Wine Label Art Collection Gifted To SSU

ROHNERT PARK - An art collection worth $2 million has found a new home at Sonoma State University, school officials announced late last week.

The 442-piece collection of art pieces that have been featured on the labels of wine from Imagery Estate Winery in Glen Ellen was gifted to the university from the former owners of the Benziger Family Winery, according to the school.

The donation is the largest gift of art ever given to the university.

“It has always been our hope that the collection would stay together and be exhibited in the years to come,” former Benziger Family Winery President Tim Wallace said in a statement. “We feel that Sonoma State is the perfect home for the collection.”

The collection features works of art by Sol LeWitt, Robert Arneson, William Wiley, Pat Steir, Hung Liu, Nathan Oliviera, John Baldessari, Nancy Graves, Robert Hudson, Squeak Carnwath and several others.

Works by many of the school’s faculty members are also featured in the collection, including works by Bob Nugent, Kurt Kemp, Mark Perlman, Stephen Galloway, Inez Storer and Shane Weare.

Nugent, an art professor at the university, and winemaker Joe Benziger came up with the idea of commissioning art for a special collection of Benziger wine labels in 1984.

Imagery has since become its own label and the collection has outgrown the space, school officials said.

The university is planning to display the pieces at it’s multiple art galleries as well as public spaces throughout the campus.

-Bay City News, image via Imagery Estate Winery website