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:
POINTS
OF VIEW
Selections from Seven Colorado Collections
CU ART MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER
POINTS OF
VIEW:
Selections from Seven
Colorado Collections
September 8 - December 17, 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Director’s Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Lisa Tamiris Becker
Tip of the Iceberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Daniil Leiderman and Mark Lipovetsky
Collection: Wayne F. Yakes, MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Collection: Ann Tanenbaum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Collection: David and Annette Raddock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Collection: Jean and Michael Micketti / Tom and Michelle Whitten . . . . . . 57
Collection: Teresa and Paul Harbaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Collection: Polly and Mark Addison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD
by Lisa Tamiris Becker
POINTS OF VIEW
Selections from Seven Colorado Collections
ii
The monumental exhibition, Points of View: Selections from Seven Colorado Collections, which I had
the distinct pleasure of curating for the CU Art Museum, featured over 150 works of art in salon-style
installations selected from the collections of seven of Colorado’s most significant and passionate
collectors. The focus of the exhibition was not only to feature the strength and depth of each collection,
but also to facilitate unexpected dialogue across a wide range of Points of View and highlight both
the varied perspectives of each collector, as well as that of the many artists included in the exhibition.
Visual dialogue was the curatorial result, allowing our viewers to examine relationships between
contemporary Chinese and contemporary Russian Art, for example; or relationships between New
York School and Paris School Abstract Expressionism and Chinese ink painting; or similarly between
British and American geometric abstraction and conceptualism; or between European and American
Surrealist photography and its symbolist precedents.
The decision to mount the exhibition salon-style also shifted the curatorial focus away from the
traditional presentation and viewing of a sequence of master artists and master artworks, to call
attention instead to the very idea of collecting, the practice of collecting, and to perhaps the
“madness” of collecting.
Unexpected relationships across aesthetics, history, and culture emerged from the dense, often
cloud-like wall configurations, providing new insights into the works of art on view. The exhibition
featured traditional Chinese scrolls as well as modern and contemporary painting, photography,
works on paper, sculpture, ceramics, and artist multiples from Russia, China, the United States,
Europe, and elsewhere. The exhibition even featured a work of video art presented on a plasma screen
seamlessly integrated into a floor-to-ceiling wall installation of framed works on paper and paintings.
This “updated” interpretation of the traditional salon-style—which historically would have only
included framed paintings hanging from a picture rail on wires—created a dynamic, non-hierarchical
presentation of art across numerous media. Similarly, floor pedestals and vitrines featuring traditional
Chinese scrolls moved across the gallery and were woven into an installation that also featured
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contemporary Chinese Pop sculpture and three-dimensional works of American Pop. This pluralistic,
hybrid, and dynamic exhibition highlighted works from the following seven Colorado collections:
translation of Russian text in the works of art included in the exhibition from both the collections of
Wayne F. Yakes, MD and that of Teresa and Paul Harbaugh.
Appreciation is also extended to the diligent work of many CU Art Museum staff members who helped
realize this important exhibition and publication, including Alexandra Solomon and Nicole Schwager
who served as my curatorial assistants and Stephen Martonis, CU Art Museum Exhibitions Manager;
Pedro Caceres, CU Art Museum Preparator; Caitlin Rumery, CU Art Museum Associate Collections
Manager/Associate Registrar; Maggie Mazzullo, CU Art Museum Collections Manager/Registrar;
Jennifer Conrad, CU Art Museum Coordinator—as well as our able assistants Amber Cobb, Ariel Hagan,
and Nicole Meyer and our undergraduate and graduate student assistants and interns, Karin Davis,
Kerry Doran, Brittney Johnson, and Emily Reynolds. A warm thank you also goes out to Vince Burtt
and graphic designer Greg Davis from Clearwater Direct Marketing Solutions, Inc. for the dynamic
catalogue production and design. Great appreciation is also expressed to the CU Art Museum Advisory
Board, the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Colorado
Foundation for their steadfast commitment to the CU Art Museum and its programs. Appreciation is
also expressed for the generous funding that helped support the Points of View exhibition from the
CU Boulder Arts and Culture Enrichment Fees (ACE Fees) as well as the CU Art Museum benefactors,
individual donors, and members.
Collection of Polly and Mark Addison
Collection of Teresa and Paul Harbaugh
Collection of Jean and Michael Micketti
Collection of David and Annette Raddock
Collection of Ann Tanenbaum
Collection of Tom and Michelle Whitten
Collection of Wayne F. Yakes, MD
Generous loans and gifts from these seven noted Colorado collections facilitated an exhibition that
was not only an immersive and delectable visual experience but offered our diverse audience of students,
faculty, and broader campus and community members limitless intellectual, aesthetic, and educational
opportunities. The plurality of Points of View: Selections from Seven Colorado Collections potently
manifested and embodied our museum’s mission to “explore the transformative power of art and
inspire critical dialogue.”
My deepest appreciation is expressed to each of the collectors above for their support of this ambitious
project as generous lenders to the exhibition or donors to the CU Art Museum’s permanent collection.
Without their vision and commitment to art and its ideas, a project such as this would never be possible.
Special appreciation is also expressed to my colleague Dr. Mark Lipovetsky and to Daniil Leiderman
who jointly authored the essay, Tip of the Iceberg, which further animates this publication. Mark Lipovetsky
is an Associate Professor of Russian Studies in the Department of German and Slavic Languages and
Literature at the University of Colorado Boulder and an expert in Russian Post-Modernism and his son,
Daniil Leiderman, is a doctoral student in Art History at Princeton University focusing his dissertation
research on Moscow Conceptualism. It was a great pleasure meeting with both to enjoy and discuss
Dr. Wayne Yakes’ collection of Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian art. I am not only most grateful for their
insightful contribution to this catalogue with their essay but also for their additional assistance with
Lastly, it is through the special generosity and infectious enthusiasm of Dr. Wayne F. Yakes that we
have been able to produce this beautiful catalogue, which will serve as further documentation of the
tremendous breadth of collecting and the commitment to the support of art museums that is evident
in the Front Range Colorado community. Dr. Wayne Yakes’ passion for nurturing the arts community in
Colorado is extraordinary, and for this I am immensely grateful.
Lisa Tamiris Becker, Director, CU Art Museum and Curator of the Exhibition
v
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
by Daniil Leiderman and Mark Lipovetsky
vi
Paintings from Wayne F. Yakes’ immense collection of contemporary Russian art, presented at the CU
Art Museum in the exhibition titled Points of View, strike the audience with their intensity, unlikely
subjects, and peculiar style. These thirty works may be seen as landmarks mapping the vast unseen
body of underground Soviet art. Unofficial art emerged in the USSR in the 1960s-80s and later moved
along with its creators to Europe and the US, becoming a part of global contemporary art.
“rayonism”—the style developed by two daring Russian avant-garde
painters, Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova in the 1910s, when
Nijinsky’s star was still high. This combination of two significant references
suggests a portrait of Russian modernism itself, as the ghost of a fey,
elusive creature, shining through the thick blackness of the background.
Many of these works were made against the institutional grain, with no expectation of financial and
professional profit. Nonconformist Soviet art developed outside of galleries and museums; it was
displayed in the artists’ studios and private apartments, abandoned warehouses and construction
sites. Although the doctrine of Socialist Realism imposed on official Soviet art and culture since the
1930s was already crumbling in the 1970s-80s, the mandatory heroic and realistic style of representation
was still dominant. At the same time, modern and contemporary developments were still unambiguously
rejected by the establishment as “bourgeois” and “decadent” forms incompatible with “true” Soviet
art. For an artist living in the Soviet Union to choose an experimental, or simply alternative path in art
was inevitably a political choice, demanding either a double life (producing “normal” art, illustration
and design for money and alternative art for its own sake), or direct confrontation with the authorities
and employment laws. This is why the majority of artists presented in the Points of View exhibition
emigrated from the Soviet Union in either the 70s or the 80s. This also explains the prevalence of
politically charged subjects—Lenin, Stalin, Gorbachev, Khrushchev, and post-Soviet political figures,
including Putin—in these paintings.
Anatoly Zverev’s Portrait of a Lady is reminiscent of Post-Impressionism,
but the range of associations generated by this painting is much broader
than it seems at a first sight. Zverev’s very lifestyle was a reinvention of
the 19th century bohemian drifter. He cultivated the image of an eternally
debauched and frequently homeless artist—as he is depicted by Oscar
Oscar Rabine, In Jewish District, 1985 (see p. 17)
Rabine in the center of In Jewish District. Zverev’s female portraits shine
vii
with a cheerful freedom and reckless beauty driven by the same impulse as his life image—the desire
for ultimate freedom.
