Dani Levinas, an artwork collector who gained a following for interviewing different collectors, has died at 75. The Phillips Assortment in Washington, D.C., the place he previously served as board chair, introduced his loss of life on Wednesday.
“Dani Levinas’s ardour and enthusiasm for artwork by dwelling artists could have an everlasting influence on The Phillips Assortment,” stated present board chair John Despres in a press release. “We are going to really miss his inspiration and steering.”
Together with his spouse Mirella, Levinas purchased up a major grouping of works by Latin American artists, buying items by Jose Dávila, Cildo Meireles, Gabriel de la Mora, Iván Navarro, Jorge Pardo, and extra. But his assortment additionally got here to incorporate works by artists primarily based exterior the area, with works by Anish Kapoor and Amalia Pica as properly.
“I really like to assist artists, however I additionally get pleasure from dwelling with the items,” he instructed the New York Occasions in 2020.
His most lasting legacy throughout the artwork world, nevertheless, will not be his assortment, however his conversations along with his colleagues, from the late Rosa de la Cruz to the accumulating couple Don and Mera Rubell. He revealed these interviews in a 2023 e-book known as The Guardians of Artwork: Conversations with Main Collectors and as articles in El País, the place he served as a columnist. “I don’t simply acquire artwork, I acquire collectors,” he stated within the Occasions interview.
Born in 1948 to Jewish migrants who had departed Europe for Argentina, Levinas went on to depart for the US in 1981 amid the rise of a army junta in his house nation. He launched his personal firm and thru it bought pay as you go debit playing cards.
He served as board chair on the Phillips Assortment from 2016 to 2022, and was additionally concerned within the board of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Backyard.
He spoke of his assortment as a completely evolving entity, telling the Occasions, “After 50 years of accumulating, you modify; the art work adjustments and you modify, too.”