The Los Angeles Times profiles Don and Mera Rubell as their Haring show goes up at the Palm Springs Art Museum. According to the Times, this may be more than a one-shot deal:
The partnership is in its infancy, and no one would go on the record about what’s next. But here’s what Steven Nash, executive director of the museum, had to say: “We hope to have an ongoing tradition of excellence and great art brought from Miami.” [ . . . ]
The bicoastal association began serendipitously about a year and a half ago, Nash said, when he met Mark Coetzee, director of the Rubell Family Collection, who was visiting the desert community. Nash, who had recently taken charge of the Palm Springs museum and was overseeing its refurbishment, was open to new ideas. One conversation with Coetzee led to another until a plan shaped up.
The relationship was “evolutionary,” Don Rubell said. “But when it occurred, it felt so good. It’s like a marriage. You don’t want to give your children to a home where they are not appreciated. And the home wants to feel that it is receiving something very worthwhile.”
Of course, the best parts of the profile are the Rubells. Here’s Mera:
“To do what we do, we have to go everywhere, with rolling suitcases that we never check and wash-and-wear clothes, usually black,” she said. “Here’s our schedule for about two months: Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, Paris, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and here, then New York again and Abu Dhabi. We need to see what’s going on in the world.” [ . . . ]
As for deciding what to acquire, Mera offered this: “We look for artists who have something to say that hasn’t been said before. The next piece we buy by an artist is always going to be a piece that has something to say beyond what the artist said before.”
About half the time, the family members agree quickly. Otherwise, “we fight like dogs,” she said. “Democracy is very nasty, but when it works, it brings together something very powerful.”
For Collectors Don and Mera Rubell, a Bond with Palm Springs (Los Angeles Times)
