Tribute to Ayala Zacks

Amedeo modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920), Portrait of Mrs. Hastings, 1915, oil on paperboard, 55.5 x 45.4 cm. AGO, Toronto, Gift of Sam and Ayala Zacks, 1970 © 2012 AGO

April 4, 2012 – February, 2013
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
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A new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) recognizes the extraordinary generosity of one the Gallery’s great patrons. A Tribute to Ayala Zacks (1912–2011) opens April 4, 2012 in the Frank P. Wood Gallery and includes significant works by celebrated artists including Marc Chagall, Giorgio de Chirico, Edgar Degas, Sonia Delaunay, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso.

Ayala Zacks and her husband, Sam Zacks, were committed and active supporters of the AGO. Following Mr. Zacks’ death in 1970, Ms. Zacks donated more than 300 works of European and Canadian modern art to the AGO collection. A Tribute to Ayala Zacks (1912–2011) honours the transformational effect that this gift had on the Gallery’s modern art collection and the leadership role that the couple played both at the AGO and within Toronto’s artistic community.

Among the exhibition’s highlights is the first cast of Henri Matisse’s crucial early bronze, Figure décorative (1908), a powerful figure that the artist portrayed in his renowned painting Red Studio (1911). The work’s inclusion in A Tribute to Ayala Zacks (1912–2011) marks the first time in decades it is on view in Toronto.