A hidden treasure will be revealed this Sunday at a benefit for the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund. An exquisite art collection – located right in the neighborhood – will be open to the community for two viewings at 3 and 4:30.
The works on display are from the private collection of the Louis-Dreyfus family. The doyen of these gems, William Louis-Dreyfus, traces his interest in art to his sojourn in France as a young adolescent. “I used to skip school to go to the museums and the Louvre,” he confessed. Today, he pursues his passion at galleries and in artists’ studios.
There are many works by masters including Matisse, Kandinsky and Miro, but these are not the names cited by Louis-Dreyfus when asked to describe the pieces which speak to him. The work he is “most emotionally tied to” is “The Departure of Fruit and Vegetables from the Heart of Paris” by Raymond Mason. This sculpture depicts vendors, laden with their wares, in a truly vivid palette.
Louis-Dreyfus does not focus solely on maintaining and growing his collection. He is also committed to using it purposefully; mainly for the benefit of underprivileged youth served by the Harlem Children’s Zone. When several of his friends prevailed upon him to open his gallery for a benefit for the HGSF, he was happy to accommodate.
HGSF president David Perlmutter has seen the works and is thrilled that members of the community will have the opportunity to visit this gallery. “The breadth of the collection is spectacular,” he noted. He found the work of Bill Traylor, an outsider artist, particularly captivating.
A slideshow and tickets are available at hgsf.org/art.