MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, FL (September 19, 2006) – Florida Atlantic University announced today that it received a gift of 20th century Russian fine art valued at $2,255,700 from Michael and Tonya Aranda of EH Building Group. The gift will enhance the programs of the department of visual arts and art history, academic and public programs within the School of the Arts in FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. Pieces in the collection may be used within the University Galleries’ Museum Education Program, which offers educational outreach programs for elementary, middle and high-school aged students, and they may be part of an exhibition in the coming year.
“This collection of Russian art represents the largest single donation of artwork ever given to our College,” said George Sparks, director of FAU’s School of the Arts. “We are overwhelmed by the Arandas’ generosity and their support of the arts.”
The collection of 977 pieces includes 70 original signed lithographs and serigraphs by the Russian artists Mihail Chemiakin, Shimon Okshteyn, Kasimir Malevich, Moisey Kogan, Alexandre Zlotnik and Michail Aleksandrov. Chemiakin is one of the important representatives of the nonconformist art tradition of St. Petersburg. His work is now represented by numerous galleries in France where his graphics regularly sell at auction for several thousand dollars. Okshteyn is a Ukrainian-born contemporary artist whose works are included in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Russian Art in Niznij Novgorod, Russia. His paintings regularly sell for more than $100,000. Malevich was one of the most important pioneers of geometric abstract art in Russia. His paintings are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris and elsewhere.
Michael Aranda is president and chairman of the EH Building Group, which is based in North Palm Beach. The company has been building townhouses, single-family
homes, estate homes, condominiums and villas in Florida for more than 25 years and offers both residential and golf communities in Lehigh Acres, Ft. Myers, West Palm Beach, Ft. Pierce and Port St. Lucie.
“EH Building Group is honored to be able to support FAU’s School of the Arts with this donation of rare Russian art,” said Michael Aranda. “We are proud to be part of the arts education process at FAU, as it is an endeavor that is of extreme importance.”
- FAU -
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts nine colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.
