The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation is a non-profit arts foundation located on North Carolwood Drive in the

Holmby Hills Holmby Hills is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. The neighborhood was developed in the early twentieth century by the Janss Investment Company, which developed the rest of Westwood as well as other Los Ang ...

district of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

and

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

work in the Frederick R. Weisman collection are displayed in a "living with art—

house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

" context, with guided public tours by appointment with the foundation.http://www.weismanfoundation.org/tours.html . accessed 12.22.2010

History

Frederick Rand Weisman was the third of five sons born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

to Russian immigrants who settled in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

in the 1890s. His father, William, established enterprises in a number of areas, including

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

and the fur industry. Like his father, Frederick Weisman would become a businessman. Weisman and his wife Marcia Simon, sister of art collector

Norton Simon Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907 – June 2, 1993) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death, he had amassed a net worth of nearly US$10 billion. ...

, began collecting art in the late 1940s, starting with the works of American and European postwar artists including

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

, Alberto Giacometti, and

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

. From 1960 to 1964, Marcia Weisman hosted monthly proselytizing classes for novice collectors, taught by Irving Blum and

Walter Hopps Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...

, whose

Ferus Gallery The Ferus Gallery was a contemporary art gallery which operated from 1957 to 1966. In 1957, the gallery was located at 736-A North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. In 1958, it was relocated across the street to 723 North La Cienega ...

in West Hollywood was the first to show

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in Ma ...

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...

, and Roy Lichtenstein in Los Angeles. By the mid-1960s, their collection had become well known.

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

portrayed them in a 1968 double portrait called ''

American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman) ''American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman)'' is a 1968 painting by British artist David Hockney. The painting is currently in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It was accessioned by the museum in 1984 after being donated by ...

'', now in the Art Institute of Chicago, that has become one of his most famous works. The Weismans were divorced in 1979 and split the collection. While Marcia Simon Weisman donated some of her half to the newly formed

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ...

, Frederick Weisman established the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in 1982. He said, “Art is a way of life. I live with art, work with art, and fly with art, but most of all I enjoy sharing it.” It is true that he was a passionate collector. But greater than the pleasure of collecting the works of art he loved was his joy in sharing them. He said, “When you are as fortunate as I have been, you have a responsibility to share with others.” Until 1983, Weisman was considering buying a permanent exhibition space in New York for housing or exhibiting the collection. In 1986, Weisman dejectedly withdrew from plans on moving his collection to the

Greystone Mansion The Greystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor Revival mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Trousdale Estates of Beverly Hills, California, United States. Architect Gordon Kaufm ...

, after two years of negotiations. Weisman also spoke of constructing a sculpture garden for the

Barnsdall Art Park Barnsdall Art Park is a city park located in the East Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. Parking and arts buildings access is from Hollywood Boulevard on the north side of the park. The park is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument ...

. Like

, he later engaged in negotiations with

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

to be the eventual keeper of his collection and offered to pay the cost of building a museum. When Weisman eventually opened the

art collection A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive or library, where the contents may be more paper-based, ...

at his Los Angeles estate to the public, he wanted to share the experience of living with art – rather than the more formal protocol of seeing art in a gallery or museum. He thought that by encountering works of art in a domestic environment and seeing how they could be enjoyed on a day-to-day basis at the place where he himself lived from 1982 through 1992, people might leave with a fresh view of Modern and contemporary art.http://www.weismanfoundation.org/museum_info.html . accessed 12.22.2010 In 1986, Henry T. Hopkins, then director of the San Francisco Museum of Art, became director of the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation of Art which he led until 1991. In 1994, Weisman died, leaving the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation under the direction of his second wife and former

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...

conservator Billie Milam.

Weisman architecture

The Weisman Foundation estate, located in the Holmby Hills area of western Los Angeles, consists of two landmark buildings in spacious gardens. The main structure is the

Mediterranean Revival style Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonial ...

two-story residence designed in the late 1920s by Los Angeles architect Gordon B. Kaufman. The Weisman home exhibits the fine craftsmanship characteristic of the period, including custom decorative treatments on the walls and ceilings. A postmodern style contemporary annex, or art pavilion, designed by architect Franklin D.Israel, was added in 1991 to accommodate larger-scale works. Today the Foundation main house, annex pavilion, and surrounding gardens are accessible to the public by appointment only on guided tours.

Collection

More than four hundred works of art are on display at the Foundation. The collection includes works by European Modernists including Cézanne, Picasso, and

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

and Surrealist works by

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...

, Joan Miró, and

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bound ...

. The holdings in postwar art include works by Giacometti,

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and severa ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and hi ...

, Robert Rauschenberg, and

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

;

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

paintings by

de Kooning Kooning is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Willem de Kooning (1904–1997), Dutch American artist * Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989), American artist {{Short pages monitor