Toledo Museum of Art Acquires ReGift

Interior view, ReGift, photo credit: Toledo Museum of Art

ReGift a sculpture that examines the subjective gaze and mines the histories of Toledo, has been acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art for their permanent collection. The installation features a three-quarter life-sized recreation of the parlor in Edward and Florence Libbey’s Old West End house that uses the Libbey’s bookplate as a visual guide (the only known image of their home interior).  

Some of the original household objects, including furniture, were gifted to the Museum by Florence Scott Libbey upon her death in 1938 and later sold in the 1990s. ReGift symbolically gifts these objects, along with their stories, to the entire Toledo community. By looking closely at an internal aspect of founder’s life, the work aims to emphasize her involvement in building the Museum’s legacy and, importantly, the precarity of perceived value. 

On long term view at the Toledo Museum of Art

https://www.toledomuseum.org/art/exhibitions/beth-lipman-regift

Installation view, ReGift, photo credit: Toledo Museum of Art