The Myron A. and Anne Jaffe Portenar Collection at the Arthur Ross Gallery

Centering on 20th-century master prints and photography of the 19th and 20th centuries, Shared Vision represents a wide range of styles, from Joan Miró’s Le Dandy (1969), an abstract aquatint resembling a giant black beetle crawling across a field of color, to Odilon Redon’s reflective Pegase Captif (Captive Pegasus, 1891), which depicts the mythological Greek hero Perseus leading the winged horse by a magical bridle.

The shadowy lithograph was a particular favorite of Anne Jaffe Portenar, who preferred to view it at a distance. To accommodate that perspective, she had it hung at the end of a hallway in one of the couple’s homes.

Many of Shared Vision’s most memorable works are photographs, reproduced in varied print processes. Including artists such as Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, and Berenice Abbott, the offerings are rich. One of the most arresting images, by Edward Curtis, is a head-and-shoulders gravure portrait, Eskadi, Apache (1903). A weathered face gazes directly back at the camera, expressionless but knowing, a lifetime of experience showing in its creases. Tendrils of dark hair rest on the fabric draped over his shoulders. It is a beautiful, thoughtful picture, monochromatic in shades of dark red. Like many of the works in this exhibit, it can be considered for a long time without tiring.

Rooted in travel

Anne Jaffe, a 1949 alumna of Penn’s College for Women and former president of the Women’s Student Government Association, spent a summer teaching children in Mexico with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). That experience likely introduced her to Mexican modernism, represented in the Portenar collection in works by Rufino Tamayo and Mora.

Another piece that connects to that trip is Rocking Chair (1958) by Ruth Asawa, who also traveled with the AFSC. Years later, Jaffe read about Asawa’s art and wrote her to see about acquiring a piece. In reply, Asawa sent a note and a drawing of a wicker rocker, created of dots made by repeatedly touching a brown felt-tip marker to paper, a modern take on pointillism. The paper still bears the mailing creases.

Details like those leave the viewer wanting to know more about the people behind the vision. Given that the Portenar collection is so personal — it has never before been exhibited in public — it would be fascinating to learn more about them, to vicariously stand in their shoes or sit with them at a dinner party as they reflect on more than four decades of acquiring art.

We are told that the Portenars collected for their own study and appreciation, displaying the art at homes in Philadelphia, New York City, and New Jersey. What inspired them? How did they find pieces, and how did their vision evolve over the years? Did they interact with the artists whose work they collected? What if they disagreed on an acquisition? What were some of their more memorable purchases? Who did they appreciate before anyone else? Were there works they regretted acquiring or wish they had acquired?

Perhaps those questions will be answered at Penn, as the Myron A. and Anne Jaffe Portenar Collection becomes a resource for scholars, students, and the public. The vision cultivated by two is now shared by many.