From shoes to urban marvels; what does Zaha Hadid NOT design? ‘Volu’ the dining pavilion, her latest brainchild, was just revealed at this year’s Design Miami Fair. Designed along with Patrik Schumacher as a team, this piece is an artistic installation with an overhead sculpturesque canopy. A prefabricated gazebo has been designed to frame and sustain a dedicated dining area. This pavilion is one of the first specimens to be exhibited at Design Miami 2015, an initiative conceived and sponsored by Robbie Antonio. As a collective, Design Miami unites more than 30-star architects, artists, and designers around the world to create prefabricated and cost-effective living spaces. The highlights of this contemporary pavilion include its shell-like form and the state of the art computational skeleton. Though Volu seems to be monolithic, it is actually an assembly of irregular laser-cut polygons fixed within perforated steel elements. “Defined by digital processes, the pavilion has been developed in such a way that its components are, at most, singly curved. Comprised of a series of structural bands collecting at the spine and expanding overhead, the patterning of the pavilion is guided by the varied structural loading conditions,” says the design team.
The entire structure is supported by a 3.2 m tall steel stem at the back, which then extends and flattens upwards to form the cantilevered elliptical canopy. This cover gradually bends towards the periphery. The skeletal steel members continue over the top and disperse downwards to form the deck. While the gaps in the overhead frame are retained as voids, the framework in the deck supports individual wooden planks, while spreading outwards to hold the 20 m wide pavilion. The firm explains the structural trait of the design by saying “Through the analysis of the geometry under load, the pavilion’s structure and skin have been digitally optimized to remove unnecessary material, resulting in the lightest possible design solution — following an organic structural logic that recreates many of the same principles found in nature.” The shell is just one part of the design houses the exclusive limited-edition dining table designed by the same firm. The circular dining table as if carved out of a singular log of wood, evinces the same monolithic yet lightweight character, as that of the pavilion. The dining table has a flat circular disk supported on a stump. Around this, are three more curved benches. Altogether the elements craft an exquisite space for dining, no less intelligently contrived than the most complex parametric precedents by the London-based firm.
The small design pavilion that we make you discover with this publication is part of a project launched by Zaha Hadid and presented at Miami Art Week 2015. It consists of the manufacture of a series of prefabricated constructions of this type, including habitable houses. The project, entitled Revolution, is designed with the collaboration of the specialist in the field of the real estate market Robbie Antonio and in collaboration with more than 30 architects, designers and artists recognized throughout the world. His goal is to create a series of living spaces that are inspired by high technology but with an affordable cost.
Small modern-style pavilion as part of the Revolution project
The modern-style pavilion created by Zaha Hadid’s team of architects is named “Volu” and it is a construction that contributes to the work of the creative platform by providing a dining area. The building is characterized by its remarkable silhouette, by its original forms and by its light construction, which is typical for the modular structures of modern style.
The pavilion was developed using complex digital technology in order to be able to support its own weight while having a rather original shape. In fact, this technology has been based on a detailed analysis that has freed the structure of all the elements of the construction that are not essential for it to be durable enough. The result is striking: a modern and unusual building that echoes the shapes found in our natural environment. Here are the rest of the images of this small structure, made by Zaha Hadid as part of Revolt:
Interior layout of the building with modern design furniture
Modern prefab interior design
Decoration and modern design: prefabricated structure with original shapes
Revolution project: construction of modern design meals
Zaha Hadid project presented at Miami Art Week 2015
Zaha Hadid is not only one of the best known architects in the world, but after pursuing her own personal visionary path for over forty years, she is one of the most bankable. Her drawings and design objects are all over the 2015 design fairs this week in Miami.Craig Robins’ bespoke Corian bathroom by Hadid. (William Menking / AN)
Revolution Precrafted Properties is showing a backyard pavilion (top) and Sarah Myerscough Gallery from London is showing a series of collaborative vessels by Zaha Hadid and Gareth Neal (below), that sell for $30,000 (plus tax).
In addition, the star of Harvard’s design schools kickoff party at Miami developer Craig Robins’ house was his bespoke Corian bathroom designed by Ms. Hadid.
Not even the David Adjaye–designed backyard pavilion was a match for this all white maintaince room.Vases by Hadid. (Petr Krejci)
Design Miami, an annual design event, officially kicks off (December 2-6). One of the highlights is the “Revolution” project initiated by real estate developer Robbie Antonio. More than 30 well-known architects, designers, and artists have joined forces to create A living space that emphasizes both advanced technology and cost-effectiveness. Among them, the dining room “Volu” designed by Zaha Hadid combines streamlined shape with high-tech material buckling treatment, and precise digital cutting technology can reduce material waste during production. Set new standards for environmental protection.
Former Knick Amar’e Stoudemire has immersed himself in the art scene, saying his goal is to become “a legit and serious collector. It’s for my children — when they get older they can look back and say my father had this art in 2015,” the dad of three said during at a Surface magazine Design Dialogues event Tuesday at the W Hotel South Beach.
Stoudemire, who joined the Miami Heat this year, works with a team to help him pick pieces.
“I have a pretty strong advisory group that I chat with on a normal basis just to be fully equipped and knowledgeable on the market,” he said. “Emerging artists are risky, so you want to make sure that you’re surrounded by good people who know the most about art and who will lead you in the right direction.”
Stoudemire name-checked street artist Retna, who recently did the album art for Justin Bieber‘s “Purpose,” as someone he’s interested in.
The baller added, “A lot of athletes are so submersed in training and becoming the best that we can possibly be, so tunnel-vision to that … hopefully the rest of us will catch up soon and educate themselves and become collectors.”
Amar’e was previously involved in the fashion world. “It all depends on what you want to spend your money on — you want to buy a painting or you want to buy a Balmain jacket. You have to look good while buying art,” he quipped. Joining him on the panel was real estate developer and art collector Robbie Antonio.
