ART-PRESENTATION: A Luta Continua-The Sylvio Perlstein Collection,Part I

An Antwerp jeweller and diamond merchant, Sylvio Perlstein grew up in Brazil before settling in Belgium in the 1960s, travelling constantly, as he still does, between Europe and the United States. He devotes all his free time and energy to meeting artists and buying works for which most of the time, in his own words, “without really knowing what they are, sometimes even if it is actually art…” (Part II).

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Hauser & Wirth Gallery Archive

While the general public may not be familiar with his name, Sylvio Perlstein is a recognized and established figure for numerous artists and personalities from the art world.  As a collector, he loans works to international exhibitions on a regular basis. The exhibition “A Luta Continua. The Sylvio Perlstein Collection” at Hauser & Wirth Gallery in New York, presenting more than 350 works from 266 artists is the first presentation in the United States of the Sylvio Perlstein Collection. A highlight of the Perlstein Collection, featured prominently in this exhibition, is an exceptional display of Surrealist photography from 1920 to 1940. Among other artists are on presentation works by: Josef Albers, Carl Andre, Diane Arbus, Hans Bellmer, Andre Breton, Marcel Broodthaers, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Hannah Höch, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, René Magritte, Man Ray, Bruce Nauman, Brice Marden, Robert Morris, Edward Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Fred Sandback, Robert Smithson, Jean Tinguely, Andy Warhol. Sylvio Perlstein lives surrounded by the hundreds of unique or emblematic works that make up his collection.  Attentive and open to diversity as much in forms of expression as the media used, Sylvio Perlstein is equally passionate about Dada, surrealism, minimalism, conceptual art, 1960s Belgian art, New Realism, Arte Povera, photography from the 1920s to today, and Contemporary Art.  On May 2006, Vik Muniz said about his Collection “Right up on visiting Sylvio’s Collection I could get a sense of what he was thinking when he started to buy my work. I felt very honored to have my work hanging among extremely good minimalist and conceptual works from the sixties and seventies not to mention the wealth of surrealist photography that he has collected over the years. It’s all work that have inspired me and structured my convictions as an artist. I felt like a student hanging out with my favourite teachers”.

Info: Curator: David Rosenberg, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, 548 West 22nd Street, New York, Duration: 26/4-27/7/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.hauserwirth.com