Art and Illusion: Selections From The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation

Date: December 2, 2001 – February 3, 2002

Curated By: Billie Milam Weisman
Venue: The Marjorie and Herman Platt Gallery and the Bornstein Gallery, University of Judaism

15600 Mulholland Drive, Bel Air, CA  90077

Exhibited Artists:
Charles Bell, Gilad Ben-Artzi, Max Finkelstein, Candice Gawne, Jack Goldstein, Joe Goode, David Hockney, Howard Kanovitz, Karla Klarin, Isamu Noguchi, John Okulick, Masaaki Sato, George Segal, Yoshio Sekine, Arthur Silverman, Frank Stella, and Masoud Yasami.

Art and Illusion: Selections From The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation

For the first time ever, the University of Judaism has the pleasure of presenting outstanding works of contemporary art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles. Continuing under the direction of Billie Milam Weisman, the Foundation was established in 1982 by the late entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art collector Frederick R. Weisman, whose mission was to foster enthusiasm for art by making his collection physically and intellectually accessible to a wide audience. Most recently, by way of artist Max Finkelstein—who serves on the University of Judaism's Advisory Board, and whose art Mr. Weisman collected since the '60s-the Foundation was introduced to the University for the present exhibition opportunity.

Art and Illusion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation is an eclectic exhibition curated by Mrs. Weisman and comprised of approximately two dozen works from the Weisman Collection. As a whole, the Collection is comprised of over one thousand paintings, sculptures, and multimedia works spanning from the beginning to the end of the 20th century. The current selection reveals an emphasis on vibrant contemporary works with immediate visual impact and a frequent focus on illusionism. Contemporary art itself is often concerned with perception over representation, with how various modalities-physical, psychological, social, and so forth-not only frame but modify the perceptual experience.

Many of the works in the show play upon this notion, here loosely referred to as 'illusion'—a state of perceptual or intellectual deception or misrepresentation as to actual objective nature, or a state of alternating or reversible perspectives. Whether through such acclaimed artists as Isamu Noguchi, Frank Stella, David Hockney, Joe Goode, or George Segal, or through the prototypically illusionistic work of John Okulick, Charles Bell, Yrjo Edelmann, Masoud Yasami, among others, the longstanding idea that realism in art can only be achieved through artifice, through the illusion of the 'real,' is either played out, negotiated, or contested.