by Bailey White
Staff Writer
If Charles Mussallem could offer one piece of advice to the world, it would be to experience a little bit of everything.
“I tell my kids, ‘Try it, you don’t have to finish your plate,’ ” said Mussallem, adding this philosophy doesn’t apply to food, but to what he calls the “sensual pleasures in life.”
For him, the most valuable of these pleasures is art. His gallery, located at the front of Mussallem’s Area Rug World, is the result of years of collecting.
A plaque on the wall reads: This building and all its contents, both tangible and intangible, represent a cultural oasis. The gallery is meant to be an escape from “all the information we’re bombarded with every day,” says Mussallem, noting he wants people to see art as another form of communication and to understand that it is open to interpretation. “I see art as the representation of the talents God has given to people.”
Over 40,000 square feet of gallery space holds an extensive collection of art. There are several rooms, each overflowing with paintings, sculpture, carvings and rugs. There are Greek pitchers from 500 B.C. and a bronze sculptures cast in the 1890s. In one corner, an etching by abstract artist Paul Klee hangs near a cluster of 18th and 19th Century miniature portraits. On another wall, a curio cabinet displays Chinese cloisonee vases.
Arrangement of the works is handled by Mussallem. He jokes that “the difference between a collection and accumulation is a theme. The only theme here is what I like.”
Although Mussallem has studied technical elements of art, he doesn’t see this study as necessary to finding enjoyment in a piece.
“The value of the piece is the feeling it produces,” he says.
In some rooms, there are groupings by time period or theme. A former office near the front of the store is devoted to Asian works, and there is a Native American collection in another. But part of the fun is exploring the gallery’s unusual pairings — a delicate flower study by John Ruskin and the cubist lines of Georges Braque are in the same room as pages from a folio by Toulouse-Lautrec.
Mussallem’s grandfather started the rug business, along with the art collecting, in Chicago. By 1946, the family had moved south and opened a store on Adams Street. Later, the business was moved to Philips Highway and became Mussallem’s Oriental Rugs. After remodeling two years ago, the gallery was expanded and an existing plant in Georgia took over the manufacturing duties of Mussallem’s, which left more room for the gallery, rug showroom and cleaning services.
The business is still family-oriented. Mussallem’s six children have helped at the showroom at one time or another. And Mussallem’s brother, James, operates a sister gallery in Phoenix.
The gallery is available for receptions and parties. Groups from 20 to 1,000 can be accommodated on the black and white marbled floor of the reception hall. Several years ago, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra hosted a fundraiser at Mussallem’s. Tours and lectures are also available.
All the pieces of art in the gallery are for sale, but Mussallem points out that you don’t have to own a piece of art to enjoy it.
“I’m not driven by the mentality, ‘I’ve sold something so I’ve succeeded,’” he says, “I’ve succeeded if the visitors to my gallery have left with a positive feeling.”