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Transcript of Collectors3
Written by J. Sharpe Smith
photoS by William J. GentSch
They could be called citizen curators. These
painstaking collectors of art and artifacts.
Their homes are mini-museums, providing
display space for the collections, which hang
like trophies from the walls or sit prominently on
tables, lined up in formation for the enjoyment of only
those allowed to view them.
Their collections provide clues to where they have
traveled, whom they know and what they value. It is
the key to what fascinates them, where they find
beauty and what provides some of the meaning to
their lives. To get invited to see the collections and
hear the stories behind them is like getting a rare
glimpse into their hearts. We were graciously invited
into three homes of people with a special eye and a
particular knack for finding the unique.
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They stare out at you from the wall. The Masks.
Some are scary, others friendly—the pale sea
green Moon Mask associated with
transformation and protection of spirit and the
Sun Mask whose rays shoot in all directions.
On the scary side, “Tsonaqua,” known as the wild
woman of the woods, makes lightning with her
supernaturally loud voice. Her undulating black and blue
face contrasts with lips smeared with the red blood of the
children she has eaten. “Bookwus,” the wild man of the
woods, sports an eerie green face, menacing black brows,
sunken eye sockets, flaring red nostrils and a full set of
growling teeth. He brings the dead back to life during the
winter dance season.
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A Storyteller Connects
Each mask, though certainly an objet d’art on its own,
is a window into the ritual dramas performed by the
Canadian tribes, known as the “First Nations,” that lived
along that country’s northwest coast. They also represent
the collecting efforts of Jack Jenkins on the western coast
of Canada and in the Northwest United States over the last
two decades.
Jenkins began to study the principal First Nations
tribes of the northwest coast of Canada, which include the
Tlingit, Tsimshian, Bella Bella, Bella Coola, Haida and the
Kwakiutl, back when he lived in upstate New York, not far
from Canada. This interest led him to purchase his first
mask—one of an owl, the harbinger of death—in 1986 from
a British Columbia museum shop.
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Jack Jenkins
nov dec jan 08/09 131
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Masks, in general, have special meaning to Jenkins,
who served as chairman of the theater department at
Simpson College in Indianola, teaching and directing plays
for 18 years. He has put a lot of thought into how actors
can adopt personas by using masks, whether actual or
psychological.
“If you are playing a character, you are psychologically
masking yourself. It’s fascinating to me and always has
been,” says Jenkins. “In actor training, we do exercises in
masking. If I can eradicate your face and give you another
face, then you can behave differently.”
Turning Knowledge into a Passion
His interest in the First Nations’ mythology led him to
journey to western Canada and the Northwest United
States nine times, always keeping an eye out for masks. He
has purchased masks from galleries and museum shops, as
well as directly from tribes and even from the artists
themselves. Once, he created his own First Nations art tour
of western Canada, which included sites with the most
totem poles, the equivalent of a multiple mask carvings
stacked one on top of another.
In one instance where serendipity intervened, he was
in Stratford, Ontario, for the summer-long Shakespeare
festival and he happened upon the Diving Killerwhale
Chilkat Moon Mask in Gallery Indigene. It is now in his
collection. Jenkins regularly checks out the Douglas
Reynolds Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he
has purchased several carvings by Beau Dick, a prominent
artist represented there.
One good place to see masks in action is a First
Nations ceremony, where tribal members wear the masks
to depict characters central to their mythology. The
presentations, similar to a Native American powwow, take
place in longhouses with a bonfire in the middle. The story
is told and then acted out in dances to a drumbeat, with
singing and chanting by the chief and tribesmen. These
presentations pass down the each tribe’s myths from
generation to generation.
“They are preserving their culture and sharing it,” says
Jenkins. “It was probably sacred before Christian times, but
today it is still revered because it is their mythology, their
story, their culture. It’s interesting. Some of it is funny and
other times it is scary.”
Sometimes, it is the mythology behind the mask that
makes it a must-have. One example is the striking red,
black and white mask that depicts the Raven, a key figure
in multiple tribes’ mythologies. In one story, the Raven,
known as a transformer but also as a lustful practical joker,
steals the sun from an evil being and places it into the sky.
In doing so, he dribbles bits of light, which becomes the
stars and the moon. “I knew the story and so I had to have
a Raven,” Jenkins says.
