Bruce Blowitz and Albert Goodman

Almost fifty years ago Albert Goodman met Bruce Blowitz. The two men built a life-long friendship that spanned the globe. Both men grew up in Chicago, attended Bard College, and loved to travel. After college, Blowitz taught English in Japan and developed a love for Southeast Asia. In the 1980s, he began a precious gemstone import/export business based out of Southeast Asia. After relations between the United States and Vietnam normalized in the 1990s, Blowitz and Goodman traveled to Vietnam. Blowitz enjoyed Vietnam so much, he spent the rest of his life there and collected Southeast Asian art as a hobby. His collection consisted of pieces from Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Bruce Blowitz succumbed to cancer in 2015. In his will, he left part of his collection to Albert Goodman. 

 

Albert Goodman loaned the Vietnamese art pieces in this exhibit to the Pritzker Military Museum & Library to honor the wishes of Bruce Blowitz that the world be able to see these pieces and to help provide perspective on the Vietnam War.

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Photograph of Bruce Blowitz