Paulina Kolczynska Conversation with Dennis and Debra Scholl
Dennis and Debra Scholl have been collecting contemporary art together for 24 years. They are the founding chairs of the Guggenheim Museum Photography Acquisition Committee and the Tate American Acqu7isition Committee. A show of their photography collection entitled “imperfect Innocence: Selections from the Scholl Collection, 1992-2002” will tour in 2003 at venues including the Baltimore Contemporary Art Museum and the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art. Paulina Kolczynska: Why did you start collecting? The Scholls: We both had an initial interest in art, but it was Dennis who really waned to collect. We started with contemporary prints in 1978. Our collection included pieces by Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Susan Rothenberg, John Baldessari and Elizabeth Murray. We stopped collecting for about five years while we were starting a business and then started again about ten years ago. We got back into collecting by going to the auctions and coincidentally acquiring three photo-based works by Lorna Simpson, Barbara Kruger and Alfredo Jaar. Once you own three of anything it becomes a collection! Paulina Kolczynska: Was it then you decided to create a purely photographic collection? The Scholls: We asked ourselves whether a collection based solely on photo-based art could be a collection. If this wasn’t too narrow a focus. The difficulty about collecting, I think is to make sure that your collection is not so idiosyncratic and personal that it doesn’t mean anything to other people. But also, that it’s not so broad that you are unable to establish a relationship between the works in the collection. It is a tension to get this balance right. We have decided to focus on art from our own time and photography-based works.
Paulina Kolczynska: Since you have a strict time frame, do you buy in-depth works by one artist or only selected examples? If so, do you resell older pieces? The Scholl: WIn general, we try to collect in-depth. When we buy for the first time, we try to get at least two pieces. And since it is about art from our time, we buy very early work, it’s much easier to retain everything. Whatever we acquire in particular year is reflective of how the art world looked that year. We are close enough to the cutting edge art world to be focused on what we thought was interesting at that time. So, it’s not so important to resell works as we go forward. Paulina Kolczynska: Can you describe the selection process? Paulina Kolczynska: Primarily, you have examples from the 90’s and early 21st century. How do you go about choosing the actual artist and do you take into consideration the intellectual context of the work? The Scholls: At the beginning we acquired brand new work by emerging artists. Over the past 3-4 years, however we have found that in order to reflect the innovations and the direction of the chosen artists we have to acquire works by the artist from the previous generation and create a context that helps explain the direction of the new work. We enlarged our contemporary collection by adding works by artists who were mentors to the emerging artists we collect. That’s why we acquired pieces by John Baldessari, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and the Bechers. These are all artists that are universally admired by the current generation of photographers. In order to understand where the inspiration and artistic background of emerging artists came from, we had to include works by their mentors. Paulina Kolczynska: Who are yours primary consultants? Do you discuss your decisions with the curators or collectors? Paulina Kolczynska: You also have a special relationship with a number of curators who, by invitation “curate” a display of your collection at your home. How did this come about ? Paulina Kolczynska: In anumber of cases, you have stressed that the Scholl Collection is about “our time”. Time, however, goes foreword. Whatever is current becomes the past. And also changes is your taste. How has your taste changed over the past decade? The Scholls: Over the years, we have started gravitating towards more conceptual contemporary photography. We look for smart and intellectually challenging pieces. Art is never just about beauty for us –never. Paulina Kolczynska: So your choices are more European, and yu look at art rather with your brains then with your eyes? Paulina Kolczynska: As I understand you also do studio visits, is it important to you that a gallery already represents the artist ? The Scholls: What is important that the artist is going to be part of the contemporary art world. There are always undiscovered great works that are not looked at and not represented, but that is not the situation we’re interested in. Dealers serve an invaluable function in the art world. The building of an artist’s career ( as well as building a collection) is a process and we participate in this process by acquiring the work at an early stage of the artist’s career. Paulina Kolczynska: Have you ever thought about your collection as an investment? What is your opinion on art as commodity? The Scholls: We try very hard to ignore this side of collecting, but it becomes very difficult as things escalate. You can’t help but recognize that a work of art you have acquired is now valued at five times or even twenty times your acquisition price. We try not to be impacted by that, or in how we value that over 200 pieces we currently have in our possession. Collecting is something joyful for us. We try to remember that on builds a collection only as a caretaker, since no one lives forever. So ultimately, we want to be fortunate enough to put it together and then enjoy if for a while. The key is to exercise your eye and enjoy the emotional and intellectual experience of the building the collection.
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