This year’s special exhibitions of art and memorabilia collected by Hollywood legends Joan Crawford, Ronald Reagan and Elizabeth Taylor have changed the way the world looks at art, as well as the way it looks at Los Angeles. Crawford modernized corporate art collecting as a board director of Pepsico, America’s largest corporate sculpture collection owner. Reagan brought his familiarity with commercial artists working in set design from his years as President of the Screen Actors Guild to Washington D.C. and world capitals. Elizabeth Taylor set new standards for excellence in art collection management, applying the exceptional expertise learned from the L.A. art community, including her father, Beverly Hills art dealer Frances Taylor.
Joan Crawford’s legacy to the art world is on display at Pepsico World Headquarters and is well worth a visit. Crawford and Baroness Reudt von Collenberg, wife of former Pepsi chairman Donald Kendall, championed the concept and helped to recruit talented 20th Century artists to work on the project. Works of top sculptors of the period, including Louise Nevelson, Henry Moore and Alexander Calder, are displayed together with classics by masters such as August Rodin and Aristide Maillol. Occasionally outspoken and forceful leadership by Crawford made this the first large public display in America in which female sculptors were featured prominently; in addition to Nevelson, Barbara Hepworth, Wendy Taylor and Judy Brown received global recognition for their works. The artistic partnership between Crawford and Baroness Reudt von Collenberg also played an important role in revitalizing cultural ties between the United States and Germany, bridging the gap caused by wartime disputes. In 2009, the sculpture garden was honored with the 2009 Landmark Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For Crawford, modern sculpture was a lifetime passion. The first time millions of American viewed fine art cubist and modern sculpture was in the 1928 film "Our Dancing Daughters" which elevated Crawford to global fame.
The Ronald Reagan Centennial provided an opportunity for historians to revisit the legacy of the sportscaster and movie actor turned statesman. The Reagan family’s longtime home on Via Amalfi in Pacific Palisades was a showplace for American art and an excellent example of the important role that art can play in inspiring patriotism and civic leadership. Few Americans were more inspired than Reagan himself, who met with hundreds of set designers, commercial artists and scene artists during his thirteen year tenure as President of the Screen Actors Guild. It is quite possible that Reagan’s leadershipin advocating professional compensation and benefits for commercial artists (together with Walt Disney) produced more measurable results for artists than the efforts of any President of an art school in the United States. When Reagan assumed the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947, only one American artist earned more than $10,000 a year, Norman Rockwell. This year, at Art Miami, over 100 artists were paid more than $100,000 per painting.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor was also the daughter of Beverly Hills art dealer Francis Taylor. Ms. Taylor is renowned in the art world as one of the most sophisticated and successful art collectors of all time. The worldwide exhibition of the Elizabeth Taylor Collection before its auction December 13 to 17 presented an appealing model of art and fashion as engines of creativity. Elizabeth Taylor also left an important legacy that other art collectors will value for decades. Her thoughtful decision to plan ahead for the careful disposition of her collection while she was still in good health has set a good example. Her wisdom can help spare many other collectors and their families from the unfortunate experience of seeing valuable works shackled by court-ordered probate sales. The results of this year’s auctions from the Taylor estate in New York and next winter’s auctions of art from the Taylor estate in London are also changing the art world by encouraging thousands of new art collectors to devote more time to the appreciation of art.
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