On Collecting Fine Art >
Born in Germany but a U.S. citizen for many years, the New Jersey-based businessman Dieter Weissenrieder became interested in the visual arts as a young adult thanks to a close friend who became a curator at a major German museum. His wife, Eleanor, a retired schoolteacher, grew up in suburban New Jersey, so she has visited New York City’s museums all her life and began bringing Dieter along soon after they met. The couple have always enjoyed traveling, especially in Europe, and have visited many museums there.
“More than 40 years ago,” Dieter recalls, “Eleanor and I made our first art purchase because the small house we were renting needed some art on its walls. From a gallery in Greenwich Village we bought a landscape painted by a French artist, and we still own it today. In the 1970s, we acquired our first sculpture in Taos when we began skiing and visiting galleries there.”
In fact, the Weissenrieders are devoted skiers and have skied out west every year. Those experiences exposed them to what is now called Art of the American West: “We started to develop relationships with gallery owners in various ski resorts,” Dieter explains, “and as we got more hooked on art, we began attending auctions and museum benefit sales,” especially at the Autry Museum of the American West (Los Angeles) and Eiteljorg Museum (Indianapolis). The couple also drew inspiration from a fellow collector: because they have a house in Scottsdale, Arizona, they often visited the enormous and outstanding collection formed by Eddie Basha in nearby Chandler. (Fortunately, Basha’s heirs have donated it to the Heard Museum in Phoenix and Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West so that many other people can enjoy it, too.)
Today the Weissenrieders own paintings and sculpture by William Acheff, Gerald Balciar, Amery Bohling, John Buxton, John Coleman, Don Crowley, Michael Dudash, Toni Falk, John Fawcett, Deborah Copenhaver Fellows, Fred Fellows, Bruce Greene, Robert Griffing, William Haskell, Karin Hollebeke, Walt Horton, Doug Hyde, Jerry Jordan, Sue Krzyston, Steven Lang, Mel Lawson, Chul Young Lee, David Mann, Curt Mattson, Frank McCarthy, Denis Milhomme, K.W. Moore, Sr., Paul Moore, Bill Nebeker, Rock Newcomb, Gary Niblett, Don Oelze, Robert Peters, Dave Powell, Heide Presse, Robert Pummill, Alfredo Rodrigues, Scott Rogers, Roseta Santiago, Harry J. Sharre, Tim Shinabarger, Daniel Smith, Matt Smith, Gordon Snidow, Nathan Solano, Ray Swanson, Andy Thomas, Russ Vickers, Curt Walters, and David Wright. Sadly, several artists who were alive when they acquired the work have subsequently died, including Joe Beeler, Glenna Goodacre, Allan Houser, Harry Jackson, and Oleg Stavrowsky. Also in the Weissenrieder Collection are important pieces of Native American pottery by Autumn Borts-Medlock, Eric Fender, Jody Folwell, Susan Folwell, Tammy Garcia, Al Qoyawayma, Maxine Toya, and Alvina Yepa.
“Getting to know the artists has added an exciting dimension,” Dieter remembers. “Eleanor and I feel that collecting art without ever meeting the artist is not as rewarding as developing a relationship.” (Only rarely have they bought work by a deceased artist, perhaps five in total, including E.I. Couse.) “Now” Dieter continues, “we deal primarily with the artists themselves and with galleries. Because we have run out of wall space, we have even told several artists to create smaller paintings if they want us to continue acquiring!”
The Weissenrieders have formed a particularly close friendship with John Buxton and his wife, Noralee. Illustrated here is a painting Dieter commissioned, “Great Falls of the Passaic at Paterson,” a breathtaking site of natural beauty now protected as a national park. Dieter wanted his friend to imagine the falls as they might have looked around 1750, when Native Americans relied on their abundant supply of fish. The Weissenrieders visited this place with Buxton, who had hired a senior Boy Scout to paddle the artist’s canoe deep into the falls so he could get a better sense of scale and perspective.
Dieter picks up the story: “Alas, the current proved too strong, so the canoe capsized and got a big hole in its side. Luckily, the young man was a good swimmer and we were able to pull the canoe out of the Passaic River about 400 feet downstream. The bad news: the canoe was totaled; the good news: John won two major prizes for this gorgeous painting, and we now have a wonderful memory to cherish forever.” In addition, the Paterson Museum located nearby displays a giclée replica of the painting to help visitors appreciate the significance of the falls historically.
Yet another close friend who carefully researches his scenes of Eastern Woodland Indians is Robert Griffing, represented here by “Pushing through the Billows.” Dieter admires how this artist studies elements such as clothing and tools “right down to the smallest detail,” and he recounts with a smile a missed opportunity to acquire yet another work by Griffing: “A dealer offered us one privately, but Eleanor and I balked at its price. Ten months later, that painting fetched a sum 70 percent higher during an auction we attended. It’s the one that got away.”
Dieter tries to have lunch with Buxton and Griffing at least once a year near Pittsburgh, where he owns a manufacturing plant. He and Eleanor are also friendly with the artist John Fawcett and his wife, Elizabeth; during a visit to the Weissenrieders’ small farm, Fawcett painted a portrait of their entire family mounted on horses, a large work that hangs over the fireplace in their living room. The collectors have visited the California home of Denis Milhomme and his wife, Lorene, who were especially pleased when the Weissenrieders loaned three of Denis’s best works to his 2022 retrospective at the Eiteljorg. The sculptor Scott Rogers and his wife, Janette, have visited the Weissenrieders in New Jersey, and Dieter still treasures their visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was “great to listen to Scott analyze the artworks on view.”
Though the pace of their collecting has slowed, Dieter says that he and Eleanor still aim to acquire art “that is meaningful, tells a story, and will outlast us.” They have succeeded on all three counts.
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