A Passionate Collector: Highlights from the Robert Cross Vergobbi Bequest

In 2007 the Currier received a major bequest of modernist art works from long time New York collector Robert Cross Vergobbi. Mr. Vergobbi began collecting European works on paper during the 1960s and 1970s while working for IBM in Nice, France. When he returned to live in Brooklyn, he focused his collecting on work by American artists, specifically those with ties to New York. At this time Mr. Vergobbi sharpened his eye by frequenting exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art and local New York galleries. Building his collection would dominate the last decades of his life. The strength of the Vergobbi collection is in twentieth century works on paper by American and European artists, and in nineteenth-century bronzes. Mr. Vergobbi’s interests were broad, and he collected work by many important modernist artists who were not represented in the Currier’s collection. Most notable are several beautiful drawings by Isabel Bishop and Paul Cadmus as well as prints by Alberto Giacometti and Georges Braque. In addition, the graphic work by Mr. Vergobbi’s favorite artists Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, and Walt Kuhn adds depth to our understanding of artists already represented in the Currier’s holdings. This exhibition, which constitutes about one third of the bequest, is in celebration of Mr. Vergobbi’s life, his love of the arts, and his generosity towards the Currier.