Not Afraid: Rubell Family Collection - Hardcover

Coetzee, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714843938 ISBN 13: 9780714843933

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2004

Synopsis

This book is the first publication on one of the largest and most important private contemporary art collections in the world today, the Rubell Family Collection.
Collectors since 1967, the Rubell family (now based in Miami, Florida) today owns some 6,000 works of art, from paintings to sculptures, photography, videos, and installations, by the most significant artists working from the 1970s to the present. The collection reads like a "Who's Who" of contemporary art, and includes works by Carl Andre, Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Christian Boltanski, Maurizio Cattelan, Francesco Clemente, Gregory Crewdson, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas, Dan Flavin, Gilbert & George, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Peter Halley, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Mike Kelley, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Takashi Murakami, Chris Ofili, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Charles Ray, Thomas Ruff, Anri Sala, David Salle, Wilhelm Sasnal, Cindy Sherman, Gregor Schneider, Haim Steinbach, Thomas Struth, Sarah Sze, Rosemarie Trockel, Luc Tuymans, Andy Warhol, Christopher Wool, Lisa Yuskavage, Zhang Huan, etc.
It showcases some 300 reproductions of the most important works in the collection. It is organized neither chronologically nor alphabetically, but is rather intended to convey the experience of visiting the collection, through the successive installations of the collection since it was opened to the public in Miami in 1996.
Neither a catalogue nor an art history manual, this book is a collection of images of contemporary art at its best. It also includes an introduction by collection curator Mark Coetzee, an interview with the Rubells on the collection and the process of collecting, and a full list of plates.
Originally based in New York City, the family moved to Miami in 1993 and entered the hotel industry, restoring and re-opening Art Deco hotels such as the Albion. Their collection was first installed in a New York City warehouse; since 1996 it is housed in a former Drug Enforcement Agency building on 29th Street in Miami. Comprising 40,000 square feet of exhibition space, the exhibition changes every six months, and is open year round to the public. The collection welcomes 22,000 visitors a year, making the old DEA warehouse a must-see for every contemporary art fan visiting Miami.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Coetzee was born in South Africa in 1964. A critic, art historian and curator, he has been the director of the Rubell Family Collection since 2000.

From Publishers Weekly

One of the country’s most significant collections of contemporary art is housed in a former Drug Enforcement Agency warehouse in Miami. The Rubell collection contains more than 6,000 works by artists such as Warhol and Basquiat, Lisa Yuskavage and Damian Hirst—all amassed by Mera and Don Rubell and their children Jason and Jennifer. This book features 300 full-color photos of the family’s collection, kicked off by a brief introduction by collection director Coetzee and a short interview with Coetzee, Mera and Don. The collection seems particularly strong in photography, with everyone from Cindy Sherman to Rineke Dijsktra and young British artist Richard Billingham represented. But it also includes a large selection of paintings, sculptures and works on paper, making it a fairly representative sampling of works by western artists from the last 25 years or so. Some of the pieces, like Keith Haring’s 1989 series of drawings Untitled (Against All Odds), are shown in situ at the warehouse, and are therefore impossible to see clearly in detail. Throughout the volume, artists’ names are featured in a large faux-stenciled font, but one name that doesn’t come up at all is that of Don’s brother, the late Studio 54 impresario Steve Rubell, whose estate aided the acquisition power of the clan. A clear joy in collecting comes through in the introduction, and in the selections themselves. As Don Rubell notes: "We just bought the pieces that really amazed us at the moment we encountered them....every time we buy a work, it’s the same feeling. We always think it’s the most exciting thing we ever looked at."
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Edition details

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0714843938
• ISBN 13: 9780714843933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240