Singular Vision: Works from the Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Over a period of four decades, Drs. Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell built a remarkable collection of works by some of the most prominent modernist and contemporary artists in Europe, North America, and Latin America. Guided by their personal taste and a clear preference for figurative art, they acquired over 100 distinguished works, almost none of which belongs to the abstract movements that dominated the art scene during these same years. Taken as a whole, the collection contains a wealth of contrasts and similarities, while the works taken individually are rewarding for their particular expressive features. A Singular Vision features 45 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and pastels from the collection, illustrated in full color, along with an informal discussion of the works independently and as a group. Among the masterpieces presented are works by Paul Delvaux, Rena Magritte, R. B. Kitaj, Fernando Botero, Larry Rivers, Domenico Gnoli, Lucien Freud, Claudio Bravo, Antonio LApez Garc'a, and many others. Each artist is working according to his or her own singular, provocative vision, but each finds a home, and a context, in the remarkable Blake-Purnell collection.