Lover of the Arts: a Collector Profile of Alicia Koplowitz

While passionate and active in many areas of society, culture, and scientific researcy (maintaining a steady interest in dance, world travel, and the two foundations she leads), Alicia Koplowitz has made a particular name for herself in the world of art collection.  Living in the luxurious area of Madrid known as La Moraleja, Alicia Koplowitz has lined the walls of her home with paintings and sculpture pieces from the Baroque, Impressionist, and countless other artistic periods.  The collection that Koplowitz has amassed through the years is impressive, to say the very least.

As a native-born Spaniard (a Jewish businessman, Koplowitz’ father had relocated to Spain from Poland to escape Nazi persecution) it should come as no great surprise to the reader to find that many of the art pieces Alicia Koplowitz values most come from artists who have been born from the same soil.  Goya’s work features heavily in Koplowitz’ collection.  Also present is the enviable adquisition of Goya’s Celestina y Maja en el Balcón, a work which Koplowitz acquired from the heirs of Bartolomé March for an undisclosed amount.

Celestina y Maja en el Balcon, Oil.

Goya.
Alicia Koplowitz has bid on and purchased numerous works from Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions by Picasso, Modigliani, and Barceló.  Her taste is known art world-wide as impeccable.  She has her hands in numerous businesses in the United States, mostly hotels.  Her hotels in Milan and Lisbon are also succeeding, and she is ranked as the richest woman in Spain.

Chistoph Büchel’s “Training Ground for Democracy”

Chistoph Büchel’s work entitled “Training Ground for Democracy” has found itself altered and expanded due to the legal processes which were incurred due to the difficulties the artist and the gallery had with each other.

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams won the lawsuit against Büchel, and won the right to exhibit Büchel’s incomplete work, which he had stopped progress on as the artist-gallery relationship grew more and more acrid. When the artist community balked at the thought of an unfinished work presented to the public without the artist’s consent, Mass MoCa relented and dismantled “Training Ground,” which had been housed in a warehouse before the lawsuit commenced.

Today, “Training Ground” has leaked out of the warehouse and now includes an exhibition of the legal correspondence between the lawyers, museum officials, and the artist himself. Fueled by rage over the destruction of his art piece, as Büchel claims Mass MoCa has done by suing and later dismantling the installation, Christoph Büchel has expanded his art and taken it in a new direction and a new metaproject based on the ideals of free speech and freedom of expression.

Lies, Accusations, and Accounting

The trouble between Büchel and Mass MoCa includes the museum’s assertion that the artist was “difficult” to deal with, while Büchel maintains that MassMoCa lied about budgets.

Büchel, according to the New York Times, has investigated heavily into the accounting side of the museum, familiarizing himself with budget concerns and endowment issues to an extreme degree. It would seem that the ongoing battle between the artist and gallery has brought the artist further from his art as he gets bogged down in the bureaucracy of art exhibition, rather than concerning himself with the tenets of its creation.

Read the full New York Times article here.