11/09/11 - Amy

"RIP Norton Dodge"
I found out this week that Norton Dodge had passed away last weekend. If it weren't for Norton, there probably wouldn't be a Dr. Amy, nor would she be teaching Russian art in Aberdeen. Norton Dodge single-handedly saved contemporary Russian art from perishing at the hands of the Soviets. From 1956-1986, he smuggled out several thousands works of "unofficial" art - works of art that did not conform to the style of Socialist Realism, which the state decreed all arts should follow. In the 1990s, he donated his collection of 17,000 works of art - the largest collection of Soviet Nonconformist Art - to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, and later established a fellowship programme enabling budding young scholars (like me!) to study the collection. It was this Dodge fellowship that paid for my PhD.
I only met Norton once, and the meeting was brief and uneventful. It's strange to think how much I owe this man who I hardly even knew. I will be forever grateful for his generosity.

This book, The Ransom of Russian Art, which is a very short, quick and interesting read, essentially tells the story of the building of his collection.

Washington Post Obituary
New York Times Obituary