DISASTROUS ’69 ROCK FEST KEPT STONES AWAY FOREVER
If you own upward of 10,000 works of art, it’s difficult to find room to display them all — even if you own three homes.
That’s the dilemma that nudged Beth Rudin DeWoody, one of ARTnews magazine’s top 200 collectors since 2005, to buy and renovate a 20,000-square-foot building at 444 Bunker Road in West Palm Beach as a place to exhibit her modern and contemporary art.
But even with nearly 16,000 square feet of galleries, only about 300 pieces are on view. DeWoody takes that with good-natured exasperation.
“As much space as it is and as much art is out, I’m still a little frustrated because there’s so much that isn’t out,” she said recently as she reviewed the galleries that her curators, Phillip Estlund, Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow, have filled with works by such artists as Victor Vasarely, Sylvie Fleury, Vito Acconci, Nick Cave, John McLaughlin, Cindy Sherman, Man Ray and Robert Arneson.
The building will open with a by-invitation reception Saturday. After that, it will be open by appointment as a private exhibition space.
Built in 1925, the art deco structure DeWoody has dubbed The Bunker was once a munitions factory, Estlund said. Most recently, it housed two churches and offices. DeWoody bought it 2013 for about $1.3 million, according to property records.
More than a year and a half of construction transformed it into a spacious, white-walled repository for her art. Here and there, a trace of the original structure is exposed, such as an underlayer of wall or the Dade County pine joists in the ceiling of a firstfloor gallery.
“When we stripped everything down, there were key moments we wanted to preserve,” Estlund said.
The first floor houses a capacious room suitable for largescale sculptures, an intimate gal-
lery displaying photography and about 4,000 square feet of storage.
The second floor features a big gallery ringed with paintings that can double as an event space and will be available for rent. There’s also a kitchen, screening room and a series of small, themed galleries branching off a long open corridor.
Until now, DeWoody displayed her art in her homes in West Palm Beach, New York and Los Angeles. “It was always frustrating when things were in a warehouse and I couldn’t get to see them,” she said. Several pieces on view haven’t been out of the crates since she bought them.
She chose West Palm Beach because much of her art was already there and real estate was a better bargain than it is in New York or Los Angeles.
DeWoody’s family ties to the area date to the 1940s, when her grandparents began visiting Palm Beach. Her late parents established a home on the island in the 1950s. She’s a frequent lender to the Norton Museum, which has organized two exhibitions from her collection and curates the biennial Rudin Prize for Emerging Photographers, underwritten by her family foundation.
The curators have been working on the installation since July.
DeWoody’s is the final word, of course. A curator herself, she asked for an entire display to be redone during the walk-through and suggested additions here and there. “I keep thinking, why isn’t this or that up?” she said ruefully.
The curators chose the art to reflect themes in DeWoody’s collecting.
“It would have been easy to do a show of greatest hits,” Monrow said. “We wanted to show something fresh. She’s an incredibly adventurous collector.”
Among the themes: early or atypical work by wellknown artists, art with art historical references, op art, formalist sculptures, foodrelated art and photographic self-portraits.
The big first-floor gallery features a weirdly sexual sculpture by Cave portraying a black child in a weathered wood chair surrounded by lit electric candles. Nearby is what looks like the entrance to an overstuffed garage, fashioned in wood by Jeff Colson, a lesserknown California artist. One of the rooms on the second floor contains a drawing of an Indian Edward Hopper made as a teenager and a painting by Ray, better known for his surrealist photography.
An all-silver gallery is arranged around a chunky table designed by Arik Levy and a Michael Brown sculpture made from battered lawn chairs salvaged from Hurricane Katrina.
“This is kind of how Beth lives with her art,” Dvorkin said. DeWoody loves silver and mixes everything together without regard to pedigree, she explained.
Plans call for rolling out a new installation annually on the weekend before Art Basel Miami Beach opens, Monrow said. As for the current setup, it’s a work in progress.
For an appointment to see the art, contact sandra@brdart.com or call 561-582-4574.