Today’s world is ever more globalized and increasingly interconnected—and that means the emergence of a new kind of multi-millionaire and billionaire with currency to spare (see The Top 10 Uber-Rich Art Collectors). Beyond their tendency to snap up properties of every shade, from penthouses to boats to businesses, this generation of tycoons, celebrities, and philanthropists are more regularly turning to another time-tested form of ritual consumption with a range of cultural benefits: art collecting. Be they heirs to Middle Eastern fortunes or young pioneers in the tech industry (see Meet 20 of the World’s Most Innovative Art Collectors), art collectors in the 21st century represent a demographic more widely varied than ever before.
To chronicle our times and these champions of the arts who hail from all corners of the planet and every possible background, artnet News has compiled the ultimate two-part list. Our roster of collectors features those who have been most active within the past 12 months and have shown a remarkable commitment to collecting.
We acknowledge that the lineup is heavily skewed toward male collectors based in the US, but beyond the usual suspects, we’ve done our best to cast a light on collectors you may not have yet heard about. We’re impressed by the number of influential women who made the cut (see The 100 Most Powerful Women in Art: Part One), as well as the marked contingent of younger Chinese men and women including Richard Chang, David Chau and Kelly Ying, Adrian Cheng, and Lin Han.
Some collectors are profiled in depth, while others, our “Collectors to Watch”—including emerging connoisseurs, those who are operating under the radar, and those who were once very active even if they’ve been quieter in recent years—are incorporated by name only.
Organized alphabetically, the index is the culmination of a three-month process that began with a poll of experts in the industry—including dealers, art advisers, and other insiders—and involved the efforts of staff and freelance writer Emily Nathan. (See Artnet News Top 200 Art Collectors Worldwide For 2015, Part Two).
We hope you find it useful!
Roman Abramovichand Dasha Zhukova (Russia) Moscow-born Dasha Zhukova opened the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in 2008 in Moscow (see Dasha Zhukova to Debut Moscow’s Rem Koolhaas–Designed Garage Museum June 12), and, with her partner Roman Abramovich (the owner of England’s Chelsea Football Club) she is now developing “New Holland,” a 19-acre island in Saint Petersburg, into a similar creative hub. Together, they recently bought the world’s largest collection of works by Ilya Kabakov (the priciest living Russian artist). Her collection is now legendary, containing thousands of mostly contemporary artworks. Her husband seems to prefer modern and Impressionist art, if auction records are any guide.
Robbie Antonio. Photo: Courtesy of Clint Spaulding/ Patrick McMullan.
Robbie Antonio (Philippines) Real estate developer Antonio’s Manila home was designed by Rem Koolhaas—the first residential commission the architect had taken on in 15 years—and it houses the Filipino collector’s private collection. His current obsession is a series of portraits of himself that he has commissioned from some of the world’s hottest contemporary artists (he has already paid $3 million for the two dozen that have been completed), including Julian Schnabel, Marilyn Minter, David Salle, Zhang Huan, the Bruce High Quality Foundation, and Takashi Murakami.
Bernard and Hélène Arnault. Photo: Courtesy of Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan.
Hélène and Bernard Arnault (France) Chairman and chief executive officer of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Arnault is the richest man in France. His newest creation, the Frank Gehry–designed Louis Vuitton Foundation, opened in the Bois de Boulogne this past October (see As a Museum, Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris Disappoints), with commissioned works by the likes of Olafur Eliasson, Ellsworth Kelly, Sarah Morris, and Taryn Simon. His collection spans many thousands of contemporary and modern artworks.
Maria and Bill Bell. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Bill and Maria Bell (United States) Maria, the former head writer of CBS’s The Young and the Restless, a chair of the National Art Awards, and a former board co-chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), got her start collecting modestly priced George Hurrell photos, and has always favored the work of idiosyncratic contemporary producers like Francesco Vezzoli and Mark Ryden. Her husband Bill’s taste tends toward the more iconic, including works by Marcel Duchamp. Early in their collecting career together, the Bells were drawn to Andy Warhol, but, as they recently told the New York Observer, they wanted to look to more contemporary producers—and deemed Jeff Koons an appropriate choice. These days, they have amassed a substantial collection of works by Koons, along with many other mega names.
Peter Benedek. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Peter Benedek (United States) Peter Benedek, co-founder of United Talent Agency and one of Hollywood’s most powerful agents, began collecting art some 20 years ago, and has since filled nearly all the walls of his Brentwood home and his Beverly Hills office with works by some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art—from David Hockney and Gerhard Richter to Alex Katz, Milton Avery, and even Francis Picabia and Giorgio Morandi. He is reported to have purchased a John Currin nude long before the painter was a hot name, and an Alice Neel portrait of dealer Robert Graham—which he purchased at auction—still hangs in his office: “It’s great to have an agent looking at me every day,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.
Debra and Leon Black. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Debra and Leon Black (United States) Owner of Apollo Global Management, Phaidon Books, and Artspace Marketplace, so-called “buyouts man” Black is reported to have a fortune of $5.4 billion. In 2012, he made waves when he purchased one of four existing versions of Edvard Munch‘s The Scream for $119.9 million—at the time, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at an auction.
Christian and Karen Boros. Photo: Courtesy FvF/ Wolfgang Stahr.
Christian and Karen Boros (Germany) In 2003, ad agency founder and publisher Christian Boros purchased a former Nazi air raid shelter in central Berlin, and transformed it into the Bunker, an 80-room exhibition space for contemporary art. Featured artists from Boros’s personal collection of some 700 works include contemporary stars like Elmgreen & Dragset, Sarah Lucas, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, classics like Olafur Eliasson (a Boros favorite, with 30 works in his collection), Franz Ackermann, Wolfgang Tillmans, Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, and Terence Koh, and even members of a new generation of Berlin-based artists, including Thea Djordjadze, Alicja Kwade, Klara Lidén, Michael Sailstorfer, and Danh Vo.
