Mailing address: The Rivolo Collection, P.O. Box 125, Saint James, NY 11780; Tel: +1 703-371-9166
Arthur Rex Rivolo, the founder of the Collection, was trained as an engineer and an astrophysicist, attaining a Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1981 from Stony Brook University. He served in the USAF as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam conflict and as a rescue helicopter pilot with the New York Air National Guard. He has logged over 7000 flight hours. After a brief career in Academia as a postdoctoral fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute and junior faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Washington “Think Tank” advising the Office of The Secretary of Defense, as a Research Staff Member. He has served 30 years as an advisor to Governments and industry as an expert in tactical military aircraft, spacecraft, computer simulation, and statistical analyses.
The Rivolo Collection began in the early 1970s, when Rex began acquiring prints and drawings focusing on works from the 19th to the mid-20th century. By the early 2000s, the collection had grown to over 10,000 works [1] and expanded to include graphic works of the Old Masters of the 17th and 18th centuries, post-1950 modernist graphics, and paintings from the 18th though the 20th century.
Today, the collection consists of over 30,000 works on paper comprised of Western prints and drawings, Japanese woodblock prints and drawings, and over 400 paintings.
Over the years, the Collection has donated numerous works to various museums and universities [2] [3] [4] and continues the practice to this day. The collection continues to engage with the community through a series of lectures and exhibitions [5] [6] designed to educate the public about the beauty and romance of the graphic arts.
In 2022, the Collection expanded its loan policy to international partners by loaning works for an exhibition of modern prints by European masters at the National Water Museum of China, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province and is currently actively working with several museums in the US and Asia to mount new exhibitions. An exhibition of San Francisco’s Chinatown etchings by John W. Winkler was curated by the Collection for Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University in March 2024[6].
Dr. Rivolo and his wife Yuka, an expert on Asian art, continue to oversee and grow the Collection. Located in Saint James, Long Island, New York, most works in the collection are available for short or long term rental and for research by scholars.
A. Rex Rivolo
Yuka Rivolo
References:
- A Passion for the Print, The Washington Post, July 15, 2004:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2004/07/15/a-passion-for-the-print/ab3a03e7-186b-486e-9306-953cf803181a/ - The A. Rex Rivolo Collection of Works on Paper, University of Wyoming Art Museum:
https://www.uwyo.edu/artmuseum/exhibitions/archives/2006/the-a-rex-rivolo-collection/index.html - The Print Club of Albany, Albany New York: https://pcaprint.org/donors/
- Five Collages and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?museum=&t=objects&type=browse&f=option7&s=leisure&record=121 - The Barbizon School, a public exhibition sponsored by the Smithtown Public Library,
Smithtown, NY and Roving Sands Fine Arts, 2023: https://events.longisland.com/the-barbizon-school-art-exhibition3.html - John W. Winkler: The Chinatown Etchings, a public exhibition, The Charles B. Wang Center,
The University of New York at Stony Brook, 2024:
https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/wang/