APSU’s art department received a phone call last spring from Jim Robertson, a resident of Dover, Tenn., that would change the way photography students learned.
During the phone call Robertson asked if APSU would like to inherit a private collection of original photography by photographers such as Bill Brandt and Bruce Barnbaum.
“I didn’t really know whether to take him seriously when he contacted me,” Bill Renkl, APSU art professor, said.
“I thought a smaller school would probably make better use of it, and maybe display it and use it better than a larger school with greater access and resources,” Robertson said.
He and his wife Nan, had been given the pieces by exhibited artists while they owned the Fifth Avenue Gallery of Photography in Scottsdale, Ariz. The photography pictured landscapes, architecture, interiors, figure studies, portraits and other abstract art.
“One of the featured artists is Andre Kertesz, who is internationally known for his work which was mostly made in Budapest as a young man in the early 1890s, then in Paris in the ’20s and ’30s and then in New York City after moving to the U.S. in the ’40s,” said independent curator and art critic, Susan Bryant.
“I don’t know any university in Tennessee that has an original Kertesz and Bill Brandt,” Bryant said. “For middle America, or the South, this is probably one of the best collections I’m aware of.”
The exhibit “Modern Light: Selections from the Jim and Nan Robertson Collection,” opened Monday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. with a gallery talk presented by both Bryant and Robertson. The exhibit will remain open through Wednesday, Oct. 28.
“After the exhibit is closed, the photographs will be used in the classroom,” Bryant said. “I will be able to pull certain photos from the flat files in the gallery storage room and take them to class (or bring the class to the gallery) so that the students can look at them closely to discuss print quality and to encourage a discussion about content.”
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