This Friday, an exhibition of work from architect Peter Marino’s art collection opens at the Southampton Arts Center. On view are nearly 100 works, by artists like Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, Tom Sachs, and more. The show builds off of Marino’s blockbuster exhibition at The Bass Museum in Miami, “One Way” in 2014.
In advance of the opening, Whitewall spoke with Marino about his collection’s beginning, the first works he purchased, and the paint of writing that very first check to an art gallery.
Peter Marino
Silver Sao
2012
Marble and textured silvered bronze
57 x 39 x 18 inches
Photo by Manolo Yllera
©Peter Marino Architect
WHITEWALL: Tell us about the very first piece you bought, the work that started the collection.
PETER MARINO: The first contemporary pieces I ever bought were two small Polaroids by Lucas Samaras that I saw at Pace Gallery, which was right around the corner from my first job, at SOM. I remember the trauma of writing my first check to an art gallery.
Georg Baselitz
Lehr nich ratte much wilm
2013
Oil on canvas
118.5 H x 108.25 inches
Photo by Jochen Littkemann
©Georg Baselitz 2018
Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
WHITEWALL: How did your collection evolve from then until now?
PETER MARINO: It’s many collections, really and not all I show. I collect rare books, I collect silver, I collect porcelain, I collect paintings, I collect drawings, I collect photography, I collect sculptures, I collect historical and contemporary pieces, I collect 18th century French furniture, Art Deco furniture, Wiener Werkstätte, and Tiffany silver.
Peter Marino
Detail of Bark Box Bronze Sculptural Box
32 x 50.4 x 20
Blackened and gilded bronze
Photo by Luc Castel
© Peter Marino Architect
Art that I collect–which I think reveals a lot about me, my architecture, my boxes, and pieces from my own collection of ancient and contemporary art—will be presented as iconic groups of works and artists that that are part of my life.
WHITEWALL: For the show at Southampton Arts Center, “COUNTERPOINT,” could you share the story behind a few works that are particularly personal to you? What makes this selection for the exhibition unique?
Francesco Clemente
Untitled (Elysian Fields Leaves)
2013
177 x 160 inches
Watercolor on paper
Photo: © Manolo Yllera
© Francesco Clemente
PETER MARINO: The Warhol watercolor of flowers will be exhibited and is signed, “To Peter, Andy Warhol.”
About half the works will be shown for the first time since Miami (“One Way: Peter Marino,” at the Bass Museum of Art in 2014). Glenn Brown’s sculpture We Reeled Drunkenly from Outer Space (2014), Zhang Huan’s Sea No.1 (2011), six by Baselitz, five by Joel Morrison, and a host of work by Tom Sachs.
Anselm Kiefer
Aperiat Terra et Germinet Salvatorem
2006
Oil, acrylic, emulsion, shellac and metal on canvas
181 x 271.5 inches
Photo by Todd-White Art Photography
©Anselm Kiefer
Courtesy of White Cube
“Counterpoint: Selections from The Peter Marino Collection” is on view through September 23.
