Throwing out preconceptions about compatibility of classic and modern art, a new exhibition opening today at Lismore Castle mixes two very different collections, writes Gemma Tipton
If you were to think of the world's great art collections, would you think of the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Hermitage? Or would your mind turn to MoMA, Tate Modern, or perhaps the Guggenheim? Are great art collections made up of old masters, full of those still-luminous scenes and portraits that bring characters and places from the past vividly to life? Or are they home to pieces that demand the "is-that-really-art" question that confronts us so often in contemporary galleries?
The answer, of course, is that great art collections can be both; but still we like to think of art in compartments. Old masters, Impressionists, cutting-edge contemporary, Irish, British, American. Classifying things makes them easier to manage and understand, appeals to our sense of order.
Opening up those classifications however, can appeal to entirely different senses - and that's why the exhibition that opens at Lismore Castle Arts in Co Waterford this weekend is so exciting. Wittily called Titled/Untitled, it's an amazing opportunity to see a selection from two of the world's great private art collections. The Titled part comes from the Devonshire Collection, amassed over almost 500 years, ever since Sir William Cavendish married the redoubtable Bess of Hardwick in 1547. (Hardwick came from a penniless background, but by means of property dealing and four marriages became England's richest woman.)
Based at Chatsworth House, the Devonshire Collection includes works by Rembrandt, Renoir, Gainsborough, Canaletto, Reynolds, Sargent and Veronese; more recent additions are by Lucien Freud, Anthony Gormley, and Irish artist Eilís O'Connell.
The Untitled aspect relates to the Miami-based Rubell Family Collection; and if the Devonshires represent the essence of a certain kind of British tradition, then the Rubells are the epitome of the American dream. Don and Mera Rubell began collecting art when they married in 1964. She was teaching in the Head Start programme in New York's Harlem, and Don was a medical student. Back then they had a budget of $25 a month for buying art. Meanwhile, Don's brother, the late Steve Rubell, ran the Studio 54 club in the 1970s and 1980s, which was frequented by the likes of Bianca Jagger, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol.
"We knew Warhol, of course," says Mera Rubell. "He was a man of very few words, he was always capturing the moment, always photographing everything he possibly could. Steve never understood what craziness we were up to in terms of buying all this art, and Andy was very supportive, explaining to Steve what we were doing. He would always take the time to ask us where we had been, who we'd discovered. In fact we actually got to know Keith Haring before he knew Keith Haring, and we knew Jean Michel Basquiat before he knew Jean Michel Basquiat, it was really special. Andy always celebrated that we were spending our very last penny on buying pieces of art. He though that was very cool."
Now in the hotel business, and with an inheritance from Steve, the Rubells have a considerably larger budget to spend, and their collection (of more than 6,000 works) includes art from Haring, Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Takashi Murakami, Charles Ray, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Gregor Schneider and Cindy Sherman.
Many art collectors remark that their passion keeps them relatively poor, but Mera Rubell disagrees. "We'd probably be poorer if we didn't collect, because I don't think we'd be working as hard! I don't think we'd be as motivated to earn the money if we weren't collecting art. With all the other communication in the world, artists still have a way of talking that tells a certain truth that I think is essential for the survival of man. It's pretty important stuff."
Titled/Untitled came about when Lord William Burlington, son of the Duke of Devonshire, heard a lecture by the Rubells in London. "Like all great things in life it came about by chance," he says. "I was lucky enough to hear them give a talk and I was in absolute awe of their passion and their knowledge. Yet their easy-going manner was so refreshing in an art world where people can be so uptight, so later, when I was in Miami, I made a trip to their foundation."
The exhibition Burlington saw at the Rubell's gallery "was a great show; the layout, the care and love - it's all done with love - made me realise I'd love to have a show with them at Lismore." (Lismore Castle is the Irish seat of the Dukes of Devonshire.) A series of discussions followed, which led to the Rubells selecting work from the Devonshire Collection, and vice versa.
Did looking at the Devonshire Collection change how the Rubells saw their own works? "That is really the most intriguing part of this project," says Mera. "For me the idea that something can exist for that long becomes about looking into the future. It's one thing to see 500 years of the past, it's another to look 500 years into the future. In some ways, for me, it was about a sense of having someone in our family in 500 years' time as devoted as William is to collecting. It makes it all feel worthwhile that you can pass on a passion. We've been collecting for 42 years - and we have a few generations engaged in the project." Don and Mera's children, Jason and Jennifer, have joined their parents in expanding the collection. "We're trying to engage our six-year-old grandchildren," she continues. "So it's a kind of selfish fantasy possibility that inside our own family there would be a continued passion for this."
Art collectors can get a bad press, but if it wasn't for them, how much art from the past would have survived until now? Working with the Rubells gave Burlington a fresh insight into what his family's own collection means. "The Devonshire Collection is something I've grown up with, and I see it differently every day," he says. "I don't think their presence in our house made me see the collection differently, but I do think knowing them and getting to know how they work gave me a different impression of the word 'collector'. There's the whole connotation of 'collecting' that, to be honest, I was a little uneasy about before. That's something that they made me feel, that the collector has a really valid role in the art world, the whole dynamic of art. Collectors such as the Rubells, who care so deeply and passionately about art and artists - that, to me, is inspiring. Collecting isn't a dry or academic endeavour, it's based on human relations and passions, straight from the heart, and that's really exciting."
Titled/Untitled contrasts the old and the new. The Rubell's selection from the Devonshire Collection (including works by van Dyck, Munns, Reynolds, van Loo and Gainsborough) will be on show in the contemporary gallery at Lismore Castle, while the Devonshire selection from the Rubell collection, consisting of video works by artists including Schneider, Bass, Sala and Zmijewski, will be installed in the castle's derelict stables. "We're trying to make a show that will reverberate in people's minds," says Burlington. "Good shows, exciting exhibitions, they're the ones that come back to you even when you're not thinking about them, they force themselves onto your consciousness. I really hope that with this contemporary art from Miami, and the old paintings from the Devonshire Collection; and the scene, this modern gallery with the old things in it, and the old buildings with this brand new work in them, I really think those things will all add together to make a stunning show."
So what did the Devonshires and the Rubells make of each other's selections? "I was fascinated by how they related to some of the works in my family's collection," says Burlington. "These people who have travelled the world and seen every sort of art; just to see how they reacted was quite riveting."
"They selected really cutting-edge work," says Mera. "For one thing they made the decision to select all videos, and it speaks to how adaptable contemporary art can be that they will be shown in a series of stables in a courtyard. All the works deal with cultural identity, personal identity, the notions of where is home today, what does it mean to be a human being as we become global citizens, how do we maintain identity, and who are we in the scope of the bigger picture?"
This exhibition is an astonishing chance to see 500 years and 42 years of collecting art, from both sides of the Atlantic, and also shows that tradition is something we can all establish for ourselves; that a new tradition can begin at any time we choose.
Titled/Untitled runs from May 26 to September 30 at Lismore Castle, www.lismorecastlearts.ie. See also www.chatsworth.org and www.rubellfamilycollection.com