In a way, Soviet nonconformist art was compensating for the rupture in the Russian cultural history
(seemingly) produced by the Socialist Realist monopoly. Many modernist and avant-garde styles
excluded from public space in the 1930s-60s were rediscovered and frequently reinvented by these
artists. However, even the seemingly faithful reproduction of existing, albeit marginalized, cultural
models did not lead to a mere repetition of the already-known. “Old” forms inevitably acquired new
meanings in the course of their marginal recuperation.
For instance, Mikhail Chemiakin’s portrait of Vazlav Nijinsky, a legend of Russian modernism, the star
ballet dancer of Sergey Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons in Paris, is painted in a manner reminiscent of
Oscar Rabine reinvents the still life through heavy atmospheric impasto. Socialist Realism inherited
the French academic tradition’s disregard for the still life as a genre incapable of bearing historical or
ethical meaning. However, Rabin`s incorporations of newspapers and meager material culture lends a
psychological and historical weight to these scenes of alienated daily life.
Genia Chef engages with surrealism, staging Soviet symbols in uncertain encounters that hint at
unconscious energies and Freudian neurosis. His painting Cockaigne is reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s
Lugubrious Game in its conjunction of images of authority, excretion, childhood, and sexuality to
create destabilizing and paranoid compositions—only here Soviet symbols figure prominently as
landmarks or ruins in the unconscious. In a similar way, Vladimir Nemukhin’s Day and Night returns
to Constructivist, propagandistic abstraction, like El Lissitsky’s famous Drive Red Wedges into White
Troops!, but displaces the aggressive ideological opposition characteristic to the Russian avant-garde
of the 1920s. Here opposite but mutually defining natural forces contest each other in an eternal cycle,
rather than a revolutionary upheaval.
Certainly this “reworking” of past styles had political implications, as it undermined the monopoly
of Socialist Realism, but this hardly exhausts the works’ meaning. Russian nonconformism sought to
(re)create its own alternative cultural universe, through a daring engagement with various styles and
artistic languages, from which this generation of artists was isolated during their formative years (the
1940s-50s). However, as we can see, these “returns” to the avant- garde bring new meanings, becoming
metaphors for the artists’ personal histories and their individual relations with (and versions of) the
(counter) cultural tradition. Ironically, the same goes for Socialist Realism: the nonconformists’ attitude
to this “grand style,” despite its political overtones, cannot be defined as solely confrontational.
viii
For instance, the artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid’s iconic style, “Sots-Art,” stakes a very
peculiar claim on the Socialist Realist tradition. Sots-Art has been compared with Pop Art, displacing
consumer objects with ideologically charged symbols and icons (which is not to say that consumer
objects are not ideologically charged). Sots-Art deconstructs ideological myths into objects for
consumption, similar to Warhol’s Campbell soup or portraits of celebrities—shallow signs of universal
desires and anxieties deprived of any depth, let alone any relation to “Truth.” (Among the exhibited
artists, Alexander Kosolapov and Leonid Sokov also represent this trend.)
This effect may not be obvious when one looks at Komar and Melamid’s Lenin Proclaims the Victory
of the Revolution (after an original by Vladimir Serov). The meaning of this painting would become
clearer if one placed it next to the “original”. “Original” here is in question since Serov
changed the painting several times, painting over politically “unmentionable” figures
as they fell out of favor, leaving Lenin alone against a cheering crowd of workers,
peasants, and soldiers. Komar and Melamid’s painting, thus, can be interpreted as a
final installment to a long series of “remakes”. Furthermore, from the perspective of
Komar and Melamid’s Sots-Art, Socialist Realism itself—as exemplified by Serov—
acquires postmodernist features, appearing as the constant reshuffling of the same
symbols that finally empties out the symbolic signified. This is why Komar and Melamid’s
painting differs from its prototypes with its much darker, earthy palette and the
lifeless, waxy expression on Lenin’s face. Their painting appears as the undeath of
Socialist Realism—a corpse addressing the (dead) masses.
Komar & Melamid, Lenin Proclaims the Victory
of the Revolution (after the first version by V.
Serov), 1981-1982, (see p. 11)
However, emphasizing only the political aspects of nonconformist art may be
reductive. The dialogue led by these artists with the Soviet iconography of power
is derivative from a deeper set of questions. Many artists of this circle collapse
oppositions, bringing seemingly incompatible images, belonging to confronting
ideological languages or just distant cultural realms, into the same space where
they interact with one another in a strange way. In Komar and Melamid’s painting
from the series Yalta Conference, Stalin and Roosevelt appear in the company
of Zeus, instead of Churchill, in an altered version of the iconic photograph.
The presence of Zeus, the symbol of imperial power in general, estranges the
conventional sense of temporary consent between capitalism and communism.
Komar & Melamid, Yalta Conference, 1985 (see p. 12)
Moreover, this painting emphasizes the similarity between the leaders (each echoes
Zeus), while at the same time, destabilizing the original image’s political dimension. Zeus makes the
political problematic, as the seemingly opposed politicians are recoded with echoing resemblance.
Similarly, in Kosolapov’s Marlboro Men, Lenin and Stalin peacefully converse against the background
of the brand name “Marlboro”. In Leonid Sokov’s Joseph and Marilyn at the Table, Stalin and Marilyn
Monroe carouse over dinner together. In Leader, Sokov’s other work on display, Lenin appears with
Gorbachev’s birthmark on his forehead, a juxtaposition oddly paralleled by another composition:
Malevich’s black square with the word Glasnost (“openness”—one of the keywords in Gorbachev’s
reforms) written across it. In Vladimir Yakovlev’s tempera painting, Lenin is depicted in a neo-primitivist
style as a venous monster. White and black geometrical forms lurk amidst a stereotypically Soviet
glossy depiction of students preparing for a university examination in Ilya Kabakov’s Before the Exam.
In Igor Baskakov’s Rasputin, Putin and Rasputin appear to be united by a linguistic pun: Ras-Putin in
Russian sounds as “One Putin,” making Putin a double (Dva Putin—“Putin-2”) to Rasputin whose
influence on Russian history is ambivalent, if not tragic. The recognizable style of the Soviet 1920s
poster further complicates the message of this fusion of contemporary and 1920s visual and
political discourses.
What is the purpose of these and many similar juxtapositions?
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First of all, they destabilize the oppositions that shape our perception of history and culture: historical
and legendary, Soviet and Western, communist and capitalist, pre-revolutionary and post-Soviet,
figurative and conceptual. All these and other categories, which we conveniently use to understand
the Soviet condition, appear inoperative. In place of rigid opposition these artists discover a fusion,
sometimes monstrous, sometimes puzzling, sometimes revealing of deeper connections. For instance,
Stalin and Marilyn in Sokov’s painting emerge as comparable and compatible paragons of the
communist and capitalist visions of personal achievement, associated with universal adoration and
semi-divine status, while Lenin, Gorbachev, and Malevich’s Black Square stand for synonymous
symbols of the unknown, open to all possibilities, including the catastrophic. As a result, the place
seemingly charted by these binary oppositions transforms into a space of unmanageable and
phantasmagoric entities emerging from the ruins of the languages and discourses that sought and
failed to inscribe themselves on the contemporary world. However, this crisis of language is interpreted
by these artists not as a tragedy, but as a source of “freeplay,” to use Jacques Derrida’s terminology:
“… the joyous affirmation of the freeplay of the world and without truth, without origin, offered to
an active interpretation…”1
This deconstruction of binary opposition—a defining feature of postmodernist art—
produces its own politics, distinct from direct confrontation with ideological icons or
symbols. For example, Ilya Kabakov’s Man in Shower, one of his oldest and first
displayed paintings, is one of the most misinterpreted as well. Kabakov has noted
that critics who want to interpret the central figure as a desolate man in the Soviet
condition miss the point: the condition is universally desolate. Kabakov’s Flies and
Stool explore the fundamental alienation of daily life through disembodied phrases.
The vantage point of the author is crucial here, as it is at once detached (one might say
entomological) and invested, but only through a marginal figure: the fly and the chair.
The fly and chair are meager part-beings who mediate the text of the phrases as if
overhearing it in passing. This is a vantage point that refuses authority over the text
and image, but still seeks to engage with the facture of daily alienation.
Ilya Kabakov, Men in Shower, 1996-2000 (see p. 7)
In their work, Russian nonconformist artists of the 1960s and 1980s reject the many “beyonds” available
as vantage points for an (unofficial) artist in late Soviet society, in favor of a “between,” which is unfixable
except in regards to the various discourses that hedge it. Such a position is inevitably political, but it
vigorously evades the simple dichotomies of author and reader, Soviet and Western, communist and
dissident, or spiritual and consumerist, to develop a praxis of evasion and freedom all its own.
