Introducing Don Marron: Chronicle of Collecting
Phaidon is proud to publish a momentous volume exploring and celebrating the renowned art collection of financier, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Don Marron
Phaidon is proud to publish Don Marron: Chronicle of Collecting, a momentous volume exploring and celebrating the renowned art collection of financier, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Don Marron (1934–2019). Over the course of six decades, Marron amassed one of the most expansive art collections of our time, a selection of which was jointly sold in 2020 by three leading galleries — Acquavella, Gagosian, and Pace — in an unprecedented art world collaboration. The book pays homage to Marron as one of the most visionary and avid collectors of twentieth and twenty-first century masterpieces.
An introduction by Arne Glimcher, founder and chairman of Pace Gallery, describes their decades-long friendship and his admiration for Marron’s passion and depth of knowledge on art and collecting. Remembrances from Glenn D. Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Larry Gagosian, founder of Gagosian, and Bill Acquavella, president of Acquavella Galleries, illustrate Don’s character, passion for art, and his method of collecting. Don’s son, William Marron, tells the touching story of what it was like to grow up surrounded by this remarkable collection. Accompanying the texts are images from the MoMA archives, personal photographs, and images of works in situ at the Marron family home.
More than 130 impeccably reproduced masterworks are featured in Don Marron: Chronicle of Collecting. Works range from an 1874 Monet landscape to recent works by Mark Bradford and Mark Grotjahn. In between are significant paintings by Pablo Picasso’s Guitar (1912) and Femme au béret et la collerette (Woman with Beret and Collar) (1937); Mark Rothko’s Number 22 (reds) (1957); Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Camino Real) (2011); Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963); and Willem de Kooning’s Untitled (1975); as well as works by Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Agnes Martin, Brice Marden, and Cindy Sherman—not to mention Signac, Matisse, Rauschenberg, Miro, Basquiat, and Lichtenstein, among many others.
Don Marron began collecting in the 1960s and went on to pioneer the corporate collection at PaineWebber (now UBS), where he served as CEO for more than two decades and directed the company’s acquisition of more than 850 modern and contemporary works of art. As Arne Glimcher writes in his Recollection, "Marron’s knowledge was extensive. The passion and pleasure he drew from quality was magnetic”. Don Marron: Chronicle of Collecting is an essential addition to all personal, academic, and corporate art libraries. Order your copy here.