ASPEN ART MUSEUM Summer Magazine 2021

ASPEN ART MUSEUM Warhol and Collecting

DEC 03 2021 – MAR 27 2022

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“We always feel very fortunate that we had the eye to choose these pieces when they weren’t very popular.”

RAS You have a beautiful Warhol collection and you are generously lending a work to the exhibition. Is it the Double Elvis [1964] that you are loaning? JN We own a Double Elvis but we are actually lending our Two Marilyns [1962]. RAS Whendid Two Marilyns come into your collection? JN Oh, you can’t ask us dates: we don’t remember! A long time ago. We started collecting Warhol at the end of the 1960s, when his work was a lot more affordable than it is today. We feel very fortunate that we had the eye to choose these pieces when really, they weren’t very popular at the time. We also have Large Campbell’s

JN They’re all hanging in our home. We live with them, and one day, hopefully, they’ll go to a museum. MN We also lend to museums and shows. We have three different homes, so there’s art in all of them. RAS I think that, when you live with art for many years, you sometimes see things that other people don’t get to see. Is there something about Two Marilyns that holds a place in your heart? When you first saw it, or even now when you’re looking at it all these years later? JN We love it. It’s silver and black, it’s a beautiful piece and the museum didn’t have a Marilyn for the show.

Soup Can [1965], Self-Portrait (Shockwig) [1986], Hamburger [1986], Double Elvis , Two Marilyns and a few Jean-Michel Basquiat-Warhol collaborations. Warhol was hot in New York at the end of the 1960s, but he didn’t have the market recog- nition that he developed later on. So, we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. MN All credit has to go to Jane because she really had the eye. When we were first married, we agreed that we would collect art and it would be something we would do together. But Jane has a terrific background—her parents were collectors, she was an art major and so when we lived in New

York, from 1973–75, we went to lots of galleries, we hung out with a lot of artists and I really think our collection started to take shape during those years. RAS Did you buy Two Marilyns from a gallery or later at auction? JN Honestly, I don’t remember if we bought it from Leo [Castelli], or if we bought it at auction, because we buy at both. Our weekends in New York were usually spent pushing the stroller through different galleries and, of course, Leo Castelli was, at that time, the gallery in New York. RAS Do you live with the painting normally? Is it hanging in your home?

Above left A collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basqiat, GE Tobacco Section (1984–85) Above and opposite Works by Andy Warhol: Brillo Boxes (Set of 3) (1968), Large Campbell’s Soup Can (1965), Hamburger (1986) and Two Marilyns (1962)

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