From now until May 15, the Palmer Museum of Art will be showing 75 pieces of James and Barbara Palmer's personal art collection that dates back to the 1970s.

"The collection ranges from 19th century and American Modernism to Contemporary Figurative and Realist pieces," curator Leo Mazow said. "These are some of the finest examples you will find anywhere."

The collection contains a work from every member of the Ashcan School, a group of twentieth-century artists who painted pictures of New York city life.

"That is very rare for either a private or a museum collection," said Robin Seymour, museum membership and public relations coordinator.

Upon entering the exhibit, a portrait hangs of the Palmers, done by one of their favorite and perhaps more obscure artists, Jerome Witkin.

"Jerome Witkin was the first artist that really caught their eye," Seymour said. "They met him at a lecture series for the Palmer Museum."

Witkin's "The Devil as a Tailor", a large colorful work, is one of the first pieces of the Palmers' collection. He often paints portraits in the guise of someone else -- portraits within portraits -- Seymour said.

Several pieces in the exhibition are realist works, such as those by artists Claudio Bravo and Richard Estes.

"They seem to like hyper-realism," Seymour said. "Bravo's piece, 'Siesta', is so real in appearance it is almost creepy."

Estes' painting, "Third" Avenue, is similar in its representation of reality, but is more complex.

"Estes' work seems to ask, what is reflection and what is not? Or what is real and what is not?" Seymour said.

In addition to the exhibition, the museum now has a few pieces from the Palmers' personal collection in the museum's permanent collection.

"We have a Marsden Hartley, Joseph Stella and an Arthur Dove," Seymour said.

"There have been people who have visited that said they never expected to see an Arthur Dove here," she added.

The exhibition, though, does not cover paintings alone. It includes drawings, glass pieces and an array of Danish ceramics.

"The time pieces and the works are so broad, there will be something for everyone," said Dana Carlisle Kletchka, museum educator.

While the collection itself is interesting and eclectic, it is the Palmers' personal stories behind the paintings that give them life, Kletchka said.

"It makes it a lot more personal that the Palmers spent years collecting all the pieces," Kletchka said.

A booklet by Patrick McGrady, the Charles V. Hallman Curator for the museum, is available upon entering the exhibition and recounts the stories behind the various works in the collection through a personal interview with Barbara Palmer.