By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN EAST — An eclectic collection that boasts work from artists ranging from Polidaro da Carvaggio to Pablo Picasso will be on display at the Morgan Library and Museum Friday, courtesy of famous New York fashion designer Herbert Kasper.
"Mannerism and Modernism: The Kasper Collection of Drawings and Photographs" displays over one hundred works that delve into old master drawings, modern and contemporary works, and includes both historical figures and emerging artists.
The collection's unusual nature, with artistic personalities that range from surrealist painting and street photography, is a testament to the fashion designer's equally unique personality, museum director William M. Griswold said in a statement.
"Kasper's drawings are exhilarating in their diversity yet unified by the collector's distinctive vision and devotion to quality," he said.
For instance, his penchant for European Mannerism paintings, a form dubbed the "stylish style" by art historian John Shearman, show a taste for elegance and sophistication commonly displayed by artists Carvaggio, Parmigianino, and Giorgio Vasari.
A taste for the abstract, however, is also displayed by Kasper's collection of works by artists who challenge reality, including Cubist painters Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, as well as Henri Matisse and Richard Serra.
Kasper, a fashion designer known for creating primarily women's clothes, boasts a design as flexible as his collection, with pieces ranging from vintage dresses to business suits. His career has led him from designing costumes for the chorus in World War II to making flexible women's sports jackets for New York company J.L. Sport.
Although Kasper acknowledges that his collection is a bit miscellaneous, he says that his judgement of a work is based on its superiority, not necessarily on the name of the artist behind it.
"Quality has always been very important to me," Kasper said.
"That doesn’t mean that the works I collect are the most well-known by a particular artist, but they have to have a sense of being something that’s original and important."
"Mannerism and Modernism: The Kasper Collection of Drawings and Photographs" is on view at the Morgan Library and Museum located on 36th Street and Madison Avenue from Jan. 21 through May 1, 2011.
