The Victoria Schonfeld Collection Offers of Gift Catalog
GIFT OFFERINGS
FROM THE VICTORIA SCHONFELD COLLECTION
Cover photo: Mutual Affection: The Victoria Schonfeld Collection, Installation View at the Everson Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of the Everson Museum
Facilitated by
Ferrin Contemporary
54 Main Street, Cummington, MA 01026 ferrincontemporary.com
This exhibition was made possible by the Everson Museum and Ferrin Contemporary and with support of Victoria Schonfeld Family.
The Victoria Schonfeld Collection is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.
To learn more about this exhibition and related programming, visit https://ferrincontemporary com/portfolio/mutual-affection-the-victoriaschonfeld-collection-everson-museum-of-art/
Catalog design by Alex Renee with Support from Isabel Twanmo
Artwork photography by various photographers
Installation photos courtesy of Everson Museum, The Victoria Schonfeld Collection, and Ferrin Contemporary.
OFFER OF GIFT FROM THE VICTORIA SCHONFELD COLLECTION
foreword
Mutual Affection .
Mutual Affection featured nearly 100 contemporary ceramic works from the comprehensive collection of Victoria Schonfeld. Vicki and I met more than 30 years ago when she was just starting her life in collecting. Based in New York, her focus on narrative works and work by women artists guided her collection. In turn, her collection helped shape her life until her unfortunate passing in 2019. Alex Renee, one of our collection specialists, carefully documented the Schonfeld Collection, working closely with her family and curator Garth Johnson to bring this collection to the Everson Museum of Art where it was on view in 2021-2022 With exhibitions such as this, collectors like Vicki are able to continue their important contributions to the field and their positive impacts on the working lives of artists.
One of Ferrin Contemporary's primary roles is partnering with collectors, estates, and artist's archives to offer selected masterworks as loans and gifts to museums and for private sale. These collections have been established across several decades by visionary private collectors and supplemented by the artist's own archives. The collections typically feature remarkable works with important exhibition and publication histories. These works carry with them stories from the studio that add to the history of our field and trace the web of social relationships between artists, collectors, and art professionals. In this, we take great care to develop and provide the publication and exhibition histories that help place these highly valued ceramic masterworks in public and private collections throughout the world. The act of collecting brings together the artists and collectors. When on view in museums, these collections create opportunities that bring us together once again as in the aptly titled Mutual Affection.
- Leslie Ferrin, Ferrin Contemporary
Several Artworks Available Exhibited at Everson Museum of Art
MUTUAL AFFECTION: The Collection of Victoria Schonfeld
Syracuse, NY | July 24, 2021 – February 20, 2022
Victoria Schonfeld (1950-2019) was a prominent New York lawyer, collector, and philanthropist whose discerning eye was matched only by the fierceness of devotion to her family and friends. From the time she began collecting ceramics in the 1990s, Schonfeld developed lasting friendships with the artists who caught her eye. Schonfeld was particularly devoted to championing female artists, including Betty Woodman, Alison Britton, and Carol McNicoll, as well as younger artists like Lauren Mabry and Rain Harris. Her taste encompassed everything from classical beauty to pointedly political works, all linked by her boundless curiosity.
Long before her untimely death, Schonfeld began donating works by artists she admired to museums across the United States, including the Everson Museum of Art. It is with the deepest gratitude that the Everson accepts key works from the Schonfeld collection that will endure as a tribute to her generosity and lasting network of friendships. Mutual Affection marks the debut of the Victoria Schonfeld Collection at the Everson, fleshed out by additional works loaned by her family Each object in this exhibition stands on its own merit, but also represents a node in Schonfeld’s vast network of reciprocal relationships.
Women in Ceramics
Victoria Schonfeld spent much of her career as an accomplished lawyer who specialized in financial services and investment management. She was a partner in three national law firms and managing director and general counsel for a global asset management firm. Later in life, Schonfeld changed careers and took on the role of Associate Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of American Jewish Committee Philanthropic work was a constant in Schonfeld’s life and her social mission also extended into her support for the arts.
