THE ART OF LOOKING

Former Ackland director Charles Millard returns to the Museum this fall to share his renowned private collection with the public in The Art of Looking, a special exhibition of seventy works from the collection of a true connoisseur.

While many private collectors focus on a distinct medium or style, the Millard Collection is distinguished by its astonishing range and variety. Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, prints, and photographs encompass a wide stylistic range, from Albrecht Dürer’s minute engraving of Saints Peter and John Healing the Leper at the Gate of the Temple (1513) to Adolph Gottlieb’s large abstract painting, Five Blue Lines (1969-70). Millard’s tastes also span time and type, from fourth century CE Byzantine gold coins to a late twentieth-century, human-size ceramic jug by North Carolina potter, Mark Hewitt. And while the majority of works in Millard’s collection come from Europe and America, there is significant representation from East and South Asia, including the stunning stone sculpture Vishnu Trimurti Seated on Garuda (late tenth century). Almost all of the pieces included in the exhibition are intended for future placement in the permanent Ackland Collection.

Millard’s personal and professional experiences are arguably as fascinating as his collection. After serving as a curator of nineteenth-century European art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and as the first curator of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. Millard became the fourth director of the Ackland in 1986. Over the next seven years, Millard created a paper conservation studio, appointed a paper conservator, formally established an education department, and oversaw the complete renovation of the Museum. An astute collector and scholar, Millard also, of course, made notable acquisitions of works of art in his time at the Ackland, including such highlights as Hans Hofmann’s Undulating Expanse, the Thai Head of Buddha (fifteenth century, bronze), and the Greek Neck Amphora with Apollo, Leto, and Artemis (ca. 540-530 BCE, terra cotta).

Along the course of his career, Millard collected more than just art, amassing a wide variety of friends as well, including such notables as actors Tony Randall and Edward G. Robinson, sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, painters Jules Olitski and Kenneth Noland, and photographer Carl Chiarenza, all of whose works are in his collection. French film director Jean Renoir, son of the Impressionist painter, Pierre- August Renoir, was also a friend and is represented in the Millard collection by two hand-painted vases, works he produced after taking up ceramics as therapy after being wounded in World War I. The guiding principle behind Millard’s collection, andwhat gives coherence to its unusual range, is his uncompromising attention to aesthetic quality and his deep respect for art and the creative process. He is a true expert in the art of looking.

The Ackland Art Museum is grateful for the generosity of Charles Millard. The opportunity to exhibit this fine collection is only one of the many benefits of his service to the Ackland.

Above: François-Andre Vincent, French, 1746–1816: Portrait of a Man, 1812; oil on canvas. From the collection of Charles Millard.

Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471-1528: Sts. Peter and John Healing the Leper at the Gate of the Temple (detail), 1513; engraving. From the collection of Charles Millard.

Indian (Punjab Hills), Two Lovers Embrace (detail), ca. 1800; opaque watercolor on paper. From the collection of Charles Millard.