Eli Broad on Thirty Years of Collecting

March 3, 2004 -- Philanthropist Eli Broad, named one of the top art collectors in the world by ArtNews and Art and Antiques magazines, will speak on Thirty Years of Collecting at 5 p.m. Monday, March 8, at the Washington University Gallery of Art.

Eli Broad

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The talk, which is free and open to the public, is held in conjunction with American Art of the 1980s: Selections From the Broad Collections, on view at the Gallery of Art through April 18. The exhibition features 14 large-scale paintings and sculptures by 11 celebrated and sometimes controversial artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, Jack Goldstein, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, David Salle, Julian Schnabel and Mark Tansey.

The Gallery of Art is located in Steinberg Hall, near the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker boulevards. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and noon to 4:30 p.m. weekends. (The Gallery of Art is closed Mondays.) For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit wustl.wuga.edu.

Since the early 1960s, Broad and his wife, Edythe, have built a personal collection of more than 400 modern and contemporary works, while The Broad Art Foundation, which they founded in Santa Monica in 1984, has amassed more than 750 artworks by more than 100 artists. The Broad Art Foundation operates an active "lending library" of its extensive collection and has loaned artworks to more than 400 museums and university galleries worldwide.

The Broads have strongly supported numerous universities and colleges, particularly in regard to teaching and research in art, biotechnology and business. The Broad Art Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), designed by architect Richard Meier, is currently under construction and will house painting, sculpture and ceramics studios for art students, as well as a gallery, library and café. In June 2003, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Whitehead Institute, the Broads announced a founding gift of $100 million to create The Eli and Edythe Broad Institute for biomedical research and help realize the promise of the human genome.

Self-Portrait in Andy's Shadow Julian Schnabel, 1987. Oil, plates and Bondo on two wood panels

The Broads also have provided funding for new buildings at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia; the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); Pitzer College in Claremont, California; and Michigan State University, from which Eli Broad graduated cum laude in 1954 and where The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management were endowed in 1991.

Eli Broad has been an important patron and board member at more than 25 major museums and art institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all in New York; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); and the Archives of American Art of The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Mr. Broad was founding chairman of the board of trustees of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and is currently a trustee and member of the executive committee of LACMA. Most recently, the Broads announced a major gift to LACMA to create a new building for contemporary art.

The Gallery of Art is part of the Sam Fox Arts Center at Washington University, which is dedicated to collaborative research, study and teaching in the visual arts and design.