1. When did you start collecting art, and how has your collecting journey changed over time?
My parents collected art and antiques. I guess I caught the bug. In the late 1970s I began collecting works produced in New York City when the art world was centred around Soho, then an indigenous art scene sprung up in Los Angeles and by the late 1980s I was collecting exclusively California-based artists.
2. How did your interest shift to the African art?
I served as a trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles before coming to Cape Town. Over the last decade the museum has emphasised contemporary art influenced by the Black diaspora and the African-American experience, which sparked my interest. I really had little direct experience with contemporary African art before moving to South Africa. I began here by meeting with the directors and curators of the more innovative South African and Nigerian galleries such as Blank Projects, SMAC, Everard Read, Rele Gallery, WHATIFTHEWORLD, and listened a lot. I’ve now collected locally for two years.
3. Is there any particular type of art medium that appeals to you?
I’m a big fan of sculpture; both the monumental and the maquettes. It’s the medium that most speaks to me. Secondarily, we collect works on canvas and paper. We also like collage as it’s an amalgam of both mediums. We recently acquired a William Kentridge collage of a Black Rhino we really enjoy.
4. How would you describe your relationship with the artists you support and interact with back in Los Angeles?
I like to collect art I like from people I like. If we are purchasing, or more particularly commissioning, a contemporary work, it usually begins with some connection we’ve made with the artist. It’s an important part of the collecting journey. We haven’t changed our approach now that we are collecting in South Africa.
5. How would you like to contribute to the art market in South Africa and how do you hope to empower the creative economy through your collecting?
I hope we will have the opportunity to contribute in many ways. In Los Angeles we’ve funded artist in residence programs, museum art and equipment acquisitions and scholarly research. Our primary giving is in education and here we recently agreed to fund the early child development program at the Pebbles Project. I hope we’ll have similar opportunities in the art community here soon as well.
6. You have recently acquired a small holding in Stellenbosch and are placing sculptures in your gardens. Can you elaborate on one or two pieces?
Two of our favourite sculptures in our collection are the work by South African contemporary artist Ledelle Moe and one by local artist Michele Matheson. Ledelle’s work is a 6 metre, 1.2 ton concrete reclining woman in meditation and Michele’s is a steel totem we installed on an island in one of the ponds.
7. How do you envision the sculptures will interact with the landscape design of the Cape Winelands garden? For example, is there a material or thematic relationship between the man-made artworks and the natural environment?
We hope to someday commission a work produced from natural materials found on the farm. To date we’ve collected sculptures composed of more traditional materials- bronze, steel, concrete, granite, but each piece is installed with great sensitivity to the natural site and environs.
8. What unique attributes or qualities do you see in works of African provenance that sets them apart from the contemporary art being produced elsewhere?
The art movements that influenced European and American art practices since the Renaissance have also heavily influenced fine art created in South Africa since Europeans first arrived in the 16th Century. Compositionally, local works do reflect the landscape and cultures of Africa, but it wasn’t until more recently that indigenous techniques and subject matters have truly been incorporated into the oeuvres of African contemporary fine artists.
9. Conversely, as a collector – both locally in SA and abroad – how do you see African art fitting into the larger global art narrative (if at all)? Which is to say, where do you see African art – and by extension, artists – claiming their space in the ‘bigger picture’?
This is an important challenge the art world faces today. How to incorporate traditional and indigenous art practices into the western discussion and lexicon. There has long been an appreciation for indigenous art no doubt, but the means of critiquing western art practices versus traditional African and Asian practices has long been very different. This is changing. One example is the Classical World in Context initiative at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. There the goal is to recognize the huge influence cultures bordering on Greece and Rome had on what we think of as purely early Western aesthetics. Recognising that these other cultures heavily influenced what we think of as purely western art points the way to analysing all art with the same scholarly paradigm. This will all change as African contemporary art has continuing success at the big international art fairs like Frieze and Art Basel. Local galleries like Blank Projects are already leading the way.
10. What is it about South Africa – and particularly the Western Cape – that has struck a chord with you?
It can be difficult to explain “Love at First Sight”. We travel a lot, but the moment we came to the Western Cape to visit friends, we felt a special connection that is difficult to describe. The people are so lovely. The juxtaposition of the natural untamed beauty with an incredibly sophisticated art, food and wine culture is intoxicating. I have a feeling the Cape will soon become a much better recognized international culture and arts centre. I hope it’s ready.
Interview carried out by Elana Brundyn and originally appeared in our H&G November 2022 issue.