Norman and Irma Braman. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Irma and Norman Braman (United States) Since they began collecting in 1979—they fell in love with sculptures by Alexander Calder and Joan Miró at the Maeght Foundation in southern France, as the story goes—auto-industry magnate Braman and his wife Irma have built a veritable empire of modern and contemporary art. Dividing their residences among France, Colorado, and Florida, the couple helped establish Art Basel in Miami Beach in 2002, and they are now single-handedly funding the design and construction of South Florida’s newest major museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
Peter Brant.Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Peter Brant (United States) The owner of Interview magazine (which he bought directly from its founder, Andy Warhol), as well as Art in America and Antiques, and the creator of the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut (see Is the Brant Foundation a Tax Scam or an Art Investment Vehicle?), Brant is known for his blue-chip collection of primarily American art, though his recent acquisitions include Vancouver artist Steven Shearer. Brant made news recently when he purchased artist Walter de Maria’s 16,400-square-foot East Sixth Street studio and home for $27 million (see Peter Brant Paid $27 Million for Walter De Maria’s Old Studio); he has already hosted a show by Dan Colen in the space (see Peter Brant Hosts Dan Colen Show in Walter De Maria Studio), and many speculate that he will transform it into an exhibition venue.
*More Collectors To Watch: Paul Allen Basma Al Sulaiman Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin KhalifaAl-Thani Marc Andreessen Laura and John Arnold Camilla Barella Swizz Beatz Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft Robert and Renée Belfer Lawrence Benenson
Frieder Burda. Photo: Courtesy of Joe Schildhorn/ Patrick McMullan.
Frieder Burda (Germany) The son of a renowned German publisher and art collector, Burda bought his first picture, a Lucio Fontana, in his early 30s, and in 2004 he opened his Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden. The collection has now grown to include more than 1,000 works of art. Like his father, Burda focuses on established modern movements such as German Expressionism (Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke, Max Beckmann) and Abstract Expressionism (Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning), and he has acquired a substantial collection of works by his German contemporaries, among them Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, and Gerhard Richter.
Richard Chang. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Richard Chang (United States) American-Chinese investment professional Richard Chang, the founder of the Domus Collection, is a trustee of the Royal Academy in London, a member of Tate’s International Council and its Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee, and a trustee of MoMA PS1 and the Whitney Museum in New York, where he is also co-founder and chair of the performance committee. Dividing time between New York and Beijing, he is considered key in bridging Western and Asian art; he often sponsors special projects, such as Beijing-based artist Huang Ran’s feature film The Administration of Glory in 2013 (which was selected for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2014—see 31-Year-Old Artist Ran Huang Selected for Cannes’ Palmes d’Or), and Pipilotti Rist’s first exhibition in China, at the Times Museum in Guangzhou.
Kim Chang-il (Korea) Founder of the recently launched Arario Museum, Kim Chang-il is one of Korea’s top gallerists as well as collectors, and is also an artist. His collection began with an interest in contemporary and modern Korean artists, but, as reported by the Huffington Post, a visit to MOCA in Los Angeles in 1981 inspired him to expand his collection. His holdings now number around 3,700 pieces, and include work from Korean contemporaries as well as YBAs, members of the Leipzig School, and young artists from China, India, and Southeast Asia, as well as respected big-name artists from the West.
David Chau and Kelly Ying (China) Based in Shanghai, David Chau and his wife, Kelly Ying, acquired the bulk of their wealth from David’s fleet-management company, and estimate that they spend around $1.5 million annually on art acquisitions. Chau set up a $32-million art investment fund when he was 21, and is the financial backer of two galleries, Leo Xu’s and Simon Wang’s Antenna Space. He is also the co-founder, with Ying, of Shanghai’s newest art fair, Art021. Their personal collection is anchored by work by three young Chinese artists, Liu Wei, Xu Zhen, and Yang Fudong, as well as an extensive selection of video art.
Pierre Tm Chen. Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s/ Andrew Loiterton.
Pierre T.M. Chen (Taiwan) Chen made his first purchase in 1976 while still a student—a wooden sculpture by Chinese artist Cheung Yee. It took him a year and a half to save up the funds to do so. Today, the computer engineer’s extensive collection features hundreds of paintings and sculptures by blue-chip artists including Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Henry Moore, Les Lalanne, Antony Gormley, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Jeff Koons. He is currently most excited by Western contemporary art, and purchases rather emotionally: he is said to have bought an untitled Cy Twombly because it made him feel “calm” and a yellow Warhol Fright Wig because he found it “so fresh.”
Adrian Cheng. Photo: Courtesy of Larry’s List.
Adrian Cheng (China) One of the world’s youngest billionaires, Cheng is heir to a property-development fortune in Asia. He graduated from Harvard and has gone on to found the nonprofit K11 Art Foundation, which supports art villages in Wuhan and Guiyang, China; its collection focuses on international artists, such as Yoshitomo Nara and Olafur Eliasson, while Cheng’s own personal collection includes work by Chinese artists such as Zhang Enli. In 2012 Cheng was also invited to join Tate’s Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee.
Kemal Has Cingillioglu (United Kingdom) Son of Turkish financier Halit Cingillioglu, Kemal Has Cingillioglu serves as a member of the European advisory board at Christie’s. He made headlines this past year when he purchased Cy Twombly’s 1960s work Untitled (Rome) for $4.4 million at Christie’s.
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (Venezuela and Dominican Republic) Phelps de Cisneros is one of the world’s most prominent collectors of Latin American art, and her trove contains some 2,000 works ranging across colonial, modern, and contemporary periods, along with ethnographic objects from the Americas. She sits on the board of MoMA, and London’s Royal Academy recently presented an exhibition of 90 works in geometric abstraction that were drawn from her holdings.
