HomeNewsPressPress Archive 2005Do Art and Wall Street Mix? A Conversation with Donald Marron.

Bloomberg News, 04.02.2005

  
Do Art and Wall Street Mix? A Conversation with Donald Marron.

Even if he weren't six foot six, Donald Marron would loom large in the art world.

Marron, 70, is among the world's top 200 collectors, according to ArtNews magazine. He was president of New York's Museum of Modern Art from 1985 to 1991 and has been a trustee since 1975. And for decades, he amassed contemporary paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures for Paine Webber Group Inc., the brokerage he ran from 1980 until it was sold to UBS AG in 2000.

Beginning today, the public can assess Marron's eye for art. ''Contemporary Voices: Works from the UBS Art Collection'' opens at MoMA and amounts to a selected survey of art created since 1950. Of the roughly 850 pieces Marron bought for Paine Webber, UBS is giving 44 to MoMA, 40 of which are on display. UBS is lending another 24 to the exhibit.

The gifts include pieces by Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and Gerhard Richter, and by lesser-known names: American Lorna Simpson, Latvia-born Vija Celmins and Blinky Palermo, who was German.

Marron's day job now is chairman and chief executive of Lightyear Capital, a private equity investment concern with $2 billion under management. Its Park Ave. headquarters is filled with contemporary art. In an interview there, Marron sat facing an Ed Ruscha 2004 pastel acrylic on paper called ''Tut Tut,'' which resembles, if anything, a symmetrical mountain in profile. He spoke with Philip Boroff.

Getting Started

Boroff: Did you dream about one day running a brokerage so you could be a big-time art collector?

Marron: No. People ask me when it started. I loved art at a young age. I went to the cubism room at the old Museum of Modern Art, with pieces by Picasso and Braque. It made me excited. One of the first pieces I bought was a little Albert Bierstadt. I don't remember which one. It was not expensive in today's terms. After Hudson River School paintings, I did buy a few black and white American prints from the early 20th century: Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper. I was also starting to build a contemporary collection.

Boroff: Where did you buy?

Marron: Those were the days when Soho was growing into the center of contemporary art. There was a building, 420 West Broadway. In it was housed Leo Castelli, and his ex-wife was right above him. They were the two leading galleries from the end of the 1960s. It was a way to be in touch with the new art.

Boroff: You ran Mitchell Hutchins, the asset manager, until 1977. When you merged with Paine Webber, was it a tough sell to introduce collecting there?

Palpable Energy

Marron: I decided to hang up a few contemporary works to see whether people felt comfortable. Good contemporary art usually reflects the energy of the society that created it. Wall Street is all about the present and anticipating the future.

We'd hang them in public corridors. Over time, people started to get an affinity to some works. We always had a policy that if an artist wanted his work to go to a museum for shows, we lent them. And when a piece would go, people would say they missed them. That encouraged us to build and collect.

Boroff: Is there a business justification to collecting? Brand marketing?

Marron: That's not the way I would describe it. In the early 1990s, we decided to do a show of our pictures. This was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the first time our art got out, beyond New York. We got calls from clients who wanted to go and know what's happening.

So this was of interest to our clients and something of quality. Paine Webber was involved with it, and of interest to our employees. The collection got wide exposure, and that was good for everyone.

Competition

Boroff: Is it harder to justify collecting today?

Marron: I wasn't collecting in this era. Art was modestly priced. A high percent of the pieces from the show were bought about the time they were made. It's harder now. There's more competition. Museums have expanded and they're more active. While collecting is still a good thing, it's not new.

Boroff: How did the gift happen?

Marron: In the mid 1990s, we were talking about whether we could have a show in New York. That got to be a question of making a gift of some of the works to the museum. When we had the deal with UBS, I said to Marcel Ospel, the chairman, that we've been having conversations with the Modern. He said, '' if you gave a strong indication this was going to happen,'' we'll do it.

Boroff: Is there an art-market bubble?

Marron: I don't know. The people I know who buy know what they want, know the history of the artists. From the art point of view, they're informed collectors.

Boroff: What advice do you give to young collectors?

Enthusiasm

Marron: You have to look at a lot of pieces. Even if you don't like a particular period, it will give you a sense of what you like more than others. The second thing is building relationships with dealers. Good dealers are always looking for new artists and will invest time in new collectors if they're serious.

Boroff: Do you need a fortune to collect today?

Marron: If you buy young artists, you need enthusiasm, and help.

Boroff: Has your taste changed?

Marron: I think about that all the time. I don't think it's changed. I just add things. You learn. You're looking for things that excite you.

The show runs through April 25. MoMA is at 11 West 53rd Street.

by Philip Boroff

To contact the writer or the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at (1)(212) 893-3486 or mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.

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