A new exhibit at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is now open and honors former Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson, Jr.
The exhibit, titled “Humble and Human,” features collections from both Albright-Knox and the Detroit Institute of Arts. It's the first time the two institutions have collaborated on an exhibit.
Albright Knox Godin-Spaulding Curator & Curator for the Collection Holly Hughes said many don’t know that Wilson was a lover of the impressionist art style, especially works by Claude Monet.
"He amassed a very small but important collection later in life," said Hughes.
In total, the exhibit features than forty impressionist and post-Impressionist works by Cézanne, Degas, van Gogh, Monet, and Morisot. And though they don't depict Wilson’s two hometowns of Detroit and Buffalo specifically, Hughes said the works do portray ties to the areas.
“In many of the works in the exposition, the landscapes, especially the water. His home in Detroit faced the water and that was something that I think initially drew him to impressionism," said Hughes. "But also, I think, the everyday man, the working class. Buffalo, our two rust belt cities, built on blue collar workers.”
The exhibit will be on display in Buffalo until May 26. It will then travel to Detroit for an exhibition from June 23 through October 13.
