Ray and Lori Allen of San Diego have assembled a collection of contemporary realism that got its start through Ray’s long-standing love of art. In high school, he took classes in drawing and sculpture that triggered this interest, and while he was studying at Chicago’s DePaul University, it wasn’t uncommon for a professor to ask if anyone had seen Ray. Usually the answer came back, “He’s at the Art Institute” downtown.
Today the Allens own works in their art collection by such gifted artists as Richard Becker, Michael Bergt, Anna Chervonnaya, Claire DeLandro, Yuriy Dymshyts, Dan Ferguson, Geraldine Grove, Jacquline Hurlbert, Joan Irving, Lauretta Lowell, Peter Matosian, Willie McGrath, Daryl Millard, John Modesitt, Jacob A. Pfeiffer, Craig Pursley, Artem Rogowoi, Dennis Sarazhin, Jan Dorian Whitney, Will Wilson, and Jeanne Zvetina.
Ray is not certain, but he thinks their first acquisition was Peter Matosian’s colorful scene of women and animals in nature, “Rio Papagayo.” The Allens spotted it in the window of a gallery in downtown San Diego, and that was that. If dealers still wonder if displaying art in their front windows is worth the effort, here’s more evidence it is. Years ago, San Francisco’s John Pence Gallery graced its window with the painting by Will Wilson illustrated here, “Canary Watching” — now the Allens’ favorite artistic possession.
“When I first spotted it there,” Ray recalls, “I was flabbergasted. I had never seen a painting with such emotion. We went in to look, but felt the price was beyond our reach. John Pence told us about Will’s background and about a new show he’d be in a week later. Every night I would just dream of that painting! Lori took pity on me and agreed we should go back to San Francisco from San Diego for the exhibition opening. When we got there, we made a beeline for “Canary Watching” but were shocked to find a ‘red dot’ on its wall label. My heart was broken! John Pence came over, saw the sorry looks on our faces, and confided, ‘I knew you’d be back.’ He had been saving the painting for us.”
Beyond underscoring what a gentleman John Pence is, this recollection reminds us that an artwork can inspire us not only through its appearance, but also through the story behind it. Wilson told the Allens that “Canary Watching” depicts a bouncer he had met in front of a bar. The young man was going through chemotherapy as part of his cancer treatment, which explains his baldness. His pet canary was also sick, which we can gather from its ruffled feathers. Fortunately, the man recovered, though his bird did not.
Also illustrated here is “Mocked,” one of six paintings by Michael Bergt that the Allens own. It too came via John Pence, who explained that it is the artist’s homage painting to Hieronymus Bosch’s famous “Christ Mocked (The Crowning with Thorns)” at London’s National Gallery. Having traveled to London specifically to see that masterpiece, the Allens learned that a strike by security staff would make it impossible to explore that area of the building. Clearly a return to London is in order.
Over the years, the Allens have been gratified to watch realism become “much more mainstream” in the world of contemporary art. Today they buy from galleries and fairs (such as the LA Art Show), and also directly from artists. Indeed, Ray says they have met several of “their” artists and correspond with a few.
The Allens admire aesthetic approaches other than realism, too, noting that “it’s hard to explain why a specific work triggers the sense of joy we get out of it.” Their only historical work is a painting by California’s Selden Connor Gile (1877–1947), though they note that John Modesitt’s contemporary landscapes are very much in the style of another California master, Maurice Braun (1877–1941).
As with so many art collectors, wall space has become a challenge for the Allens. Ray says, “We now store some paintings and rotate them on our walls,” a worthy process that often revives that dopamine hit of joy owners got the day they acquired the piece in the first place.
