If anyone lives in New York for any period of time, you become aware of collecting and hoarding-one being of a discerning taste and the other being of anything and everything. I have two friends that I would call hoarders, one collects The New York Times and stacks them vertically and the other, old LP’s, Comic books, Cameras and Action Hero’s. This act brings to mind Homer & Langley Collyer, who at the time of their death had collected over 100 tons of stuff-anything and everything. This great achievement is only highlighted with a city park, “Collyer Brothers Park” in their honor. Although I’m sure they would rather have some of your old plastic cups or forks instead.
George Way with the bed of Queen Elizabeth the First.
Period Clock and Silver.
Then there is collecting, collectors I know have small tasteful works-never in any abundance or quantity. Then there is George Way. I had met George Way through The Alice Austen Museum, I was asked to photograph one of his paintings for an upcoming exhibit on Dutch Art. When I got to his home I was not quite prepared for the amount of art collected nor the fact it was all English & Dutch, 19th century or earlier. Chairs, Tables, Ceramics, Silver and Paintings all in abundance-all English & Dutch. Why English & Dutch I thought, why in the sleepy borough of Staten Island? It is fitting that the Way Collection is in Staten Island being a former colony of the Netherlands, when I asked George if he had been to Holland he replied; “…no, I haven’t even been to the Holland Tunnel”. A collection born of passion, which began at age 14 with a single chair and grew over those years through self-education and discipline. A clever collector with countless stories and knowledge of what and how he buys, both luck and persistence have grown into a large collection. A gallery, which has been shown at several museums and continues to be refined in its quality not quantity, as I write this Mr. Way is preparing for two new exhibits.
Minatures painted on both Copper and Silver.
The Grand Salon.
Mr. Ways mantra might be as simple as this; “…people just don’t know what they have”. One might think a painting is Victorian, but it’s really five hundred years old-do your research-know what you are looking at, the back of a painting is as telling as the front of a painting. I would be in remiss if I didn’t mention the word, “Enthusiasm”. George Way has this by the bucket load, in an era of cell phones, iPads and 4square it is so refreshing to see and hear someone talk on art in a radiant vigor not found in a University or your local Pub. So what began as a simple chair collected by a curious young boy, Mr. Way now finds himself in a finer chair, surrounded by van Dyck, Rembrandt or a van der Poel, and to rest the night, why not the bed of Queen Elizabeth the First. JPN