specific histories
Gregory Linn viewing works of Jean-Michel Basquiat with Diego Cortez, New York, January 1982. ©2003-2024 linn press.
Time passes. Collections evolve. Memories fade. Histories disappear.
Specific histories: collectors and collecting
An art collection is a physical manifestation of personal experience. It is a potential legacy. Yet, collector stories often vanish with death. Essential personal, social, and cultural art histories are lost.
linn press launched specific histories as a bespoke suite of interrelated services that preserve the unique, personal histories of art collecting, along with practical requirements of collection management. We work with experienced and younger collectors to:
Build collection inventory(ies)
Organize archives (electronic and paper).
Document collector experiences and stories
Prepare a collector’s Specific History.
linn press has built and maintains collection inventories for clients in Europe, the United States and Mexico, using secure, cloud-based software. Our first “collector biography” was an extensive rewrite of interviews conducted with Anne and Wolfgang Titze in 2014 for an exhibition at the Belvedere (Vienna)—Love Story, the Anne and Wolfgang Titze Collection. We also documented their collection in a 404-page German-English publication, which annotated works by 91 artists.
To speak with us about specific histories or to request a descriptive brochure, please call (609) 671-0175 or use the contact form on this website.
Get There First, Decide Promptly: The Richard Brown Baker Collection of Postwar Art, Yale University Press, 2011.
Post-War collecting
The fortunate few who began collecting art in the 60s, 70s and 80s belong to a distinct community. Its members were able to have dynamic, often intimate, interactions with artists, dealers and institutions, resulting in personalized collections that defy today’s familiar homogeneity. These collectors took risks, jump-starting careers and helping to shape the postwar canon. They collected many innovative things: from Haitian-influenced graffiti paintings and photographs of cowboy taken from magazine advertisements, to simulated film stills and aquariums with floating basketballs.
As the post-War collecting community ages, its members are thinking about their legacies. Many collectors share a sense of nostalgia for a slower, more deliberate approach to acquiring art that is missing in today’s high-turnover, brand-led art markets. Almost without exception, estate planning requires rigorous collection documentation, which has oftentimes been neglected. Planning and decision-making invariably trigger personal reflections about a collector’s life in art.
When art changes hands, the associated histories of selection, purchase, loan and display are lost. What often remains is only a “provenance,” which reveals nothing about the passion or energy associated with art-buying and collection-building. Sometimes collector stories are documented in film, like that of the “proletarian art collectors,” Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. Occasionally, we are rewarded with an award-winning catalog and exhibition of a collector’s history, like Jennifer Farrell’s Get There First, Decide Promptly: The Richard Brown Baker Collection.
In the United States, there are two major repositories for collector histories, papers and ephemera: The Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and The Getty Research Center. (Of course, there are repositories at colleges and universities, private and public libraries, and museums.) There are also several online “destinations” where collectors can upload, manage and maintain their art inventories, but they are not proprietary platforms.
Institutional archives and repositories are often stretched to their limits. They have to be selective about which collector histories they accept, organize and maintain. Internet-based collector platforms are particularly problematic. They promise “privacy,” yet they encourage visibility and public access to on-line collections, revealing ownership. We underscore confidentiality in our services and in the management of collector data and biographies.
