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Collector Conversations
Writer Alicia Eler spent some time with Scott J. Hunter, and his dog Tyler, in Chicago’s South Loop to talk about how he gradually came to collect art, what it is about abstract art that intrigues him now, and his own “rule of three” when it comes to really wanting to acquire an artist’s work. In the early 2000s, I got to know Chicago art dealers Wendy Cooper and John McKinnon of Wendy Cooper Gallery, as wel as Susan Gescheidle, owner of the now-defunct gescheidle gallery. I also got to know Andrew Rafacz and Rowley Kennerk, both Chicago dealers. And what really captured me was the opportunity to build relationships with these art professionals. I was then introduced to the artists they were showing, and I learned why they showed them. What really propelled me into active collecting was meeting and interacting with the artists themselves.
Collector Scott Hunter at home
As we sit down in art collector Scott J. Hunter’s home in Chicago’s South Loop, his aging, redfurred dog, Tyler, collapses at my feet. As I rub Tyler’s soft head, Scott begins telling me about his contemporary art collection, which contains more than 150 pieces of art, and focuses on abstract work, outsider art and work that can only be described as “obsessive.” As Scott talks about art, his dark brown eyes light up. “The work in my collection is quite evocative of who I am and what I consider important,” he says. But what’s more important than the art itself, I learn, is getting to know the artists themselves. For Scott, it’s all about the relationships. Did one specific thing get you started collecting art? It really kind of happened over time. I always had a strong interest in visual and performing arts. I was very lucky to go to a high school in Arlington, Virginia, that had a very active arts program. Lloyd Wolf, a Washington DC-based photographer, was my photography instructor. I used my Bar Mitzvah money to buy a camera, and spent a lot of time learning and developing my photography. I started realizing that I didn’t want to go into art as a career, and I felt that I would be more fulfilled by going into the sciences. I’m now a trained psychologist, and currently the Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Neuroscience and Pediatrics in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at University of Chicago. In 1999, I moved back to Chicago from Virginia to accept the position that I now have at University of Chicago.
Molly ZuckermanHartung, Untitled (Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago, 2007)
Tell me about the type of work you collect. The work in my collection tends to fall into a few categories. There’s abstract, like work by Matt Stolle and Susanna Bluhm. Then there’s work that can be categorized as “obsessional,” like that by Xylor Jane, who showed with Wendy Cooper. Jane’s pieces are made with very intricate, gestural lines, and she lives with Asperger syndrome, so her work was kind of my bridge to exploring outsider art, which I’m also invested in. I also own pieces by Martin McMurry, for example.
Is there a single artist that dominates your collection? Right now I probably own the most works by Matthias Dornfeld, a German artist who shows with Rowley Kennerk. Before committing himself full-time to art, he worked with the mentally ill, which kind of pushed his interests. I’ve developed a really great relationship with Matthias, and I’ll probably continue to very actively collect his work. He’s capturing these underlying emotions that exist in the individuals that he paints, and it’s a really primitive approach to painting, both very gestural and implying heavy texture. He does a lot of figurative work, but it feels quite abstract. I also own a lot of work by Matt Stolle. I wasfirst introduced to him through Andrew Rafacz.
Matthias Dornfeld, Junior, (Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago, 2007)
Xylor Jane, 409 Lines (detail) (Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, 2005)
I don’t have much work that focuses on identity politics, except for Zoe Charleton’s 2005 piece The Sailor, in which she plays with notions of race based on former slave relationships.
Do you have a strategy for collecting? My rule is that if I really want to collect someone’s work, my goal is to have at least three of their pieces. If someone really strikes me, I want to make sure that I have a good representation of what they are doing. But now I have to think about how I integrate their work as they change and grow over time.
What intrigues you about abstract work? For me, what I often think about with abstract work is how affect and idea are in fact being manipulated into the story. I can project onto it, but it’s not necessarily what the artist is representing; that captures a different meaning. Which artist’s work did you first begin collecting? When I moved back to Chicago from Virginia in 2000, I purchased my first large painting from Carrie Iverson, a printmaker, painter and glass artist. It was actually my first major art commitment. Carrie and I are both from Virginia, and her interests are memory, and how politics and identity are contextualized in identity. Her research focuses on memory and her interest in photography is about how one creates memory out of experience. This is another theme that attracts me to work by a number of the artists that I collect. 21
Florian Morlat, Untitled (Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago, 2007)