Cosmopolitan Routes: Houston Collects Latin American Art. A Series of Interviews With The Collectors

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston celebrates the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the museum´s Latin American art department with this one of a kind exhibit. Literal interviewed its curator Gilbert Vicario and the dialog was published in Literal´s fall issue. We went beyond the curator and we will soon present our readers some conversations that we had with the collectors themselves. Today we talked with Gail Adler which piece by the Argentinean artist RES made it to our cover.

Rose Mary Salum: When did you start your collection?

Gail Adler: My husband has been collecting all his life. I joined him in his passion when we married.

RM: What triggered the desire to collect art?

GA:An appreciation for pleasing, interesting and creative work

RM:Do you focus on one specific country, current, etc?

GA:No

RM:What is the favorite piece of your collection?

GA:An Agnes Martin white painting with very fine graphic lines

RM:Tell us a nice story about one of your pieces?

GA:Livia Marin’s “Fictions of a Use”. When we entered a gallery in Santiago there were thousands of lipsticks in multicolors and each lipstick was carved into a different shape. My husband asked the gallery owner if we could buy 32 lipsticks. The gallery owner asked why? My husband answered that our son collects chess sets, and he would love to select one that looked like a bishop, a pawn, etc. The gallery owner then called the artist who lives in London to see if that was o.k. She thought it was a brilliant idea. Then we selected all the pieces in 4 colors. When we returned home we bought a chess board, and created an extraordinarily beautiful chess set!

RM:What do you have in mind for your next acquisition?

GA:Nothing in mind. We buy what we like when we see it.

Top Image: Chica Azul , 2006 by RES
Bottom Image: Livia Marin’s Fictions of a Use.