Ed Ruscha Ed Ruscha Ed Ruscha - Art and Living

was very active in Los Angeles museums and other institutions. He was a boardmember at LACMA for many years and a supporter of MOCA; in addition, heand Marcia established the Art Program at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.In the mid-1980s, he founded the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundationand placed art for public view at his place of business designed by Frank Gehryand at his residential estate designed by Gordon Kaufmann (a Franklin Israeldesignedannex to house large-scale art was added in 1991).The estate has oneof the most extensive personal art collections in the world, holding over 500works of modern and contemporary art by European modernists Cézanne andKandinsky; Surrealists Ernst, Miró and Magritte; Pop artists Warhol, Lichtenstein,and Oldenburg; Abstract Expressionists de Kooning, Pollack, and Rothko; andcontemporary California artists Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode, among many others.He even went so far as to commission Ruscha and Goode to paint boththe exterior and interior of his corporate plane. He used to say,“I live with art,I work with art and now I even fly with art.”Mr. Weisman collected both established names and emerging talent. As moststill remember, he was far ahead of his time.“He was emphatic about young artistsand he said that to develop a good eye you just needed to look, look and constantlylook and be passionate about what you do buy,” his widow Billie Milam explains.“Frederick always said that if you’re successful in business you need to give backin meaningful ways,” she continues.“He gave considerably to organizations for mentaldisabilities and collected and shared art because he felt that the arts communicatedquicker than language and clearer than philosophy.” She adds that they both felt thatart helped individuals in all disciplines to think creatively as well as to enrich the soul.Billie was a museum professional and art conservator working with majorcollectors and the Trustees of LACMA when she first met Mr. Weisman.She describes their “life together with the arts as magical…we had somethingwe really loved in common as well as enjoyed knowing the artists. Fred taught mewhat I didn’t learn in school and that was to trust your passion and instincts.”If there wasn’t room for a work in their own home, Mr. Weisman would dothe unthinkable and hang it from the ceiling.“That’s how he hung Ed Ruscha’s TheWorld and Its Onions,” Billie remembers. Of the hanging creation, Ruscha himselfcommented, “…typical Fred!”Mr.Weisman was a free spirit not only in how he hung his art, but also in howoften he hung it. “We would move art around at all hours of the night and I usedto joke that he slept with a hammer under his pillow so that he could reach it easilyif he felt compelled to change things around.We used to joke that the walls werelike Swiss cheese because we moved the pieces around so much,” Billie smiles.Today, Billie continues her late husband’s legacy by keeping the foundationrunning smoothly. As its director, she travels all over the world to exhibit, strivingto perpetuate Mr. Weisman’s passion for the art of today and sense of loyalty tothe artists who have created it. Art was—and continues to be through the workof the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation—their passion.Tours are available by appointment only.310.277.5321. www.weismanfoundation.orgTop:View of the foundation’s Upper Landing with paintings by Alex Katz, Frank Stella andTom Wesselmann. Photo by David Moore.Bottom:The Front Circular Drive with sculptures by Robert Graham, Francois-XavierLaLanne, and a Native American Indian figure. Photo by David Moore.Art and Living 85