After handing over the Kering business to his son in 2005, Francois Pinault devoted his life to collecting contemporary art. By the early 21st century his collection had grown to over 3000 pieces and now encompasses works by Koons, Picasso, Hirst and Mondrian. It has now grown to over 10,000 pieces.
A man from relatively modest beginnings, and genuinely passionate about his subject, Pinault is now putting selected works from his collection on public show at Palazzo Grassi, one of the two museums he owns in Venice. In an interview with Le Monde this week, Mr Pinault elaborated on his motivation for his latest endeavour
“A permanent display makes it possible to set works from different periods and generations side by side and to show how … certain questions endure. It is in no way a matter of freezing the collection or offering a definitive reading of it,”
Pinault’s two museums in Venice have a Parisian counterpart, in the spectacular 16th Century Bourse de Commerce building. The museum was renovated and redesigned under the guidance of Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and took three years to complete. Upon it’s opening, Pinault said
“I am delighted with the upcoming opening of the Bourse de Commerce. Not only will it add to the European landscape of institutions devoted to presenting contemporary art, but after the difficult year experienced by France and the world in 2020, it will contribute to the renaissance of the Parisian cultural sphere.”
Mr Pinault’s vision for his collection of 106 pieces from the larger body of his portfolio at the Palazzo Grassi is as vast and encompassing as his interest in business and his genuine need for artistic connection is the public’s gain. Not for him the squandering of acquisition in an ivory tower away from the beady gaze of the unwashed. He adds
“My collection is eminently subjective and very often built on instinct, passion, or even anger in the face of the violence of the present,”
Francois Pinault’s latest endeavour raises interesting questions about the nature of collecting and engagement with wider audiences in the 21st century. It also tells us much about what the later life of a business magnate, a man who has spent his entire career acquiring, can look like. Says Pinault himself
“Twenty years after the Palazzo Grassi opened, it seemed important to me to give the works time: time to be seen, revisited and, at times, understood in a different light.”
The need for permanence in a world that feels anything but at times is somewhat of a comfort. That we are able to get close to works by some of the world’s leading contemporary art figures is an added benefit
For more information on the Pinault Collection, visit the website https://www.pinaultcollection.com/palazzograssi/en
Image credit: David Atlan allumage Fischer 2021
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