Crystal Bridges to host Paley collection

CBS founder William S. Paley stands in front of Pablo Picasso’s Boy Leading a Horse in a photo from the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Courtesy photo

A collection of European modernism works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse will soon debut at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The The William S. Paley Collection, on loan from The Museum of Modern Art in New York, belonged to the late Paley, creator of the CBS radio and television networks.

The temporary exhibition features more than 60 works of art including paintings, drawings, and sculpture. The exhibition opens March 15 and will be on view through July 7. Crystal Bridges is the only venue in the central U.S. to host the exhibition, and is be the last stop on the collection’s tour before the works return to MoMA.

“The Paley Collection is a wonderful example of the passion for art that inspires many personal collectors,” said Crystal Bridges Executive Director Rod Bigelow. “As Mr. Paley kept most of the works in his private home, there is an intimate quality to this exhibition that provides some insight into the mind of the collector. It is a rare and exciting opportunity for our guests from all over the region and the nation to view such breathtaking works by many of the European artists whose names are familiar to all of us, and who inspired generations of American artists.”

Admission is $8 for non-museum members (buy tickets). Youth ages 18 and under are admitted for free.

» Download The William S. Paley guide (PDF)

From the museum:

Highlights of this exhibition include works by Paul Gauguin, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, most created between 1880 and 1940, at the height of French Modernism, as well as Picasso’s Boy Leading a Horse—all selections from the extraordinary private collection of William S. Paley, the late founder and guiding spirit of CBS. Paley was the charismatic entrepreneur who virtually invented the Columbia Broadcasting System. He was also an unusually active trustee at The Museum of Modern Art, joining its board in 1937, only eight years after the museum’s inception, and rising through its ranks to become president and then chairman. Paley began buying art in the mid-1930s and he continued to do so into the early ‘70s. Upon his death in 1990 at the age of 86, Paley willed his entire collection to the museum.