Steven Cohen. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Steven Cohen (United States) Billionaire former hedge fund manager Steven Cohen, who is reportedly worth some $11.1 billion, is said to spend 20 percent of his income on art, with a collection that famously includes a Pollock drip painting and Damien Hirst’s iconic shark piece, which he bought from Charles Saatchi for $8 million in 2004. In 2006, he offered to buy Picasso’s Le Rêve from Steve Wynn for $139 million, but Wynn accidentally put his elbow through the painting and the deal was off until last year, when Cohen finally purchased the painting, now repaired, for $155 million. He was also the secret buyer of the Alberto Giacometti sculpture Chariot in November, which he bought at Sotheby’s for a near-record $100,965,000.
Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz (United States) Carlos de la Cruz is the chairman of a $1 billion-per-year business empire that includes Coca-Cola bottling plants in Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico. Along with his wife Rosa, he is known for staging state-of-the-art annual exhibitions that coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach. These were initially held in their private Miami residence, but are now staged at their eponymous three-story, 30,000-square-foot art space, which they opened in 2009. The couple is keen on acquiring works from across the wide range of contemporary American production, most recently purchasing pieces by Dan Colen and Nate Lowman.
*More Collectors To Watch:
Nicolas Berggruen Jill and Jay Bernstein Ernesto Bertarelli James Brett Jim Breyer Christian Bührle Monique and Max Burger Valentino D. Carlotti Edouard Carmignac Trudy and Paul Cejas
Dimitris Daskalopoulos (Greece) Beyond his vast collection of contemporary art, Greek food and beverage entrepreneur Daskalopoulos is a member of the board of trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Tate International Council, the Director’s Vision Council of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Leadership Council of New York’s New Museum. He is also a founding partner of the Whitechapel Gallery’s Future Fund. In 2014 he was honored by Independent Curators International (ICI) with the Leo Award, which celebrates a “visionary” approach to collecting. He is also a champion of the contemporary art scene in his home country, and recently founded a nonprofit, NEON, committed to bringing contemporary culture to everyone in Greece.
Zöe and Joel Dictrow. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Zöe andJoel Dictrow (United States) These long-time West Village residents, Zoe a former magazine advertising manager and Joel a former Citigroup executive, have lived in the same apartment for four decades, though they eventually purchased two neighboring apartments to accommodate their expanding art collection. They are known for their support of emerging artists, but their holdings include work by established producers like Gerhard Richter, Robert Gober, Cindy Sherman and Sarah Sze.
George Economou. Photo: Courtesy of Nicholas Hunt/ Patrick McMullan.
George Economou (Greece) The Greek shipping magnate has a predilection for paintings and drawings, particularly of the 20th-century German and Austrian persuasion, and he frequently purchases work by lesser-known artists, or minor works by big-name producers, from Picasso, Twombly and Magritte to Kees van Dongen. A prolific collector, he acquires between 150 to 200 works a year, and usually chooses to go through smaller auction houses and galleries based in Germany and Austria rather than Sotheby’s or Christie’s.
Alan Faena. Photo: Courtesy Patrick McMullan/ Patrick McMullan.
Alan Faena (Argentina) Argentina’s most successful hotelier and real estate developer, Faena is an avid collector of Latin American art. In December of 2015, he aims to debut his new exhibition space, a Rem Koolhaas–designed structure called the Faena Forum, opening in Miami.
Harald Falckenberg. Photo: via Wikipedia.
Harald Falckenberg (Germany) One of the world’s most respected art collectors, Falckenberg has received the Art Cologne Prize and the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award, and published numerous books on art. Known for his ability to stay ahead of the art market, he was among the first collectors to purchase works by now-major figures like Martin Kippenberger, Richard Prince, and Jonathan Meese, and his collection comprises over 2,000 pieces, shown in a 65,000-square-foot former factory building in Hamburg in collaboration with Deichtorhallen/Hamburg.
Mark Falcone and Ellen Bruss.
Mark Falcone and Ellen Bruss (United States) Real-estate developer Falcone and his wife Ellen Bruss live next door to the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver in a home designed for them by architect David Adjaye. In recent years they have become avid collectors of Mexican art, and their collection now includes works by Gonzalo Lebrija, Eduardo Sarabia, and Federico Solmi, as well as Denver artists Stephen Batura, David Zimmer, Adam Milner, Bill Stockman, and Mary Erhin.
Amy and Vernon Faulconer. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Amy and Vernon Faulconer (United States) Founded by oil and gas magnate Vernon Faulconer and his wife Amy, the Amy and Vernon Faulconer Collection contains painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation works made from 1945 to the present, with notable contributions by such artists as Cecily Brown, John Chamberlain, Francesco Clemente, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Martin Kippenberger, Bridget Riley, James Turell, and Kara Walker, among many others. Together with his friends and fellow Texan super-collectors the Rachofskys, the Falconers opened the Warehouse in 2012, in part to accommodate works that were too large for the Faulconer’s private home.
Howard Farber. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Howard and Patricia Farber (United States) The Farbers fell in love with the art of Cuba during a visit to the island in 2001, and have since created a stunning collection of some 200 pieces by artists including Belkis Ayón, Abel Barroso, Tania Bruguera, Los Carpinteros, Sandra Ramos, Duvier del Dago, Carlos Garaicoa, René Peña, and Rocío García.
Marilyn and Larry Fields. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Larry and Marilyn Fields (United States) Lawyer and former commodities trader Larry and his wife Marilyn, one of Chicago’s most prominent collecting couples, have amassed an array of some 500 objects from almost 300 living artists, 150 of which are installed in their private residence, and many of which have a political bent. The collection includes many pieces by African-American artists such as Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon, Mark Bradford, and Theaster Gates, whom they have been collecting in depth. Recent acquisitions include works by David Hammons, Jim Hodges, and Christopher Wool.
*More Collectors To Watch
Marie Chaix Michael and Eva Chow Frank Cohen Michael and Eileen Cohen Isabel and Agustín Coppel Anthony D’Offay Theo Danjuma Hélène and Michel David-Weill Antoine de Galbert Ralph DeLuca
Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman (United States) Fuhrman, co-managing partner of MSD Capital, studied art history and was recently listed by Business Insider among the most serious art collectors on Wall Street. He is a trustee of the MoMA, is a trustee of Tate Americas Foundation, is a board member of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, and is founder of The FLAG Art Foundation in New York.