Daniil Leiderman and Mark Lipovetsky
xi
___________________________
1
errida Jacques, “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Science,” Twentieth Century Literary Theory: An
D
Introductory Anthology. Ed. by Vassilis Lambropoulos and David Neal Miller. Albany: SUNY Press, 1987. P. 50
F RO M TH E CO LLE C T I O N O F
WAYNE F.
YAKES, MD
2
Featuring examples of Dr. Wayne Yakes’ prolific Denver collection of modern and
contemporary Soviet and Russian art, the exhibition highlights selections of the
many Soviet and Post-Soviet masterpieces from the 1960s to the present that
are held in one of the most important collections of its kind in the United States
and internationally. Additionally, the exhibition features examples of Dr. Yakes’
broader interest in global contemporary art, featuring examples of his Chinese
contemporary sculpture.
Genia Chef, Russian (b.1954)
Cockaigne, 1995
oil on board
20 1/2 x 20 inches
Photo: Jeff Wells / CU Art Museum
© Genia Chef
Collecting art is as personal as choosing one’s marriage partner. One person’s taste in buying art, as
well as in choosing a marriage partner, can be diametrically opposed to another’s vantage point and
desires. What one wishes to have (and to hold) reflects the personality, perspective, and yearnings
that are uniquely pertaining to the individual. Thus, the title “Points of View” could not be more spot
on to chronicle the current University of Colorado Art Exhibition of variegated art collections.
3
My foray into art collecting began in my mind as a child when I wished to achieve an art collection
on the level of the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas . This first museum of
modern art in Texas opened in 1954. I vividly remember as a child going with my mother to the McNay
Art Institute and being fascinated with masterworks by Chagall, Gaspard (Chagall’s boyhood friend in
Vitebsk, Russia), Ben Shahn, Rodin, Sisley, Renoir, Cassatt, Dali, Picasso Blue Period, Picasso Cubistic
Period, Cezanne, Larry Rivers, Matisse, O’Keefe, Beckmann, Gauguin’s Self Portrait, van Gogh’s Self
Portrait, and so many others. I never tired of them over the years and awaited with breathless anticipation
of my next visit with my mother holding my hand to scrutinize these pearls again. I yearned to have
a collection of this level some day of my own. I owe my mother, Frances Ann Yakes, for continually
exposing me to art, music (shaking the hand of Arthur Rubinstein!), theater, and literature that has
always passionately captivated me. These treasured man-made creations (art, music, theater, literature)
channeled my mind to all the corners of the known universe to then allow me to fabricate in my own
mind uncharted universes and then from these to conjure even more. Thank you mom!
My first oil painting that I procured was from Denver art dealer Paul Zueger. It was an oil on canvas
by the renowned Spanish-Catalonian artist Alvar. Paul would not sell it to me as it was in his home
prominently displayed. Having failed in this inchoate endeavor, I, of course, then sent my mother to
entreaty my cause. She was not to be denied and her concerted effort was supremely efficacious.
My nascent art collection was now born. Again, thank you mom!
This current exhibition at the CU Art Museum features two facets of my art collection selected by
Director Lisa Tamiris Becker. My Modern Russian Masters Art Collection began in the early 1980’s with
an accidental stroll on 17th Street on a winter day in LODO. I chanced upon the Sloane Gallery of Art
near Union Station and made the acquaintance of the Owner/Director Mina Litinsky, PhD. Enraptured
by the as-yet-unbeknownst-to-me artists’ nonpareil oeuvre, I soared into a neoteric artistic megacosm
reminiscent of my childhood sojourns at the McNay. This epiphany led to my first Russian art acquisition,
an oil on canvas by Mihail Chemiakin. Chemiakin later sent me a hand-written letter stating unequivocally
that it was his best painting that he had ever painted. After almost 30 years of discerningly collecting
art works by these Modern Russian Masters, knowing them personally, discussing their works,
philosophies, and tenets, Mina veritably states that I am a true “victim of art.” Thank you Mina!
The other aspect of my art collection that Director Lisa Tamiris Becker culled for this CU exhibition
is Beijing sculptor Yibai Liao. I discovered him in Mike Weiss Gallery in New York. I was introduced to
Mike and Yibai by Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri, whom I discovered and began collecting in Tel Aviv years
ago. Tel Aviv Tribes Gallery owner Patrick Ben Am introduced me to the work of Ozeri. What a circuitous
artistic path we weave! From Tel Aviv to New York to Beijing to Boulder. I have since extensively collected
Yibai’s monumental works and loaned them to museum exhibitions, the most recent being the ARoS
Museum Exhibition in Aarhus, Denmark last year entitled “I Love You.” And yes, I also loaned two oils
on canvas for that same exhibition by Yigal Ozeri. Thank you Patrick, Yigal, Mike, and Yibai!
The jocund avocation of an art collector is to render the artists collected to an apotheosis and also to
edify the beholders of these artists’ percipience. A daunting task indeed! However, without the advocacy
of benevolent museums and their piercingly perspicacious curators, this could never come to pass.
Lisa Tamiris Becker presciently winnowed masterworks from various art collections in Colorado to allow
the viewer to ascertain the distinctive visions each collector employed to weave that communicative
thread that links the manifold mosaics in their respective collections. This is no mean undertaking. I tip
my hat to your herculean achievement. Thank you Lisa!
For allowing me the latitude to pursue one of my life’s dreams, I must acknowledge my wife Nona Marie
Yakes. Relish her pulchritudinous countenance in Alexander Kosolapov’s “Molotov.” Thank you honey!
Wayne F. Yakes, MD
4
Modern and Contemporary Russian Art
Igor Baskakov, Russian
Rasputin, 2005
oil on linen
74 ¼ x 31 ¼ inches
Image courtesy of Wayne F.Yakes, MD
© Igor Baskakov
Genia Chef, Russian (b. 1954)
Troika, 1996
oil on board
6 ¾ x 8 ¼ inches
© Genia Chef
5
6
Genia Chef, Russian (b. 1954)
Cockaigne, 1995
oil on board
25 ½ x 20 inches
© Genia Chef
Mikhail Chemiakin, Russian
(b. 1943)
Portrait of V. Nijinsky, 1985
colored pencil on black paper
38 ½ x 27 inches
© Mikhail Chemiakin
Ilya Kabakov, (b. Ukraine 1933,
currently resides in New York)
Men in Shower, 1996-2000
from the “Shower” series
watercolor and ink on paper
20 x 13 ½ inches
© Ilya Kabakov
Fly, 1996-2000
from the series “Life of Flies”
hand-colored lithograph with
watercolor, ink, and colored pencil
on paper
13 x 9 inches
© Ilya Kabakov
7
8
Stool, 1996-2000
from the series “Communal
Apartment”
on paper
13 x 9 inches
© Ilya Kabakov
Fly, 1996-2000
from the series “Life of Flies”
on paper
13 x 9 inches
© Ilya Kabakov
Before the Exam, 2003
oil on canvas
46 x 70 inches
© Ilya Kabakov
9
Viatcheslav Kalinin, Russian
(b. 1939)
Ship of Fools, 1991
oil on canvas
57 ½ x 44 ½ inches
© Viatcheslav Kalinin
10
Komar & Melamid
(Vitaly Komar, b. Russia 1943,
currently resides in New York and
Alexander Melamid, b. Russia 1945,
currently resides in
New York)
Lenin Proclaims the Victory of the Revolution (after the first version by
V. Serov), 1981-1982
oil on canvas
72 x 54 inches
© Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid
11
Komar & Melamid
Alexander Melamid, b. Russia
1945, currently resides in
New York)
Yalta Conference, 1985
diptych, oil on silk
13 ½ x 13 ½ x 2 inches each
12
Komar & Melamid
Alexander Melamid, b. Russia 1945,
Symbol #4, 2002-3
from the series “Symbols of the Big Bang”
pen and colored pencil on graph paper
38 x 28 inches
Alexander Kosolapov, Russian
(b. 1948)
Marlboro, 1986
acrylic on canvas
32 x 42 inches framed
© Alexander Kosolapov
Dimitry Krasnopevtsev, Russian
(1925-1995)
Still Life, 1968
oil on canvas
29 ¾ x 33 inches
© Dimitry Krasnopevtsev
13
14
Alexander Kosolapov, Russian
(b. 1948)
Molotov Cocktail, 1998
acrylic on canvas
48 x 41 ¼ inches
© Alexander Kosolapov
Alexander Melamid, (b. Russia