Schonfeld was especially passionate about supporting female artists. Although the field of American studio ceramics was largely built by women like Mary Louise McLaughlin and Adelaide Alsop Robineau, after World War II, most of the credit (not to mention the teaching positions) went to men. From the moment that she started collecting, Schonfeld recognized the accomplishments of women in the field of ceramics. She not only supported them through collecting their work, but also formed lasting friendships with many.
Among the most celebrated ceramic artists of the past century is Betty Woodman, and Schonfeld acquired several important works that appeared in Woodman’s 2006 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Schonfeld’s collecting, however, was not based on assembling a cache of high profile names, She was equally drawn to works by emerging artists. Her keen eye led her to become an early supporter of artists like Lauren Mabry, whose abstract compositions on ceramic cylinders playfully straddle the line between image and object Works in Schonfeld’s collection range from minimalist to Baroque, not necessarily connected stylistically, but rather by the strong viewpoints and personalities of their makers.
One of Schonfeld’s favorite artists was also one of the biggest personalities. British artist Carol McNicoll attended the prestigious Royal College of Art in London, where she was very vocal about combating the lack of opportunities and attention that women received in the ceramics program. McNicoll was also a fixture in London’s music scenes, and designed iconic costumes for musician Brian Eno during his wildest “glam rock” phase in the early 1970s.
Although McNicoll is well known for her richly patterned functional ceramics, Schonfeld gravitated to her sculptures, which often carried stridently political messages Schonfeld’s support for women extended across generations and international boundaries. SHe frequently bought pots from artists like Susan Thayer, Gail Kendall, and Shoko Teruyama, and kept her kitchen cabinets well stocked with cups, bowls, plates, and serving pieces from female potters across the globe. The vast web of her personal connections to the artists in her collection was brought to life when she served food to guests at her Manhattan apartment on handmade pots from her collection With the Everson’s long history of female leadership and support for women in the arts, Schonfeld’s gifts to the Museum are especially resonant.
The Victoria Schonfeld Collection started with Vicki’s passion for teapots What began as a commitment to a few intimate objects grew and expanded organically over the course of the next thirty years In addition to over forty teapots, her collection includes vessels, platters, figurative sculptures, abstract forms, paintings, and more. These artworks were predominantly made by women, as well as British and Japanese artists. As her collection and interests grew, a deep and abiding affection always remained at the core of Vicki’s life and the objects for which she cared. That generous spirit and deep care also extended to all the people in her life.
I met Vicki in 2015, during my first New York Ceramics and Glass Fair working with Ferrin Contemporary. Artist Bobby Silverman arranged a dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant with a dynamic group of artists, curators, and collectors. Vicki immediately treated me with her characteristic warmth and kindness. In the years that followed, I assisted Vicki as a collections specialist documenting, photographing, and organizing her work. This had a great impact on me personally and professionally. I learned valuable lessons about collaboration, communication, and compassion. Together, we crafted texts about her most beloved pieces. Periodically, I would clean pieces until “they sparkled,” as she lovingly phrased it. She spoke of the artworks as if they held life, as if they were each imbued with personality she interacted with each one with such happiness. When a new piece came into the collection, she would walk me to it sharing all its nuances and, together, we would find a place for it to “live” in the collection. She noticed every move of the pieces when I would adjust the arrangements after cleaning, even the slightest change, and she would declare how much she loved a new move here or a slight turn there.
The work we did together was like a gift to me, but it also laid the groundwork for passing on her collection to family, friends, and the extraordinary exhibition and acquisition of several works from the Schonfeld Collection by The Everson Museum of Art in 2021 and 2022.
When it came time to title the exhibition, Leslie Ferrin offered the fitting phrase Mutual Affection. It perfectly describes her relationship with the objects and the people in her life, helping to adequately title her well-deserved legacy. It has been an honor to know her and assist with her collection, and it is equally an honor to continue the relationship with her family as a steward of those memories
-Alex Renee, Ferrin Contemporary
FERRIN CONTEMPORARY
For more than 40 years, Ferrin Contemporary has been a leading source for contemporary and modern ceramic art. Ferrin Contemporary serves as both a project incubator and traditional commercial gallery program. Curated exhibitions are presented by the gallery and in partnership with galleries, museums, and educational institutions throughout the country.