David and Danielle Ganek. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Danielle and David Ganek (United States) A former equity trader for SAC Capital and a trustee of the Guggenheim, Ganek and his wife, editor and novelist Danielle, have a sprawling art collection that includes work by Richard Prince, Diane Arbus, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, John Currin, and Mike Kelley. David bought his first work of art at the age of 17, and has since gone on to commission work from mega-hot contemporary artists such as Ed Ruscha, whom he hired to create a painting incorporating the word “Level” for the walls of his firm’s Greenwich headquarters in 2003.
Ingvild Goetz (Germany) Former gallerist Ingvild Goetz began to collect media art in the 1990s, and today she owns one of the largest private collections of video art and media works in the world. Her Goetz Collection, housed in a private museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron in Munich, is said to contain around 5,000 works of contemporary art—many of them by emerging artists and nearly half of them by women.
Ken Griffin. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Ken Griffin (United States) Chicago-based Griffin, who recently divorced his wife Anne Dias (a board member at the Museum of Modern Art, a trustee of the Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum), has reportedly only ever sold one artwork from his collection. Head of the $20 billion investment firm Citadel, Griffin is extremely particular when it comes to acquisitions, and only buys masterpieces that he feels can hold their own alongside the few dozen pieces he already owns by Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and Jasper Johns. (In 2006, he paid David Geffen $80 million for Jasper Johns’s 1959 painting False Start—a record price at the time for a living artist.)
Agnes GundPhoto: Owen Hoffmann/Patrick McMullan
Agnes Gund (United States) Beloved art patron Agnes Gund is practically New York’s philanthropist-in-chief; she once told the New York Times that she gives away “more money than I really have,” not only to art organizations but also to causes like sex trafficking and abortion rights. Her 2,000-work collection includes works by artists like Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, and Frank Stella, but she’s also known to collect female and black artists, including Lynda Benglis, Teresita Fernandez, and Kara Walker, and lesser-known artists like the Scottish Richard Wright, from whom she commissioned a mural on her dining room ceiling. Among her causes, too, is one that might groom the next generation of aspiring artists and collectors: Studio in a School, which she founded in the ’70s and which teaches art in under-resourced New York City schools.
Steven and Kathy Guttman (United States) Real-estate magnate Guttman’s collecting bug started when he would take his dog on walks in Washington, D.C., and check out the furniture in his neighbors’ houses—a practice which soon grew to include a penchant for buying everything from dressers, sofas, chairs, cabinets, and tables crafted by British and American folk artists to contemporary paintings and photographs. Today, he and his wife Kathy have a more than 500-piece collection of art including conceptual, LED, and wooden works by Andreas Eriksson, Jim Campbell, Analia Saban and Cheyney Thompson, among many others, stored among houses and storage spaces in Paris, New York and Maryland—including his $70-million, state-of-the-art storage facility in Long Island City, named “UOVO,” Italian for “egg,” in reference to the fragility of the space’s precious cargo.
Andrew and Christine Hall (United States) The British-born Hall, a former Citigroup trader and hedge fund manager who also dabbles in organic farming, and his wife, Christine, have a collection of postwar and contemporary art that includes works by Eric Fischl, A. R. Penck, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Franz West and Malcolm Morley. In 2012, they opened the Hall Art Foundation in Vermont, in exhibition partnership with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and they are working to organize a long-term installation of artworks by Anselm Kiefer from their collection. Most recently, the Halls have been busy converting a castle in Germany, the former home and studio of Georg Baselitz, into a museum that will open next year.
Lin Han (China) Although he has only been collecting for a few years, Han—who studied at a secondary school in Singapore before pursuing a degree in animation design at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom —recently opened the M Woods Museum with his wife Wanwan Lei, in the middle of Beijing’s art district, to show off his personal collection of over 200 artworks. Lei studied arts administration at China’s Central Art Academy and Columbia University in New York; Han’s first art purchase was a Zeng Fanzhi painting in 2013, and he has recently purchased work by such artists as Tracey Emin, Kader Attia and Chen Fei.
Henk and Victoria de Heus-Zomer (Holland) Henk and Victoria de Heus-Zomer, who made their fortune in the cattle-food industry, began collecting art in 1989, when they moved into a new home and reportedly needed something “to fill the empty walls.” They have since anticipated many trends in the market—acquiring works by such artists as Zhang Xiaogang and Ai Weiwei long before the international art world took notice of them—and they have become avid collectors of other contemporary Chinese artists as well. Theirs is now one of the largest contemporary art collections in the Netherlands.
Grant Hill. Photo: Barry Gossag
Grant Hill (United States) Seven time NBA All-Star Grant Hill was first introduced to art by his father. For years he has been considered one of the world’s leading collectors of African American fine art, with a collection that includes work by Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, Hughie Lee-Smith, John T. Biggers, Phoebe Beasely, Malcolm Brown, Edward Jackson, John Coleman and Arthello Beck, Jr. His collection was the source of a multi-city touring show “Something All Our Own,”which was seen in seven cities, including at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, his alma mater. Hill, who has amassed a major collection, remains an active collector and philanthropist.
Maja Hoffmann. Photo: Courtesy of Will Ragozzino/ Patrick McMullan.
Maja Hoffmann (Switzerland) Founder of the LUMA Foundation and daughter of Luc Hoffmann of the Hoffmann-La Roche pharmaceutical fortune, Hoffmann is a Tate trustee, and she sits on the boards of the Palais de Tokyo, New York’s New Museum and CCS Bard, to name just a few. In July of 2013, her Foundation was granted permission to transform a 20-acre former train station in Arles, France, into a new art campus, designed by Frank Gehry and slated for completion in 2018.
Erika Hoffmann-Koenige. Photo: Courtesy of the Hoffmann Collection.
