Great Art Collections

In recent years many art world mega-collectors have gifted the public by providing us access to their amazing art collections. Examples: billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, who frequently lends his pieces to Los Angeles-area art museums and Miami developers Don and Mera Rubell, who recently announced plans to build a small museum in Washington as the linchpin of a hotel complex. Us mere mortal art-lovers appreciate the “generosity” of mega-collectors, without which, some of the world’s best art would remain unseen by the masses.

And now, the family of former Gap director Don Fisher, who passed away last year at age 81, will reveal his art collection; one of the world’s largest, most extensive (and most amazing) private collections to the public.  Don (patriarch of the uber-rich Fisher family) and his wife Doris consistently refused to give interviews about their art holdings to protect the family’s privacy.

In a recent NY Times article, their oldest son, Robert, states that his parents’ silence was also motivated by the idea that,

“there was no real benefit to the company [the Gap] or anybody else for my parents to talk much about it publicly.”

However, the long-held silence will end, as later this month about 160 pieces from the Fisher’s private collection will go on view at the SFMOMA in “Calder to Warhol: Introducing the Fisher Collection.” Visitors will be able to view 16 of the Fishers’ 21 Warhols, 9 of their 23 Richters, 10 of their 24 Sol LeWitts and 10 of their 45 Calders.

While this major glimpse into the Fisher collection is highly anticipated and welcomed by many, there’s one more exciting piece of news that will attract an even bigger buzz among Bay-area art-enthusiasts – and the art world at large.

In the fall of 2016, SFMOMA will acquire the entire Fisher  collection! The museum plans to open a wing largely dedicated to its new holdings, and museum director Neal Benezra has already raised over $250 million to finance the building and double the museum’s endowment from the board’s leadership.

Perhaps one downside? Don Fisher often placed pieces of his beloved art collection around Gap Corporate offices and various other spaces. SFMOMA’s acquisition of the collection means that these pieces will be removed from their walls in the years to come. David Smyton, who manages travel, events and food services for Gap, is planning a party for the departure of “Geometric Apple Core,” an eight-foot-high sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen from 1991 that sits at the entrance to the company cafeteria. Although it may be replaced by a group of 1968 Warhol “Brillo Box” sculptures, “it’s not quite the same,” remarked Smyton.

While this is upsetting, thousands of SFMOMA visitors will benefit from the Fisher family’s extremely generous gesture.

Click HERE to read more about the history of the Fisher art collection and how SFMOMA went about securing the “100 year loan” of the entire Fisher collection

Click HERE to check out current art exhibitions going on in San Francisco

Click HERE to see what’s going on at SFMOMA

This week French President Nicolas Sarkozy will officially open the $100-million-plus branch of the Pompidou Centre in Paris (image, below) in the cathedral city of Metz, 170 miles east of the capital. Metz, with a population of 280,000, is a little-visited former garrison town in the heart of the Lorraine steel belt – boasting many beautiful 18th and 19th century buildings. With Met’z proximity to Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, the city hopes its Pompidou Centre will attract an additional 400,000 visitors a year – and it quite possibly could reach that goal.

Centre Pompidou-Metz seeks to mirror the success that the Bilbao locale of NY’s Guggenheim Museum has had since its opening in 1997.  Bilboa’s stunning Guggenheim Museum has led to an enormous influx of hundreds of thousands of tourists and visitors  from around Europe and the world to the small northern-Spain city.

Like the Bilbao Guggenheim (image, left), the Centre Pompidou-Metz (image below) is a stunningly unconventional eye-catching building. Distinct from its celebrated “parent,” the Pompidou Centre in Paris (built in 1977), the Metz museum does not flaunt its innards to the world. Instead, the roof, a wooden frame, is covered with fibreglass and Teflon and is supported by pillars. However, like its Parisian counterpart, the Centre Pompidou-Metz is devoted to exhibiting 20th and 21st century art. It also contains spaces for other contemporary art forms (from cinema to modern music and dance). While the museum will have no permanent collection of its own, it will show parts of the vast collection of 65,000 contemporary works held by the Pompidou in Paris (most of which have never before been displayed).

