BEHIND THE ORANGE DOOR THE THOMA ART FOUNDATION BUILDS A COLLECTION TO SHARE WITH THE WORLD MARILYNN AND CARL THOMA WITH DANIEL ROZIN’S 2015 DIGITAL ANIMATION SELFISH GENE MIRROR, 2019. COURTESY OF THE CARL & MARILYNN THOMA ART FOUNDATION, PHOTO BY TIRA HOWARD.
By ANNA DOBROWOLSKI Tucked away in a warehouse in the heart of West Loop, the Orange Door hosts a mélange of Japanese woven bamboo baskets, 17th century Spanish colonial art, a sonar-activated windmill and a mirrored infinity chamber. It can take some effort to gain access to an eclectic art collection in the best of times: like an art speakeasy, the Orange Door, an exhibition space operated by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, is typically open to educational groups, curators, and art aficionados by appointment only. In the middle of a pandemic, the barriers separating us from the collection just got lifted. In early March I was able to connect with Carl and Marilynn Thoma to discuss how they first got into art collecting. Since graduating Stanford business school in the 70s, the duo has amassed over 1,400 works of art, making them a fashionable power couple for whom art is not just business but a lifestyle. Carl Thoma leads a lucrative career with Thoma Bravo LLC, a private equity firm he cofounded in the 1980s; and Marilynn Thoma actively serves on the Boards of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Humanities Festival, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Together in 2014 they established the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation, which is dedicated to visual arts and philanthropic pursuits. Today they continue to fund research into art scholarship, novel educational programs, and conservation efforts. Orange Door first opened in Chicago out of necessity, as the Thomas needed a home base from which to make art loans nationally and internationally. Currently, some of the art they have collected is on loan at the MCA, Art Institute, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, with another 17 across the Midwest. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, they also run a separate facility called Art House, which houses one of the largest digital collections open to the public year-round. 32 | CGN | Summer 2020
Each year the Thomas utilize Orange Door’s space to curate an exhibition featuring new Digital Art acquisitions and select artworks from across their collections. In September 2019 they hosted “Infinity Clock: Artworks on Time” and “The Algorists: Historic Computer Art.” The latter highlighted software-assisted work (namely, computer drawings on paper) created by artists such as Peter Beyls, Jean-Pierre Hébert, Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnar, Frieder Nake, Roman Verostko, Harold Cohen, and Mark Wilson. It is quite a treat to interact with these digital installations in person: however, when galleries are shut down to the public and exhibitions are either postponed or cancelled, we turn to our screens to access and engage their work. How do we experience and collect art today? In this interview, the Thomas discuss their journey into the world of art collecting in the digital age. What set off the spark in 1975? As in, what was the first piece that started the Thoma collection before it became a foundation in 2014? Marilynn and I were both just out of graduate school when we began to collect art. Our interest was heavily centered around California Impressionism and the Taos Society of Artists, leading us to purchase paintings by artists including Redmond Granville, Joseph Henry Sharp, and E. Martin Hennings. Today we continue to collect artwork from across the American Southwest—both historic and contemporary. When you aren’t splitting time between Santa Fe and Chicago, do you have any favorite places or galleries you love to visit? It is hard to narrow down the list, but three art spaces that we love to visit are Currents New Media festival in Santa Fe, Art Basel Miami, and the Prado Museum in Madrid.