Erika Hoffmann-Koenige (Germany) Collecting since the 1960s, Erika Hoffmann-Koenig moved to Berlin with her late husband Rolf, a property developer, shortly after German unification in 1990, and installed their collection of largely conceptual contemporary art in their private residence, which they set up in a former sewing machine factory. Occasionally open to the public, their international collection ranges across all mediums; it was founded with works from the Italian Arte Povera movement and the Zero group (their first purchase, in 1968, was a sculpture by the Greek artist Vlassilakis Takis), and also features a substantial collection of Soviet Constructivist works, as well as works by Blinky Palermo, John Bock, Lawrence Wiener, and Andy Warhol, among many others.
*More Collectors to Watch
Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian Beth Rudin DeWoody Leonardo DiCaprio Mandy and Cliff Einstein Eric Diefenbachand JK Brown David C. Driskell Mandy and Cliff Einstein Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg, Ginevra Elkann Tim and Gina Fairfax Dana Farouki
Michael and Susan Hort. Photo: courtesy of David Willems Photography.
Michael and Susan Hort (United States) One of New York’s most respected collecting couples (see Five Major Art Collectors Reveal Their Holiday Wish Lists)—with a reputation as bold patrons of young and emerging artists, some of whom do not even have gallery representation when the Horts begin buying—Susan and Michael Hort continue to install selections from their holdings of some 3,000 works between their four-floor Tribeca home and their rural New Jersey abode. For the past 13 years, they have opened their Tribeca space to a select crowd of VIPs and art aficionados during Armory Week (see Want a Peek Inside the Exclusive Hort Family Collection?); curated by Jamie Cohen Hort, their daughter-in-law (married to their son, Peter Hort, who together are a notable young collecting couple), the viewings feature works by artists ranging from the likes of Cindy Sherman, Thomas Houseago, and John Currin to practically unknown talents, and can bring up to 3,000 visitors per day. The Horts continue to champion the arts through their own personal collecting and through their Rema Hort Mann Foundation, a nonprofit they set up in honor of their late daughter.
Guillaume Houzé. Photo: Courtesy of Bertrand Rindoff/ Getty Images.
Guillaume Houzé (France) Heir to his family’s chain of Galeries Lafayette department stores, Guillaume Houzé has been presenting artwork in La Galerie des Galeries, a space within the flagship branch, since 2005, along with his grandmother. His own collection includes works by Cyprien Gaillard, Wade Guyton, Tatiana Trouvé, Ugo Rondinone and David Noonan, and he is planning to open a permanent art foundation in Paris’s Marais district in 2016.
Wang Jianlin (China) The president of the Dalian Wanda Group, one of China’s largest real-estate developers—with a reported fortune of some $18 billion—Jianlin is currently battling entrepreneur Jack Ma for the title of richest man in China. He recently purchased a Picasso painting, Claude and Paloma, for $28.2 million (see Are Chinese Collectors Driving Global Art Market Rebound?).
Dakis Joannou. Photo: Courtesy of Yiorgos Kaplanidis.
Dakis Joannou (Greece) Greek-Cypriot billionaire industrialist and founder of the DESTE Foundation of Contemporary Art in Athens (as well as its outpost on the island of Hydra), Joannou has been assembling a blue-chip collection of contemporary art since the mid-1980s. Although his enormous holdings cross genres, periods, and geographies, including Baroque figurines, Cypriot antiquities, couture, drawings, and modernist furniture, his more contemporary interests include the work of such artists as Andro Wekua, Seth Price, Tauba Auerbach, Haim Steinbach, William Kentridge, and Pawel Althamer, among others.
Alan Lau (China) A member of the Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee at Tate London and of the board at nonprofit art space Para Site in Hong Kong—and a fixture on the art-conference circuit—Lau is one of the most influential Asian art collectors active today. He started collecting under 10 years ago, and his vast collection of Asian and Western art includes names like Nam June Paik, Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei, Lee Kit, Tsang Kin-Wah, Kwan Sheung Chi, Chow Chun Fai, Tozer Pak, and Olafur Eliasson, among others. (Lau also made the cut for artnet News’ 2014 list of Most Innovative Art Collectors.)
Joseph Lau (China) With a fortune recently estimated by Forbes at $4.3 billion, Chinese real-estate investor Joseph Lau started collecting more than 30 years ago, and is celebrated for his collection of modern and contemporary art, especially for his Warhols. He is best known for having purchased a 1972 iconic portrait of Mao by Warhol for $17.3 million at Christie’s New York in 2006; and Paul Gauguin’s Te poipoi (Le matin) (1892), which he bought for $39.2 million at Sotheby’s in November 2007.
Raymond Learsy and Melva Bucksbaum. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy (United States) Washington, D.C.–born Bucksbaum—who originally wanted to be an artist—and her second husband, former commodities trader Raymond J. Learsy, are best known for collecting contemporary art, but their collection includes everything from Peter Paul Rubens to James Rosenquist. The couple recently purchased The Hunting Party by Rosa Loy and Neo Rauch, and they are always adding to their collection of works by Laurie Simmons, a shared favorite. Bucksbaum is the patron behind the Whitney Museum’s Bucksbaum Award, which gives a $100,000 grant and a Whitney solo show to one lucky winner in each Whitney Biennial (see Zoe Leonard Wins Whitney’s Bucksbaum Award With Her Giant Camera Obscura).
Agnes and Edward Lee (United Kingdom) A principal in the London-based real-estate portfolio Princeton Investments, which has an estimated worth of $96 million, Edward Lee and his wife are quiet but avid collectors who like to take risks. They tend to favor edgy contemporary work by international producers such as Wilhelm Sasnal and Jim Hodges.
