A rendering of Saskatoon's Remai Modern, due to open in 2016.
Twenty-three ceramic works by Picasso, valued at $500,000, have been gifted to the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan by USask-trained, UK-based art dealer Frederick Mulder.
The works include ceramic plates, tiles, vessels, vases and sculptures; formally, they were donated by Mulder’s eponymous Frederick Mulder Foundation.
The pottery collection joins a collection of 406 Picasso linocuts that were assembled by Mulder and subsequently purchased by the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation and donated to the gallery in 2012.
In a release, Mulder said the Picasso ceramics “will serve as a wonderful bridge between the highly important Picasso linocut collection in the Remai Modern, and the tradition of Saskatchewan art ceramics. I loved growing up in Saskatchewan, and I count myself lucky to be able to give something back to the city and the province that gave so much to me.”
According to a 2012 article in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Mulder was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1943 and moved with his mother to the small town of Eston, Saskatchewan, when he was six. He studied English at the University of Saskatchewan before going onto graduate studies at Brown University in the US and Oxford University in the UK, where he became interested in collecting and dealing fine-art prints. He founded his London gallery in 1971 and is now involved in a number of charitable projects.
The ceramics will be exhibited in a gallery dedicated to Picasso and works of international modernity at Remai Modern. The new gallery, under construction at Saskatoon’s River Landing, is scheduled to open in 2016.
