THE ART COLLECTION

The Bellagio Show

Page Two of Three

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April 7, 2001, Saturday

First Edition; Features; P. 8

James Mallet

[SJ NOTE: This is along article on the whole art scene. Steve is only mentioned peripherally, but it does deal with the milieu of his exhibit, so it's here. If you are looking about meaty stuff focused on Steve, you might want to go to the next article.]

Today, Steve Martin is displaying his art in Las Vegas. He's not making a film, and he hasn't joined the ranks of entertainers packing them in on the Strip. Over thirty years, the actor and comedian has collected works by artists including Picasso, Seurat, Hockney and Hopper; this will be the first time they've be shown in public. But why unveil his masterpieces far from the traditional homes of the art establishment, in the middle of the Nevada Desert? Martin's explanation in the show's catalogue is simple: "I will tell you the real reason I have agreed to show these pictures in Las Vegas: it sounds like fun".

But there's another reason. Las Vegas has started to shed its reputation as a rather seedy centre of hedonism, in favour of the more sophisticated delights of the art gallery. The process was started by Steve Wynn, a billionaire hotelier and art-collector, who two years ago built a gallery inside his new hotel and casino, the Bellagio, to house some of his own masterpieces of Western art (a Degas dancer, a Monet lily pond, a Picasso portrait of Dora Maar). Some were appalled at the conjunction of paintings and poker, but it proved surprisingly popular with the public. So much so that when Wynn sold the Bellagio, and took his collection with him, the new owners, MGM Mirage, kept the gallery space for touring exhibitions. Steve Martin's collection is the latest to fill the space.

But there is a compromise to be made. Speaking in the Bellagio's Picasso restaurant, adorned with paintings and ceramics by you-know-who, the hotel gallery's director, Kathy Clewell, explained: "We will be more populist... we're most likely to stay within the boundaries of a comfort level that the average visitor would enjoy". So it's unlikely that Damien Hirst or the Chapman Brothers will be on offer for Vegas tourists looking for a gentle break from the slot machines and roulette wheel.

Although one can accuse the Bellagio of a rather simplistic, greatest hits' approach to art, at least the profits from touring exhibitions go back to the lending gallery, and not to the hotel. These can be sizeable: the last collection showing at the Bellagio Gallery had 1,000 visitors a day, paying $ 12 (pounds 8.40) a time. Money from the new show will go to the Steve Martin Charitable Foundation.

Of course, it's hard to imagine anyone in this most capitalist of cities is displaying art for purely philanthropic purposes. There's a commercial imperative, too. Vegas is hunting for more upmarket tourists, and a wider range of activities for them to enjoy. 35 million visitors may visit the city each year, but they're spending a lower proportion of their dollars on the traditional revenue source: the casino. After all, now that its core business has been exported all over the world, why come to Las Vegas just to gamble?

Up the road from the Bellagio, the Venetian (an extraordinary reconstruction of Venice, which features loving recreations of the Campanile in St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, and - winding through the second-floor shopping mall - the Grand Canal) is also discovering art. Rob Goldstein, its president, looks forward to a time when everyone associates Las Vegas with Renoir, as much as Bugsy Siegel: "It's a total fallacy to think this town is driven by gambling. It's driven by tourism. If you ask the average Las Vegas visitor why they come, nine out of 10 wouldn't mention gambling."

A straw poll outside the Venetian showed that view to be a touch optimistic. More than half of those questioned did mention gambling as a reason for visiting. And the man who said his idea of art was his Marvin the Martian animation cells at home was only half-joking. But Goldstein won't be deterred. In September, he's opening two new galleries inside the Venetian, with a huge total floor-space of 70,000 sq ft, and he has two of the most prestigious names in the art world as tenants.

The Guggenheim Foundation is the senior partner in the venture. Based in New York, the Guggenheim now has outposts in Venice, Berlin and - housed in a spectacular building designed by Frank Gehry - Bilbao. After the remarkable success of Bilbao in boosting tourist numbers, the Foundation's director, Thomas Krens, was approached by more than sixty cities worldwide wanting to be the latest colony in the Guggenheim empire. For Krens, the logic of choosing Las Vegas is clear: "It's the fastest-growing city in America - we feel we will get a very, very large audience here. In terms of maximising your reach, with visitors from all over the world, Las Vegas becomes a natural destination".

