Unlike many collectors, Lawrence Gussman's passion for African art developed not through an interest in modern art or any Western movement, but through his personal involvement with the people of Africa.
At the conclusion of a business trip to South Africa in 1956, Gussman was invited to the hospital of Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) in Lambarene, Gabon. It would be the first of many trips he would make with his wife Kaye to volunteer in the hospital where he became a personal friend of Schweitzer's, the legendary medical missionary, musician and 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Lawrence Gussman, president and chairman of the chemical company Stein Hall & Company, had an eye for African art, which he began to study in 1957. He read, visited museum collections and consulted with an international group of scholars, collectors and dealers before beginning to collect seriously in 1965. Although the core of his collection is from Gabon, with a strong representation from the Congo region, Gussman collected exceptional works from throughout Africa.
Gussman's empathy and affinity for Africa was so great, he quietly funded the repatriation of the Afo-A-Kom to the Cameroons in 1973. The Afo-A-Kom, a large beaded throne figure that had entered the Western art market under questionable circumstances, is essential to the ceremonial life of the Kom Kingdom.
From the outset, Lawrence Gussman has been a generous lender and donor. Now he is sharing his entire collection--not by auctioning it or leaving it to one institution, but by dividing it among the National Museum of African Art; the Neuberger Museum, Purchase College, State University of New York; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This installation of 14 objects is only a preview of a major exhibition of his entire collection that will tour each institution.