1945, currently resides in New York)
Portrait of Wayne F. Yakes, MD in my
NY Studio, 2006
oil on canvas
72 x 60 inches
© Alexander Melamid
Ernst Neizvestny, Russian (b. 1926)
Mikhail Gorbachev, 1981
prisma pencil on paper
10 ¼ x 8 inches
© Ernst Neizvestny
15
Vladimir Nemukhin, Russian (b. 1925)
Day and Night, 1990
mixed media on paper
31 x 23 ½ inches
© Vladimir Nemukhin
16
Ernst Neizvestny, Russian (b. 1926)
Falling Totems, 1985
oil on canvas
22 x 30 inches
© Ernst Neizvestny
Oscar Rabine, Russian (b. 1928)
In Jewish District, 1985
oil on linen
31 ½ x 38 ¾ inches
© Oscar Rabine
Leonid Sokov, Russian (b.1941)
Joseph and Marilyn at the Table, 1992
mixed media and oil on canvas
34 x 50 inches
© Leonid Sokov
17
18
Oscar Rabine, Russian (b. 1928)
Composition with Russian Newspaper and Vodka. Lebed Flew Away,
But…, 1985
oil on linen
31 ¾ x 51 ¼ inches
© Oscar Rabine
Leonid Sokov, Russian (b.1941)
Leader (Lenin with Gorbachev’s Birthmark), Malevich’s Black Square and
Glasnot, 1987
oil on metal diptych
35 x 24 ¼ inches; 32 x 23 inches
© Leonid Sokov
Oleg Vassiliev, Russian (b. 1931)
By a Campfire (Oleg Vassiliev and Ilya
Kabakov Camping Outside Moscow in
1965), 1998
oil on linen
57 ½ x 38 ¼ inches
© Oleg Vassiliev
The Quotation (Komar and Melamid),
1995
colored pencil on paper
14 ¾ x 22 inches
© Oleg Vassiliev
19
20
Khruschev’s House, 1993
colored pencil on paper
14 ½ x 24 ¼ inches
© Oleg Vassiliev
Vladimir Yakovlev, Russian
(1934-1998)
Lenin, 1972
tempera on paper
19 ¾ x 25 ½ inches
© Vladimir Yakovlev
21
Anatoly Zverev, Russian
(1931-1986)
Portrait of a Lady, 1978
oil on canvas
15 x 21 inches
© Anatoly Zverev
22
Works by contemporary Chinese artist, Liao Yibai
Liao Yibai, Chinese (1971)
Fake Lion Mom, 2008
stainless steel
1/3
41 x 19 x 22 inches
© Liao Yibai
23
Fake Lion Dad, 2008
stainless steel
1/3
41 x 21 x 34 inches
© Liao Yibai
24
Rose Bag RF, 2010
stainless steel
1/3
33 x 28 ½ x 14 inches
Image courtesy of Liao Yibai and
Mike Weiss Gallery, New York
© Liao Yibai
25
Cinderella High Heel, 2010
stainless steel
1/3
40 ½ x 49 x 15 ½ inches
© Liao Yibai
26
Fake High Heel Channel X, 2010
stainless steel
1/3
40 x 15 ¾ x 36 ½ inches
© Liao Yibai
ANN
TANENBAUM
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27
This exhibition features Chinese scrolls from the 19th and 20th century and will
highlight the collector’s passion for Chinese art, philosophy, and aesthetics
as well as the interest in the Chinese scroll as both a form of painting and a kind
of manuscript, containing both calligraphy and ink painting. The Tanenbaum
Chinese scrolls also reflect the larger interest in the Tanenbaum family of
collecting Chinese art and supporting the incorporation of Chines art in
American museum culture and will create a dialogue across the CU Art
Museum’s Changing Exhibition and Permanent Collection galleries, with the
5th to 6th century CE Chinese Seated Buddha gifted to the CU Art Museum’s
Collection by the Tanenbaum family also on view in the Highlights of the
Collection exhibition.
In the style of Zhao Gan (Five dynasties), Chinese (active before 975 CE)
Landscape, 19th century copy (detail).
ink, paper, and silk handscroll
15 ¾ x 182 inches image area
29
Dear Viewer,
Symbols:
Having been asked to prepare comments on the four scrolls I happily present for your consideration,
I’ve thought it both appropriate and hopefully helpful to set forth for you, written and published
thoughts of and about my Mother, who truly was the collector of the Chinese painting handscrolls
here presented for your enjoyment.
Chinese landscape painting is full of symbols that stand for man. Even if there is no figure in the
painting, man is there by implication. One cannot conceive of a house or a boat or a bench without at
the same time thinking of a man. It is a man who has made these objects. And so the inclusion of the
structures in the painting suggests the presence of man, just as much if he were actually there.
My Mom found Chinese art and its particular wisdom, articulation, and iconography, a comforting
window into her spirit and soul. She amassed a fine collection of ancient paintings, calligraphy,
bronze, jade, porcelain, ceramics, albums, and a personal library of 20th century Chinese art history,
art appreciation, philosophy, religion, nature, and poetry.
Sometimes I sit upon a bench, look out from a pavilion, walk across a bridge. And I feel myself moving
into a Chinese landscape painting, even though the locale happens to be American — not only
because the field of Chinese landscape painting is my bias, but because it was the Chinese artist
who a thousand years ago coordinated man to nature by symbol as well as by actuality.
Mom envisioned publishing a meaningful collection of her essays in book form “ My book will bring
together about fifty of my pieces from “The Christian Science Monitor”, all of which relate to ancient
Chinese philosophy, which seeks to realign man to nature. It will present text and black-and-white
photographs on facing pages. It will give readers an inspirational overview of the potential for our
times of old Chinese thought, and an awareness of the subjective meditation in seeing oneself as part
of nature. The pieces might divide into the seasons of the year, with a title like “Seasons of Serenity”
or, into the elements and aspects of nature, with a title like “Living in a Chinese Landscape” or perhaps
“Taoism for Today”. I still hope to arrange a book publication of Mom’s selected writings in her honor.
Sometimes I am reminded of modern Chinese artists who say they “write” their paintings. If they
“write” their paintings, through their dextrous use of the brush, do we not “read” their paintings
through some slight comprehension of their symbolism, their meaning, their universality?
Below, I invite you to read extrapolated comments from several of Mom’s thought-provoking writings
on the commingling of Chinese art, nature and philosophy written for and published by the Christian
Science Monitor in The Home Forum section, both in the English and Taiwanese editions, during the
1970s and 80s. The sole exception is the immediately following excerpt from “Calligraphy as Fine Art”,
published by the Book Club of California in 1989.
from “A round, personal equation”, The Christian Science Monitor, September 18, 1980
Calligraphy:
Sometimes I think how closely I stand to the Ching Ming....as I run out into my garden, feeling the
gentle benevolent sun upon my back....the gentle breezes upon my face....the gentle soil beneath my
feet, as I celebrate a renewed closeness with all nature.
Chinese connoisseurs are much concerned with the quality of handwriting or calligraphy. They look for
the “ch’i” or personal flair. They feel that calligraphy reveals the style and character of the individual.
They also often feel it represents the acme of their arts. Not only is calligraphy fundamental to
Chinese printing, it is also seen as the twin art to Chinese painting, because both painting and
calligraphy employ the same media of brush and ink.
from “Being in the midst of life”, The Christian Science Monitor, May 30, 1980
The Chinese are in love with roundness, in all of its applications. To them it symbolizes endless
continuity and hope.
The Season of Spring:
The Chinese have a word for their Spring festival. They call it the Ching Ming. It symbolizes the return
to nature, the renewed predisposition to the out-of-doors.
And then I think back to the Ching Ming handscroll and wonder if some of its appeal may not relate to
my own lifestyle. Do I not find, as I move into the handscroll, that I find supportive measures, almost
like finding my own ancestors.
from “Rhapsody to spring”, The Christian Science Monitor, June 10, 1977
30
The Lotus:
The Chinese feel that the Lotus represents both purity and serenity. Further, they feel that it is an
example of the cyclic march of nature. It is the leaf that attends the whole lifespan of the lotus. The
leaf is somewhat an extension of the flower—that which antedates and survives it. It is not the lotus
per se which so much intrigues Chinese artists. It is equally the individual’s own identification with the
lotus, in all its symbolism.
