Craig Robins' residency program

Today I'm going to shift focus just a little bit...

One of the great things about being an avid art collector is getting to know artists. Not only do art collectors meet gallerists, museum directors, and other art world insiders, but collectors often become close with the artists they collect. That love for art and artists, combined with an often larger than life checkbook can actually be used for something quite good...

Craig Robins, an American art collector (and man behind Art Basel Miami Beach), has envisioned and is supporting a very large art residency in Miami (through the University of Miami). Every two years, 25 international artists would take part in the program, which hopes to be very non-traditional and is estimated to cost $7 million for the first 3 years.

click here to read more about Craig Robins' residency

Eli Broad's Basel Bash

Last week, one of the world's richest art collectors, Eli Broad, and his wife, hosted an extravagant party in honor of this year's Art Basel. The event took place in their California home, which could easily be mistaken for a contemporary art museum or gallery, with their extensive art collection. The Broads' collection is astonishing, and guests mingled and ate, all the while surrounded by some of the best art made over the past 50 years.

W Magazine wrote about the party:
Almost everything about a recent dinner at Eli Broad’s Los Angeles home in honor of the 40th anniversary of Art Basel was outsize, starting with the estate itself. Visitors approached the mansion—designed in part by Frank Gehry—through a private sculpture park, then entered a sitting room the size of a hotel lobby before descending a stairway into a series of double-height galleries. “This is bigger than the Gagosian Gallery,” said fashion-world fixture Richard Buckley as he arrived at the first subterranean white cube, with its cranelike Calder sculpture and pair of giant Chuck Close portraits. A moment later Ann Philbin, director of UCLA’s Hammer Museum, summed up the installation with a wry understatement: “Not bad,” she said, in a tone that meant something more like, Can you believe? ...

keep reading the W Magazine story about the Broad Basel party

Herb and Dorothy Vogel

If you are an art collector, an artist, or an enthusiast, you have got to love the story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel - very unlikely, but very important art collectors.

Self described art lovers, they married in 1962. After Herb's brief stint as an artist (and a painting student at NYU), they moved on to modest careers and to collecting art. The couple decided to live on Dorothy's salary as a librarian, and to use Herb's salary from the U.S. Postal Service to buy works of art.

The Vogels' collection amassed to over 4000 pieces during the course of 40 years. They kept much of it in their rent-controlled, one bedroom apartment, covering the walls, floors, furniture, etc. with as much art as possible.

The Vogels plan to donate 2500 works from their collection to public institutions - 50 works to each 50 states.

Click here to see the NY Daily News article on the Vogel art collection

More information about Megumi Sasaki's documentary HERB & DOROTHY