…following quote taken from the The Chrysler Museum of Art website.  “Chrysler Museum history includes 19th century feminist visionaries and a mid-20th century drive by schoolchildren and residents to buy a single small Renoir. Then everything moved to a new level. The son of the car company founder moved his fledging museum from a cramped Massachusetts church to Norfolk in 1971. The city promised support, space and commitment, and 10,000 works of art later, the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences was the Chrysler Museum of Art.

The story of Chrysler’s gift transcends just the number of works. It’s what he collected that remains breathtaking to this day. A legendary art critic with The New York Times who’d had issues with the mercurial Chrysler had a chance to see the collection in its new home a few years after Chrysler’s death. And he called our namesake the most underrated American collector of his time…

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Chrysler was the almost impossible-to-define sense of knowing which one to buy; that is, if you can have only one example of a certain artist or certain style, which one would you pick and why? Such judgments are completely subjective, of course, but there are experts who believe that in a lot of cases, Walter Chrysler had a knack for getting the right one.”

For more information on Current Exhibitions and Art please visit the The Chrysler Museum of Art website above.