Victor Keen, Philadelphia - MEET THE COLLECTOR Series Part Seventeen
I heard about Victor Keen through reading about an exhibition in Colarado that just took place of some of his Collection. After reading more online I was intrigued to find out more about this man whose collection includes not only outsider art but Catalin radios amongst other things. Read on to find out more about Victor and his Bethany Mission Gallery too.
Victor Keen. Photo taken by Jeanne Ruddy
1&2. When did your interest in the field of outsider/folk art begin? When did you become a collector of this art? How many pieces do you think are in your collection now?
It was well after I was finished with school (Pueblo Central High, Trinity College, Harvard Law) that I developed any real interest in art or in collecting. My first collecting interest, beginning around 1975, was Catalin radios (colorful plastic radios made in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s). In the late 1970s a college friend introduced me to Frank Maresca, then transitioning from a successful career as a fashion photographer to become co-owner of Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York, which has become one of the most prestigious outsider art/folk art galleries in the U.S. My awareness of outsider art grew in time from conversations with Frank.
In 1996 I joined a Philadelphia law firm whose chairman, Sheldon Bonovitz, along with his wife, Jill, owned an extensive outsider art collection, much of which was hanging on the walls of the law firm. Being surrounded by outsider art day to day further reinforced my engagement with it. I began acquiring outsider art and Frank has been a mentor in my collecting all along.
There are approximately 450 works of art by self-taught/outsider artists in my collection. Then approximately 200 vintage toys and antique metal banks, more than 75 Catalin radios and more than 50 vintage toasters.
3. Can you tell us a bit about your background?
After earning my J.D. at Harvard Law School in 1966 and serving a clerkship at the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C., I practiced tax law in New York City for 25 years before moving to Philadelphia. From 1994 until 2008 I headed the tax practice group at Duane Morris LLP, a Philadelphia-based, 600-attorney law firm with an international presence.
Since retiring I have increased my involvement in other activities that I have been pursuing over the years. I am currently on the boards of two high-tech public companies and I own and manage a real estate portfolio (with Jim Tozer ’63) in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. I also serve on the boards of the Philadelphia Theater Company and PlayPenn, a national service organization supporting new plays and playwrights.
Installation view of Bethany Mission Gallery. Photo: Ryan Brandenberg, Philadelphia
4. What is it that draws your eye away from contemporary art to outsider/folk art? Or do you collect both?
Visitors to my Bethany Mission Gallery in Philadelphia often ask what it was that attracted me to the world of outsider art, the primary focus of my collection. It’s not an easy question to answer. Like other collectors, I have found the question challenging and have concluded that to a large extent the allure is visceral and not easily articulated, though I occasionally have pondered the “why” of my collection.
It’s a question as complex as the much-debated question of how best to refer to the art itself. “Outsider,” “self-taught,” “naïve,” “visionary,” “untrained” are terms variously used and no one term seems entirely satisfactory to describe this category of art.
For convenience, I refer to “outsider” art and “outsider” artists, as shorthand with the understanding that others may favor other descriptives. Outsider art is not a “school” of art; what sets it apart is the circumstances and characteristics of the artist. The biographical narrative of every outsider artist is unique, but most share one or more of the following: no or only limited art training; living with mental or physical infirmities; poverty; educational deficit; being held back by racial discrimination. Most did not create their art for others, and many made no effort to share the work with anyone; some even affirmatively withheld it from the view of others.
I have found these aspects of the outsider art world compelling, including the fascinating (though almost always terribly challenging and unfortunate) variations in the individual artists’ personal circumstances. But personal challenges and disadvantages for the artists aside, the art must stand on its own.
5. What style of work, if any, is of particular interest to you within this field? (for example is it embroidery, drawing, sculpture, and so on)
It is rare that the art of any one of the artists represented in the collection bears the slightest resemblance to the work of another artist in the collection (though the work of each artist is generally readily recognizable and distinctive). The art varies dramatically in theme, style, and subject matter (e.g., religious, representational, or abstract images, inclusion of text, and so on). The works also differ widely in the materials used.
6. Would you say you had a favourite artist or piece of work within your collection? And why?
I get asked this question a lot and the answer is no. Most of the artists’ work in this genre is quite distinctive. If you glance at a Traylor, you know it's a Traylor… glance at a Hawkins and you know it's a Hawkins. The thing that is also distinctive is the narrative of each artist. Most of the artists in the collection are not living. There are two that are living that I have met. One is George Widener whom I have a close personal relationship with and we talk every couple of weeks, we've been hiking together and he has stayed at my house. The one I know less well but that I also have a connection with is Ken Grimes, whose art I much admire and whom I met through Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York.
Installation view of Bethany Mission Gallery. Photo: Ryan Brandenberg, Philadelphia
7. Is there an exhibition in this field of art that you have felt has been particularly important? And why?
The show at the Smithsonian of the Bill Traylor work was a major show and it got, deservedly so, a lot of publicity in the US and it gave a lot of prominence to the field of outsider art. This show was featured nationally in such places as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and ABC news, etc. It was my privilege to have two of my pieces selected by Leslie Umberger, the curator, for inclusion in the show.
8. Where would you say you buy most of your work from: a studio, art fairs, exhibitions, auctions, or direct from artists? And do you exhibit any of it on the walls of your home or just in your gallery space?
