relación con el Blanton Museum of Art nutrieron su amplia colección de obras modernas y contemporáneas sobre papel. La colección llegó a incluir obras de artistas internacionales, tejanos y asociados a la Universidad de Texas, entre los que se cuenta a Vito Acconci, Michael Ray Charles, Sue Coe, Philip Guston, Dorothy Hood, Glenn Ligon, Peter Saul y Richard Serra.
Esta exposición celebra la generosidad y el legado de Robertson con una selección de grabados, dibujos, collages y fotografías provenientes de las más de noventa obras de arte que él donó al Blanton. Las obras expuestas —muchas por primera vez— presentan un distintivo panorama de cinco décadas de arte sobre papel.