Morehouse is home to collections that have proven to be national treasures. The 10,000-piece Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection was attained through a $32 million deal. The Howard Thurman Papers Project brings scholars from all over the world to Morehouse to survey the great depths of the theologian’s works.

On August 26 President Robert M. Franklin announced in a press conference alongside representatives of the Rubell Family Collection and Northern Trust Bank that Morehouse College would be the new home to a 109-piece collection of Purvis Young paintings.

“We will make sure it is seen by as many people as possible in the universe”, said Dean Terry Mills (Division of Humanities and Social Sciences) enthusiastically echoing the pride of Franklin in celebrating the largest single collection of art donated to Morehouse—valued at more than $1 million.

“This is the beginning of a great relationship, between Morehouse, the Rubell Family and Northen Trust Bank. This is a day of destiny”, said Mera Rubell. Don and Mera Rubell started the Rubell Family Collection in 1964, soon after the two were married. According to their website, the RFC is one of the leading collections of contemporary art in the world.

The Rubells described their delight in having agreed with Northern Trust to choose Morehouse as the home of the largest known collection of Purvis Young’s work on permanent display. Young’s contemporary artwork is reflective of the political and social strife and injustices of Miami neighborhoods. Young pieces together discarded utilitarian objects, including wood, carpet, and metal, to create a canvas upon which he creates simple figures that move fluidly and express the joys and fears of the artist’s neighborhoods.

Young’s art is provocatively contradictory. Simple, still figures dance with pulsating rhythm and vivid colors whisper anguish and depression. Each of Young’s painting is a call to social action. The artist’s work pulls at the heart of the socially conscious. Viewers are pulled into a world that invokes empathy. It is fitting that the largest known collection of Young’s work will be housed at Morehouse College, the alma mater of historic agents of social change.

“Martin Luther King and Purvis Young both had a very good reason to be angry, but they chose instead to show that the value of love is much stronger than the value of hate”, said Don Rubell.

In addition to giving a voice to the neglected neighborhoods of Miami, Young placed the emotional and financial needs of community members before his—often risking eviction form his own home. There is no better place than Morehouse College to honor and celebrate the socially conscious life and work of Young by permanently displaying the largest collection of the artist’s work.

Published: September 4, 2008 03:36 PM