HAMILTON, ON.- A Cultivating Journey examines and celebrates the collection of significant European historical and modern art donated to the McMaster Museum of Art by Hamilton businessman Herman Levy in 1984. Alone, this was a transformative moment for the Museum. The Levy Bequest, announced in 1991 after his death, revealed substantial funds expressly for art purchases with the only proviso that they be non-North American in origin. The openness and generosity of the terms allowed for a unique opportunity to support the Museum’s prime purpose of teaching and research, and to re-imagine the collection, bringing it forward into the late twentieth century in a purposeful and thought-provoking way.

Appropriately, the exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Museum this year.

Herman Levy was a life-long supporter of the University, the Museum and art history as well as the Art Gallery of Hamilton, which was located on the University grounds from 1953 to 1974. The sixty exhibition works are drawn from the original Levy donation to the Museum (including paintings by Courbet, Derain, Monet, Pissarro, Soutine, Van Gogh), Levy Bequest purchases, and selected works that Levy gifted to the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Included are Levy’s first purchases of Chinese artifacts. His dual passion for European and Asian art, was also reflected in the donation of his Asian collection to the Royal Ontario Museum in 1983-84 and a Bequest to the ROM for Asian purchases.

A Cultivating Journey will tour to the Vancouver Art Gallery, opening in March 2018. Other venues and dates, to be announced.