A Marc Chagall painting that David Draime bought for his wife as an anniversary present is among the works featured in “Selections from the Private Collection of David M. and Cecile Draime,” which opens Sunday at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. (Submitted photo)

YOUNGSTOWN — The art collection of David “Max” and Cecile Draime is filled with many of the biggest names in the world of art — Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, Edvard Munch and others.

But the work on display at the Butler Institute of American Art in “Selections from the Private Collection of David M. and Cecile Draime” includes less-familiar names, like several pieces from Spanish-born New York artist Manolo Valdes.

As Butler Executive Director Louis Zona walked through the exhibition, which opens Sunday, he would point out the occasional piece and say, “This is an artist I wasn’t familiar with. I think Max introduced me to him.”

When someone with the encyclopedic knowledge of Zona is unfamiliar with an artist, it’s clear the buyer wasn’t just chasing work by the most famous and the most likely to appreciate in value.

“They were not drawn to movements; they just bought things they liked, things they wanted to live with them,” Zona said.

For the next four months, those works will live in the Davis and Giffuni galleries on the second floor of the Youngstown museum for the exhibition “Selections from the Private Collection of David M. and Cecile Draime.”

Their son, Jeffrey Draime, said his father, who died in 2006, “Loved art for its own sake and how he reacted to it. He bought a lot of what we would call obscure artists because they impacted him in some way. His mind was very open to different types of art, a lot of stuff that was non-objective.”

During his life, Max Draime was one of the Butler’s biggest supporters and benefactors. He purchased and donated several pieces to the Butler, and often would call Zona to come to the Draimes’ home in Howland see the latest acquisition for their personal collection.

“I would think about it (an exhibition), but I never had the courage to ask them if I could show it,” Zona said.

Instead, the family offered the Butler the opportunity to display the collection.

“I’m not sure dad would have done it in his lifetime,” Jeffrey Draime said. “He skewed toward the private side for the most part. But it seemed like the time was right to do this with Lou and Butler.”

And Zona said in a separate interview, “When Jeff said to me, ‘If you’d really like to show the collection, we’d be pleased to lend it to the Butler,’ I was thrilled.”

The family didn’t put any restrictions on what the Butler could include.

“They said just go in and take whichever ones you want,” Zona said. “‘Don’t hold back, we’re going to OK it,’ so I picked everything. I left one image from Franz Kline, an early Kline, and I’m regretting that.”

As he talked about the paintings, Zona remembered the stories Max told about acquiring them. “Les fiances a l’ange rogue,” an oil-on-canvas painting by Chagall, was purchased as an anniversary gift for his wife. Zona called it one of Chagall’s finest works.

“It has Chagall written all over it — the lovers flying through the sky, make-believe animals, the flowers, the character who looks like the devil,” Zona said. “It’s a combination of ideas coming together.”

Zona said a New York skyline painting by watercolor master Chen Chi, whose work has been shown at the Butler several times, may be the finest example of his work he’s ever seen. A large collage by Valdes would have to be considered his masterwork. And there are several paintings that would be considered definitive works by French artist Pierre Soulages, who was Draime’s favorite artist, according to Zona.

The Draimes also instilled a passion for art in their children. Jeffrey Draime said he remembers being in the sale room at Christie’s Auction House in New York and bidding on a piece of art only to discover his father was bidding on the same piece online.

“Our Christie’s contact told him he was bidding against me and he basically said, ‘I can outbid him and he’ll get it eventually anyway.'”

Draime said he is waiting until Sunday’s opening reception to see how the work he’s used to seeing in his parents’ home looks on the gallery walls.

“To me, it’s a bit of a reflection on the different times in my parents’ lives, not only literally where they traveled but relationshipwise,” he said. “It’s a reflection of how their lives evolved over the years. I’m always surprised. I viewed my parents as being quite traditional, but they ended up collecting some pretty far-out stuff.”