BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo AKG is wrapping up perhaps the most ambitious art project in the museum's storied history.
"Marisol: A Retrospective" is a traveling exhibition — organized by AKG staff — that's been seven years in the making. It's already been to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Toledo Museum of Art, and after Buffalo, it will head to the Dallas Museum of Art.
Marisol was one of the most prominent artists of her generation, dominating the New York City art scene for much of the 60s. When she passed away in 2016, she bequeathed her entire estate to the Buffalo AKG.
Cathleen Chaffee, AKG'S Charles Balbach Chief Curator, told me that she negotiated with other museums for five years to gather all the pieces that are part of this exhibition. While many are in AKG's permanent collection, others are borrowed.
"I thought of the show as the blockbuster we could do from the permanent collection because there's something in it for just everybody," Chaffee said.
Chaffee talked about the connection between Marisol and Buffalo. What was then the Albright-Knox Art Gallery was the first museum to purchase one of Marisol's pieces and put it on display. She never forgot.
"(Marisol) believed a museum would be the best steward of her estate," Chaffee said. "And I think it came to Buffalo because of those early relationships that meant so much to her as they mean to any young artist."
The exhibition will be on display in the Gundlach Building at Buffalo AKG through January 6.
