Lester Mark's Private Art Collection

This friday I went to Houston to visit several art museums. The absolute highlight of my trip was going to Lester Mark's home to see his huge private collection of artworks.

He owns three Rauschenberg pieces, two Warhol prints, two of Kusama's painted figures, two Jean Michel Basquiat paintings as well as work by Kiki Smith, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Anselm Kiefer, John Wesley, Louise Bourgeois and the list goes on! I fell in love with his house. His house was not sparse or empty feeling like a lot of galleries are. It was extremely comfortable (although I am a fan of clutter). I really liked that he lived amongst all of this work . The work he owned was extremely diverse and he had everything on display. He said he only sells work to make room for new pieces. Below are a few pictures from his house.

The weirdest piece of artwork in his collection was made by Patricia Piccinini. It was in a small room by itself.

This sculpture is made from silicone, fibreglass, and... human hair.

GELITIN

Gelitin is a group of four artists from Vienna. My favorite of their projects is a 200 foot long pink woolen rabbit they made and installed on an Italian mountainside in 2005. It will live here for 20 years (until 2025), and can be seen from outer space. I like the idea of an object being created by artists that is utterly monumental, especially when its a large pink rabbit. I would really like to climb onto this bunny one day, or see it from outer space.

MARK GROTJAHN

Untitled (Large Coloured Butterfly White Background 10 Wings)

Colored pencil on paper, 176.8 x 130 cm, 2004

Untitled (Green Butterfly)

Oil on canvas, 122 x 86.3 cm, 2002

Untitled (Black Butterfly Dioxide Purple MPG 05)

Oil on linen, 147 x 122 cm 2005

Mark Grotjahn uses hard edge design to create very subtle complexities in his work. He makes very physical surfaces with layering paint. He employs slight hue shifts to create space and perspective.

Although I think Mark Grotjahn's artwork is really beautiful, something that bothers me about his work is the way he titles it. For example the work above is "untitled" then in parenthesis he puts a title ... (Black Butterfly Dioxide Purple MPG 05). First and foremost, I really don't like to think of these images as referencing butterflies. I also think this way of titling is pretentious. When an artist titles something as untitled and then put a title in parenthesis I feel like I'm being tricked.