Tuesday, June 6, 2023. A warm, sunny day, yesterday in New York. We woke up to a very cool temps into the 50s and by early afternoon in the mid-70s; just a beautiful day.
Out in Los Angeles, Amanda Quinn Olivar hosted a reception for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, of which she is a trustee, to celebrate the appointment of its new director Anne Helmreich. The event was held at the home her twin, Jennifer Quinn Gowey and her husband Eric Gowey.
The art scene in Los Angeles is vast in all categories. There are several major museums, many galleries and a vast collection in private hands. It reflects the history of Los Angeles which became a major world city in the 20th century because of the birth and establishment of the American film industry popularly known worldwide as Hollywood.
It’s been said that interest in Art and collecting began in the 1930s when the film Studios were prospering (like the iPhones today), and fortunes were being made.
It was during that decade that a young John Hay “Jock” Whitney, the New York socialite heir to two great American fortunes, along with his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney started a film production company out there, and produced the first Technicolor film, Becky Sharp.
Around that time Jock also purchased the film rights to a new novel written by an unknown Southern writer Margaret Mitchell, titled Gone With The Wind. He became very close socially with the producer David O. Selznick and his wife Irene Goetz Selznick, the daughter of Louis B. Mayer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The rest is history.
Jock Whitney was already a major art collector at that young age (in his early 30s). But he also loved the atmosphere of early Hollywood and the world of the moguls he worked with. They in turn loved his presence since he represented the real “Society” of that era. And he had a nose for the winners. The moguls, as they prospered, wanted that vibe and style in their own lives. Major art collections were eventually acquired over time, along with a growing interest in art. It lifted all eyebrows.
A perfect reflection of that in today’s art world is Larry Gagosian, who first started his international journey in selling posters on the sidewalks of Westwood Village in West LA. Gagosian’s story is a classic L.A. story of fame and fortune in the (not film) Arts.
Meanwhile, the recent gathering at the Goweys’ Beverly Hills home was significant by another connection: the house, featured in David Hockney’s 1968 painting is part of the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago.
The event was attended by approximately 100 people including Amanda and Jennifer’s mother Joan Agajanian Quinn, as well as many Los Angeles-based artists such as Chaz Bojórquez, Woods Davy, Laddie John Dill, Shepard Fairey, Jim Ganzer, Yolanda Gonzales, Alex Hedison, George Herms, Charles Hill, Pamela Smith Hudson, Andy Moses, Claudia Parducci, Astrid Preston, Joey Terrill, and Elyn Zimmerman. 100 people were in attendance.
Anne Helmreich spoke to the guests about The Archives of American Art collections, which “contain profound stories that will help future generations understand who we are and how we got here. As we look to the future, the Archives will continue to collect to reflect the breadth of the American experience and to develop innovative programming that connects with new audiences, powering future creativity. We are here to celebrate all the great work the Archives of American Art does in preserving artist’s stories in their own voices!”
The Smithsonian Archives of American Art collects, preserves, and makes available primary sources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. The Archives holds the papers of American art luminaries such as the Leo Castelli Gallery, Roy DeForest, Stanley and Elyse Grinstein, Frederick Hammersley, Nancy Holt, Rockwell Kent, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Roy Lichtenstein, Chiura Obata, Jackson Pollock, Leon Polk Smith, Robert Smithson, Alma Thomas, and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
The Archives holds its annual gala in New York, where it presents the Archives of American Art Medal to an artist and a philanthropist and the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence to an art historian. Both awards recognize individuals who have made transformative contributions in the field of American art.
Meanwhile back in New York, my friend Iris Cantor, the peripatetic philanthropist, invited me to see Van Gogh’s Cypresses at The Met. This is the first exhibition to focus on the trees — among the most famous in the history of art — immortalized in signature images by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). Iconic pictures as Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night take their place as the centerpiece in a presentation that affords an unprecedented perspective on a motif that is synonymous with the artist’s fiercely original power of expression.
Some 40 works illuminate the extent of his fascination with the region’s distinctive flamelike evergreens as they successively sparked, fueled, and stoked his imagination over the course of two years in the South of France — from his initial sightings of the “tall and dark” trees in Arles, to realizing their full, evocative potential (“as I see them”) at the asylum in Saint-Rémy.
Juxtaposing landmark paintings with precious drawings and illustrated letters—many rarely, if ever, lent or exhibited together—this tightly conceived thematic exhibition made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, offers an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate anew some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated works in a context that reveals the backstory of their invention for the first time.
Additional support for this wonderful exhibition is provided by the Janice H. Levin Fund, Katharine Rayner, and the Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Fund.The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Photographs by Alan Shaffer & Erin Katgely.
