Amedeo Modigliani (Italian 1884-1920) Portrait of Mrs. Hastings, 1915 Oil on paperboard, 55.5 x 45.4cm Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Gift of Sam and Ayala Zacks, 1970 © 2012 Art Gallery of Ontario
Ayala Zacks 1912–2011: A Tribute
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
This special exhibition honours Ayala Zacks, one of the AGO's great patrons, who died last August. Together with her husband Sam, she gave over 300 works of European and Canadian modern art to the Gallery. The 1971 Zacks Gift transformed the AGO's holdings in modern art, and this tribute to Ayala introduces a new generation of museum goers to key works from that gift — including paintings by Picasso, Modigliani, de Chirico and Chagall, and sculpture by Moore, Hepworth, Chadwick, Matisse and Degas.
The exhibition also celebrates the leadership role that Sam and Ayala Zacks played both at the AGO and within Toronto's artistic community.
A Tribute to Ayala Zacks juxtaposes Ayala's artistic taste with her extraordinary life, her wartime heroics, her role in the founding and building of Israel and her powerful personality. Included in the exhibition is a video of reminiscences by friends about her extraordinary life and her collecting.