Elsa Zambrano, Jeff Koons (2014). On view at Dallas Art Fair.
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Beatriz Esguerra, Miami & Bogotá.
It’s no secret that patronage from Dallas’s top collectors has been an integral part of the city’s currently fast-growing status as an arts destination. The increasing prestige of the annual Dallas Art Fair (April 14–17), and Dallas Arts Week, adds to the appeal.
The efforts of trailblazers like Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, Marguerite Hoffman and her late husband, Robert, as well as by Deedie Rose and her late husband Rusty, have been embraced by other couples, as well as by the next generation of power patrons.
From the old guard to the newer names on the scene, artnet News has picked our favorite Dallas figures below.
(L-R) Actor Hugh Jackman, Cindy Rachofsky and Howard Rachofsky.
Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Audi.
1. Howard and Cindy Rachofsky
In artnet News’ 2015 list of the world’s top collectors, we noted that former hedge fund manager Howard Rachofsky and his wife Cindy are fixtures in the Dallas art scene. And it’s not hard to see why. In their Richard Meier-designed house, which was completed in 1996, the power couple exhibit their vast collection of works by Robert Gober, Lucio Fontana, Sigmar Polke, and Gerhard Richter, among other artists.
In 2012, Howard founded the Warehouse with his friend Vernon Faulconer, who passed away last year; its 16 galleries occupy 18,000 square feet of exhibition space for works drawn from both couples’ private collections as well as works purchased jointly with the Dallas Museum of Art.
Singer Geri Halliwell and Kenny Goss attend the World Charity Film Premiere of the movie ‘It’s A Boy Girl Thing’ held at Odeon West End on December 18, 2006 in London, England.
Photo by MJ Kim/Getty Images.
2. Kenny Goss
Top collector Kenny Goss may have split with pop star George Michael more than five years ago, but the high-profile Goss-Michael Foundation they started in 2007 lives on in Dallas, especially through its Artist in Residence program, which began in 2013.
Paula Crown debuted her new project, Bearings Down, on April 7, which will undoubtedly be a highlight of Dallas Arts Week. The collection includes major artists such as Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn, and Michael-Craig Martin.
Deedie Rose.
©Patrick McMullan. Photo-Neil Rasmus/PMc.
3. Deedie Rose
Deedie Rose and her late husband, Rusty, who died two months ago, have long been a fixture on the Dallas art circuit. Along with the Rachofskys and Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, Deedie and Rusty promised a joint contribution of 900 artworks, valued at more than $300 million, to the Dallas Museum of Art.
Deedie’s appreciation of art stretches back more than five decades. She once told the Dallas News: “A great artist makes you look at the world in new ways…and to consider that there might be other solutions to things that you never thought of.” An early stint as a docent at the Dallas Museum of Art expanded to include membership on the museum’s board, where she served as president from 1994 to 1998. She became co-chairman of the campaign to build the 140,000-square-foot Hamon wing.
Marguerite Hoffman in 2014.
Image: Frieze Masters.
4. Marguerite Hoffman
Along with the Rachofskys and the Roses, Hoffman and her late husband Robert have long been powerful patrons of the arts in Dallas, and were part of the triumvirate that promised a near $1 billion in art to the Dallas Museum of Art.
In 2013, Hoffman, a museum trustee and former chairman, gave $17 million to the DMA to establish an endowment to enhance the museum’s collections of early European art. The “Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Fund” represents one of the museum’s largest gifts of its kind to date.
Image: via Nasher.Duke.edu
5. Derek and Christen Wilson
Less than two years ago, the Nasher Museum at Duke received a huge gift—$1 million—from Dallas collector Derek Wilson. He and his wife Christen have additionally given two works of art to the Nasher Museum and contributed to the purchase of three others.
Derek is a trustee of the Dallas Museum of Art and serves on the International Council of the Tate Modern in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Performance Art Board. Christen is on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Board and is the Chair of the Nasher Sculpture Center Program Committee. Her reputation as a tastemaker was cemented in a detailed spread in FD magazine, where she posed decked out in couture in front of works by Christopher Wool, Sol Lewitt, and Joe Bradley.
6. Janelle and Alden Pinnell
A D magazine profile of Alden Pinnell described the Power Station, which offers artists the opportunity to create large site-specific installations, as a place where “the art elite and the riffraff meet.” Housed in the former shell of a Dallas Power and Light building, it will play host to a hotly-anticipated musical performance on April 13 by Karl Holmqvist and Stefan Tcherepnin during the opening reception of Holmqvist’s solo exhibition “Tuff Love.”
Pinnell and his wife have been collecting for over 15 years, and have acquired works by Lucas Samaras, Ryan Trecartin, Mark Bradford, and Donald Judd, to name a few artists. Alden serves on the board of the Dallas Museum of Art, and serves on the advisory board of the Nasher Sculpture Center.