Jack and Linda Ritter Collection

Imagine living with thousand of works of art.  Jack and Linda Ritter of Bloomington, Illinois do. William Butler, executive director of the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, invited the Ritters to exhibit over 40 works by Illinois artists at the CAC from their impressive collection of several thousand works of art covering most media: paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, glass, ceramics and mixed media works.

The  exhibit opened Friday, January 8 with a gallery talk by the Ritters. It was illuminating to hear how Jack and Linda found work at auctions, special exhibits and from artists' studios.  They love art and it shows.  I have two of my paintings in their collection as do many artists in our area. The  exhibit continues until Friday, February 25, 2011. It is a wonderful show and compliments the other shows at the CAC.

This is one of my favorite artists, "Uncle Bob" who is in the exhibit.  He is long retired and took numerous classes from me and Ken Holder at ISU.  One of his art works hangs outside the President's office at Hovey Hall on campus. Uncle Bob Hardgrove is alive and well and lives in New Jersey.  One of my former student's, Sigrid Wonsil, is archiving Uncle Bob's large inventory of works.