NO WALLS LEFT BLANK

The colorful walls of Maurice and Margery Katz’s home are adorned with their expansive collection of early American modernist art

Maurice Katz is a born collector, starting out with classic comic books and baseball cards and graduating to assembling a prime collection of early American modernism with his wife, Margery.“we started 45 years ago,” Maurice explains,“and we haven’t stopped.”

Both took classes with renowned art historians in college, which helped refine their innate attraction to fine art. Maurice studied with the art historian Meyer Schapiro at Columbia College. “He made you delve into what art was all about as well as its role in civilization.” Margery studied with Alfred Frankenstein, the San Francisco Chronicle art critic, at Mills College.

“It was my first opportunity to see fabulous American art,” she says.

“After we were married, we were in a gallery on La Cienega when I spotted an etching by John Sloan,” Margery relates.“it was called Stealing the Wash.” It was the beginning of their collection of more than 75 works on paper by Sloan. They had begun collecting European art before they assembled their Sloan etchings.“we later realized the Southern California sun could be devastating to the works on paper, sold them and turned our attention to the artists of the Stieglitz Circle,” Maurice adds.

“The early 20th century was one of the greatest eras of American artistic expression,” he continues.“many of our artists studied or traveled in Europe where they saw the work of the Fauvists, expressionists, cubists and others.

They came back and combined the movements into an American idiom.” Noting that “there isn’t a white wall in the house,” Margery adds that they both respond to color in the art they collect, and they like when an artist paints with a heavy impasto.“i like to see the brushstrokes,” Maurice says, “representing the effort the artist put into the work.we have a number of studies by Alex Katz.we’ve met him many times and visited his studios in New York and Lincolnville, Maine. He starts with a drawing and, later, oil studies before beginning his highly finished large paintings.we like the painterly quality of the small studies.” The couple has focused on

American painting and sculpture up to the late ’20s including works by John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Max Weber, Arthur Dove, Joseph Stella, Oscar Bluemner and Leon Kroll. Over the years, they also acquired works of later 20th-century art including Japanese ceramics as well as glass by artists such as Richard Marquis and Vivian Wang. In addition, they have extensive collections of French Quimper faience and English Wedgwood stoneware. Commenting on

the Quimper ware, Margery notes,“it’s not fine art, but it’s charming.we use it every day and some of it is for display.” They first saw a piece by Marquis at the home of their friends and noted collectors, Richard and Carolyn Barry. “I loved it,” Maurice notes.“we looked for a piece for four years until we met a dealer in Palm Springs who represented the artist. He contacted Marquis who had a piece he was going to keep for himself but was willing to sell to us.” Their friends Sonny and Gloria

Above the sideboard in the dining room are (top to bottom, left to right) Juan, 2003, oil on board, by Alex Katz; Woman’s Head, 1908, oil on canvas, by Abraham Walkowitz (1878-1965); Self-portrait, 1921, gouache, by Barbara Morgan (1900-1992); Red Tie, 1929, oil on canvas, a self-portrait by Milton Avery (1885-1965); and Woman’s Head, 1908, oil on canvas, by Walkowitz. Next to the window is Artist at Easel, 1929, oil on canvas, by Konrad Cramer (1888-1963). On the sideboard are, from left, male and female Chinese ceramic figures, Tang Period, 618-907 CE; a Mappin & Webb English coffee service, 1903; Vase, 1999, porcelain, by Jun Takegoshi; and Covered Vessel, 2011, ceramic and glass, by Kondo Takahiro. On the stand on the dining table are four Glass Houses, 1985, by Katsuya Ogitha.

On the left in the hallway to the master bedroom, is Alligator Bag, 2010, ceramic and glass, by Vivian Wang. The large painting is Indian Summer, Missouri, 1960, oil on canvas, by Werner Drewes (1899-1985). On the right, from the top, are Study #4, 2014, oil on canvas, by Tam Van Tran, and Boat on River, 1911, gouache, by Konrad Cramer (1888-1963). Satyrs, Horse, Years,