My main source of outsider art from dealers has been from Ricco/Maresca Gallery and my long-time friends and mentors Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco. In addition I have acquired outsider art at art fairs in New York and from auction houses such as Slotin Folk Art, in Buford, Georgia, Material Culture in Philadelphia, and Christie’s in New York.
We don’t really hang any of this collection in our home – we have other art in our home. We rent two apartments next to the museum for visitors to the Gallery for guests to the Gallery and to the dance studio (as mentioned below) and some of the art has spilled over into these. The Gallery itself is salon hung and with over a hundred pieces out on loan we have carried out a re-hang and spaced things out slightly. I have also acquired some new works, so when these loans return we have a big job on our hands to fit it all back in.
Installation view of Bethany Mission Gallery. Photo: Ryan Brandenberg, Philadelphia
9. Can you tell us more about the Bethany Mission Gallery, when it opened and why you set it up? I would love to visit one day if I’m in the area!
While I have been assembling my collection of outsider art (and vintage radios and toys) for decades, it was not until 2012 that I opened the Bethany Mission Gallery, a story that warrants a bit of digression. Before we married, Jeanne Ruddy, my wife and my partner in the collection, was a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and subsequently a member of the dance faculty at the Juilliard School in New York City. In the early 1990s we relocated from New York to Philadelphia, and in 2000 Jeanne founded a contemporary dance company, Jeanne Ruddy Dance. We soon acquired a nineteenth-century building on Brandywine Street, originally a horse stable, and renovated it for Jeanne’s dance company as well as to serve as a rehearsal and performance venue for others. We designated this space The Performance Garage.
When a two-story building adjacent to the Performance Garage became available, we acquired it, initially with a view to expansion of the Performance Garage. The building was owned and operated by a family-counseling center, and we knew virtually nothing of the building’s history. Before we knew anything more about the building, we had determined that expansion of the Performance Garage into that space was neither feasible nor necessary, and I began displaying a portion of the collection in the new building.
A few years later I came upon a periodical published by the local Friends Historical Association, Quaker History, African Americans and Quakers. Astonishingly, the pamphlet included a twenty-page footnoted article, “The Bethany Mission for Colored People”—our building! Here we learned that the Bethany Mission for Colored People had been founded by Philadelphia Quakers in the mid-1850s and that in 1869 they had built the Brandywine building. Bethany’s core mission was to bring literacy to Philadelphia African Americans, primarily children and young adults of modest circumstances or worse, within the context of religious instruction and moral education. Bethany continued to operate in this endeavor until the 1930s, though with diminishing attendance due to the proliferation of African American churches in Philadelphia providing similar opportunities.
After a two-year renovation, we opened the space in 2012 as the Bethany Mission Gallery (BMG). A high percentage of the artists whose works are in the collection were African American and/or lived in poverty; what’s more, many of the artists could neither read nor write. Thus, it is that by sheer accident or serendipity, the art and artists in the collection are in significant alignment with the character and goals of the original Bethany Mission.
While at present BMG does not have public hours, we are readily available to give gallery tours by appointment for groups large or small. In addition, we hold many activities and events at BMG without imposing any charge or rent.
Catalin radios. Image courtesy of the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center
10. I was interested to read that you collected things other than outsider art, including Catalin radios, antique metal toys & banks, milk glass, ceramic pot lids, posters, signage, banners & photographs and antique toasters. Can you tell us more about this side of your collecting?
I often get asked ‘How do all they fit in together?’ I suppose the answer is that over a long period of time and with the many people that I have come into contact with, I was drawn to these things and I have continued to enjoy having them in the collection.
I had no knowledge of outsider art until I became acquainted with Frank Maresca and his Gallery partner Roger Ricco. I was intrigued by the whole concept of outsider art when I first heard about it. When I was collecting other things I didn’t really have any knowledge of collecting art, and that didn’t matter. Outsider art was a very small field when I first started collecting and all that has changed now.
11. I read that some of your collection has currently being exhibited in Southern Colorado at the Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center – can you tell us more about this please and if there are any other plans for works from your collection?
The relatively long-term out-of-town exhibition that was the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, one of the most prestigious art museums in Colorado, is a first for the collection. Pueblo is my hometown. The shows title was ‘Outsider Art: The Collection of Victor F. Keen.’
The show in Colorado started in October 2019 and ended on 12 January this year. It will now move to Chicago to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, which is a major US museum specializing in outsider art. That show opens on 6 February and closes on 7 September 2020. Read more about that here.
This travelling art show has 127 pieces of art from 38 different artists, in addition to some folk art pieces and 18 Catalin radios. Other than this travelling show and through some isolated loans of a few artworks to museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a branch of the Los Angeles Eli Broad Museum, and the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, my collection has been housed in Philadelphia since the opening in 2012 of my gallery, the Bethany Mission Gallery.
Photo from Victor’s launch. Courtesy of the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center
12. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I am happy that my collection is being well received by other people and it’s a real source of satisfaction to me. I enjoy people coming into the Gallery. If people have an interest I love showing them around the Gallery. Anyone that wants to come, we make time for them. At this time we have no regular hours.
NOTE: This interview was conducted over the phone with Victor, with extra text added in from Victor’s recent book ‘Outsider & Vernacular Art: The Victor Keen Collection.’