KAM Exhibition Celebrates Recent Aquisition
The Kingsborough Art Museum (KAM) celebrates the generous gift of sixty-one Post-War and Contemporary artworks from art collectors Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford with the exhibition Poems in Paper, which runs from November 13, 2024, through February 4, 2025. The donation is the largest in the museum’s history and features works by internationally-recognized artists such as George Deem, Witold Gordon, Cletus Johnson, and Jiří Kolář. The collection consists primarily of collage art, along with several paintings and sculptural works. Interest in collage has risen in recent years, with an increase in exhibitions and scholarly books on the subject. While its origins lie in earlier popular or folk art traditions, collage was incorporated into the fine arts by Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Kurt Schwitters, and other European artists in the early twentieth-century. The donation of collage works was an apt one for Kingsborough Community College, whose art collection is highlighted by School Bell Time, a collage painting by celebrated African American artist Romare Bearden.
The most represented artist in the exhibition is the Czech artist and poet Jiří Kolář (1914-2002), whose experimental literary and art history-based collages revolutionized the medium. Kolář is recognized as a pioneer in the development of new varieties of collage, such as rollage (photographs, usually art reproductions, cut into strips, then spliced together to create a new image), chiasmage (collage created through cut and reassembled literary texts), and crumplage (creating a collage with crumpled and/or folded imagery). The current show features these and other techniques created by the artist.
“We are honored and delighted to present these incredible works to the Kingsborough community,” says KAM Director Dr. Brian E. Hack, who, with the college’s Advancement Office, helped facilitate the acquisition of the collection. “In addition to their aesthetic and intellectual appeal, they will serve an important pedagogical role for our Art History, Fine Arts, and Graphic Design students, who will be able to study these works first hand and in close detail. The Lynford donation will be the core of KAM’s teaching collection, and the exhibition will allow students to see the myriad ways to express themselves and their ideas through this culturally significant medium.”
The donors, Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford, are longstanding philanthropists and civic leaders. Mr. Lynford serves as the CEO of Educational Housing Services and is Vice Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Tondra Lynford is the Executive Director of the Lynford Family Charitable Trust, and is the co-founder and Trustee Emeritus of Resources for Children with Special Needs, Inc. Aside from their civic work, the Lynfords are noted collectors who value the importance of bringing the visual arts to Kingsborough’s students, faculty, staff and visitors.
Poems in Paper: Celebrating the Gift of Post-War and Contemporary Collage Art from the Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford Collection runs opens November 13 and runs through February 4, 2025. The Kingsborough Art Museum (KAM) is located on the campus of Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY 11235. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 3 pm, other hours by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, please contact the museum at (718) 368-4817 or by email at kccartmuseum@gmail.com.
Exhibition Checklist
Noriko Ambe
Born Japan, 1967
Linear-Actions Cutting Piece
2004
Yupo Paper
8 x 12 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Barton LidicéBenes (American, 1942-2012)
Born Hackensack, New Jersey, 1942
Died New York, New York, 2012
Fan Dance
1984
Currency collage on handmade paper
22 ¼ x 30 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
George Deem (American, 1932-2008)
Born Vicennes, Indiana, 1932
Died New York, New York, 2008
Chromatic Vermeer
1979
Acrylic on paper
6 works, each 28 x 22 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Steve DeFrank (American, born 1963)
Psychedelic Eye
2003
Colored lights (Lite-Brite)
28 x 28 x 6 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Brian Dettmer (American, born 1974)
Log #1
2007
Altered book
9 x 5 x 4 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Adam Fowler (American, born 1979)
Untitled Print
2007
#9 from an edition of 12
9 ½ x 6 ½ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Witold Gordon (American, born Poland, 1885-1968)
Untitled (Feathers with Ball)
c. 1950
Oil on canvas board
20 x 9 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Cletus Johnson (American, born 1941)
Loop III, #3
1989
Collage, assemblage
23 x 35 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Untitled
n.d.
Collage
10 x 8 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Jiří Kolář (Czech, 1914-2002)
Girl with Red Hair in Love
1959
Mixed media collage
7 ½ x 9 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Lice—Hunger—Endless Fatigue
1961
Mixed media collage
7 ½ x 11 3/8 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Saul
1961
Mixed media collage
10 ½ x 8 ½ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Homage to Josef Albers
1963
Mixed media collage
39 x 17 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Trafalgar Square
1965
Crumplage
7 x 9 ¾ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
The Tablets
1967
Chiasmage on board
7 ½ x 13 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
The Lute of Picasso with an Angel
1969
Collage
10 5/8 x 8 ½ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
A Hatter and His Model
1969
Collage
11 ¾ x 8 5/8 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Untitled (Movie Series)
c. 1970
Collage
11 x 17 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Unknown Sketch by Leonardo
1973
Mixed media collage
39 x 27 ½ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Berlin in Waves
1979
Chiasmage on board
19 ¾ x 28 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
The Sun with the Broken Nose
1980
Chiasmage on board
23 x 23 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Untitled
c. 1980
Chiasmage on board
21 ½ x 15 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Washboard
1983
Chiasmage object
20 ¼ x 11 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Birds for Hans Sachs
Mixed media collage
8 ¾ x 12 ½ inches each
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Lance Letscher (American, born 1962)
Ding Dong
2012
Collage on board
10 5/8 x 15 x ½ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Mysterious Leg
2012
Collage on board
6 ¼ x 4 ¼ x 1 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Salvatore Meo (Italian, 1914-2004)
Untitled (Ostia al Mare)
1952
Mixed media on board
9 ½ x 13 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Mario Naves (American, born 1961)
No Words
2010
Collage
17 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Joakim Ojanen (Swedish, born 1985)
Duck Head with Orange Cap
2018
Oil on canvas
18 ½ x 15 ½ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Stas Orlovski (American, born Moldova, 1969)
Pastoral I
2014
Collage and ink on paper
22 x 30 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Jonathan Santlofer (American, born 1946)
Le Baiser 1932
1999-2000
Pencil on paper
28 x 21 ¼ inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Al Souza (American, born 1944)
Sparklers
2000
Jigsaw puzzle parts and glue on wood
41 x 48 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Todt (4 member artist collective)
Eye Surgery
1984
Cut paper and paint
17 x 14 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford
Rhonda Zwillinger (American, 1950-2019)
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Romance
1983
Mixed media
35 x 56 x 4 inches
KAM Collection
Gift of Jeffrey H. and Tondra Lynford