“I’ve always had a theory that we as humans are genetically hard-wired to be collectors,” collector Frank Schneider explains. “If you have three of anything, that’s the foundation of a collection.”
He continues, “I collected wooden tops when I was about 4; [they were] the kind with a string that you could spin on the sidewalk. I was intrigued even at that age by the physics, how it worked and what it looked like. My father smoked cigars that came in beautiful boxes. I placed the tops very carefully in the boxes. That was the beginning of the mindset that we are curators of a collection, caring for it and borrowing it for a number of years before passing it on.”
Kim Dorland’s portraits of him and his wife hang above Jun Kaneko’s ceramic Dango, 2002, photographed here in the collector’s previous home. Above the fireplace is Allison Schulnik’s oil on canvas Cemetery Boo, 2012. Next to it is her oil on linen Lady with Unicorn, 2015. The large painting on the far wall is by James Weeks. In the foreground is a ceramic sculpture by Viola Frey.When Schneider was a student at Columbia, he met an artist who was a fixture on campus from the 1930s to 1982 when he died at the age of 85. Sam Steinberg sold 5-cent candy bars as well as his Magic Marker drawings that Schneider recalls him selling for $2.25 when he was a freshman and for $2.50 a year later. Students hung the drawings in their rooms and often threw them in the trash when they left at the end of the school year. Schneider kept his three drawings and still hangs them among a collection that has expanded considerably from his college days.
Erik Olson’s oil The Man, 2011, hangs above the bench.
“I try to buy the best of the best that I can afford at the moment,” he says. “It was rare for me to sell anything unless I find a better piece. About 12 years ago I was going through some life changes and began to realize that I had got to the point where the collection owned me. I decided I would hone down the collection of about 250 works to the dozen or so that meant the most to me. I had paintings by a German artist that I decided to sell in an auction in London. One of them set a world record price. I was shocked when the money began coming in. I got down to about 50 pieces but couldn’t get below that. For two or three years I didn’t buy anything, but I was still looking.”
Zemer Peled’s ceramic sculpture Bunch of Shards 13, 2015.
His collection has gone through phases, at one time heavy in Bay Area Figurative works by artists such as David Park, Elmer Bischoff and Richard Diebenkorn. As that work became scarce and the prices got high, he deaccessioned the collection—which he calls his flat period—and turned to the hard edge painters of the LA Basin. Later, he turned to thickly impastoed paintings, many of which grace his home today.
From left: Roseta Santiago’s oil on canvas Daniel at Pecos Cafe, 2016, hangs near the entrance to the collectors’ home. Kent Dorn’s mixed media work Remains, 2010, hangs above Jun Kaneko’s ceramic Dango.
When he was working as an ophthalmologist, one of his patients admired the paintings in his office and said, “I could teach you to paint!” He replied, “You could teach me the basics, but the creative spark isn’t there. I have no talent for art, but I have a great appreciation for those who have the gift.”
From left: Allison Schulnik’s oil on linen Sailor, 2012, hangs near Low Horizon Sunbands, 1968, mixed media on paper by Lawrence Calcagno (1913-1993) in the collector’s previous home. A Brazilian folk art ceramic sculpture.
Before they were married, his wife, Robin, was working in New York and he was working in Las Vegas. On one long weekend visit, walking in the Chelsea Arts District of Manhattan, he caught a glimpse of a painting in a window. “I knew it was coming home with me,” he says. “Sometimes, it’s the execution rather than the image that attracts me. I like the feeling of three dimensions and the artist’s use of a palette knife as if the paint is a sculpture adhering to the canvas.” The painting in the window was by Kim Dorland whose portraits often have inches of built-up paint protruding from the canvas. Among the pieces by Kent Dorn in the collection are portraits of the artist and his wife.
On the left in the bedroom is an oil on canvas by Taos Pueblo artist Redwillow from 2016. Beneath the windows are three mixed media on paper works from the 1970s by Sam Steinberg (1896-1982). An oil on canvas by Steven Spann from 2005 hangs above the bed.Perhaps his favorite painting is from his “flat period.” His friend Charlie Campbell represented major Bay Area artists for over 60 years. He represented James Weeks who was an early member of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. One day Schneider walked into the gallery and Campbell’s assistant asked, “Are you here to see the Weeks?” “He showed me an image,” Schneider relates. “I thought it was phenomenal, one of his very, very best and a seminal piece. I asked the assistant where it was and he replied, ‘In Charlie’s garage!’”
Above the bed is Foceaute, 1995, acrylic on canvas, by Ed Moses (1926-2018). The large-scale oil paintings by Allison Schulnik are, from left: Rug Girl, 2009; Sailor, 2012, and Hobo Clown #5, 2008.The painting had been found rolled up in the rafters of a studio Weeks had left decades before. When Campbell went to look at it, he took a conservator with him to be sure that it wouldn’t be damaged when they unrolled it. It was in perfect shape. After a complicated, eventually uncompleted sale, the 90-by-110-inch painting ended up in Campbell’s garage because it was too big to fit through the door of his gallery. “I saw the painting in the garage,” Schneider explains. “We made a deal. Charlie paid the estate, and I have a great painting. Although I’ve sold most of my Bay Area collection, I’ve kept the Weeks because I love it.” —
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