The Collector: Allan Stone’s Life in Art 2006
Distributed by Microcinema International/Microcinema DVD, 1636 Bush St., Suite #2, SF, CA 94109; 415-447-9750
Produced by Olympia Stone
Directed by Olympia Stone
DVD, color, 62 min.
Sr. High - Adult
Art, Contemporary Art History
Date Entered: 01/14/2008
Reviewed by Janis Tyhurst, Reference Librarian, George Fox UniversityThis documentary is a tribute to the life and work of Allan Stone from his daughter, Olympia Stone. A brief history of the Abstract Impressionists and the New York School of Painting is interlaced with Allan’s growing interest in modern art. Olympia Stone has woven interviews with artists and art critics about the art scene of the times with the impact Allan had on the art world.
Allan Stone was fascinated by contemporary American art from an early age. While working as a lawyer, Elaine de Kooning, wife of Willem de Kooning, came to him for legal advice. They became friends and Elaine urged Allan to follow his dreams of working in the art world. Allan Stone opened his first New York art gallery in 1960 and moved to the 82nd Street Gallery in 1962. Interviews with Allan, family members and close friends, as well as historical home movie footage provide a more personal look at the man.
One aspect of the man is demonstrated from the very opening of the documentary. Allan Stone is not just an art collector, his is an obsessive collector of any type of art. His very large home is literally filled with an amazing and eclectic collection of art. His collection includes ‘traditional’ artworks by Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Estes and Willem de Kooning to fetishes from third world countries to the preserved heads of a German missionary and his Hawaiian lover. In one interview, Allan says that he looks for a visceral reaction from art and if he gets it, he is obsessed with having it. When Olympia asks him to explain his “obsession” to collect anything that gives him a visceral reaction, he replies that he does not want to analyze why he is so compulsive about collecting art other than to say that he loves the energy and stimulus he gets from finding something.
This documentary is an intimate view of one man who contributed to the growth and development of the New York art scene. It will be of interest to anyone who is interested in American art, especially that of the Abstract Impressionists and the Pop Movement.