Merci !: Selections from the Robert B. and Mercedes H. Eichholz Collection

February 16 – May 11, 2008

It’s hard to summarize Mercedes Eichholz’s collection: it ranges across thousands of years, most continents, and virtually all media.  This exhibition represents a sampling of more than 20 works of this diverse collection, that Ms. Eichholz has either already given or that she has promised to SBMA.  Highlighted works include a Chinese terracotta horse from the Han Dynasty and a painting by the French artist Edouard Vuillard.  One great strength of the collection, deriving from her experiences in Latin America, is a group of works by artists such as Jesus Rafael Soto and Mathias Goeritz.  Much of her collection represents artists she knew, often very well, such as the French artist Pierre Soulages, and many local artists like Herbert Bayer or Tony Berlant.  Mercedes Eichholz has collected art that is strong, positive, often rigorous, and full of very different experiences.  This small selection gives some flavor of the exciting variety and multiple pleasures living with such extraordinary art can bring the collector, and through Mercedes’ generosity, the Museum visitor as well.