Steve Martin discusses his love for Indigenous Australian art
Comedian and actor Steve Martin has long been an avid art lover and collector.
After making onto ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list several times in the 1990s, he has recently turned his attention to Indigenous Australian art and its deep cultural history.
With his wife Anne Stringfield, he’s bought works by Indigenous artists such as Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, Timo Hogan, Carlene West, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, and Doreen Reid Nakamarra, among many others.
His love for these works began almost 10 years ago, as he shared with ARTnews.
He said, “It all started with one picture by this artist, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri. I just really liked it, bought it, and hung it in our house for several years. I really didn’t know that there was a whole big funnel going back this way of its history.”
“I hadn’t really seen anything like this before. And they were available, which is an aspect of the art world now that is the opposite—most things are unavailable. And I loved them. I thought they were great.”
He said his collection, which includes over a hundred works, is “hard to improve” when dealing with art pieces that are increasingly rare.
Some of the works he owns have been displayed in non-selling shows at Gagosian locations in New York and Beverly Hills, California, with Steve saying he “loves just getting these pictures seen” by like-minded art fans.
Image credits: Getty Images