Art Lies, Volume 23, Summer 1999 Page: 11
60 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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ArtLies
by Janet Stiles Tyson
Slap me, honey. I'm fixin' to say some mean-
spirited things about those people in the so-
called Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Those folks buyin' those fancypants sport u-
ti-li-ty vehicles and sendin' their kiddos to
fancy schools and never cookin' their own
food. They should be buyin' more art.
Collectin' art. You know what I'm talkin'
about?
Actually, what I'm talking about-and
much as I'd like to, I probably can't sustain the
old-boy talk for an entire commentary-is the
sorry state of the collecting community in
North Texas.
Yes. There is enough going on here that we
can speak of a community of collectors. But,
my gosh, they are akin to voices crying out in
the wilderness-so few and far between are
they, so rarely are they emulated by affluent
Boomers, Gen X-ers and whatever we call that
even younger generation of sophisticated
consumers.
There are times when the situation chaps me
so badly, there are times when, if I had a gun .
.. You know what I'm talkin' about?
But really, look at the demographics: A robust
economy, an increasingly educated and affluent
middle class, and (if nothing else) more and
more consumers out to prove their sophistica-
tion. I'm talking emulators. Those people who
supposedly are looking around at what's hip.
And what could be more hip than buying art
(far more so than making it, doncha know) and
going around to galleries (maybe with an expen-
sive consultant) and schmoozing with cool
people?
And, truly, almost as rewarding as the act of
making art is the chance to look and learn and
read and talk and think art. And then to choose
something to live with for a long, long time.
Again, demographics. I'm talking about
people who go to museums, take their kids tomuseum workshops and museum school and
art camp. Our museums are bursting with
happy visitors, many of whom actually are
looking at the art.
We have people who love to visit artsy
gallery districts, who shop in museum shops
who think living in a loft is totally fabulous.
Why aren't they buying art? Why aren't they
buying with ambitions to collect art the way
they collect Prada and Polo?
Is it because they've decided to put money
into handbags and shirts and Boxsters and not
art? They want to look like they imagine
collectors look, without really putting their
money on the line and buying what collectors
buy?
And I mean serious art. Not a print of a
painting by a prodigy from the former Soviet
Union.
If so, I'm here to say, we are never going to
prove to the world that we occupy the real
center of the universe.
Granted, Dallas tries to do its part.
There are a number of passionate collectors
in Dallas, who buy European and American
art, decorative arts and international contem-
porary art.
These people not only buy art, they
constantly refine their holdings. They lend
works to public exhibitions. Some open their
collections to visitors. They give works to area
museums and they give money with which
museums can buy works. They patronize
galleries and artists, art advisers and private
dealers. They talk with curators and other
collectors. They travel to look at art.
They make it known that they buy art. They
generate excitement about art collecting.
And they, themselves, learn. They grow.
They have fun.
They may be in their 20s and bursting with
ambition and savvy. They may be in their 80s
and every bit as passionate about acquiring art
as they were when they bought that first print
or piece of tribal sculpture.
They are people like Howard Rachofsky,
Ray Nasher, Deedie Rose, and Nona and
Richard Barret.
But even though there still are too few of
them in Dallas, I wonder: Could just one of
them move over here to Fort Worth?
Fort Worth. Where the West begins-and
art collecting peters out.
We've got the great museums. World-class,
as we love to say. And everyone, evenDallasites, hastens to concur.
We also have people with awesome amounts
of money and the best educations money can
buy. Men and woman of tremendous ambi-
tion, with civic pride and concern for commu-
nity. Who cannot seem to get it together to
collect art.
Who figure that, well, they bought some art,
including a Warhol and a New Mexico land-
scape, 19 years ago and it still looks pretty
good.
What the ... ?
Maybe two things.
For one, I don't think museums in Fort
Worth are sufficiently needy. Rich as they are,
they do little (if anything) to cultivate collec-
tors.
This is a generalization, admittedly. The
Amon Carter Museum probably is most
aggressive about educating potential donors of
artworks. The Kimbell Art Museum courts
select collectors.
So it comes down to the Modern Art
Museum of Fort Worth, which obviously is
best poised to stimulate the kind of collecting
that would serve living artists, galleries and
itself.
In fairness, the Modern has programs that
attempt to educate and encourage patrons. But
they're not enough.
Which brings up point two: Even our elite
have populist tastes.
Once upon a time, I'm told, Fort Worth was
home to some adventuresome art patrons. But
no more.
On those rare occasions when the people
who should be buying art actually do support
contemporary artists, they buy stuff that's
colorful and kinda fun, or has some buttes and
mesquite in it.
If it starts getting angry or complicated, or if
it's not something all their friends are buying,
forget it.
Honey, slap me! I can't believe I'm saying
these things about the city I love. And it's
partly a lie: There are seven or eight people in
Fort Worth who collect contemporary art
with varying degrees of consistency and ambi-
tion.
But I'd love Foat Wuth even more if more
people here bought real art.
You know what I'm talkin' about? O
- Janet Stiles Tyson is an artist and
art critic living in Fort Worth.
ARTLIES SUMMER 1999 11
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Lightman, Victoria H. Art Lies, Volume 23, Summer 1999, periodical, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228053/m1/13/?q=%22Bryant%2C+John%22: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .