Good Things Do Come In Small Packages

Few have ever been in Elisabeth French's apartment long enough to see all the art on the walls.  This Saturday, the collection is open to the public as The American University Museum presents Good Things Come in Small Packages: The Collection of Elisabeth French, running through August 15.

Ms. French moved to DC in the mid 1960s to work for the nascent Washingtonian Magazine, and has collected work nearly the entire time she has lived here. There is no particular theme to the collection. Visitors will find work that is representational, abstract, geometric, figurative, conceptual and decorative. What makes the collection singular, however, is that majority of the work was made by Washington artists.

Ever the fervent DC arts supporter, Alice Denney, curator of the exhibition, and a long time friend of Ms. French, made one simple curatorial decision for this exhibition: everything that was attached to the wall was to be put in the show. As a result, approximately 200 works of art have been transported from Ms. French's cozy one-bedroom apartment to The Katzen.

When Mrs. Denney invited me to Ms. French's apartment to take a look, my jaw dropped. Hung salon style, no square inch of wall had been spared – even wall space behind tables and chairs had works of art clinging to them. "There is even a work hung in the shower," said Mrs. Denney. Sure enough, there was (placed out of harm's way opposite the shower head). I found myself distracted by so much beautiful work that I neglected to realize there was no television in the apartment.

"I can't wait to see how the work will transform in the gallery," says Stefanie Fedor, Assistant Director of the American University Museum. "And I really anticipate Elisabeth's response to it in this new context."

While the exhibition serves to demonstrate just how many brilliant artists exist in our greater metro region, it also represents another cogent message: anyone can become a collector. As a woman of modest means, Ms. French not only has acquired work from galleries over the last five decades, but also from artist studios. She has sought to get to know artists, to know their work, and in some cases to know their families. And she is still active with her collecting today. "The other day Mary Early brought a work to the museum that Elisabeth bought from Hemphill," says Fedor.  

Who knows? Maybe we'll find an exposed nail on the wall in the exhibition, just in case Ms. French acquires anything else during the run of her show.