Eli Leon (1935–2018) born as Robert Stanley Leon, was an American psychologist, writer and collector. As a self-taught scholar of African-American quilts, he helped bring attention to the field and especially to the quilts of

Rosie Lee Tompkins Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–2006) is the art pseudonym of Effie Mae Martin Howard, a widely-acclaimed African-American quiltmaker and fiber artist of Richmond, California. ''The New York Times'' called her "one of the great American artists," and ...

Early life and education

Leon was born in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in June 27, 1935, the son of first-generation Jews from

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. He attended the

High School of Music & Art The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art" (or "M&A"), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the High ...

and spent his summers at

Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The college was ideologically organized around John Dewey's educational ...

, where he studied with potter

Karen Karnes Karen Karnes (November 17, 1925 – July 12, 2016) was an American ceramist, best known for her salt glazed, earth-toned stoneware ceramics. She was born in 1925 in New York City, where she attended art schools for children. Her garment worker pa ...

. He entered

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

before transferring to

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in Portland, Oregon. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Reed College in Psychology in 1958. He earned a Master's degree from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he trained in Reichian psychotherapy. In the late 1950s and early '60s, he was briefly married to his college girlfriend, although they both knew he was gay. Sometime after that he changed his first name to Eli and settled in Oakland, California.

Collection

An obsessive collector, Leon became a regular at flea markets in and around Oakland, where his main focus became African-American quilts. He became an expert on the subject, traveling to Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas to conduct research. In 1989, he received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

to continue his research. Leon organized a number of exhibitions across the United States, for which he wrote the catalogs: * ''Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking'' (San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum, c. 1987) * ''Models in the Mind: African Prototypes in American Patchwork'' (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Diggs Gallery: Winston-Salem State University, c. 1992) * ''Arbie Williams Transforms the Britches Quilt'' (Regents of the University of California and the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, UCSC, 1993) * ''"Showing up": Maximum-Contrast African-American Quilts'' (Richmond, CA: Richmond Art Center, 1996) * ''Something Else to See: Improvisational Bordering Styles in African-American Quilts'' (

University of Massachusetts at Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, c. 1997) * ''No Two Alike : African-American Improvisations on a Traditional Patchwork Pattern'' (Columbia, S.C.:

South Carolina State Museum The South Carolina State Museum has four floors of permanent and changing exhibits, a digital dome planetarium (opened in 2014), 4D interactive theater and an observatory (both opened in 2014). The State Museum, is located along the banks of the Co ...

, c. 1998) * ''Something Pertaining to God'' (Shelburne, VT:

Shelburne Museum Shelburne Museum is a museum of art, design, and Americana located in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. It is located ...

, 2006) * ''Accidentally on Purpose: The Aesthetic Management of Irregularities in African Textiles and African-American Quilts'' (Davenport, Iowa:

Figge Art Museum The Figge Art Museum is an art museum in Davenport, Iowa. The Figge, as it is commonly known, has an encyclopedic collection and serves as the major art museum for the eastern Iowa and western Illinois region. The Figge works closely with sever ...

, 2007)

Death and legacy

Upon his death in March 6, 2018 in Emeryville, California, Leon bequeathed his collection of almost 3000 African-American quilts, including more than 500 by

, to the

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

(BAMPFA), whose director,

Lawrence Rinder Lawrence R. Rinder is a contemporary art curator and museum director. He directed the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) from 2008 to 2020. Education Rinder received a B.A. in art from Reed College and an M.A. in art history fro ...

, worked closely with Leon to organize the first solo exhibition of Tompkin's work in 1997. The bequest will account for about 15 percent of the museum's art collection. Drawing from the Eli Leon Collection, BAMPFA organized the exhibit ''Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective'' (February 19 to July 19, 2020). A subsequent exhibition showcasing the broader collection will open at the museum in 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Eli 1935 births 2018 deaths American art collectors 20th-century art collectors People from the Bronx American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Reed College alumni The High School of Music & Art alumni University of Chicago alumni

Early life and education

Collection

Death and legacy

See also

References