What I Buy and Why: Art Collector Pamela Joyner on the High-Maintenance Installation in Her Library That Took Five People a Week to Install
A version of this story first
appeared in the spring 2020 Artnet Intelligence
Report.
What was your first acquisition?
In the 1990s, I purchased Supermarket Flora by Jacob
Lawrence.
What was your most recent acquisition?
A 1980s painting by Mary Lovelace O’Neal.
Which artists are you hoping to add to your collection
this year?
I am working on acquiring pieces by a range of artists from
different generations, including Michael Armitage, Jordan Casteel,
Jadé Fadojutimi, Lauren Halsey, Suzanne Jackson, Nathaniel Mary
Quinn, and Kara Walker.
What is the most expensive work of art that you
own?
There is often a difference between value and cost. I attach the
greatest value to works that remind me most of my personal
relationship with the artist. Kevin Beasley, Shinique Smith, and
Leonardo Drew created commissions based in part on our
relationship. I own a painting that Mark Bradford nicknamed “The
Pamela Painting” because I fell so in love with the work. My life
is enhanced by these relationships in a way that is priceless.
Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Tillie, Lassie,
and the Don (ca. 1998). Photo: Tom Powell Imaging, courtesy
Mnuchin Gallery, New York.
Where do you buy art most frequently?
My buying is keenly artist-focused. I have to gravitate toward
where the work is. This could be any city, gallery, auction house,
or private collection.
Is there a work you regret purchasing? If so,
why?
I am a planner. As a result, I have considered the attributes of
most works long before I actually add a particular artist or object
to the collection. That process leaves me with no regrets.
What work do you have hanging above your sofa?
We hang our home densely as part
of our mission to have work created by artists of color,
particularly those who have been arbitrarily overlooked, available
to be viewed. All the sofas float in the center of the rooms. The
one exception is a sofa over which a photograph by Isaac Julien
hangs.
What artwork, if any, do you have in your
bathroom?
We hang works on paper in the powder rooms because there is good
light and moisture control. The current installation includes
drawings by Moshekwa Langa, Julie Mehretu, and Richard
Mayhew and prints by William T. Williams and Kerry James
Marshall.
Installation view, Firelei Báez, A
Drexcyen Chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways)
(2019). Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery.
What is the most impractical work of art you own? What
makes it so challenging?
A Drexcyen Chroniocommons by Firelei Báez. It is
a flexible installation containing massive amounts of tarp and live
plants that is located in my library. It took the artist and four
art handlers a week to install.
What work do you wish you bought when you had the
chance?
A large Julie Mehretu painting in 2001 or 2002.
If you could steal one work of art without getting
caught, what would it be?
I was completely captivated by Martin Puryear’s elegant US
Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. My favorite work
was A Column for Sally Hemings.
A version of this story first appeared in the spring
2020 Artnet Intelligence Report. To
download the full report, which has juicy details on how A.I. could
transform the art industry, Inigo Philbrick’s rise and fall as a
wunderkind art dealer, and how titans of the finance industry are
infiltrating the auction houses, click here.
The post What I Buy and Why: Art Collector Pamela Joyner on
the High-Maintenance Installation in Her Library That Took Five
People a Week to Install appeared first on artnet
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