Aaron and Barbara Levine. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Aaron and Barbara Levine (United States) “A lot of people think conceptual art is a bunch of baloney,” Barbara recently told the Wall Street Journal, confessing that her taste has always been for more minimal art, while her husband, Aaron, has a predilection for Abstract Expressionists and Social Realism. Barbara and Mr. Levine, a personal-injury lawyer, live among four floors of photographs, books, drawings, sculptures, videos of performances and other creations by the likes of Robert Barry, On Kawara, Christopher Williams, and Marcel Duchamp, of whom they own 25 works.
Adam Lindemann. Photo: patrickmcmullan.com
Adam Lindemann (United States) New York collector and entrepreneur Adam Lindemann, known for the sassy insider column he penned for the New York Observer, has said that his introduction to the art world came through a former girlfriend, Cornelia Guest, who was a close friend of Andy Warhol. He founded uptown gallery Venus over Manhattan (see Adam Lindemann’s Venus Over Manhattan To Open in Los Angeles) and his wife, Amalia Dayan, co-founder of Upper East Side gallery Luxembourg & Dayan, live in a house designed by David Adjaye.
Eugenio López (Mexico) Mexican fruit-juice heir López—a trustee and vice chair of MOCA in Los Angeles—founded the largest private museum in Latin America, the Museo Jumex, in 2013, as a place to house selections from his personal collection (see Museo Júmex Appoints Julieta González Chief Curator and Interim Director in Aftermath of Hermann Nitsch Fiasco). He began to collect 20 years ago, initially buying historical pieces of 1960s art, then concentrating on Mexican and international work of his own generation, the ’90s. Designed by David Chipperfield, the museum houses some 2,000 works of López’s 2,700-piece collection, including many by American and European masters ranging from Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg to Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst.
Susan and Leonard Feinstein Nicoletta Fiorucci Friedrich Christian (“Mick”) Flick Josée and Marc Gensollen Alan and Jenny Gibbs Noam Gottesman Florence and Daniel Guerlain Paul Harris Barbara and Axel Haubrok Alan Howard
Starting the mid-16th century, sprawling assemblages of exotic objects known as Cabinets of Curiosities were stowed in the homes of European royalty. Divided into animal, vegetable, and mineral items, trinkets came from faraway places for the viewing pleasure of the nobility.
Today’s equivalent might be Daphne Guinness’s wardrobe or real estate mogul Robbie Antonio’s prolific portraits of himself. But with Guinness’s patronage of designers like Alexander McQueen, and Antonio’s commissions of only an elite caliber of artists, much of the prestige and allure is in the label, less so in the products themselves.
It was in reaction to overbearing, omnipresent brands that journalist Thomas Erber developed a new approach to presenting modern luxury. Curating his own contemporary Cabinet of Curiosities, Erber proffers a selection of art, fashion, and design pieces from independent artists and labels based around the globe—in a way, harkening back to the early caches of rare, wondrous objects.
“It’s an old concept, the Cabinet of Curiosities,” says Erber. “Creating a new concept that can mix all these fields, with a level of curation, then it creates a real wave.”
Essentially a pop-up shop, the Cabinet launched at Paris’s Colette boutique in 2010; two more took place at stores in London and Berlin. The fourth staging will be at SoHo’s Avant/Garde Diaries Project Space. Sponsored by the French music and fashion label Maison Kitsuné and featuring nearly 50 brands, the exhibition will showcase a mix of fashion items including a Maison Kitsuné flight jacket and a Nor Autonom head-engulfing hoodie. House of Waris and Bliss Lau contributed jewelry. A series of lucky rabbit’s feet keychains are a collaboration between Maison Kitsuné and Ambush Design. Brooklyn-based kink photographer Natasha Gornik, surrealist painter Nick Deverux, and nightlife maven Andre Saraiva are among the visual artists represented.
Handpicking local participants, Erber looks for a mix of superior quality and unmatched aesthetics. Then each makes a work specifically for the Cabinet. “Every story is a different one,” he explains. “I visit them in their studio, I see how they work. Sometimes I give the idea to the designer, sometimes we discuss an idea, sometimes the designer has his own idea, and I like it and it’s fine. Sometimes it doesn’t work.”
Erber’s experience as a music and fashion journalist reporting for Vogue Hommes, Jalouse,and Optimum, the latter two of which he helped found, gave him the connections he needed to get Cabinet off the ground. “I was a party animal,” he explains. “I created a great network of friendly, creative people all around the world.”
It served him well when he launched the first Cabinet. “In the beginning it was only friends,” he describes. But as prospects flooded in, the newfound curator had to be more selective. “I need to like them, because I want them to stay close to me,” he says. “I need to like the way they do their own thing.”
Yet Erber’s purpose is far beyond personal. “It’s a fight to preserve independence in the fashion business, the creative business,” he says. “If we can help each other, it makes sense.”
One of the highlights of New York’s Auction Week is actually set just over state lines, at the Greenwich, Conn., estate of publishing magnate Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour. A playground for Jeff Koons’ Puppy (basically a 40-foot-tall, terrier-shaped topiary), the property is also home to the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, a nonprofit that mounts two major exhibitions every year. Building from works in Brant’s collection, recent solo shows have covered Andy Warhol, Urs Fischer and Nate Lowman.
On Nov. 10, guests like Debbie Harry, Christopher Walken, Benicio Del Toro, Andre Balazs, Calvin Klein, William and Maria Bell, Michael Ovitz and Jane Holzer flocked to Greenwich to celebrate the latest exhibition, a retrospective of Julian Schnabel. The artist and film director emerged as one of the stars of New York’s early 1980s Soho scene, and then went on to direct such acclaimed films as Basquiat (1996), Before Night Falls (2000) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). While he’s now attached to Johnny Depp’s film adaptation of Nick Tosches’ In the Hand of Dante, Schnabel has been upping his game in the studio as well. The Brant Foundation survey encompassed everything from the artist’s drawings from the late 1970s to more experimental recent sculpture, as well as a spate of new portraits (with foundation director Allison Brant among the subjects.)
