Butler acquires $3.4M modern art collection

YOUNGSTOWN » The Butler Institute of American Art has received a landmark collection of experimental 20th-century art.

The 98-piece collection of kinetic art pieces, valued at $3.4 million, was given to The Butler by the David W. Bermant Foundation of Santa Barbara

All of the pieces are untraditional, and were collected by the late David W. Bermant, a New York native who was a successful shopping center developer on the East and West coasts. Bermant died in 2000 in Santa Barbara, where he lived part-time, at age 80.

A serious collector but not an artist, Bermant was known as a champion of kinetic art and the artists who created it.

Kinetic art incorporates light, sound and movement. Much of it is playful, and some of it offers a subtle social commentary. All of it is modern and has a strong element of technology.

The collection is still arriving at the Wick Avenue museum in large wooden shipping crates. Some of the pieces are seven feet high and weigh hundreds of pounds.

A couple will be permanently displayed on the lawn of The Butler.

The gifting of the collection to the Butler has been in the works for several years, according to Louis A. Zona, curator and director of The Butler.

The museum had a long relationship with the late Bermant. An exhibition of works from his collection was displayed at the Butler many years ago, and Bermant attended the opening reception.

The Butler had also been gifted several pieces from Bermant’s collection in the past.

The Bermant collection will be displayed in the Butler’s Beecher Center wing, which is devoted to installations that blend art and technology. A gallery in the Beecher Center is named for Bermant.

“The fact that the collection is leaving the foundation shocked me but I’m glad they realized the long-term relationship we had (with Bermant),” Zona said.

Bess Rochlitzer, president of the Bermant Foundation, expressed her satisfaction with the Butler in a prepared statement.

“The Bermant Foundation is delighted that The Butler has graciously welcomed our collection to its new home in Youngstown, Ohio,” Rochlitzer said.

The collection features pieces created by many of the pioneers of technologybased art, including Marcel Duchamp, Nam June Paik, Jenny Holzer, Jean Tinguely, Pol Bury, George Rhoads and dozens more.

The pieces in the collection are complex and large, and take time to unpack and set up. While some pieces will soon be on display, the full collection will not be ready to view until summer.

Visitors can expect intermittent closures of galleries and sections of The Butler’s Beecher Center during this ongoing installation process.

The works will be in galleries throughout Beecher Center, in the Bermant Gallery’s “Light and Sound” exhibit, and on the museum’s grounds.