In the style of Mi Fei, Chinese
(1051-1107)
Cloudy Mountain, 19th century copy
16 x 204 inches image area
If the lotus has purity and serenity, as well as constant change, do I not myself, have access to these
aspects also?
from “The serenity of the lotus”, The Christian Science Monitor”, November 8, 1977
The Butterfly:
The butterfly, to the Chinese, is a symbol of the summer. Butterflies have long intrigued the Chinese
mind. One of the most venerable stories concerns Chang Tzu, chief historical spokesman for Taoism and
its official founder, Lao-tzu. Chuang Tzu, writing in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. was intrigued with the
supposition that perhaps he was in reality a butterfly, and that he was only dreaming he was a man.
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May I not, myself, learn a profound lesson from the apparent lightness of the butterfly? May I not learn
to see myself, like the butterfly, as naturalized, as enveloped, within the grand design of nature.
from “The Symbol of summer”, The Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 1977
_________________________
I hope Mom’s reflections will strike a meaningful cord, as you spend time with the four scrolls of hers
that Lisa Tamiris Becker and I have selected for your contemplation. Mom devoted herself to writing
and collecting refined examples of initially, Japanese, and then later, Chinese art, focusing on early
centuries. She found therein intimate and applicable wisdom that she gratefully brought into her
perception of life.
While I’m the surviving custodian of these scrolls, it was Mom who brought them home and
enlightened our life with their purchase.
Thank you for visiting these family treasures. If you wish the full essay of any of the articles quoted
above, please let us know.
Ann Tanenbaum
details
In the style of Zhao Gan (Five
dynasties), Chinese (active before
975 CE)
Landscape, 19th century copy.
15 ¾ x 182 inches image area
33
34
details
Pu Jin, Chinese (c.1893-1966)
Discussing the Plum Blossom Painting,
1946
9 7/8 x 25 ½ inches image area
35
36
details
Unidentified Artist, Chinese
Imitating Huang Gongwang’s Early
Spring River Landscape, 20th century
10 ¾ x 114 ½ inches image area
37
38
detail
DAVID AND ANNETTE
RADDOCK
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David and Annette Raddock of Boulder have built a collection that astutely
speaks of the powerful relationships between Asian aesthetics and American
and European Abstract Expressionism. This selection of their collection highlights the focus on mark-making and haptic expression across artists from China,
the Paris School, and various eras of the New York School. The exhibition also
features the Raddock’s continued interest in contemporary work from across
the United States, Europe, China, and beyond.
Luis Cruz Azaceta, (b. Cuba 1942, currently resides in New Orleans and New York)
Laberintos, 2005
29 ¼ x 41 inches
acrylic and pencil on paper
© Luis Cruz Azaceta
My serious collection of art began when I was at Taiwan University in Taipei. I was taken with the
contemporary art of Lui Guosong and wrote about its political difficulties for Arts Magazine. I never
dreamed that later he would be linked to a corpus of new art that emerged in Mainland China after
1989. When I wrote about him, he sold me two paintings: one for $25 and the other for $100 or so,
essentially gifts.
Annette and I together shaped a contemporary collection that had a Chinese dimension (my special
interest) and a Western one. We started collecting paintings and sculpture together in the 1980’s in
Washington D.C. and New York. It was fun, but ill-fated since it involved a large number of R.C. Gorman
prints that sank below the horizon. In our home city of New York, we bought our first Western original
prints, Joan Miró, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault and Ferdinand Leger.
Milton Avery, American
(1885-1965)
Little Lake (Lake Hill NY, Summer ‘62),
1962
oil on paper
17 ½ x 23 inches
© 2012 Milton Avery Trust / Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York
Our budget limited us at first to signed prints and led to the fact that our collection now is all on paper,
the majority “unique,” and most now either watercolors, inks, mixed media, or oils.
41
The collection is several times larger than what appears on this wall (including a John Chamberlain
and other sculptures). Many of the pictures here represent the New York School (minimalist) and our
predilection for calligraphy and markings, but they also demonstrate an evolution toward greater
diversity and certain unconscious preferences. We acquired a Georg Baselitz watercolor of Stalin from
Germany, three works of Kentridge from South Africa, a Tapies, a Chillida or two from Barcelona, and
the Cuban-American artist Luis Cruz Azaceta. Boulder has been a wellspring of good artists for us, and
we reached out to the California School and found a couple of wonders in Colorado.
42
The crowning piece here is a garden-like ink by Zao Wouki. Zao was an early émigré to Paris from
China and is part of the Paris contingent. He is a top seller in the Hong Kong and China markets.
Other members represented from the Paris Group are Joan Mitchell, Canadian Jean-Paul Riopelle
(her longtime lover) and Sam Francis.
Art is an important part of our lives. And for me, it’s gotten so that continued collecting has become a
sign that I’m still alive.
David Raddock for David and Annette Raddock
Luis Cruz Azaceta, (b. Cuba 1942,
currently resides in New Orleans and
New York)
Laberintos, 2005
29 ¼ x 41 inches
acrylic and pencil on paper
© Luis Cruz Azaceta
Francis Bacon, British (1909-1992)
Study from the Human Body, 1981
lithograph
AP, 150 impressions
17 ¾ x 12 ½ inches
© 2012 The Estate of Francis Bacon.
All rights reserved. / ARS, New York /
DACS, London
43
Donald Baechler, American
(b. 1956)
Farm Fresh Flower, 1999
color serigraph
2/35
30 x 23 ½ inches
© Donald Baechler and
Baldwin Gallery
Eduardo Chillida, Spanish
(1924-2002)
Untitled, n.d.
lithograph
10/100
28 ½ x 17 ½ inches
© 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York / VEGAP, Madrid
44
Francesco Clemente (Jose Clemente
Orozco) (b. Italy 1952, currently resides
in New York and Madras, India)
Untitled, 1984
color woodcut
168/200
16 ¾ x 22 ½ inches
© Francesco Clemente, Courtesy Mary
Boone Gallery, New York
Sam Francis, American (1923-1994)
Untitled (SFE-033), 1986
aquatint
AP, aside from edition of 20
15 ¼ x 12 ¾ inches
© 2012 Sam Francis Foundation,
California / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
45
Philip Guston, American
(1913-1980)
Untitled, 1966
lithograph
21 ½ x 29 ½ inches
Edition TP
© Estate of Philip Guston
William Kentridge, South African
(b. 1955)
De Peccato Original with 3 Figures in
Procession, 2000
collage on paper
23/30
14 ½ x 19 ¾ inches
© William Kentridge
46
Lee Krasner, American
(1908-1984)
Nude Study from Life, 1939
charcoal on paper
24 ¾ x 19 inches
© 2012 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Wifredo Lam, Cuban (1902-1982)
Les amiss, 1978
lithograph
XXIX/XXXV
15 x 11 inches
New York / ADAGP, Paris
47
Fernand Léger, French (1881-1955)
Les Constructeurs, 1951
lithograph
59/75
17 ¼ x 17 ¼ inches
Sol LeWitt, American (1928-2007)
Parallel Curves, 2000
gouache on paper
30 x 7 ½ inches
© 2012 The LeWitt Estate / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York
48
Li Shan, Chinese (b. 1942)
Title unknown (frog), 2004
watercolor and ink on paper
29 ¼ x 32 ½ inches
© Li Shan
Brice Marden, American (b. 1938)
Etching to Rexroth 5, 1986
etching
11/45
19 ½ x 15 ¾ inches
© 2012 Brice Marden / Artists Rights
49
Julie Mehretu, American
(b. Ethiopia 1970, currently resides in
New York)
Fracture, 2007
etching and aquatint
30 AP, 5/12
22 ½ x 28 inches
© Julie Mehretu
Joan Miró, Spanish (1893-1983)
Fusées 11, 1959
etching and aquatint
II/XV
11 x 14 ½ inches
© 2012 Successió Miró / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
50
Joan Mitchell, American
(1925-1992)
Untitled, c. 1977
watercolor, pastel, and crayon on paper
14 ½ x 9 ½ inches
© Estate of Joan Mitchell
Robert Motherwell, American
(1915-1991)
Put Out All Flags, 1979-1980
lift-ground etching and aquatint
11/50
13 x 21 inches
© Dedalus Foundation, Inc. /
Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
51
Pablo Picasso, Spanish (1881-1973)
Au Bain, 1930
from the Vollard Suite
(Bloch 136, Baer 201)
etching
unknown edition of 260
19 ½ x 15 inches
© 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York
Liliana Porter, Argentine-American
(b. 1941)
The Task, 2008
pencil and collage on paper
15 x 11 inches
© Liliana Porter
detail
52
Jean-Paul Riopelle, Canadian
(1923-2002)
Untitled, 1958
oil on paper
23 x 32 inches
New York / SODRAC, Montreal
Diego Rivera, Mexican (1886-1957)
Obrero, c. 1946-47
china ink on paper
15 ¼ x 10 ¾ inches
© 2012 Banco de México Diego Rivera
Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F.