At The Venetian, it's true that 50,000 people a day visit the casino. The galleries will be just yards away. But how will the Guggenheim attract the 3,000 people they need to visit each of the galleries every day, paying $ 15 a time, when those people can get rid of their cash so much more easily without even leaving the card table? One answer is by hosting blockbuster, populist shows in the tradition of the Guggenheim's controversial exhibition of Armani clothes. The larger gallery will open this autumn with an exhibition entitled The Art of the Motorcycle, which has already been an audience- puller at the Guggenheims in New York and Bilbao. Krens defends bikes in galleries as "an absolutely valid metaphor for the technological and social development of the 20th century".

Many in the art world see it differently. Michael Kohn, a Los Angeles art dealer who has supplied the Guggenheim, says: "All it does is make them look terrible. Because they're clutching at straws, trying to find something, elevate it, sell it to the public as culture, whether it is or not." More widely, traditionalists object to an arts organisation being so brazenly commercial and spreading its tentacles so wide. Kohn argues the Guggenheim has become "the McDonald's of art museums, when you're just filling space and spreading yourself too thin... the price is right, but the quality of what they serve is not very good."

If the imminent arrival of the Guggenheim in Las Vegas has surprised the art establishment, that of the Hermitage Museum has taken their breath away. Its St Petersburg home in Russia holds around three million works of art and antiquity, and some of the cream of the collection is to be displayed at The Venetian, in conjunction with the Guggenheim. Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of The Hermitage, sees no irony in the ex-Soviet organisation worshipping at the temple of capitalism. His incentive is clear: "To develop, one needs money, and also one needs new projects and new ideas. And with the new ideas, some money comes, and when you have money, money comes to money. That's how it works".

This very New-Russian attitude is understandable when you consider the state of the Hermitage's finances; even its Friends' website acknowledges that the museum's artworks face "a financial crisis more threatening than any of the wars, coups and revolutions they have survived". The new deal will provide them with a revenue stream of dollars to add to their uncertain supply of roubles. And maybe the partnership with Las Vegas is not so illogical, anyway; as Piotrosvky chuckles: "Maybe it's my socialist education. We will bring art to the masses!"

In Las Vegas, it's sometimes hard to tell what's real and what's fake. Apart from the glories of Venice, you can find on its streets a half-size Eiffel Tower, a highly convincing Statue of Liberty, and a huge Sphinx. So one more reinvention doesn't seem too hard to achieve. If you think you're imagining the city of slot machines becoming a centre of fine art, stop and think - it might really be happening.

The writer produced a film on art in Las Vegas for 'Newsnight', which was broadcast last Wednesday.

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April 6, 2001, Friday, Final edition

Life; P. 8D

Kitty Bean Yancey

While blazing a career as a comedian, movie star and writer, Steve Martin also was building a reputation as a first-class connoisseur of art.

Martin, himself, has been on display through the years -- most recently hosting the Academy Awards -- but his art collection has been seen only by those invited to his homes. A few pieces have been loaned to museums.

Now, 28 of his treasured paintings and drawings can be viewed at the Bellagio resort's Gallery of Fine Art in Las Vegas. The exhibition, opening Saturday, runs through Labor Day.

Why now, after so many years? And why Las Vegas, rather than, say, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where Martin is on the board of trustees?

"Being a celebrity can cause an accidental cheapening of the things one holds dear," he says in the exhibit's catalog, which he wrote. "My silence about art was an effort to keep something personal for myself. . . . I didn't want these works to be used as a vehicle for publicity, for them to be treated as commercial objects used to promote an 'image.'

"Perhaps age has allowed me to see things in a different way," he says.

Then a bit of Martin wit kicks in.

"I would like to tell you that I'm showing these pictures because I feel a need to share them . . . that I can't continue for one more second to keep all their radiance to myself. I wish I could say that . . . wouldn't I be swell? But I will tell you the real reason I have agreed to show these pictures in Las Vegas: It sounds like fun."

Aside from being a place where he did stand-up routines, Las Vegas is gaining a reputation -- believe it or not -- as a cultural capital. The Bellagio just hosted a showing of works from the esteemed Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. A Guggenheim museum outpost is to open by fall at The Venetian resort.

Las Vegas is "definitely becoming known as an art destination," says Bellagio gallery director Kathleen Clewell. Even avid gamblers, she says, find viewing masterpieces "a quiet respite from the noise and the action" of the tables.