One of Jenkins’ most treasured collecting experiences
came recently. After witnessing a traditional Kwakiutl
ceremony at a cultural center in Ariel, Wash., he met Chief
Tsungani, who had carved the masks and taken part in the
ritual. Jenkins then purchased a mask the chief made that
depicts a deer that transforms into the face of a man. As a
fellow theater lover, Jenkins felt an instant kinship with
Tsungani.
“He was a charming man. I admire that they have been
able to translate storytelling into a living art,” Jenkins says.
“Storytelling is a universal art. We all tell stories. It lets
people know who we are and where we came from.”
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collectors
If paintings give us a window to the past, these works
are like looking back through a keyhole. The delicate
oval portraits, which can be 1 1/2 inches in diameter, date
back to the 16th to 18th centuries. In an incredibly small
space, these artists packed in an extreme amount of detail
with a wealth of color, usually depicting the head and
shoulders of the subject. To put it into perspective,
compared with contemporary portraits these antique
works of art are what a Japanese garden is to an Iowa
cornfield.
The main producers of miniatures were the French
and the English, who painted originally with watercolor on
vellum (animal hide). Then in the 18th century, ivory and
enamel were introduced as substrates.
Real Life Captured in the Miniature
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copy. In the times before photography, miniature portraits
were mounted in gold lockets, broaches and bracelets and
served as a way to remember a loved one while he or she
was away on travel. On some portraits, a lock of hair is
attached to the back of the frame, adding to its personal
value. Additionally, a family might take the portrait to a
prospective suitor to show him their daughters.
Collecting as Social Activity
Collecting for Mark Pritchard grew out of his friendships
and the camaraderie that he experienced during his time
living in Milan, Italy, in the 1990s. He would get together
with his buddies and frequent the monthly antique fairs
that were held along the canals, which were designed by
Mark Pritchard
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Leonardo da Vinci. The outdoor markets, featuring 500 to
600 vendors, were an antique collector’s paradise, offering
everything from furniture and paintings to jewelry and
clothes.
One day, a friend began explaining the value and
history of miniature portraits. Little by little, Pritchard
learned about miniatures, and the more he learned, the
more fascinated he became. Collecting miniatures is
popular today for the same reason people liked them in the
17th and 18th centuries: Portability.
“Miniatures are easy to purchase and take with you in
your luggage, if you are away from your hometown,”
Pritchard says.
Pritchard’s quest for miniatures took on a whole new
scope during his vacations along the Mediterranean Sea.
Antiques markets would take place every Sunday, Tuesday
and Thursday. During three-week vacations to Nice,
Cannes, the Riviera and other points in the south of
France, Pritchard and his friends would venture out, one in
search of silver; another, paintings of roses; another,
miniature portraits; and another, gold-leaf frames. Each
had a purpose.
“My buddy who also collected miniatures and I would
sprint across the cobblestone streets from one stall to the
next, trying to get first shot at the ivory miniatures,”
Pritchard says. “I got a lot of practice using my elbows.” He
has been successful developing a collection of 50 or 60
miniature portraits since 1993.
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Small Paintings of Big Dignitaries
Before there were paparazzi, miniature portraits
documented members of royal families, prime ministers,
military and civic leaders and their families. Interestingly
enough, some of the first miniature portraits depicted King
Henry VIII, who evidently did not share the same respect
for other people’s (including his wives’) heads. Pritchard’s
prized pieces include images of Napoleon and Josephine
and one of Shakespeare, painted in the 1840s by an
Irishman named Bernard Mulrenin, who has work hanging
in the National Gallery in Dublin, Ireland, and the National
Portrait Gallery in London, England.
Little Morsels of History
One could easily collect portraits of only royalty or
aristocrats, but Pritchard is not drawn in that direction. He
counts among his favorites in the collection depictions of
servants, ladies in waiting, maids and other average
people, who provide a realistic view of their time.
“These portraits are not stylized, but are warts-and-all
images of real people from the 17th and 18th century,” says
Pritchard. “Therefore, they serve as a historical record of
the time the portrait was executed.”
The images piqued Pritchard’s curiosity about the
stories behind them—what kind of lives they led. Each
image of a face is like a morsel of history that was probably
never written down. “History is not always made by
royalty,” he says. “It is made by the common folks as well. I
admire the plain, common people.”
