The Murrays became interested in the Ashcan School, with works such as The White Hope by George Bellows.

Photo courtesy of the Newport Art Museum

NARRAGANSETT

Like many Americans, Terry Murray is plenty steamed up about the country’s financial crisis.

“It was greed, greed and stupidity that got us into this mess,” says the former CEO of Fleet Financial Group and its larger post-merger offshoot, Fleet Boston Financial.

Still, Rhode Island’s best-known banker isn’t in the mood to talk money, at least not today. Instead, Murray and his wife Suzanne have agreed to a rare interview to help publicize a new exhibit showcasing works from their personal art collection. The show, “The Art of Life: Selections from the Terrence and Suzanne Murray Collection,” opens Saturday at the Newport Art Museum.

“We really want this to be about the art,” Murray says in a voice that’s part suggestion, part command. “Let’s save all the personal, behind-the-scenes stuff for another day.”

Fair enough, except for one thing: Collecting by its very nature tends to be a personal activity, whether the focus is Old Master paintings or vintage baseball cards. And the Murrays’ collection, which tilts heavily toward American art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is more personal than most.

In fact, art and art collecting helped bring the Murrays together. The couple made their first purchase — a small lithograph — shortly after they met as students at Harvard University.

“It was one of the first things we did together as a couple,” Suzanne Murray recalls. “We were both taking the same art class — they called it “Darkness in the Afternoon,” because we used to sit in the dark and look at slides — and it just sort of whetted our appetite for buying art.”

Back then, the Murrays didn’t favor a particular school or style, although they both prefer realistic scenes over more avant-garde fare. Instead, their biggest concern was cost.

“Like most college students, we were usually broke,” Terry Murray says. “So we had a rule that we would never spend more than $200 for a work of art. Looking back now, we probably should have paid a little more and invested in some higher quality artworks. But what did we know?”

As the couple’s finances improved — and as Terry Murray embarked on a stellar business career that would eventually put him at the helm of New England’s largest bank, Fleet Boston (now part of Bank of America) — the Murrays’ collecting habits changed accordingly.

In particular, they became interested in the Ashcan School, a movement that sought to capture the grit and glamour of Jazz Age New York. In contrast to the sweeping landscapes of the Hudson River School, Ashcan School artists such as John Sloan, William Glackens and George Luks celebrated the hardscrabble world of urban tenements, saloons, horse races and prizefights.

To Murray, who grew up in a working-class family in Woonsocket, such scenes hold a special appeal. “Basically, you don’t need an advanced art degree to understand this stuff,” he says. “It’s the kind of thing that everybody recognizes as being quintessentially American.”

At the same time, style and subject aren’t the only things that Murray likes about the Ashcan School. Ever the hard-nosed businessman, he feels that prices for most brand-name artists are too high. By contrast, he thinks the Ashcan School artists are undervalued relative to their quality.

“We love people like (John Singer) Sargent and (Winslow) Homer,” he says. “And we own a couple of pieces by both artists. But the prices, even for living artists, are just out of this world. The Ashcan School, on the other hand, is still pretty reasonable by comparison.”

Not surprisingly, “The Art of Life” will feature an abundance of Ashcan School works.

Though stalwarts such as Luks and Glackens aren’t part of the exhibit, the show will have a painting by Childe Hassam, an artist who flirted with Ashcan School subjects before adopting a more Impressionistic style. There’s also a portrait by Robert Henri, an Ohio-born artist who became the movement’s unofficial spokesman and ringleader. Other works, including a New York street scene by Reginald Marsh and a view of Gloucester Harbor by John Sloan, are also in the Ashcan School style.

Another highlight is a cache of lithographs by George Bellows, an artist who epitomized the Ashcan School’s street-smart approach. In fact, of the show’s 50-plus prints, paintings and drawings, Bellows’ name appears on no fewer than eight works, including The White Hope, a classic boxing scene, and The Hold Up, a gritty view of a mugging by someone who’d obviously seen a few.

Needless to say, Terry Murray is a big fan of Bellows’ work.

“Bellows was one of the first artists we really started collecting in depth,” Murray says. “There’s something about his work that really appeals to me, although I’m not sure Suzanne always shares my enthusiasm. When Bellows paints a prizefight, for example, you really feel like you’re there, sitting in the front row. The action, the atmosphere — he really captures the essence of the event.”

As for Suzanne Murray, landscapes and nature scenes are more her speed.

“For the most part, Terry and I have very similar tastes in art,” she says. “But the boxing stuff just doesn’t do much for me. I’d rather look at a landscape than a fight any day.”

In all, the Murrays own about 250 artworks. While that may sound like a lot, there’s no shortage of places to put them: In addition to a manor-size summer house in Narragansett, the Murrays own houses in Providence and Palm Beach, Fla., and an apartment in Boston.

While the Murrays have loaned artworks to museums before, this is the first time they’ve agreed to part with such a large portion of their collection at one time. The reason: their Narragansett house, which sits on a rocky bluff overlooking the Rhode Island coast, is currently undergoing renovations. As a result, many of the works that normally reside there had to be moved off-site anyway.

“Basically, it was Nancy’s idea,” says Terry Murray, referring to Newport Art Museum curator Nancy Grinnell. “When she heard we were renovating, she suggested showing some of the artworks at the museum. Since we didn’t have to pay for storage, we said ‘Why not?’ ”

In addition to the Ashcan School, the Murrays’ artistic tastes include 19th-century landscapes, prints and paintings by members of the so-called Boston School and works by local Rhode Island artists. In fact, given the Murrays’ resources, some visitors many be surprised at how many Rhode Islanders are represented in their collection (and in the Newport exhibit) — everyone from photographer Harry Callahan to glassmaker Dale Chihuly to painters Joan Boghossian and Harley Bartlett.

“We’ve always tried to be very supportive of Rhode Island artists,” says Terry Murray, who’s also served as a trustee at the Rhode Island School of Design. “And I’m not just saying that because we live here. Rhode Island may be small in size, but it’s home to a lot of very talented artists.”

Meanwhile, the Murrays continue to add to their collection. In fact, Terry Murray estimates that he still gets “two or three” queries from dealers each week — this despite the fact that he formally hung up his banker’s pinstripes shortly after the Fleet Boston-Bank of America merger and that other hobbies, including golf and raising prizewinning racehorses, now take up much of his time.

“Certainly, it’s not as big a part of our lives as it once was,” he says. “But if the right painting comes along at the right price, who knows? There’s always room for one more.”

“The Art of Life: Selections from the Terrence and Suzanne Murray Collection” opens Saturday at the Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Ave.

bvansicl@projo.com