The museum’s inaugural exhibition is called “Masterpieces?” ; the question mark is intentional, intending to encourage visitors to make up their own minds as to whether the most admired artists of the 20th and 21st centuries deserve to be considered alongside the great masters of earlier times. Nearly 800 items will be on display (artists range from Matisse to Picasso, Kandinsky, Miro, Braque, Chagall, etc. etc. etc.)

The Metz Pompidou is the first stage in a drive to “decentralize” the French state’s extensive art collection. A branch of the Louvre will follow in 2012 in Lens, a former coal town about an hour from the Channel Tunnel.

Read the entire article associated with this post HERE

As museums pride themselves on their collections – with major institutions parading the amount of objects their collections contain and even adding “online collections” to their websites, which mirror the museum’s own acquisitions, most museums don’t focus on revealing how they’ve gone about generating their collections or what it takes to create a great art collection.

After all, it seems most of us don’t really care anyway; we go to museums to view the “final product” (the art itself) not to view or learn about the process of acquiring art. Additionally, in the world of art collecting, collectors themselves have their own methods of adding to their collections – whether it be through private art dealers, visiting galleries, or attending art fairs.

Although my personal art collection is small (containing flea-market purchases, a few paintings that artist friends of mine have made and various found cheap – but beautiful – creations), I’ve always been interested in knowing how a “real” art collector goes about acquiring the “perfect” collection.

It looks like I’m not alone. Cologne‘s Ludwig Museum has recognized art-enthusiasts’ desire for learning more about art collecting and currently presents an exhibition series titled “Saw it, Loved it: A Look at Private Collecting.” The small series celebrates the 25th anniversary of the founding of a group of collectors, called “Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst,” whose mission has been to help expand the museum since 1985.

The series, which seeks to show the ways that different people collect art, will focus on the private collections of artists, museum directors and their involvement in acquiring art for their museums (and for their own personal collections), the collections of seasoned collectors and those of young members of  “Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst.”

The first exhibition of “Saw it, Loved it” includes works from contemporary German artist Rosemarie Trockel‘s collection, which is devoted to the work of three artists – Curtis Anderson, Ricky Clifton and Kurt Hoffman, who Trockel has known and held in esteem since the early 1980s.

Click here to read more about Trockel’s collection, the artists and the exhibition…

I must say, I’m excited to find out about the other exhibitions going on in the series, as they will give visitors in depth looks at both the various types of art collectors as well as the diversity of their collections.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the world’s most distinguished art museums, has a permanent collection that contains over 40,000 objects. With 19 departments – ranging from African to Oceanic Art – and a continuous flow of unique exhibitions, the museum is extremely comprehensive and a dynamic place to learn about the art and culture of various societies, places and traditions throughout time.

The museum is currently exhibiting “Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection,” through May 30th. The exhibition contains nearly 150 objects from the Thaw collection of the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York and presents a broad survey of American Indian art, sampling Native artistic accomplishment before and after the arrival of Europeans.

“Art of the American Indians” includes a wide array of art crafted from various mediums. On display are masks of the Arctic and Pacific Northwest, dramatic beaded and painted works of the Plains, and luminous art of the Woodlands. The exhibition (and its associated programs) establish the continued vitality and creativity of Native North American people and their cultures.

Click here to see the programs associated with this exhibition (including performance art presentations, films and tour information)

Click here to find out about Cleveland’s other art museums and galleries

Dubbed “the Labour movement‘s very own paparazzo” by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Fred Jarvis has made quite a name for himself as a skilled photographer. Jarvis is best known for his work in trade unionism and his dedication to education and political activism; he formerly served as the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (the largest teachers’ union in the U.K.) and as the president of the Trades Union Congress.

While he began snapping photos  in 1947 after winning a Voigtlander camera in a Naafi raffle while serving in the army in Germany, Jarvis’ amateur photography has proved to be poignant, and he has  has gained notoriety over the past 60 + years because of it. Since his time in the army, Jarvis has captured rallies, demonstrations and marches – all of which were integral to his life as an educational leader. As such, schools have always been a source of inspiration for Jarvis, who recently stated,

“The lovely thing about photographing children in schools – and in particular younger ones in primary schools – is that they are so absorbed in their work, and I have always enjoyed the colour and vibrancy of primary schools, with all the work displayed on the walls.”

He admits he has been fortunate to have visited so many schools, camera in hand, further saying,

“It dispels the myth that there is anything like a ‘one-size-fits-all’ comprehensive.  To label them all the same is an insult to the schools and to their communities. You walk in the door and instantly get a sense of their ethos, character and history.”

