Unlocking the Code
November 2007
It's under control at the moment," says Susan Bay Nimoy of the passion for art collecting that she shares with her husband, actor Leonard Nimoy."Not really," he counters, with a smile. "We’re still at it aggressively."
"We’re almost at the end of buying large pieces, though, because we now have limited space," Susan clarifies. "We’re focused on collecting really important works on paper—glorious works on paper like those by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Gober, Brice Marden and Gordon Matta-Clark. We are also buying watershed works, like the black plank by John McCracken. We like it when an artist explores new materials or new ideas."
For the Nimoys, that sense of discovery has never grown old. Art collecting was a revelation for these Los Angeles residents, who find it difficult to contain their exuberance when talking about their collection. Since neither grew up in art-centric families, they never thought much about art residing in homes rather than in museums. That changed when they became members of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and started visiting collectors’ homes. "We saw this gorgeous art and realized how exciting it could be to live with it," Susan says. "That was the catalyst to our collecting."
The large and still-growing assemblage—they have never counted the pieces—is split between their Manhattan and Los Angeles residences. Their Los Angeles house, its interior design by Rosemary Peck, combines the airy sophistication of an upscale art gallery with the comfort of a Zen retreat. Art pops out everywhere—sometimes literally. Visitors are greeted at the front door by their recent acquisition, "Ovals Template" (2006), a plasma-cut steel-plate sculpture by Rita McBride. In the living room a conceptual art piece, Isa Genzken’s "Kindershirm" (2004), made of plastic, wood, metal, palm leaf and fabric, seems to float on its pedestal. "This is a very layered work. You have to walk around it," says Susan. "To me it’s all about childhood and the relationship to the culture. It’s very complex and endlessly interesting."
Leonard is a busy photographer who has exhibited widely and published a book of his images and thus has placed collecting on the back burner. "His emphasis was on realizing his own vision," Susan explains. "My focus was on learning about the world of contemporary art. And we did that together by joining MOCA when I became a trustee. I was on a learning curve and brought Leonard along."
Their collection has evolved through the years from outsider art, which they equate with "getting their feet wet," to pieces that fell somewhere in between modern and contemporary art. "Now after 20 years, we’re more drawn to minimalism and conceptualism," says Susan.
Leonard originally came to art through his work as an actor and director. "I did a project in the 1970s called ‘Vincent,’ a one-man show about Vincent van Gogh," he says. "I wrote and staged it and portrayed Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s brother. Because of that project, I did extensive research on him and looked at his work wherever I could."
Leonard’s acting career was an impetus to collecting in another way. When he and Susan met in 1987, he was represented by the Phil Gersh Agency. Phil and Bea Gersh were important contemporary art collectors who had given a large portion of their collection to MOCA in 1989, and the couple opened up the world of contemporary art to the Nimoys.
"For the first couple of years, anytime we saw a piece we would call the Gershes and they would drop everything and come over and see what we had because they were such excited collectors themselves," Leonard remembers. "For a while we wouldn’t buy anything they didn’t approve. Gradually we began to do things on our own, and then things evolved."This evolution has formed a collection that is immensely personal. "The art changes with the light of the day," says Susan. "We both have our offices in the house, so we have plenty of time to enjoy it."
The living room, which looks out over a stately, tree-filled garden, has as a focal point a large C-print mounted on Plexiglas by Thomas Struth titled "Pergamon II Berlin" (2001). An untitled work in welded steel, canvas and wire (1962) by Lee Bontecou leads to the dining room, and Juan Muñoz’s "Single Figure NM" (1995), a bronze wall sculpture with green-gray patina depicting a female figure bent over, her head covered with fabric, is near the front door. "He passed away a few years ago," says Leonard of Muñoz. "He was a great artist."
On the dark-wood living room floor is "Dynamo" (2004), a black plank in polyester resin, fiberglass and plywood work by John McCracken. "The Sacrifice" (2005), a brightly beaded sculpture of a crying baby by Liza Lou, is positioned on the floor with feet and hands up. "That’s pretty much the way she wants it, on the floor, unattended," Leonard explains. An untitled sculpture made of paper (2007) by Tom Kovachevich leans against one wall. "It changes shape depending on humidity. Right now it’s very dry, and it curls up. In the warmer months it flattens out," says Leonard.
While the exterior near the family room takes minimalism outside with its Zen garden of pebbles and large boulders, the art in the family room is more stimulating: A 60-inch by 50-inch surreal digital C-print, "Untitled (Ophelia)" (2000), by Gregory Crewdson is on one wall, and a Mike Kelley black-and-white acrylic on paper work called "Empathy Diplacement: Humanoid Morphology, Number 10" (1990) and five small, various-sized (ranging from 4 inches to 10 inches) sculptures of women titled "Bad Habits" (1996) by Lisa Yuskavage, are in the bookshelf. Susan laughingly refers to these as the "Five Bitches"—fitting for their smug, know-it-all looks.
The works that the Nimoys have picked for their bedroom are more restful. A large (29" x 40") Ed Ruscha drawing on paper, "Anywhere," hangs over the bed, while a graphite-on-paper "Ocean Landscape" by Vija Celmins hangs to the right. Celmins’ works were featured in a major 2007 exhibit at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, where Susan is on the board of overseers.
On the other side of the bed is a large (48" x 40") black-and-white photograph of a nude from 1999 taken by Leonard. "The model is a ballet dancer and teacher," he says. "She lives in New York and the photograph was done there. I love the picture because she is so unposed and undirected. It’s a casual human moment."
It isn’t just by purchasing works that the Nimoys express their art ardor. In 2003 they established the Nimoy Foundation, which recognizes, encourages and supports artist-in-residence programs. Since its inception, the foundation has distributed more than $1.7 million. "We have a select number of leading arts organizations that choose the artists," Susan says. "The first time we meet them is when we have them over to the house for a congratulatory dinner."
Although the Nimoys love contemporary art, they agree that some of it is difficult to understand and appreciate. "You have to read and ask questions," Susan explains. "After you know a bit about the artist and the period he or she was working in, the works unfold. The best work, however, always remains a mystery."
Art&Antiques Los Angeles correspondent Kathy Bryant is the former art critic for the
Orange County Register and has written on antiques for The Los Angeles Times.Nimoy’s Next Frontier
Leonard Nimoy’s home studio serves as a mini-gallery of his works. There are black-and-white photographs from his "Shekhina" series (2002), which features slender women representing Shekhina (a Hebrew term for a feminine manifestation of God on earth), and new images from "Full Body Project" (2007). "After a show of works from ‘Shekhina,’ a large-bodied woman came up to me and asked if I’d like to work with other body types. So I photographed her, and the reaction to those photographs was so profound that I began to explore body size."
The models for "Full Body Project" are from the San Francisco plus-size burlesque troupe "Fat-Bottom Revue." They and Nimoy replicated such iconic images as Matisse’s "Dance," Marcel Duchamp’s "Nude Descending a Staircase" and photographs by Herb Ritts. The book has just been published by Five Ties Publishing, Brooklyn, November 1.
"I’ve been a photographer since I was a teenager," Nimoy says. "Since then I’ve always had a connection to black-and-white photography. After doing the ‘Star Trek’ series and ‘Mission Impossible,’ I considered changing careers. I studied at UCLA’s photography department and followed commercial photographers in L.A. After that, I decided I wanted to do fine-art photography instead and keep acting and directing. However, for the last 14 years, I’ve withdrawn from theatrical work and I just do photography." Leonard is represented by several galleries, including the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Louis Stern Fine Arts in Los Angeles.