Today, Pritchard’s miniature portraits are not only
images of European history, but are also a constant
reminder of his own history, his time in Italy and his
vacations to France.
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Whether winning a painting at auction from
Sotheby’s in New York or obtaining a
piece through bartering, the collecting
style of Robert and Harriette Lubetkin
proves there is no single method to adding to one’s
collections.
There may be larger, more prestigious personal
collections of artwork in Des Moines, but there is none more
interesting. Just as they do not limit themselves on how they
acquire the artwork, the couple draw no boundaries on
which artists to collect, whether it is a simple abstract
painting of a horse executed by the internationally known
minimalist abstract painter Susan Rothenberg or a
sculpture made by their former car mechanic.
Traveling Different Paths
The result of the Lubetkins’ collecting is an intriguing,
eclectic home décor. For example, pieces of Southwestern
Indian and African pottery purchased from dealers and
auction houses make for object d’art that is very interesting
to the eye. Not too mention being fine examples of artwork
from other cultures.
Friendships with the artist have led to a number of the
Lubetkins’ collection and commissioning experiences.
Their relationship with Des Moines native Doug Shelton,
now living in Tucson, Ariz., led to the first work they
collected. They traded a 100-year-old cartoon from the
Chicago Tribune for a Shelton painting called “Tunnel of
Love.” Later Shelton would paint Robert’s portrait.
Another friend and local artist, the late Karl Mattern, a
Harriette Lubetkin
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Drake University instructor, painted Harriette’s portrait.
But one of the Mattern paintings in their collection was
actually purchased by accident. The framer discovered the
hidden treasure behind another painting they had bought
from Mattern’s widow.
“We like to get to know the artists, but that is not
always possible,” Robert says. Luckily, Harriette makes
friends quickly. When contemporary realist Philip
Pearlstein was at the Des Moines Art Center to give a talk,
Harriette approached him with a proposition. She wanted
to trade him a Native American rug for one of his prints.
After she handed over the rug, a print came in the mail
days later.
An Eye Open for the Unique
Harriette’s eye for the unique paid off when she spied an
industrial-looking chest made to store screws at a hardware
store in Lake View. The store owner refused to sell it to her
until years later. Today, it serves as a unique end table. She
added an industrial-size nut to the top of the chest as a
whimsical accent.
Tenacity has helped Robert as a collector. He lusted
after several mid-’20s art deco chairs owned by a
downtown shoe repair store, but the shop owner wouldn’t
budge. Finally, Robert got an idea. He purchased several
new chairs and offered them in trade for the antique chairs.
And now, after some refurbishing, the glistening chrome
and black leather chairs adorn the Lubetkins’ kitchen area.
Sometimes collecting requires not only friendship, but
patience and a little faith. When Robert was approached
by friend and local artist Richard Kelly, who needed travel
expenses for an art exhibit in Washington, D.C., Robert
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agreed to fund the trip in exchange for a piece yet to be
painted. Kelly, unfortunately didn’t sell anything at the
exhibition, and needed even more money to bring his
artwork home. Robert again supplied the funds. Pretty
soon, he was out several hundred dollars.
Eventually, Robert’s confidence in the artist was
rewarded with quite a large abstract painting. The story
doesn’t end there. When the commissioned piece
developed technical problems, Kelly happily replaced it
with a piece that had twice the value.
With children in Chicago, the Lubetkins regularly go
antiquing and gallery hopping in the Windy City. On one
such visit, they purchase a purple-infused expressionist
portrait painted by artist and sculptor Robert Arneson.
Why go to a gallery when your mechanic is a sculptor?
The “Muffler Man”—made from used car parts, including a
muffler—is a whimsical piece that Harriette commissioned
from, of all people, the man who kept their car in running
order, Jack King, after noticing a similar sculpture had been
sold from in front of the shop.
The Lubetkins’ collecting style tells a lot about their
personalities. They share a joy for life and hold no
pretensions about their collections, which span from
Meskwaki artifacts, Southwestern and African pottery to
fine art, art deco house wares and more. When asked why
she chose one piece or another, Harriette has no
complicated explanation. “I just liked it.” What is next?
Who knows? Robert says it all. “We always keep our eyes
open,” he says. “We are always looking for whatever
catches our fancy.” ■
138 des Moines city Magazine
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