Jarvis’ exhibition in central London includes 150 images from his entire “career,” representing his best and most influential photos.  The displayed works reflect the photographer’s interests and passions for education, politics and his beloved Hammers (football club). Some of the photos will be auctioned, and offers are invited for other photos in a fundraising drive that will benefit the North London hospice where his late wife, Anne, a teacher and Labour Party activist, died three years ago.

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas has announced its upcoming presentation of “Figuratively Speaking: A Survey of the Human Form,” which opens on May 1st. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will display figurative works by some of the world’s most famous artists: Renoir, Picasso, Giacometti, Joseph Cornell, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, and Judith Shea to name a few.

The survey includes over 30 paintings, photographs and sculpture, plus video installations by 26 artists whose traditional and contemporary perspectives on figurative art have helped define the genre over the past 100 + years.

Figurative artworks not only depict a real subject, but also reflect the religious, social political and mythical beliefs of the times in which the work was created. The carefully selected pieces of the Bellagio Gallery’s upcoming exhibition are distinct and innovative, provoking varied interpretations.

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art’s director Tarissa Tiberti remarks,

“For this exhibition we are pleased to share some of the best figurative artworks from the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, two widely respected institutions with whom we have successfully collaborated in the past. These pieces will be displayed alongside works from the MGM MIRAGE Fine Art Collection, some of which have never before been displayed in full public view including art by Renoir, Picasso, Edgar Degas and Fernand Leger.”

The exhibit runs through January 9, 2011 and tickets range from $10 – $15 (with children under 12 entering for free).

New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art is known for housing a wide range of twentieth-century and contemporary art; in fact, it arguably contains the world’s finest collection of twentieth-century American art. The museum focuses on presenting work by living artists and its Biennial is the nation’s leading survey of the most recent developments in American art.

This year’s Biennial, the museum’s 75th, is on now exhibit (through May 30th) and includes art by 55 of well-known and lessler-known contemporary artists. The exhibition is called simply “2010” and embodies a cross section of contemporary art production (rather than a specific theme).

Artists are displaying their unique pieces – which range in media from painting, to sculpture, to video, photography, performance and installation. The range in materials the gifted artists used to craft their masterful works portray diverse responses to the anxiety and optimism characteristic of this moment. Many of the represented artists have constructed models and spaces that invite encounters between themselves and individuals from different communities in attempts to build a new historical movement of collectivity. Others are using “2010” to look back at the history of modernism and abstraction in order to create a personal and experimental language as well as to rejuvenate the social potential of abstraction.

“Collecting Biennials,” an installation drawn from the Museum’s collection on view on the fifth floor accompanies “2010” and acts as a historical survey within the Biennial. This exhibition, on display through October 10th, underscores the importance of previous Biennial exhibitions in the Museum’s history and the formation of its expansive collection.

Each year, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize rewards a living photographer who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography over the previous year.

The 2010 prize finalists are UK artist Anna Fox, American artist Zoe Leonard, French artist Sophie Ristelhueber and UK artist Donovan Wylie. Each was nominated for a specific exhibition in which their photographs were displayed in 2009. Their work is currently on display at Photographers’ Gallery, London (and is definitely worth a visit).

Here’s a bit about each artist:

Anna Fox, 48, from Hampshire (UK), is nominated for her exhibition, “the Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories at Ffotogallery Cardiff,” initiated by Impressions Gallery, Bradford. Her images reveal strange behavior occuring in everyday life (the kind that most of us tend to keep to ourselves). She focuses in part on the goings-on in daily office routine (see image below).

Zoe Leonard, 48, from Liberty, New York, is nominated for her retrospective exhibition, “Zoe Leonard: Photographs,” at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, initiated by Fotomuseum Winterthur. Her photos depict scenes that are usually unregarded in the environment, such as small-time shopfront graphics, run-down shop windows and the detritus of business premises.

Sophie Ristelhueber, 60, from Paris, made the shortlist for her retrospective, “Sophie Ristelhueber” at the renowned Paris art museum Jeu de Paumes.  An intrepid traveller, she visited the risk-laden territories of Bosnia, Iraq, Lebanon and Kuwait and took a hard look at the effect of human conflict on architecture and the ground (see image, below).

