Sarasota magazine takes a leisurely tour of the concept of art collecting with smattering of local residents. Each one has a different story to tell. Keith Monda, who collects toys and Contemporary art is a good example of how every collector tells a different story:
Keith Monda, philanthropist and former corporate executive, jokes that he has the “collector’s gene.” As a child, he amassed comic books, toys, marbles and even matchbook covers. Now his focus is on antique toys and modern and contemporary art.
His home overlooking the Gulf of Mexico contains what likely is one of the most stunning private displays of modern and contemporary works in Sarasota, epitomized by a large aluminum sculpture, on a rise between his pool and the beach, by Chattanooga-based John Henry, known in the U.S. and Europe for creating monumental works out of metal. Inside the house, impressive pieces include a series of color-splotched paintings by Bauhaus artist Josef Albers, who emigrated to the U.S. from Nazi Germany, and a 10-foot-by-10 foot painting by the versatile Spaniard Teo González, filled with thousands of individual sea-bluish squares so painstakingly drawn that, at initial glance, it appears to be a textured tapestry. There’s also a tall and striking work by British sculptor Julian Opie, in which a woman’s painted silhouette is sandwiched between two pieces of clear glass. It exerts a siren call on a visitor seeing it for the first time.
Inside the Fascinating, Frenzied World of Art Collecting (Sarasota Magazine)