/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
53
Richard Serra, American (b. 1939)
Venice Notebook #14, 2001
color etching on Fabriano Tiepolo paper
54/60
16 x 18 inches
© 2012 Richard Serra / Artists Rights
Shinique Smith, American
(b. 1972)
Accidentally in Love (Study), 2010
ink, graphite, and fabric on paper
22 x 15 inches
© Shinique Smith
54
Antoni Tàpies, Spanish (b. 1923)
Variaciones sobre un rectangle 6
(The Eyeglasses), 2001
Carborundum, aquatint, vernis mou print
31/40
12 ½ x 14 ½ inches
© 2012 Fundació Antoni Tàpies / Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP,
Madrid
Zao Wou-ki (b. China 1921,
currently resides in Paris)
80-14, 1958
Chinese ink on paper
26 ¾ x 26 ½ inches
© Zao Wou-ki, courtesy
Marlborough Gallery, New York
55
Zhang Daqian (Chang Dai-chien),
Chinese (1899-1983)
Temple in the Mountains, 1973
lithograph
26 ¼ x 20 ½ inches
© Estate of Zhang Daqian
56
JEAN AND MICHAEL
MICKETTI
TOM AND MICHELLE
WHITTEN
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57
The Mickettis and Whittens have been instrumental in bringing a major focus to
Contemporary Chinese Art in the Denver Metro area. This exhibition will feature
examples of works in the private collections of both Jean and Michael Micketti
and Tom and Michelle Whitten respectively, as well as works jointly owned by
Micketti and Whitten. Works on view feature contemporary artists from both
the Shanghai and Beijing scenes and will include important examples of Chinese
Pop, Cynical Realism, and other movements in contemporary Chinese art.
Luo Brothers, Chinese (b. 1963, 1964, and 1972)
Welcome to the World’s Famous Brands, 2007
lacquer and paint on wood
25 ½ x 21 ½ inches
© Luo Brothers
People often ask: How did you get involved in collecting Chinese contemporary art? First, being in the
right place at the right time and second, meeting some new friends, George and Sharon Bergland, who
were already collecting Chinese contemporary art. In 1988, I got an opportunity to work in Hong Kong,
and shortly thereafter we met the Berglands who invited us to their home for dinner where I saw their
flat covered with contemporary Chinese art. Needless to say, the entire evening revolved around art
discussions and, more specifically, their Chinese art collection. Over time the art discussions continued
and George asked if we would like to spend a weekend in Shanghai meeting some of his artist friends,
that’s when we made our first purchases of Chinese Contemporary art, that was the beginning.
59
After returning to the US in 1990, my passion for collecting Chinese art began to percolate more and
more. So in 1995 I made a solo trip to Hanoi, Hong Kong, and Shanghai just to check out the art scene.
It was a great trip and in Shanghai I was fortunate to hook up with my friend George again. We spent a
couple of days meeting 15 Shanghai artists. In the early days, and even in 1995, all of the artists’ studios
were really very small with a small bed and an easel with one canvas on it, no extra room for anything.
The good news was that all the artists had plenty of inventory, but they had to pull it out of dusty
cubbyholes just to show it to us. In 1996, I had the opportunity to meet one of the top Chinese artists
from Beijing in Denver. On my next trip to China, he invited me to Beijing to meet some of his artist
friends. So, in mid-1996 I was on my way to Beijing. That trip was fantastic because I met 30+ artists.
Ten years later, several of these artists would be the most famous artists in China.
As I reflect on the actual process of collecting, I never had meetings with consultants or curators
regarding what to collect or how to put an art collection together. I was on a personal adventure with a
passion on fire to just collect what I liked - I did everything with my eyes. In those early days, I never ran
across another Westerner, or for that matter, any foreigner on any of my trips. For many years I was on
my own out in this big country meeting artists, that was exciting.
How I met the artists I liked was by searching through Chinese art books and if I liked a work I would cut
out the picture and paste it in a loose leaf binder that I would take with me on my next trip. I would show
one artist the pictures and see if he could introduce me to that artist. The next thing I knew I had an
introduction and we were on our way to the artist’s studio. In most cases the new artist would also want
me to meet some more artists just around the corner, and that’s how each trip expanded my relationship
with numerous Chinese artists. Since I have traveled to China every year since 1995, I have probably met
conservatively 500+ artists. I could not purchase from all of them but to date we have put together a
small personal collection of Chinese contemporary art which we are very proud to have.
As you might expect, time moved on and the Chinese art market started to take off, from one gallery
selling in Beijing to over 100 galleries today and the same for Shanghai and with it came more interest
from worldwide collectors and auction houses. When it changed it really boomed. Today most of the
artist’s studios are larger than high school gymnasiums and an inventory usually does not exist. The good
old days where the studios were small, with lots of inventory at reasonable prices are long gone.
So, after all these years, no one can take from me the adventure this passion has given me. The best part
will always be going to the out-of-the-way places, climbing up dusty staircases to the small basic studios,
meeting almost starving artists, becoming friends with them, visiting year after year, and networking to
meet new friends.
Jean and Michael Micketti
During the 1980s and 1990s, the two of us spent many years studying and working in China. Once we
met and acquired joint wall and floor space, it was therefore perhaps inevitable that we would begin to
collect and place there the art that visually represented to us those formative years.
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Our collecting focused on those artists who were, in our opinions, best able to portray the deep social
change of the time. The works are largely figural, as it was the individual’s struggle to fit in to a new
environment that was everyone’s greatest concern during that period. Politics was usually only alluded
to quite subtly, and often through less controversial themes such as urban decay or mass-consumerism.
With China’s continued development and emergence at the forefront in today’s global economy, artists
are likewise engaged in a more international conversation. There is often less that is recognizably Chinese
in their subject matter, but there is still always evidence of the great technical ability and rigorous artistic
training acquired in major Chinese art academies that remain a hallmark of most Chinese artists.
We have purchased from auctions and galleries, but mostly the works come straight from the artist
studios. Early friendships with artists at the beginning of their careers and fluency with language and
culture have enabled us to develop a rapport that has lead to opportunities otherwise impossible to find.
It has also allowed us to bring to Colorado numerous artists from China, and it has been gratifying to see
how widely accepted and well received they have now become.
This exhibition at the CU Art Museum can only further that process, and we are delighted to have been
given the opportunity to share our passion.
Tom and Michelle Whitten
Huang Binyan, Chinese (b. 1984)
Rabbit, 2004
glazed porcelain, colored underglaze
edition 3/6
38 x 14 x 9 inches
© Huang Binyan
61
Li Shan, Chinese (b.1942)
Two Geese in Red (w/flower), 1997
oil, acrylic, and paper on canvas
15 ¼ x 19 x 3 ½ inches
© Li Shan
62
Huang Binyan, Chinese (b. 1984)
Urinal, 2007
glazed porcelain, colored underglaze
edition 1/8
21 ½ x 19 ¾ x 15 ¾ inches
© Huang Binyan
Luo Brothers, Chinese (b. 1963,
1964, and 1972)
Welcome to the World’s Famous
Brands, 2007
lacquer and paint on wood
25 ½ x 21 ½ inches
© Luo Brothers
Pu Jie, Chinese (b. 1959)
title unknown, 1998
from the “Format” series
steel screws on board
24 x 32 inches
© Pu Jie
63
64
Luo Brothers, Chinese (b. 1963,
1964, and 1972)
Welcome to the World’s Famous
Brands, 2006
paint on fiberglass
edition 3/10
18 x 18 x 14 inches
© Luo Brothers
Sheng Qi, Chinese (b. 1965)
Untitled, 2007
oil on canvas
31 x 39 inches
© Sheng Qi
Sheng Qi, Chinese (b. 1965)
National Day Parade, 2005
oil on canvas
118 x 78 inches
© Sheng Qi
Suo Tan, Chinese (b. 1961)
Untitled, 2003
glazed porcelain, blue underglaze
19 x 13 x 12 inches
© Suo Tan
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66
Su Xinping, Chinese (b. 1960)
title unknown, 2006
from the series “Sea of Desires”
chalk on paper
30 x 41 inches
© Su Xinping
Wang Guangyi, Chinese (b. 1956/7)
Untitled, 2002
oil on canvas
22 x 18 x 2 inches framed
© Wang Guangyi
Wei Rong, Chinese (b.1963)
Prince and Princesses, 1999
oil on canvas
56 x 68 inches
© Wei Rong
Xue Song, Chinese (b. 1965)
Marx and Lenin, 2004
mixed media on canvas
59 x 59 inches
© Xue Song
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68
Xue Song, Chinese (b. 1965)
Coca-Cola, 2007
mixed media collage on paper
24 x 31 ½ inches
© Xue Song
Yu Fan, Chinese (b. 1966)
Tang Lady, 2004
fiberglass and auto paint
edition 2/6
31 ½ x 27 ½ x 84 ½ inches
© Yu Fan
Zhang Dali, Chinese (b. 1963)
Dialogue, 2007
neon with C-print
42 x 31 inches
© Zhang Dali
Zheng Li, Chinese (b. 1964)
Basic Structure, 2004
acrylic on canvas
70 ¾ x 55 ¼ inches
© Zheng Li
69
70
Zhao Bo, Chinese (b.1974)
Fragments, 2007
oil on canvas
117 x 117 inches installed, approx.