Donovan Wylie, 38, from Belfast, is a member of Magnum Photos. He is nominated for “Maze 2007/8,” his body of work examining his home city’s notorious prison, at Belfast Exposed, a community photography initiative now functioning as a gallery.

Each artist takes a commonplace subject matter and gives it an extra kick. pattern, repeitition and visual metaphor are all expressed and turn seemingly mundane objects into grander, more exciting ones.

Read more about the exhibition and the photographers here.

Each year, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize rewards a living photographer who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography over the previous year.

The 2010 prize finalists are UK artist Anna Fox, American artist Zoe Leonard, French artist Sophie Ristelhueber and UK artist Donovan Wylie. Each was nominated for a specific exhibition in which their photographs were displayed in 2009. Their work is currently on display at Photographers’ Gallery, London (and is definitely worth a visit).

Here’s a bit about each artist:

Anna Fox, 48, from Hampshire (UK), is nominated for her exhibition, “the Cockroach Diaries and Other Stories at Ffotogallery Cardiff,” initiated by Impressions Gallery, Bradford. Her images reveal strange behavior occurring in everyday life (the kind that most of us tend to keep to ourselves). She focuses in part on the goings-on in daily office routine (see image below).

Zoe Leonard, 48, from Liberty, New York, is nominated for her retrospective exhibition, “Zoe Leonard: Photographs,” at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, initiated by Fotomuseum Winterthur. Her photos depict scenes that are usually unregarded in the environment, such as small-time shopfront graphics, run-down shop windows and the detritus of business premises.

Sophie Ristelhueber, 60, from Paris, made the shortlist for her retrospective, “Sophie Ristelhueber” at the renowned Paris art museum Jeu de Paumes.  An intrepid traveller, she visited the risk-laden territories of Bosnia, Iraq, Lebanon and Kuwait and took a hard look at the effect of human conflict on architecture and the ground (see image, below).

Donovan Wylie, 38, from Belfast, is a member of Magnum Photos. He is nominated for “Maze 2007/8,” his body of work examining his home city’s notorious prison, at Belfast Exposed, a community photography initiative now functioning as a gallery (see image below).

Each artist takes a commonplace subject matter and gives it an extra kick. pattern, repeitition and visual metaphor are all expressed and turn seemingly mundane objects into grander, more exciting ones.

Read more about the exhibition and the photographers here.

Despite the dire economic situation of the past two years – and the subsequent suffering of the international art world – there are still billionaires, and they are still collecting art. In fact, uber-wealthy patrons and collectors, who have been the lifeblood of the art world for centuries, are some of the major players keeping the art world afloat today.

A few billionaires who have contributed to picking up the pieces of the shattered art world include:

Francois Pinault – French billionaire, Francois Pinault opened the Punta della Dogana in Venice – a modern art museum displaying the art – collector’s extensive collection. The museum’s opening positively contributed to Switzerland’s Art Basel 2009, the famed contemporary art fair that occurred soon after the Venice museum’s opening and saw an unexpected increase in attendance from the previous year.

Eli Broad – Philanthropist Eli Broad spent $30 million in December bailing out the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, which would have had to sell off works from its prized collections and leave its current location had it not received the donation.

Leonard Lauder – The cosmetic tycoon gave $131 million to NYC’s Whitney Museum of American Art (of which he is chairman emeritus), in part to help the museum remain at its Upper East Side location.

Furthermore, this past summer, Forbes foraged the art world to find out which billionaires’ personal art collections have held up, and who among them owns the most valuable art. Forbes did not include members of the art trade or corporate collections but ultimately came up with a list of 14 individuals, who each hold private art collections worth at least $700 million.

Philip Niarchos, son of the late shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, holds the highest rank on this list. His collection is estimated to be worth over $2 billion. The collection, which started with his father’s acquisition of valuable art beginning in 1949, includes van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear,” Picasso’s “Yo, Picasso,” Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Self-Portrait” and Andy Warhol’s “Shot Red Marilyn.”

Lesser well-known Swiss cosmetics heiress, Esther Grether, also has a staggering and extremely impressive art collection. Her 600 + piece collection includes works by Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. She is the only woman on Forbes’ list of top art collectors.

Click here to see who else made the list, why valuing art is difficult, and more about the billionaires’ art collections