Christopher Chambers Interviews Collector Steve Shane
(Republication of a dArt magazine Summer 2003 article.)
Every Saturday art lover Steve Shane visits 30 galleries in New York City, where he resides. Sundays he goes to museums, or galleries outside Manhattan, All of his vacations are scheduled around art events. He has rarely missed a major international art fair in twenty years, He regularly sends out his art emails of his picks to over 500 fellow enthusiasts. Shane prefers to term himself an “art lover,” rather than a collector, stating that his “collection is only a little side effect of my passion,” although he has amassed a collection of over 500 works of contemporary art to date. Shane has never sold any of his collection, which will one day be bequeathed to different museums.
Christopher Chambers: Would you say that collecting is your hobby?
Steve Shane: Hobby is too little of a word. It’s why I live. It’s why I go to work. Its why I go to work. It’s why I get up; it’s my life. The art galleries, the art dealers, my art collection; talking about it, reading about I, reading art magazines…
CC: What inspires you to collect art?
SS: I’m looking for a buzz. I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t do any drugs. I don’t smoke. It’s my buzz in life. And I’m also looking for myself. My collection helps me understand who and what I am. I don’t just let anyone into my collection – it really exposes who I am, it’s like lying on a psychiatrist’s couch. My collection is really personal. I think you come here and you might be able to figure out some aspects of my personality, and my identity, history.
CC: What is art for?
SS: I think it has different purposes for different people. For me it’s for pleasure. I think it’s to learn. I think one of the things it’s for is: a talented artist was born in this world to help the viewers see what they didn’t see before viewing the art. For example, the Beckers. They taught me how to look. I don’t think I would have ever noticed urban landscapes if it wasn’t for them, I would have never seen a water tower. Or, Marcel Duchamp has taught me to look at things I see in life as a sculpture.
CC: Why do you think people make art?
SS: I don’t think they have a choice. They were born to do it. Hopefully a good artist does it because he has something to say about art history, our society, about politics…
CC: What is art?
SS: Art is anything that an artist makes, that an artist has dedicated his life life to do. Anything that is shown in an art museum or an art gallery. I think it’s creativity.
CC: Have you ever seen magic?
SS: Yes. It’s all magical for me. My first experience of an artist. There’s an artist I’ve been crazy about for a while, I think it’s a magical experience for me to see it: Neo Rauch. It’s always a magical experience for me. It takes me to a different place. I think Kim Keever’s magical. One of the things in my collection is a sense of place. I have this thing; I work in New Jersey, I’m a doctor, and then I go through the Lincoln Tunnel and I’m in the art world, New York. I’m from Detroit. Kim Keever takes me to another place. I think that’s magical. It’s like a high. Art can be an escape in that sense.
CC: Do you think a work of art should transcend the picture plane?
SS: I think it’s more religious than spiritual. I don’t go to synagogue or church. It’s like a religious calling or religious experience for me. It’s more exciting for me when I first see an artwork as opposed to possessing it. I end up looking like a squirrel, maybe, because I have a big collection, but the biggest thing for me is to see it, to discover it, than to possess it. I like to be a part of the whole situation. After I acquire a piece I like to meet the artist. I also like to consider myself an artist as curator. The work takes on a different meaning in the context of my collection. Because it’s a curated show in my home.
CC: Is there any particular overriding theme or direction to your collecting?
SS: Within my collection there is a strong sense of place – a longing or an imagining to be in another place – a different, better place. Other themes recurring throughout my collection include, art about art – art that alludes to or builds on the history of art. I am also attracted to art that exhibits a sense of humor; art that uses wit or irony to comment on historical art movements, artists and the creative process. Another key theme is the marriage of seduction and repulsion. In its physical presence and its emotional content, the work in my collection both attracts and repels the viewer. Contemporary art, as art throughout history, expresses the horror and the joy of the human condition. The artwork in my collection reflects this condition with assuredness, strength, and sincerity. Other themes that have subconsciously entered are: “painting without paint,” “photography of invention,” the element of the “fake,” “the dysfunctional family,” “celebrity,” and a sense of the theatrical.
CC: Did you collect other things as a child?
SS: It was elephants. Elephants from all over the world made from all different materials.
CC: Do you collect artists in depth, or do you try to go across the board?
SS: I used to only want to have one of each, but then, I was enamored by Cindy Sherman early on – in the early eighties – and I think I have twenty Shermans. Elliot Green, I have four or five and then Nina Bovasso… it’s mostly one ofs, but there are certain artists I have multiple pieces by. Condo (2), Dunham (2), Dzama (4), Glantzman (2), Deb Cass (2), Jonathan Tucker (9), Lasker (2), Simmons (6), Elizabeth Olbert (2), John Waters (2) John Waters is hilarious, Angela Wyman (4), Wojnarowicz (2).
CC: What is your favourite work in your collection?
SS: The last piece I acquired always.
CC: Do you see any particular direction that you think art is heading in?
SS: Yes, I think it’s heading way toward video. I went to the last Documenta. I don’t have the patience to watch a video for forty-five minutes. In my opinion a good video is if you can jump in at any point and watch it for three minutes. That’s Pipolitti Rist. I end up being mesmerized, maybe that’s the magic you were talking about. Actually, I stay for a long time with her’s. But, I don’t think it’s going to be the end of painting, that’s for sure. I am an individual. I go all over the place and and figure it out for myself. I search for what I think is a good painting, not what’s going on now. That’s looking at art with your ears. I think it’s amazing what some dealers don’t know about art history.