
[ad_1]
Steven S. Powers and Joshua Lowenfels kick off the fall art season with works selected by avid collector Peter Brams.
Peter Brams has been a collector all his life. A voracious collector! In the 1980s, when he was still in his thirties, he was at the forefront collecting works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gilbert & George, Carl Andre and Philip Taaffe. In the late 1980s, Brams engaged in the work of William Edmondson, William Hawkins and Sam Doyle.
In the early 1990s, Brams had the courage and common sense to immerse himself fully in American folk art and to research anonymous works. He believed that great art didn’t need to have a name, just the eye of a confident collector.
During this decade, he vacuumed 19th-century center-left folk art and created a legendary collection (later auctioned off in 2001). Its reach was broad in one sense and very focused in another. Brams’ openness and knowledge of art history has allowed him to see beyond conventional objects and appreciate objects that are often difficult and sometimes overlooked by more traditional collectors. Everything he acquired had a special quality of vision, execution and historical surface.
What Brams learned through ancient art was that time could make its mark on a maker’s work and often improve it. With the patina due to use, age and often exposure to the elements, time could improve the integrity of the surface, making it complex and richer beyond its original state. This obsession with the surface and an economy of line led Brams to build up a large collection of Indian wood art.
Since selling his Woodlands collection ten years ago, Brams has revisited his love of American folk sculpture and painting.
The selections chosen for the Powers & Lowenfels exhibition reflect this return focused on the human form encompassing works in stone, wood, concrete and mixed media and will be incorporated into selected examples from the Powers & Lowenfels inventory.
The Steven S. Powers and Joshua Lowenfels Gallery is located at 53 Stanton Street, New York, NY 10002. The exhibition runs from September 9 to October 17, 2021.
[ad_2]