Abby Weed Grey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1902 Minnesota |
| Died | 1983 (aged 80–81) |
| Occupation(s) | art collector and art patron |
| Known for | Grey Art Museum at New York University |
Abby Weed Grey (1902–1983) was an art collector and patron for whom New York University's Grey Art Gallery is named. [1] Grey had a particular interest in non-Western modern art and art of the Middle East was particularly well-represented in her collection. [2] [3]
Early life and education
Abby Weed was born in 1902 in Minnesota and was educated at Vassar College. She married Benjamin Edwards Grey, an army officer, in 1924. [3]
Career
Grey was a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She established the Ben and Abby Grey Foundation to sponsor artists after her husband died in 1956. [2] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Grey undertook curatorial projects such as Fourteen Contemporary Iranians (1962–65) and Turkish Art Today (1966–70), each of which toured the United States; Communication Through Art (1964), which opened simultaneously in Istanbul, Tehran, and Lahore, before traveling throughout the eastern Mediterranean, Asia, and eastern Africa; and One World Through Art. [4] [5] By 1979, Grey had become one of American's prominent collectors of Asian and Middle Eastern art. [4]
Grey served on the Board of Trustees of The Minnesota Society of Fine Arts (1967–1973) and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design's Board of Overseers (1964–1983). [1] In 1974 she established the Grey Art Gallery at New York University. [3] She endowed the Grey Fellowship in Museum Studies at the Walker Art Center, and in 1979, established and endowed The Grey Fine Arts Library and Study Center, a resource in NYU's Department of Art History (formerly Department of Fine Arts). [6]
Grey was also the author of The Picture is the Window; the Window is the Picture, her autobiography, which was published by New York University Press. [1] [7]
References
- ^ a b c "Abby Weed Grey, Art Patron And Founder of Study Center". The New York Times. 1983-06-04. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ a b "The Abby Weed Grey Collection of Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Art".
- ^ a b c Chaves, Alexandra (2021-11-16). "How an American woman built a unique collection of 1960s art from India, Iran and Turkey". The National. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
- ^ a b Surak, Amy; Gelfand, Aleksandr. "Guide to the Papers of Abby Weed Grey 1922–1978". New York University Archives. New York University.
- ^ Gumpert, Lynn; Balaghi, Shiva (2002). Picturing Iran: Art, Society and Revolution. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. ISBN 1860648835.
- ^ Minnesota Historical Society. "Abby Weed Grey and family papers, 1811–1983 (bulk 1910s–1970s)". Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America. The Frick Collection.
- ^ Grey, Abby Weed (1983). The Picture Is the Window, the Window Is the Picture. New York: New York Univ Press. ISBN 0814729886.