The Great Unseen Collection

Affectionately dubbed The Great Unseen Collection by the Bernsteins and their family, this special presentation will be on view at the gallery’s location at 525 West 19th Street in New York, from May 7—June 13, 2026.

The selection reflects the refined eye and distinctive taste that the couple honed over more than six decades of collecting, and will include works by, among others, the following artists.

Highlights from the presentation include a double portrait by Alice Neel of artist Red Grooms and his wife and collaborator Mimi Gross from 1967; Fairfield Porter’s significant 1966 work Iced Coffee, one of his largest paintings, which debuted in his 1967 show at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York; Alex Katz’s monumentally scaled portrait of his wife, Ada and Flowers (1980); a 1975 self-portrait by San Francisco painter Joan Brown that features on the cover of the catalogue for her 2022–2023 retrospective organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; a late Romare Bearden collage, Street Serenade (1979–1980); and Andy Warhol’s silk-screened pastiche Judy and Liza (1978); among other important works.

Early on, the Chicago-based collectors Joel and Carole Bernstein focused on abstract works by artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, and Larry Poons. By the 1980s, they began to feel that they wanted to live with art that more directly reflected the circumstances of its era, and began transitioning their collection to primarily figurative works. A voracious reader, Joel avidly tracked art world movements through his large library of books and art periodicals, following their trajectory with great interest and often predicting emergent trends. He also imparted his deep knowledge and appreciation for the works to anyone who passed through his carefully curated home, from his medical colleagues to board members of prestigious museums that he served alongside, to his children and grandchildren. Carole too became a dedicated steward of the collection, meticulously keeping track of the works while also working to expand the arts education programs in her children’s schools. 
 
Joel came up with the name The Great Unseen Collection, which the deeply private couple delighted in seeing as a credit line in catalogues and on checklists. Their hope was not that their works remain hidden from view, but to the contrary, that they would exist and circulate and be appreciated without a particular attachment to the collectors. Joel served on the boards of the Phoenix Art Museum and the Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, where a gallery and garden are named in the Bernsteins’ honor. He also donated numerous works to these and many other institutions, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago, where a major Jo Baer painting gifted by the Bernsteins regularly hangs in the permanent collection galleries.