Collectors James-Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach are influential museum supporters in the communities they divide their time between: New York and Ridgefield, Connecticut. At first, Brown is the chairman of the New Museum’s board of trustees; at the latter, Diefenbach is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
Their extensive collection of contemporary art includes works by Yayoi Kusama and Olafur Eliasson, but is particularly rich in post-war German art. Their collections, including pieces by Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Martin Kippenberger, were the subject of a major traveling exhibition in 2011-12. More recently, the couple purchased and extensively restored singer-songwriter James Taylor’s 1950s childhood home in North Carolina.
The Art Newspaper: What was the first work you bought?
James-Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach: A drawing by Sol LeWitt. In the early 1990s, we regularly visited smaller museums and art spaces in New York. At the time, many arts spaces and charities held large silent auctions for their profits offering works by emerging and established artists – the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Bailey House and the Coalition for the Homeless, among others. One evening, we bid and won a beautiful drawing by LeWitt. Since then we have been collecting and supporting the arts and other organizations.
What was your last purchase?
A drawing by Tammy Nguyen and new works by British artist Poppy Jones and Californian artist Hugo McCloud. We have also recently acquired some ‘older works’ including a painting by Martha Diamond from the 80s, a sculpture and a painting from the 80s and 90s by Japanese artist Goro Kakei.
If your house was on fire, how much work would you save?
Brown: I’ll take our blue and green Josef Albers Tribute paint. It’s beautiful, influential, and a centerpiece of our collection of German works from 1940 to the present day.
Diefenbach: I’d take Mark Bradford’s nasty ass pigeons from 2002 a favorite, more contemporary work. It would go well with the Albers wherever we end up.
If money weren’t an issue, what would your dream purchase be?
Difficult. Pieter Bruegel the Elder hunters in the snow (1565)? by Vincent Van Gogh The starry Night (1889)? A United States map painting by Jasper Johns? Closer to the concentration of our collection, a beautiful Vassily Kandinsky or Paul Klee?
What work do you regret not buying when you had the chance?
We were offered a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room in Tokyo 20 years ago but passed because of space and price. Although we did not part with the two paintings and the works on paper that we bought instead, we should have also rushed to the room.
What is the most surprising place where you have exhibited a work?
Nothing very surprising. We have a Pipilotti Rist video viewed on the side of a medicine chest (the artist’s frame) set up in a guest bathroom, and a 23-piece piece of paperwork by Martin Creed winds its way down the back stairs. .
Which artists, dead or alive, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Andy Warhol, Josef and Anni Albers, Pablo Picasso, Kusama, Kandinsky, Klee, Joseph Cornell, Hannah Höch, Jack Whitten and Louise Nevelson. Probably a lively group.
What’s the best collection advice you’ve ever been given?
The best was the simplest: buy what you like. We would like to add watch, listen and read as much as you can. Chat with artists, curators and gallery owners. Take the time to examine an artist’s process and see how the works fit into their practice.
Did you buy an NFT?
No. We closely followed the dynamic media market,
but I haven’t found the right one yet. We will continue to watch.