Martin writes that "there's something wonderful about leaving the jangle of the (Bellagio) casino . . . and entering the quiet haven of astonishment" nearby. He directed the hanging of works in the exhibit.

Gathered over three decades, his collection includes Picassos, drawings by Georges Seurat, paintings by Pop art king Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney's painted ode to the California swimming pool.

Martin, 55, says he bought works out of love for them, not to amass a killer investment. Proof of that is the first painting he took home at age 21. Ship at Sea, a 19th century work by James Gale Tyler, cost him about $ 750 then. Today, inflation-adjusted, it's worth what? "About $ 750," he writes.

The exhibit is open daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tickets, which cost $ 12, $ 6 for Nevada residents and $ 10 for students, can be ordered at 888-488-7111 or www.bellagio .com. The price includes use of an audio guide narrated by the star. Net profits will go the Steve Martin Charitable Foundation, which supports the arts.

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April 7, 2001, Saturday, BC cycle

State and Regional

Lisa Snedeker, Associated Press Writer

Steve Martin - comedian, actor, best-selling author, banjo-player, singer, Academy Awards host - has added yet another title to his extensive resume: art exhibitor.

Martin kicked off the first show of his private collection of modern and contemporary art Friday at the Bellagio hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip with a private, star-studded gala.

"I'm having so much fun," he said on his way into the gallery. "It's nice to see the pieces in a different venue."

He added that collecting art is a relief from show business.

Celebrities attending the party included actors Martin Short, Martin Mull and Eric Idle. Local megaresort developer Steve Wynn, who opened the Strip's first art gallery with his own private collection at the Bellagio, was also on hand.

Martin's 28-piece show includes works by Georges Seurat, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney and Edward Hopper. It opens to the public on Saturday.

"He has a beautiful collection," Short said.

Two works, by David Park and Neil Jenney, that Martin previously donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are also on display.

The exhibit takes an eclectic jump across art movements, decades and geography.

The oldest piece, by French painter Seurat, dates to 1883. The newest was done by Martin's friend Mull, a well established artist in his own right. It was finished last year.

"I was surprised Steve had this piece in the show," Mull said of his "Birthday Boy XI." "He liked it so much he had it shipped straight here."

Martin's art collection provides a peek into another side of the wisecracking "Wild and Crazy Guy," said Idle.

"He's a fantastic, intelligent man," he added.

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Re: Martin Short.....

Here is a blurb from a Las Vegas Newspaper:

Las Vegas Review Journal, 4/7/01. The website is www.lvrj.com.

"Gagsters Steve Martin, Martin Mull and Monty Python's Eric Idle, the latter in shoes resembling a Campbell's tomato soup label of Monty Python, among a party of 60 art lovers dining at Picasso on Friday night. Idle's shoes were the fashion hit at Martin's VIP opening of his art collection at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. At a nearby table, boxing promoter Bob Arum and Las Vegas developer Irwin Molasky and their wives". stevemartin.net message board Deseret (Dezi) April 8, 2001 - 12:12:26

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Friday, April 06, 2001

Ken White

David Hockney's 1966 painting "Little Splash" is among the works on display at the Bellagio.

Eric Fischl's "Barbeque" (1982) is one of the works from Steve Martin's collection on display.

Edward Hopper's "Captain Upton's House" is also in the exhibit.

Pablo Picasso's 1938 painting "Seated Woman" is one of two Picassos in comedian Steve Martin's private collection currently on display at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. The exhibit runs through Labor Day.

ECLECTIC EXHIBIT

Artists and works in "The Private Collection of Steve Martin" at Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art include:

Francis Bacon: "Study for Portrait" (1966)

Vija Celmins: "Untitled" (1980)

Robert Crumb: "Weirdo No. 8" (no date)

Willem de Kooning: "Two Women" (circa 1952)

Charles Demuth: "In Vaudeville: Soldier and Girl Friend" (1915)

Eric Fischl: "Barbeque" (1982), "Steve" (1998), "Truman Capote in Hollywood" (1988)

Lucian Freud: "Naked Girl" (1966)

April Gornick: "Light After Heat" (1998)

John Graham: "Eyes Astray (Pystis Sophia)" (1955)

David Hockney: "Andy Warhol" (1974), "Little Splash" (1966)

Edward Hopper: "Captain Upton's House" (1927), "Hotel Window" (1955)

