The Lieberman art gallery: a hidden gem on TU's campus

Did you know there is a trove of local and international art in Stephens Hall?

By Megan Bradshaw on January 13, 2017

A lucite cube sculpture by Feliciano Bejar (1920-2007)
A lucite cube sculpture by Feliciano Bejar (1920-2007)

Over 40 oil paintings, sculptures, ink drawings, lithographs, photographs and art books line the walls and fill the Lieberman Room, located on the east end of Stephens Hall near the Honors College.

Sidney Lieberman, D.D.S, and his wife Mignon–both 1932 graduates of what was then Maryland State Normal School–donated the collection in 1992 in memory of their two sons, who passed away within three years of each other.

The Liebermans had a lifelong passion for art, collecting it throughout their sons’ lives and after. The pieces on display are part of the 100-plus piece collection they donated to their alma mater.

Not only is there a 1954 photograph of Pablo Picasso at work in his gallery, but the collection also houses one of his linocuts, “Femme Au Chapeau.” The print is a cubist bust-length depiction of a woman, likely Picasso’s second wife Jacqueline Roque. 

Viewers can see Picasso in situ in his ceramic gallery in Vallauris, France, in 1954. Yousuf Karsh’s gelatin silver print shows the artist leaning on a table with his right hand resting on the side of his face, looking out beyond the camera.

The Liebermans did not confine their collection to the internationally renowned. It also features work from well-known area artists Herman Maril, Amalie Rothschild and A. Aubrey Bodine. 

Maril’s “Yellow Bucket,” executed in 1972, is a still life depicting a chair and table in the corner of a room. The titular bucket and other objects are shown on the table.

Bodine has two photographs on display: an image of two black-habited nuns with umbrellas walking through the snow down a city street and one called Hainburger Strasse-Wein, depicting two women on a winding cobblestone street in eastern Austria in 1932.

A painting and a sculpture demonstrate Rothschild’s breadth of skills. She painted a brass quintet against a pink and red background in gouache on paper and also used aluminum and plastic to create a reflective decorative hexagon composed of pink, orange, red, and black triangles and tubes.

The Liebermans donated art to Towson University over a number of years, but it wasn’t until 1983 the collection had a permanent home. 

It was first displayed in a fourth-floor room in Albert S. Cook Library, also home to the TU Archives and Special Collections. But due to its value, the art was viewed strictly through a glass wall.

Just over 10 years later, the collection migrated again, this time to its present home in Stephens Hall. The Liebermans rebuilt, furnished and armed the Lieberman Room with a top-of-the-line security system. The room also has a special temperature control to keep the conditions at optimum levels for the works of art within. The Honors College uses the room for meetings, study and classes, and it is open to the TU community by appointment only.