Harvey Littleton, Pink Loop, 1983, glass, courtesy: The Cincinnati Museum of Art and The Estate of Harvey Littleton
The Cincinnati Art Museum has received a donation of 264 works from the high-profile contemporary art collectors Nancy and David Wolf. The Wolf’s extensive donation includes works by big names in contemporary glass including Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Harvey Littleton, Jaroslava Brychtova and Stanislav Libensky.
The Wolfs have been collectors of contemporary craft for 35 years. In 2006, Art and Antiques Magazine listed Nancy and David Wolf on the list of America’s top collectors. The Wolfs have been longtime supporters of the 130-year-old art museum in their home town of Cincinnati. In 2009 they donated the first part of their collection which included 16 pieces of contemporary glass to the the museum, Amy Dehan the curator of decorative arts and design at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview. The couple also contributed funds toward the acquisition of Dale Chihuly’s Rio Delle Torreselle Chandelier (1996), which is permanently on view in the art museum’s lobby.
The remainder of the couples’ collection is on display in their home and was given to the museum as a promised bequest.
“We wanted the collection to remain intact, and Cincinnati has always been my home, and Nancy’s home for the majority of her life,” David Wolf said in a prepared statement. “I hope our gift will act as a catalyst to keep contemporary craft in the forefront.”
Dehan stated that the Wolf’s gift has come at a significant time as this year is the 50th anniversary of Studio Glass, and the Wolf’s main focus as collectors was glass. The gift includes historically important glass pieces by Dominick Labino and Harvey Littleton.
A selection of 25 works from The Nancy and David Wolf Collection are currently on view in the art museum in “The Collection: 6000 Years.” The rest of the collection can be viewed in the catalog Outside the Ordinary: Glass, Ceramics and Wood from the Wolf Collection available for purchase at the museum.
—Suzann Caputo