The brilliant blue skies were cause enough to leave the city, though they were quickly swallowed by a storm. “I was wondering how it is that the Brants always get the most glorious weather on these openings. A bit suspicious, really,” tastemaker/curator Clarissa Dalrymple laughed, as partygoers dashed out of the rain and into the elaborate buffet tent on the polo field. Despite the downpour, hostess Seymour stayed radiant, in a snugly fitted, flared Alaia ensemble. “I always wear Alaia,” she purred, prompting Jeffrey Deitch to admire: “And no one else wears it quite like her.”
Schnabel also was cutting quite the figure, having put aside the pajamas in favor of jeans and a blazer. He strolled the grounds with former model, gallerina and recent Playboy cover girl May Andersen, who was pushing a carriage with the latest in the Schnabel dynasty, the couple’s four-month-old son, Shooter Sandhed Julian Schnabel, Jr. (Andersen’s first child, Schnabel’s sixth.) Inside, the artist’s paintings were turning almost as many heads as the new family, with the side-by-side installation of the two, near-identical, 13-foot paintings Large Girl With No Eyes (both 2001), causing more than one passerby to do a double take. The paintings are shown together in a way that not only begs comparison, but also necessitates it. Complementing the wall works were pieces of furniture Schnabel had fashioned, including his own bed and a table he had made for artist Francesco Clemente’s studio.
While the crowd was thick with glitzy fellow collectors (Jean Pigozzi, Argentinean developer Alan Faena and Manila maverick Robbie Antonio among them), artists like Elizabeth Peyton, Josh Smith and Alex Israel seemed quite at ease (Peyton even brought her dog along.) Larry Gagosian paused mid-tent to trade some kind words with artists Rob Pruitt and Jonathan Horowitz, whose dealer, Gavin Brown, was jokingly using his infant to cut through the line at the bar at the other side of the tent. As the rain-stranded went back for seconds, dealer Helly Nahmad put in an appearance, though not for long, as his companion, younger brother Joseph, was due back in New York to celebrate an opening of Richard Prince‘s joke paintings at his own fledgling gallery, Nahmad Contemporary. MoMA PS1’s Klaus Biesenbach (who came on the arm of Diana Widmaier-Picasso) also had places to be; that night, the Auction Week crowds would hit the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Koons would be helping Lady Gaga launch her latest album, ArtPop (which features the artist’s work on its cover).
MANILA, Philippines – Century Properties has made a name for itself in the Philippines with its luxury residential projects, often attached with famous names such as Trump, Versace, Missoni, Starck and even celebrity Paris Hilton.
Now the property developer’s managing director Robbie Antonio is getting attention for having convinced world-famous architect Rem Koolhass to design his 25,000-square-foot house in Manila.
In its July issue, US magazine Vanity Fair came out with an article about Antonio titled “The Museum of Me.”
Vanity Fair said the Koolhaas-designed house, which Antonio called “Stealth”, reportedly costs “upwards of $15 million” (approximately P650 million).
“Indeed, the building, under construction on a small lot in Manila’s most exclusive neighborhood, has been kept largely quiet until now. It’s a series of boxes stacked together in an irregular pattern, with scooped-out windows that call to mind Marcel Breuer’s Whitney Museum, all wrapped in a charcoal-colored concrete-and-polyurethane ‘skin’; the roof features a pool flowing into a dramatic waterfall,” the magazine reported.
Koolhass was asked why he took on the residential commission, his first in 15 years, and he simply answered, “Well, basically Robbie.” The Dutch architect seemed to have been impressed with Antonio’s “enormous vision.”
“Then we decided to basically not be our normal, occasionally dogmatic self but to completely adopt his point of view and see where it would end,” Koolhaas was quoted as saying.
Koolhaas, who founded The Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), is a Pritzker Prize-winning architect and was named one of Time’s most influential people in 2008. Among his famous works are the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, Casa da Musica in Portugal, Seattle Central Library and Seoul National University Museum of Art.
Antonio had originally wanted Koolhaas to design a building that could be rotated, but he told Vanity Fair it “would be detrimental to my budget.”‘
His house will also have a gallery, where he will display around two dozen of his portraits by some of the world’s top artists such as Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, David LaChapelle, Julian Opie and Takashi Murakami.
Vanity Fair said Antonio spent $3 million (around P130 million) on these portraits.
Antonio is known to have made valuable connections with celebrities such as the Trumps and Hilton in New York. He has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a degree in Economics from Northwestern University.
He spent 5 years in New York, where he worked on the The Centurion and enlisted the help of Pritzker Prize Award-winning architect I.M. Pei to design it.
Antonio is the son of former Ambassador Jose Antonio, whose wealth is estimated at $300 million and was 25th in Forbes magazine’s Top 40 list of richest people in the Philippines. The family owns listed property developer Century Properties Group, whose projects include luxury condo Essensa in Bonifacio Global City; Trump Tower Manila, Acqua Iguazu by yoo inspired by Starck and Azure Urban Resort Residences, whose beach club was designed by Paris Hilton.
The real estate developer’s home in Manila now houses a museum of his own portraits.
Real estate developer, Robbie Antonio of Century Properties, was featured in Vanity Fair U.S.‘s July 2013 issue—for what, you ask?
He revealed that his new home in Manila, designed by renowned architect Rem Koolhas, will feature works of internationally-known artists such as Julian Schnabel, Marilyn Minter, and David Salle among others—and their artwork and portraits of, you guessed it, himself.
There’s apparently no disputing that ’90s babies don’t have a monopoly on the “Me-llenial” bug, as this comes hot on the heels of the recent buzzworthy Time feature on the younger generation. The “selfie” trend has been going on throughout the years (think of the Royals and wealthy families who fill their own homes with portraits of themselves!). Robbie took it a step further and continued the centuries-old practice, while at the same time fueling his love for art; he is, after all, an avid collector.
The article reported that he spent $3 million for a total of 12 portraits, but there’s no stopping there. His goal? A total of 35 portraits.
Till we make our millions, there’s always Instagram!
