Metaphor into Form

This book celebrates the generous promised gift of over three hundred works from the collection of Rebecca and Jack Benaroya to the Tacoma Art Museum. Rebecca and Jack built their collection over the course of thirty-five years, starting in 1980 with Dale Chihuly’s blown glass Tomato Red Basket Set. The couple followed their passions and acquired seminal works from some of the Northwest artists and international artists who transformed the Pilchuck Glass School into a world-renowned center for innovation and experimentation. These artists include Olga de Amaral, Howard Ben Tré, Sonja Blomdahl, Kenneth Callahan, Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace, Kyohei Fujita, Morris Graves, Paul Horiuchi, Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, William Morris, Ginny Ruffner, Bertil Vallien, and more. Their works are generously reproduced in full color and accompanied by scholarly essays by Stefano Catalani, Aruna D’Souza, Rock Hushka, and Tina Oldknow. This promised gift of 353 works and funds for a new wing and endowment honors Rebecca and Jack by ensuring their collection will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Stefano Catalani is executive director of the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. Aruna D’Souza writes about modern and contemporary art for 4Columns and is the author of Whitewalling: Art, Race, & Protest in 3 Acts. Rock Hushka is chief curator and curator of contemporary and Northwest art at Tacoma Art Museum. Tina Oldknow is former senior curator of modern and contemporary glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.