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| David Hockney, American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman), 1968. Art Institute of Chicago |
In the 1970s and 1980s Frederick and Marcia Weisman were the quintessential L.A. collectors of contemporary art. After their 1979 divorce and split-up of their collection, their philanthropies took different turns. Marcia helped found MOCA and gave that institution its Jasper Johns Map and a stellar set of drawings. She also distributed important works to LACMA and the National Gallery. Fred determined to found an L.A. museum with his name on it. Negotiations with Beverly Hills (over Greystone Mansion) and UCLA fell through. Then in 1991 Pepperdine University opened a small art gallery. A year later, Weisman donated a relatively modest $1.5 million towards the gallery’s red ink, and offered works from his collection on long-term loan. In return the university renamed the gallery the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art.
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| Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu |
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Weisman did not attend Pepperdine, nor did he profess faith in the church with which it was affiliated. He was in fact simultaneously funding a much larger, Frank Gehry-designed Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at Weisman's alma mater, the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. My guess is that Pepperdine was pretty far down Weisman's list, but no more prominent L.A. institution was willing to offer naming rights. At the time of the gift, Weisman said that "young people should have the opportunity to live with art… so they don’t just become bookworms." That risk was not traditionally associated with Surf City U.
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| Frank Gehry's Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis |
Fred, who died in 1994, did not donate much of his collection to either university museum. Most of his collection remains in the the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, which runs a house museum in Holmby Hills. The latter is by far the least visited of the three Weisman spaces. In a residential district and lacking parking, it is open by appointment only. It's fair to say that Fred's once-celebrated collection has faded from consciousness—a trio of vanity museums notwithstanding.
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| Panorama of Frederick Weisman Art Foundation's house museum |
A show at the Pepperdine Weisman, "Work in Progress: The Weisman Museum Collection at 30," is a selection of works acquired since the founding. A few are from the Weisman Art Foundation (notably a 1988 Alison Saar,
Five Guys Named Moe), but most are from other donors.
The Weisman has not made a 180-degree turnaround like the Hammer Museum at UCLA. It has about 500 works, an uneven mix centering on the blue-chip contemporary art that Weisman favored. With just three galleries, the Weisman rarely has opportunity to show its collection. (The upper gallery is now a walk-in workshop where staffers photograph, research, and catalog collection artworks.)
It can be tough to get others to donate to a museum bearing a collector's name. Perhaps that's less of an issue with university museums. The most notable donor in "Work in Progress" is not Weisman but a couple, Peggy and Eric Lieber. Both deceased, they were TV producers (Eric exec-produced the dating show Love Connection). The Liebers gifted assemblages by Ed and Nancy Keinholz, Betye Saar, and Mike Kelley, plus drawings by David Hockney, Larry Rivers, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Gary Simmons.
"Work in Progress: The Weisman Museum Collection at 30" runs through July 30, 2023.
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| Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Carmen from the Merry Go World series, 1991. Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University. Gift of Peggy and Eric Lieber |
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| 1980s works on paper by Andy Warhol, Andres Serrano, and Jean-Michel Basquiat |
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| Mike Kelley, Empathy Displacement: Humanoid Morphology (2nd and 3rd Morphology), 1990. Gift of Peggy and Eric Lieber |
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| Jean-Michel Basquiat, untitled, 1982. Gift of Peggy and Eric Lieber |
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| Julian Stanczak, Quasar-Light, 1975/1978. Gift of Neil and Susan D. Rector |
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| Mary Corse, untitled, 1976. Gift of Robert and Marjorie Ramsdell |
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| Installation view, upper level, with John McLaughlin painting |
Comments
Whatever the case, none of those museums have exactly a cavernous amount of square footage and a large expanse of wall space, so maybe they feel they already have enough stuff on public display.