Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz at home - GW
Sheldon Bonovitz, W’59,
and wife Jill own more than 200 pieces from “outsider artists”—people who are self-taught or otherwise did not participate in the traditional “artistic discourse.” Their collection has gained accolades, especially recently. They donated it as a promised gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the iconic institution celebrated with a limited-run exhibit, Great and Mighty Things: Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection. Pictured (right) is the couple and (below) two pieces of artwork from the show.

Image 3

Family Band. Jon Serl, Oil paint on fiberboard, 43- 3/4 x 104 inches (111.1 x 264.2 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, Photography by Will Brown.

Family Band-Seri

“Boffo”. William Hawkins, Alkyd house paint on Masonite with fiberboard horns; textured mane and raised body made of alkyd paint mixed with broken starch chunks (possibly dried glue), 44-1/2 x 51-1/2 inches (113 x 130.8 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, Photography by Will Brown.