Doumani Donation Sets UCLA on Art-Collecting Path

A stark white seaside house--widely praised as a jewel of contemporary artistic collaboration--has been bequeathed to UCLA. World Trade Bank chairman Roy Doumani and his wife, Carol, have agreed to donate their unusual Venice residence to the university upon their deaths and have established a $2-million endowment for maintenance of the property.

Total value of the Doumani gift is estimated to be between $7 million and $10 million, though the donation has not been formally appraised, according to UCLA press officer Karen Mack. The house, designed by sculptor Robert Graham, at 4 Yawl St., is worth about $3 million to $4 million. Graham’s figurative sculptures and an array of functional works by other artists, also included in the gift, are valued at $2 million to $4 million.

The Doumani gift, announced at a Wednesday morning press conference, “symbolizes the university’s re-dedication to the arts” and signifies a newly “intensified partnership between the university and the Los Angeles art community,” said Andrea Rich, vice chancellor of academic administration. Rich noted that the announcement came in the midst of a major reorganization of the university’s art department that includes the creation of two “brand new schools,” one for fine art, the other for film, television and theater.

“We want to be on the cutting edge of art,” Rich said. “We’ve been a little sleepy in the area of collecting in the past. This announcement symbolizes our desire to get into the collecting business.”

The donation is also “the first step” in a proposed campaign for the arts, said Alan Charles, vice chancellor of public relations. “No goals for the campaign have been established. It’s only a gleam in our eye, but it will be the next major step for the university.”

UCLA officials denied that the Doumani gift is an attempt to make up for the loss of Norton Simon’s collection, valued at more than $750 million. (Simon early in 1987 announced an “agreement in principle” to donate his extraordinary collection to UCLA if the university would maintain his museum in Pasadena and build a new structure in Westwood for part of the collection. Negotiations reportedly broke down a few months later, but another year passed before the deal was officially pronounced dead.)

“There’s been a lot of talk” about potential gifts to the university, Roy Doumani said. “This isn’t the Norton Simon collection, but we hope it may open up new avenues for further gifts of this sort to the university. It may take something like this to break the logjam.”

The Doumanis are long-time active supporters of the university. Roy Doumani, a 1958 graduate of UCLA, is a member of the UCLA Foundation Board of Trustees and co-chair of the Annual Fund Campaign Steering Committee.

The couple will continue to live in their Venice house, but they will make it available to the university for arts activities and events. “It will be an active part of the campus,” Mack said.

Carol Doumani said the house will probably be used for small symposia and other programs that would benefit from the art-filled home’s environment. Edith Tonelli, director of UCLA’s galleries, said she plans to bring classes to the residence, where students can study “Southern California art in a space where they are surrounded by it.”

The two-story, 7,500-square-foot residence faces the ocean, just north of the Marina del Rey channel. Graham’s design is essentially a big white rectangle divided in half by an interior stairway. Dark, grid-framed windows, mosaic pools and metal grills accent the clean-lined exterior. One-of-kind architectural components and functional art fit unobtrusively into the light, airy interior space.

The Doumanis originally asked Graham to make a sculpture for a new house they planned to build, but he astonished the couple by asking to be their architect. Though he had no architectural experience, he argued persuasively and work began in 1978. The 4 1/2-year project was fraught with problems, but the alliance between a novice architect and art-sensitive patrons worked. The Doumanis describe a painfully slow, sometimes frustrating but ultimately rewarding experience as they gave up working with conventional contractors and searched for builders and craftsmen who were willing to be creative.

Graham had planned to involve only two other artists, David Novros and Billy Al Bengston, in the project. As it turned out, Bengston’s influence is particularly strong. He provided inlaid kitchen and dining room cabinets, bedroom furniture, mosaic pools, metal grills and an engraved glass balustrade, while Novros painted a fresco and designed stained glass windows for the entrance.

Eventually several other artists also created unique works for the residence. Terry Schoonhoven painted trompe l’oeil murals of a cloudy sky and an opening window. Eric Orr built a kinetic water sculpture that creates a rippling movement on a skylight. Joanna Pousette-Dart designed a mosaic wall for a roof-top deck. Among furnishings are a metal-collage door by Tony Berlant, a painted metal armoire by Tom Holland, fabrics by Gretchen Corners and a glass table by DeWain Valentine. Except for Oriental carpets, the Doumanis have put few ready-made objects in the house, preferring to commission unique functional art. Carol Doumani noted that Graham had persuaded the couple to avoid art that merely “decorates” and to work with artists who would create works that are “structural and permanent.”

Have they ever regretted their decision or the fact that it has led to life in a fishbowl?

Absolutely not, the Doumanis insist. “This is home” as well as a public trust, Roy Doumani said, noting that he is relieved to know that the house will be properly cared for in the future. “Who is better prepared to do that than the university?” he asked.

“We’ve been offered a fortune for it,” he said, “but we would like to see the house remain the way the artists made it, and we can’t do that if we sell it.”