© Zhao Bo
Zhu Fadong, Chinese (b. 1960)
Untitled, 2008
blue and red Sharpie on vellum
30 ½ x 38 ½ inches
© Zhu Fadong
TERESA AND PAUL
HARBAUGH
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This selection of Teresa and Paul Harbaugh’s prolific Denver collection, which
spans many media including photography, painting, design, ceramics, Santos,
textiles, and much more, highlights the Harbaugh’s in-depth commitment to
20th century and contemporary photography, as well as their passionate
commitment to the art of the Soviet Union, the art of Herbert Bayer, and
the development of Modernism in the Southwest.
Paul Harbaugh, American (b. 1947)
Michael Pijoan, Randal Davey’s House, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1972
gelatin silver print
10 x 8 1/16 inches
© Paul Harbaugh
Why do we collect?
To surround ourselves with the things we love.
73
I think it started individually for us, as kids—being jazzed with the beauty of nature—learning about
and collecting brilliant butterflies, interesting beetles and insects, pressing various types of leaves and
flowers into books and making displays with them. I think we both ripped stamps off envelopes to
“make a collection” of all the different types that arrived in our mailbox, and to learn a little bit about
the faraway places they were sent from. There was also the proverbial coin collecting, when you could
convince aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even neighbors, to empty their pockets in the name of
helping you find a certain dated coin to complete the blue cardboard coin book. Some of my first dates
with Paul were geological explorations with rock hammers looking, learning, and collecting different
specimens that told us about “time” and the formation of the earth. Paul also understood the “value”
of collecting, as he bought his first car, a Chevy Malibu, named “Bilko”, with his coin collection. And
that is another aspect of collecting—it also becomes an investment—time and research and passion.
Some of our first collecting related to our involvement with the San Juan Mercantile in New Mexico—
Indian blankets, Kachinas, baskets, pottery, and soon photography from the Southwest. I’d say black
and white photography, in general, became a mutual love of ours, and is the heart of our collection.
I think as you learn, see, and experience more of life, art is like a mirror of your own vision. You start
assembling things you relate to and believe in and that grab you. And having the opportunity to
surround ourselves with objects that are beautiful, historical, thought- provoking, and informative
makes our life stimulating and full of constant curiosity and wonder. The Tribal Arts especially are like
“witnesses” to time that tell stories; photography is also a witness of a decisive moment. For us,
collecting has expanded our perception of reality and makes home a fun place to hangout.
Herbert Bayer, American
(1900-1985)
Austria Revisited: Stone Wall and
Implements, 1971
watercolor
11 ¾ x 18 ½ inches
New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
74
Teresa and Paul Harbaugh
(1900-1985)
Annunciation, 1939
oil on panel
11 ¼ x 15 ¼ inches
(1900-1985)
Title unknown (sticks), 1957
tritex on canvas
12 x 18 x ¾ inches
(1900-1985)
Butterflies over Pyramids, 1945
oil on board
12 x 16 inches
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76
(1900-1985)
Wandbild [Picture of a wall], 1936
gouache on linen
15 x 17 ¼ inches
(1900-1985)
Self Portrait, 1932
gelatin silver print photomontage
13 x 10 inches
(1900-1985)
Shortly Before Dawn, 1936
9 ¼ x 13 ¾ inches
Henri Cartier-Bresson, French
(1908-2004)
Madrid, Spain, 1933
10 ½ x 14 ¾ inches
© Henri Cartier-Bresson and
Magnum Photos
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78
(1900-1985)
The Monument, 1932
13 ¼ x 8 inches
Henri Cartier-Bresson, French
(1908-2004)
Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur region
The Alpes de Haute-Provence,
Simiane-la-Rotonde, France, 1969
10 ½ x 14 ¾ inches
© Henri Cartier-Bresson and
Magnum Photos
Francis Joseph Bruguière, American
(1879-1945)
Golden Gate Park, 1916
hand-colored silver bromide print on
Gevaluxe paper with rabbit hair
13 ¼ x 10 inches
79
Clarence Sinclair Bull, American
(1895-1979)
Nude, c. 1920s
vintage gelatin silver print
5 x 6 ¼ inches
80
Chebotarev, October Group
The Social Democratic Peace and
Quiet (bed), 1928
gouache on paper
12 1/4 x 10 5/8 inches
© Chebotarev
George Gross Offends Me (crucifix),
1928
gouache in paper
12 1/4 x 9 7/8 inches
© Chebotarev
81
82
The Word and Deal of Social Democrat,
1928
gouache on paper
12 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches
© Chebotarev
Iakov Chernikhov, Ukrainian
(1889-1951)
Composition, 1927
gouache on paper
12 x 9 1/2 inches
Baron Adolf de Meyer, French
(1868-1949)
Baroness Olga de Meyer (with brown
parasol), c. 1905
8 ½ x 4 ½ inches
© 2012 G. Ray Hawkins Gallery,
Beverly Hills, CA
83
84
Iakov Chernikhov, Ukrainian
(1889-1951)
Composition, 1930
from the series “Architectural
Fantasies”
gouache and ink on paper
11 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches
Baron Adolf de Meyer, French
(1868-1949)
Ruth St. Denis in the Dance of the
Black and Gold Sari from Bakawali,
1913
9 ¾ x 7 ½ inches
Beverly Hills, CA
Laura Gilpin, American (1891-1979)
Bryce Canyon #1, 1930
vintage platinum print
9 ¼ x 7 ¼ inches
© 1979 Amon Carter Museum of
American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Paul Harbaugh, American (b. 1947)
Michael Pijoan, Randal Davey’s
House, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1972
10 x 8 1/16 inches
© Paul Harbaugh
85
86
Laura Gilpin, American (1891-1979)
George Lopez of Cordova, 1945
13 x 10 inches
© 1979 Amon Carter Museum of
American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Lotte Jacobi, American (1986-1990)
Title unknown, c. 1950s
11 x 14 inches
© The Lotte Jacobi Collection,
University of New Hampshire
György Kepes, American,
b. Hungary (1906-2001)
Untitled (cliché verre), c. 1940
mounted vintage gelatin silver print
11 ¼ x 14 inches
© György Kepes
Willy Kessels, Belgian (1898-1974)
Untitled (light sculpture), c. 1935
8 ½ x 6 ¾ inches
87
88
György Kepes, American,
b. Hungary (1906-2001)
Untitled, 1950
lifetime gelatin silver print
8 x 10 inches
© György Kepes
Ernest Knee, Canadian (1907-1982)
La Manga, NM, 1941
10 x 8 inches
© The Ernest Knee Photographic
Trust (www.artworld.us/ernestknee/
index.html)
William Mortensen, American
(1897-1965)
Title unknown, c. 1930s
gum bichromate print
6 ¾ x 6 ¼ inches
Georgii Petrusov, Russian
(1903-1971)
Aleksander Rodchenko, 1936
10 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches
© Alex Lachmann
89
90
Paul Outerbridge, Jr., American
(1896-1958)
Jewelry on Brocaded Fabric, c. 1924
unsigned
gelatin silver print (unique print)
3 ¾ x 4 ¾ inches
Beverly Hills, CA
Alexander Rodchenko, Russian
(1891-1956)
Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1924
4 1/4 x 3 1/8 inches
Photo © Estate of Alexander
Rodchenko/RAO, Moscow/VAGA, NY
POLLY AND MARK
ADDISON
92
91
Boulder Collectors Polly and Mark Addison have gifted over 500 works of
modern and contemporary art to the CU Art Museum’s Permanent Collection.
This selection will highlight works of art selected from their gifts created during
the past five decades, including the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s and
will highlight the Addison’s continuing commitment to collecting “the art of
our time.”
