Husband and wife art collectors Sondra Gilman (of the Gilman Paper Company) and Celso Gonzalez-Falla (a Cuban real estate developer in Florida) have loaned 130 of the most iconic photographs in the world to the Museum of Contemporary Art (Jacksonville). Walker Evans, Loretta Lux, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Alfred Stieglitz – they’re all represented in the exhibit Shared Vision, which is traveling to the Princeton University Art Museum this summer.
Gilman started collecting photography in the 1970s when, on junior council at MoMA, she discovered the work of Eugene Atget. She ended up buying three of his images for $250 each. According to photography collector and critic DLK Collection: “This collection rivals most museum permanent collections of photography. It is strongest in classic 20th century black and white imagery, and many will be astounded by the parade of rare vintage icons that are on display. In many cases, these are not just great images by Abbott, Kertesz, Alvarez Bravo, Cartier-Bresson, Frank, Winogrand, Weston, Siskind, White, and countless others, but these are the best known, the most well-loved photographs that these masters made, all in vintage examples. While it would be easy to drift by these familiar pictures and feel like they have been seen before, the fact that they are all vintage and all in one private collection is nothing short of breathtaking.”
RICHARD MISRACH (American, b. 1949)
Battleground Point, No 20, 1999
Chromogenic print