Neil Jenney: "Acid Story" (1983-84)

John Koch: "Lovers" (1970)

Roy Lichtenstein: "Ohhh ... alright" (1964)

Stanton MacDonald-Wright: "Synchromy, Cubist Head" (circa 1916)

Martin Mull: "Birthday Boy XI" (2000)

David Park: "Two Women" (1957)

Pablo Picasso: "Nude" (1919), "Seated Woman" (1938)

Georges Seurat: "Man Sitting Reading on a Terrace" (circa 1884), "Woman Reading" (circa 1883)

Cindy Sherman: "Untitled Film Still" (1979)

James Gale Tyler: "Ship at Sea" (no date)

Steve Martin long has guarded his private self.

Few public glimpses have been given of what lies behind the facade of the wisecracking, anything-for-a-laugh film star. Only in recent years, with the play "Picasso at the Lupin Agile" and the recent novella "Shopgirl," has he allowed his intelligent and artistic side to fully emerge.

Perhaps most guarded was his collection of modern art, referred to in interviews but the scope of which was unknown except by close friends.

But with the opening Saturday of "The Private Collection of Steve Martin" at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, the public will get to see what Martin has had the good fortune to enjoy on a daily basis on the walls of his home in Southern California.

"This is the first time he's let the collection be on view, and it's most likely going to be the only time," says Kathy Crewell, the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art director.

Martin gave no interviews to publicize the exhibit.

Just a quick scan of the works on display shows Martin's wide-ranging taste.

Consisting of 28 works by 19 artists in a variety of mediums, the exhibit takes an eclectic jump across art movements, decades and countries. The oldest pieces are by French painter Georges Seurat ("Woman Reading," circa 1883, and "Man Sitting Reading on a Terrace," circa 1884).

Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is represented by two works -- "Nude" (1919) and "Seated Woman" (1938).

And there's British artists Francis Bacon, with his 1966 "Study for Portrait," and David Hockney's "Little Splash" (1966) and "Andy Warhol" (1974).

But most of the artists shown are American. Three works by Eric Fischl -- "Barbeque" (1982), "Truman Capote in Hollywood" (1988) and "Steve" (1998) -- were selected by Martin for the show, along with works by Willem de Kooning ("Two Women," circa 1952); Edward Hopper ("Captain Upton's House," 1927, and "Hotel Window," 1955); Roy Lichtenstein ("Ohhh ... alright," 1964); Cindy Sherman ("Untitled Film Still," 1979); Robert Crumb ("Weirdo No. 8," no date); and actor-painter Martin Mull ("Birthday Boy XI," 2000).

"Collecting art is my biggest hobby," Martin told Time magazine's Richard Corliss in a 1987 interview. "I love them at least partly because this art is so different from what I do that it's an escape for me. Paintings exist in space; show business exists in time. I like to sit down ... and look at the paintings. Sometimes I feel so lucky to own them. It's like, good grief, these things are so beautiful -- how did this happen?"

Martin comes by his interest in art honestly. They are not just an investment, something to brag about to his friends or part of an "image."

A philosophy major at Long Beach State College in Southern California, Martin considered becoming a professor, but the urge to perform won out.

He began appearing in nightclubs in the Los Angeles area, did a stint writing for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" before breaking out in the mid-1970s with his calculatedly stupid jokes and the catchphrase "Well, excuuuuuse me!"

Starting with "The Jerk," Martin went through a series of lightweight films -- "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," "The Man With Two Brains," "Father of the Bride" -- as well as some heavier fare in "Roxanne" and "L.A. Story," both written by Martin.

In addition to allowing his collection to be shown, Martin wrote the text to the exhibit's catalog, "Kindly Lent Their Owners," and co-wrote his narration for an audio tour with the New Yorker's art writer and critic, Adam Gopnik.

"I would like to tell you that I'm showing these pictures because I feel a need to share them with the public, that I can no longer hoard them away, that I can't continue for one more second to keep their radiance to myself," Martin writes in the catalog. "I wish I could say that ... wouldn't I be swell? But I will tell you the real reason I have agreed to show these pictures in Las Vegas: it sounds like fun."

Net profits from the exhibit will given to the Steve Martin Charitable Foundation, a privately run organization that assists the arts.

Admission is $6 for Nevada residents with ID and $12 for nonresidents.

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