Continue Learning With Road Scholar

Thanks to my friend Marilyn, who sent me the information on how Road Scholar, which one usually thinks of as a travel company for seniors, is adapting its programs to the stay at home mandate.  They have a series of virtual lectures to keep their senior audience thinking.   What a great idea.  The first one was on some of the famous names in the art world in Los Angeles in the past 100 years.  I thought I knew a lot about art, but I learned so much from this 35 minute lecture, followed by about 15 minutes of questions.

The lecture concentrated on the four big names in Los Angeles art of the 20th century, on how they got started, how they originally made their money and quite a bit about their lives.  The people, all men, were Henry Huntington, John Paul Getty, Norton Simon and Eli Broad.  Each man was unique in what they wanted to collect and why.  For example, Henry Huntington started collecting books and manuscripts (no one knows exactly why) in Cincinnati, before he even arrived in Los Angeles and bought up much of the land in the San Fernando Valley.  He opened the Huntington Library near Pasadena.  J.P. Getty, who made his money in oil, took six months out of his life to learn Arabic, so he could deal with the oil men in THEIR language.  I guess it was a good idea.  The unique spin on his collection is that he was always looking for a bargain.  This has led experts to question the authenticity of some of his collection. You can see his collections at the Getty Villa in Malibu, and the Getty in Brentwood.

Norton Simon was the son of a clothier from Portland.  In business, he made his money buying struggling companies and turning them around.  Hunt's was probably the most important company he turned around in the early 1950's.  Simon's interest in impressionism continued and grew after his marriage to Jennifer Jones.  Instead of building a new museum to house Simon's growing collection, he did what he had done in business.  He bought the struggling Pasadena Museum of Art, redid it, and put in his collection of impressionist art.

Eli Broad was born in Detroit in 1933.  He started his career as a CPA for the builder, Kaufman.  The rest is history.  They formed Kaufman and Broad.  Eli also founded Sun America (insurance company).  In 2015 the Broad Museum in Los Angeles,  opened to rave reviews.  It is beautiful to look at, and houses a rotating collection of some of the most beautiful modern art of the past 75 years.  Surprisingly, 70% of visitors to the Broad Museum are under 45.  That means that interest in art, at least modern art, is important to young people.

Why were no women involved in the art world in LA in the past 100 years?  No one knows for sure, but I most assuredly has something to do with the fact that men controlled most of the wealth at that time.  However, the wives of several of these business tycoons were instrumental in what they collected.  Hopefully the next 100 years will see women involved in this end of the art world, too.  Check out Road Scholar for more interesting lectures to fill your at home time.