Barry Lowen, Noted Collector of Contemporary Art, Dies at 50

Barry Lowen, a television executive whose private collection of contemporary art is competitive with that of any in the West, died Tuesday from the complications of AIDS.

Lowen was 50 and was stricken with acquired immune deficiency syndrome early this year.

He was vice president for creative affairs for Aaron Spelling Productions of Los Angeles at his death after a career in the entertainment industry that included TV production.

But he was equally or better known for the paintings and sculpture that dominated his hillside home above the city.

In an interview with Architectural Digest magazine in 1982, he told how he had begun collecting the work of then-unknown artists a decade earlier.

“I made a decision not to delve into earlier (pre-1960s) periods, those of abstract Expressionism or pop art, but to put together an in-depth collection of works that would support one another.”

Over the years he filled his home with the oils of Frank Stella painted on aluminum, the stone units of Carl Andre, calligraphy from an assemblage of artists and an array of canvas panels.

Outside in his crowded garden hung sculptures of bronze and stone.

To accommodate his flourishing avocation Lowen had covered many windows and sliding-glass doors in his house to give him the unobtrusive white walls he needed for display.

Each room of the home contained complementary pieces “to make a coherent statement within the limitations of the space.”

Lowen also was a founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles and the Entertainment Alliance unit of the Modern and Contemporary Council, a support group for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Lowen, survived by his parents and a brother, had asked that donations be sent to AIDS Project Los Angeles.