A collector who can wear it well
Check out the bracelet that art collector, dealer and commentator Molly Barnes wears in this Dennis Dutzi portrait: It’s the same one Barnes left behind in the East Hampton, N.Y., home of her onetime lover, Willem de Kooning. Seventeen years later, in 1997, Barnes found the bracelet still sitting in De Kooning’s bathroom when she returned for his memorial.
Barnes, 71, is full of juicy stories from a long career that’s included owning a gallery on La Cienega Boulevard (1967-84) and writing “How to Get Hung: A Practical Guide for Emerging Artists.” Now, for the first time, her own eclectic assemblage of artworks will be on view in “Love at First Sight: The Molly Barnes Collection” at Pharmaka gallery in downtown Los Angeles, April 10 to May 31.
“I just love the joy of collecting and finding things that I love,” she says. But she also offers this practical collecting tip: “You should buy out of one geographical locale and one time frame. That way, if you are asked to donate to a museum, you have a concise body of work.”
-- Diane Haithman
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