Lesley Dill, American (b.1950)
I Heard a Voice #2, 2002
Ink, thread of chiri paper
50 ¾ x 40 ¾ x 2
Gift of Polly and Mark Addison to the Polly and Mark Addison Collection,
CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder
© Lesley Dill
The Polly and Mark Addison Collection
Polly and Mark Addison have been collecting contemporary art for almost forty years. Like many, they
began with prints but quickly expanded their collection to include all media. Strong images were
popular early on but as the years passed good ideas became more important. Attractive images
backed by serious thinking, regardless of medium, are best of all.
Each year the Addisons recontextualize their art in a thematic exhibit in their Boulder home. Mark is
particularly interested in how viewers respond to what is on the walls.
Objects in the Addison’s collection have been shown at the Venice Biennale, Documenta in Germany,
the Whitney Biennial, Turner Prize exhibit at the Tate Britain, MoMA, MFA-Boston, SFMoMA and
many other museums here and abroad. Works by Elizabeth Murray, Jim Campbell, Joan Brown, Robert
Mangold, and H. C. Westermann were exhibited at and published for those artists’ major retrospective
exhibits. In 2000, the Denver Art Museum presented “Collecting Ideas” from the Addison collection.
The 2011 “Blink!” exhibit at the Denver Art Museum included more than twenty new media works,
gifts and promised gifts, from the Addisons.
93
Nicholas Africano, American
(b. 1948)
The Shadow [I Beat this Fucker Up],
1979
Suite of four etchings with aquatint
11 x 14 inches
Gift of Polly and Mark Addison to
the Polly and Mark Addison
Collection, CU Art Museum,
University of Colorado Boulder
© Nicholas Africano
94
The Addisons have also gifted over 500 works of art to the CU Art Museum’s Permanent Collection.
Polly and Mark Addison
Charles Arnoldi, American (b.1946)
Grey State, 1979
Etching
6 x 5 1/8 inches
© Charles Arnoldi
Enrique Chagoya, Mexican / American (b.1953)
The Enlightened Savage, 2002
Digital print labels on tin cans
with box
4 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches boxed
4 x 2 5/8 inches each can
© Enrique Chagoya
Angela de la Cruz (b. Spain 1965,
currently resides in London)
Untitled Red, 1999
Oil on canvas
24 x 16 x 4 inches
© Angela de la Cruz
95
96
Bernard Cohen, British (b. 1933)
In Focus, 2000
Acrylic on canvas
26 x 26 x 1 ¼ inches
© Bernard Cohen
Richard Diebenkorn, American
(1922-1993)
Seated Woman Drinking from Cup,
1965
Lithograph
27 ½ x 20 ½ inches
© Phyllis Diebenkorn
Lesley Dill, American (b.1950)
I Heard a Voice #2, 2002
Ink, thread of chiri paper
50 ¾ x 40 ¾ x 2 inches
© Lesley Dill
Jane Harris, British (b. 1956)
6.15, 2000
pencil on paper
22 x 32 inches
© Jane Harris
97
98
Red Grooms, American (b.1937)
Ruckus Taxi, 1982
Lithograph cut, folded, and assembled
14 x 15 x 28 ½ inches
© 2012 Red Grooms / Artists Rights
Damien Hirst, British (b.1965)
Sausages, 1999
Screenprint
64 x 44 inches
© 2012 Damien Hirst and Science
Ltd. All rights reserved, Artists
Rights Society
Jim Hodges, American (b. 1957)
Happy IV, 2001
Prismacolor on paper
30 x 22 inches
© Jim Hodges
Dennis Kardon, American (b. 1950)
Death of Marat, 1981
Woodcut
23 ½ x 23 ½ inches
© Dennis Kardon
99
100
Jim Isermann, American (b. 1955)
Untitled 0603, 2001
Pencil on graph paper
18 7/8 x 23 ¾ inches
© Jim Isermann
Alex Katz, American (b.1927)
Ada and Alex, 1984
Silkscreen
30 x 36 inches
© Alex Katz/Licensed by VAGA,
New York, NY
Robert Longo, American (b. 1953)
Mark, 1983
Lithograph
36 ½ x 21 inches
© Robert Longo
101
Rivane Neuenschwander, Brazilian
(b.1967)
Untitled, 2000
Two cibachrome prints, diptych
35 ½ x 23 ½ inches each
© Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
102
Robert Longo, American (b. 1953)
Gretchen, 1983
Lithograph
36 ½ x 21 inches
© Robert Longo
John Newman, American (b. 1952)
Untitled, 1991
Mixed media
60 x 39 ¾ inches
© John Newman
Carter Potter, American (b. 1961)
Dream Sequence #2, 1997
Exposed 35mm film
12 x 16 x 1 1/5 inches
© Carter Potter
103
104
Ed Paschke, American (b.1939)
Kontata, 1984
Lithograph
30 x 20 inches
© Ed Paschke
Matthew Ritchie, British (b. 1964)
unknown, 2003
From the suite “Sea State Five”
Color etching with aquatint
38 3/4 x 24 1/4 inches
© Matthew Ritchie
Italo Scanga, Italian (1932-2001)
Salvare, 1990
Lithograph
18 ½ x 11 ½ inches
© Italo Scanga Foundation
Michelle Segre, American
(b. Tel Aviv 1965)
2, 1998
pigment on paper
23 x 29 inches
Gift of Polly and Mark Addison to the
© Michelle Segre
105
106
George Segal, American
(1924-2000)
Woman’s Hand on Breast (Woman’s
Hand Front View), 1979
Cast paper
10 ½ x 14 x ¾ inches
© The George and Helen Segal
Foundation/Licensed by VAGA,
New York, NY
Yinka Shonibare, British (b. 1962)
Diptych, 1996
Mixed media
19 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches
© Yinka Shonibare
Lorna Simpson, American (b.1960)
Suspended, (The Suicide of Two Young
Girls), 1995
Laser print on felt
13 x 15 1/6 inches
© Lorna Simpson
Frank Stella, American (b.1936)
Black Stack, 1970
Lithograph
40 ¾ x 29 ¼ inches
© 2012 Frank Stella / Artists Rights
107
108
Charles Spurrier, American
(b. 1958)
Untitled, 1996
Steel and tape
27 x 54 ¾ inches
© Charles Spurrier
Frank Stella, American (b.1936)
Pastel Stack, 1970
Silkscreen
41 x 28 inches
© 2012 Frank Stella / Artists Rights
Diana Thater, American (b.1962)
Untitled (Edition for Parkett 60), 2000
(video still)
DVD
52/150
Image courtesy Parkett Publishers
© Parkett Publishers Zurich,
New York, and the artist
Andreas Siekmann, German
(b. 1961)
Untitled
Felt tip pen and watercolor
16 ½ x 13 inches
109
110
Walasse Ting, American (b. China
1929) and Sam Francis, American
(b.1923)
1 Cent Life, 1964
62 lithographs in 16 booklets
16 ½ x 12 x 1 1 /2 inches
© E. W. Kornfeld, Bern
Andreas Siekmann, German
(b. 1961)
Untitled Work
Felt tip pen and watercolor
13 ¾ x 17 inches
Fred Tomaselli, American (b. 1956)
Metalectual x 80, 2001
Iris print
21 x 17 inches
© The Artist/Courtesy James Cohan
Gallery, New York/ Shanghai
111
H.Horace Clifford Westermann,
American (1922-1981)
See America First, 1969
hand colored lithograph
30 x 22 inches
Photo: Jeff Wells / CU Art Museum Art
© Lester Beall, Jr. Trust/Licensed by
VAGA, New York, NY
112
Theo Wujcik, American (b. 1935)
Irwin, 1970
Lithograph
19 x 16 inches
© Theo Wujcik
Altoon, 1970
Lithograph
19 x 16 inches
© Theo Wujcik
113
114
Bengston, 1970
Lithograph
19 x 16 inches
© Theo Wujcik
Moses, 1970
Lithograph
19 x 16 inches
© Theo Wujcik
POINTS OF
VIEW:
Selections from Seven
Colorado Collections
September 8 - December 17, 2011
318 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
cuartmuseum.colorado.edu
© 2012 CU Art Museum.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the copyright
holders.
Published by: CU Art Museum and Wayne F. Yakes, MD.
Curator: Lisa Tamiris Becker, Director, CU Art Museum
Catalogue Design and Production: Greg Davis
Printed by: Clearwater Direct Marketing Solutions, Inc.
Cover: Genia Chef, Cockaigne, 1995 (see p.2)
Back Cover: Alexander Melamid, Portrait of Wayne F. Yakes, MD in my NY
Studio, 2006 (see p.14)
CU ART MUSEUM
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER

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