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April 11, 2003
Wosk donates art to Emily Carr
Original works allow students to get a sense of the colors and
textures.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
Ask Rabbi Yosef Wosk any question about his passion for art and
you have to be ready for a very detailed and considered response.
Wosk, who said he wishes he had become more of an artist himself
at a younger age, has been collecting the works of world-renowned
artists from various eras for many years.
After building a collection that was admittedly growing too large
to appreciate on his own, the local philanthropist decided to pass
on a significant number of his original and rare prints to the Emily
Carr Institute of Art and Design. Called the Wosk Masterworks Print
Collection and valued at more than $1 million, a selection of the
pieces are currently on display at the Charles H. Scott Gallery
in the institute, until May 4.
The total collection of more than 600 items of various disciplines
includes the works of artists such as Albers, Warhol, Baskin, Picasso,
Cezanne, Renoir, Chagall, Rembrandt, Dali, Goya and Kandinsky.
"There are a number of pieces from acknowledged masters from
the end of the 1400s up until very modern times," Wosk said
of his donation. "We've got a lot of European, American and
some Japanese art."
Wosk, director of Interdisciplinary Programs at Simon Fraser University
and the founder of the Philosophers' Café series, said he
thought the collection would serve a good purpose in the hands of
tomorrow's artists. The students, he said, can learn a lot more
from taking a closer look at an original piece of art.
"The idea of having the originals is so that the students can
engage in a direct experience," he explained. "It is not
the same to engage art through a picture in a book or on slides
because it is already a number of steps removed form the original
and so the colors are lost and the textures are lost."
He added that previously some of the faculty at Emily Carr had taken
their classes on trips to Seattle or San Francisco so that they
could view a comprehensive selection of original art.
"It is a teaching collection," Wosk said of the artwork
given to Emily Carr. "If a professor wants to compare American
woodblock to Japanese woodblock, 20th to 19th century, they would
get in touch with the curator of the collection, the curator will
pull out those pieces into a special room that is controlled with
humidity and temperature, and then the professor will show the pieces
to the students. What you get is the direct engagement with the
artwork."
According to the president of Emily Carr, Dr. Ron Burnett, the goal
is to continue to build on the large legacy Wosk has left to the
institute.
"What Yosef has given us is the beginning of what we hope will
be one of the best print collections in North America," he
said. "The long-term goal is to build up the collection and
to eventually have a study centre where students, faculty and visitors
can take a look at the prints and read books on the history of print-making
and the history of the visual arts."
Burnett added to Wosk's comments on the value of having original
works for students to study.
"When you look at an original print you are getting a look
at it in a way that no form of reproduction could ever duplicate,"
said Burnett. "So you really get the beginning understanding
of the amount of work that goes into the production of these works
of art."
The curator for the Wosk Masterworks Print Collection is Ian Thom,
senior curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery. For more information
about the exhibit , call 604-844-3871.
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