M.T. Abraham Foundation

The foundation's stated mission is promoting public appreciation for Russian and European Modernism, Impressionism, and Modern Art by collecting pieces "for the sole purpose of display and study by public institutions." It has a loan program through which it makes works available for public exhibition at accredited institutions, including museums that ordinarily wouldn't have the means to organize such exhibits.[1]

Its educational mission is fostering "exhibitions that will encourage an appreciation and understanding of art, its history, context and meaning." Exhibitions sponsored by the center are accompanied by educational programs for children and young adults, which are held by artists, educators, and other art professionals. The foundation also provides support for young artists and students in Judaic studies.[1]

The foundation supports promising young artists and students in all fields of art history, aesthetics and Judaic studies.

"The Little Dancer" from "The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas" collection

The foundation owns a complete collection of 74 bronze sculptures by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, including a casting of "The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen."[8] According to a number of experts, Degas, after meeting with criticism for his first sculpture "Little Dancer," had privately accumulated plasters for sculptures that were not found until after his death.[9][10][11][12] They feature dancers, horses, bathers, etc.[13][14] Apart from the M.T. Abraham Foundation, as of 2010 only four museums worldwide have near-complete collections.[14][15][16]

In November 2009 the foundation began touring the collection under the name "The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas."[8] It first spent five months[9] at the Herakleidon Museum in Athens,[13] marking the first time the sculptures were exhibited in Greece.[9] By March 2010[11] the sculptures moved to the Tel Aviv Art Museum in Israel.[17][18][19][20][21] In September 2010 the exhibition opened for two months[15][22] at the National Art Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria.[23][24] It also appeared at the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno.[25][26] All the exhibitions were supported by the French Institute and the local French embassies.[27][28][29] Workshops for children always accompanied the exhibitions.[1][30] The complete set of Edgar Degas worldwide exhibition tour supported by the Institut de France.

In December 2013, the State Hermitage Museum presented an exhibition “Edgar Degas - Figures in Motion”, to highlight the importance of the bronze sculptures of Edgar Degas and place them in the proper historical context of modern masterpieces. The entire collection of 74 bronze sculptures are on loan to the museum for two years, courtesy of the M.T. Abraham Foundation.

In May 2012, the foundation lent several Degas bronzes to an exhibition of posthumous bronzes linked to an International colloquium titled "Posthumous bronze in law and art history" held at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The subject of debate was 20th century bronze casts by Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Constantin Brâncuși, Alexander Archipenko, Salvador Dalí, and other artists. The colloquium examined the legal and artistic problems surrounding what are termed posthumous bronzes - cast bronze sculptures made after the artisan’s death. According to State Hermitage Museum General Director Mikhail Piotrovsky, "The world is full of bronze sculptures by famous artists which have been made either with or without the approval of their heirs. This all creates serious problems in the art market, confusing prices. Exhibitions are held of copies which pretend to be cultural events." The views and conclusions of the conference was published in December 2012.

The Foundation’s Russian Modern art section consist various movements of the early twentieth century in Russia: impressionism, fauvism, neo-primitivism, futurism, cubo-futurism, suprematism, and constructivism. It includes major and some lesser-known names of these movements. The foundation took part in International Competition “Worlds of El Lissitzky”, an architectural concept of the symbolic object of Novosibirsk city environment dedicated to Russian Avant-garde. Organizers of the Competition Siberian Center for Contemporary Art.