‘The Word ‘Collection’ Kind of Bothers Me’: Brad Pitt Dishes on Buying and Making Art With Leonardo DiCaprio and Marc Maron

Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio,
stars of the screen and ceramics
studio, made a joint
appearance on comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast
this week to talk about Pitt’s
sculpture practice and their respective art collections, among
other things.

The conversation, recorded in
Los Angeles just prior to the Golden Globes—where both actors were
nominated for their roles in Once Upon a Time… in
Hollywood—opened with Maron recalling the last time he saw
Pitt, at Frieze LA, which Maron referred to as that “Art basil
thing.” (In fact, a lot of people saw
Pitt at Frieze.) Maron
was there supporting his then girlfriend, painter Sarah Cain, who
had mounted an installation in a fake brownstone on the Paramount
Pictures Studios lot. 

“You were outside barking for her, bringing people in to see her
art. I thought it was very sweet,” recalls Pitt before asking Maron
what he really thought of Cain’s work.

“I liked it a lot,” replied the
comedian. “There’s something about abstraction where either it’s
going to work or not.” 

Maron first met Pitt alongside
Thomas Houseago, the British-born, LA-based sculptor whose
studio served as a kind of
home away from-home for Pitt while he was going through his high-profile
divorce with actress Angelina Jolie. 

The three also discussed their
art collecting habits. DiCaprio grew up traveling around LA to
comic book stores and head shops with his dad, a rare comic book
collector who would sell works by cartoonists like Robert Williams
and R. Crumb to local vendors. (Apparently DiCaprio’s father is
still close with Williams and he, along with Leo, also co-produced
a Netflix documentary about the Polish painter and
sculptor Stanislav Szukalski.) Today, DiCaprio is a prominent art collector
who has amassed a trove
of works by artists including Frank Stella, Takashi Murakami,
Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Ed Ruscha.  

“The word ‘collection’ kind of
bothers me,” says Pitt, implying that it sounds too formal.
Nonetheless, the actor has amassed an impressive trove of
works by artists such as
Richard Serra, Marcel Dzama, and Bansky. And his friendship with
Houseago has also turned him into something of sculptor himself. He
recently built a studio in his LA home, and has even hosted Leo a
couple of times for some brotherly ceramics
sessions. 

“What we do [in acting] is such
a collaborative sport,” says Pitt, “[that] to do something that’s
just you, on your own, very solitary, I find very
meditative.” 

Listen to the full episode
of the podcast here.

The post ‘The Word ‘Collection’ Kind of Bothers Me’: Brad
Pitt Dishes on Buying and Making Art With Leonardo DiCaprio and
Marc Maron appeared first on artnet News.