An Artful Home

American Magazine | Fall 2005

http://www.american.edu/american/fall05_artfulhome.html

An Artful Home

BY SALLY ACHARYA

Reflections are in the air at the Katzen home.

Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen enjoy art so thoroughly they have filled their home not only with art, but with mirrors, so that dozens of exuberant sculptures and boldly colored paintings and intricate pieces of handblown glass appear and reappear with each turn of the head.

A stroll through their spacious apartment mirrors, in its own way, Cyrus Katzen’s own remarkable career. Turn one corner and you find a maquette of Auguste Rodin’s famed nineteenth-century bronze The Kiss. Turn another corner and you find a light-hearted sculpture by Nancy Graves that could hardly be more modern. And so it is with Katzen’s life. Every time he has reached a point that would satisfy most people, he has turned another corner and found a new and completely different outlet for experimentation and discovery.

A successful Washington dentist whose career goes back to the World War II years, he transformed himself into a real-estate developer—and then transformed Bailey’s Crossroads, Tysons Corner, and Crystal City into some of the most profitable land around. He cofounded two banks in Northern Virginia that are now part of First Union Bank. The suburban landscape of the Washington metro area is in part a reflection of Katzen’s enormous energy and drive.

All along, he filled his personal world with an eclectic and ever-growing number of things he and his wife, Myrtle, loved to look at, from art by modern masters, such as Picasso, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, to a whimsical collection of tchotchkes.

The Katzens’ enthusiasm inspired them to help make possible the university’s, and Washington’s, newest landmark, the Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center. Their $20 million gift was one of the United States’ largest charitable donations in the year it was announced and will ensure AU’s stature as a premier arts location in the nation’s capital.

The Katzens spent a recent morning chatting about art and collecting with Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Rasmussen comes to AU with a distinguished record in the art world and is also, as it happens, a quadruple alumnus. He holds a doctorate in anthropological linguistics (’94) and three masters—in anthropology (’91), arts management (’83), and painting (’75)—from AU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

He spoke with the Katzens in a room alive with color, form, texture, and the unique energy of scores of well-loved artworks.

Jack Rasmussen: Sitting in your apartment, surrounded by all of this wonderful art, it’s clear that you have a passion for collecting. How did you begin?

Cy Katzen: Well, I’ve been collecting over 40 years. We enjoy collecting. One reason for it is we know a number of artists—we became friends with them—and we relate to some of the pieces we collect.

We became great friends of Larry Rivers, and so we have a number of his paintings. He made a portrait of us. He said to wear a crazy shirt, and wanted Myrtle to wear a crazy dress, and I did that, and I haven’t worn it before, and I haven’t worn it since. He made me look like Don Corleone of the Mafia. I wanted to look like Robert Taylor or Gary Cooper. But we can’t have everything.

Myrtle Katzen: I started in the early ’60s after I was at AU. That’s how I got started. I went to school at AU, and it taught me so much. I enjoyed going to the galleries and hearing teachers talk about certain artists. Then I started to collect art—I’d bring it home, and I just loved it.

Rasmussen: And mostly you collected the works of people you knew?

Myrtle: Or that I knew of. Like [Robert] Rauschenberg. He was one of the first artists. There was a gallery in Georgetown; I used to go down there and visit all the time. I knew [famed Washington Color School painter and AU instructor] Gene Davis at AU, and I got one of his paintings. People would come in and admire it. We now have seven Davises. He’s very nice.

Rasmussen: We have your Davises showing in the gallery now.

Myrtle: Yes, I want everyone to see them. I’m lucky enough to have them. The arts center is a very important thing for Washington. We have the National Gallery, we have the Hirshhorn, the Phillips, but we really don’t have one to show the Washington artists. The arts center will give young artists a chance to show their work.

What I like is how this will help the students. When they go and paint, students want to see what some of the recognized artists have done. They can go in the gallery and compare what they’re doing with artists’ [work]—the portraits and figures and how they work the space—and that will help them in school, too.

Rasmussen: I’m curious about what has motivated your selection of objects. What were you looking for and focusing on initially?

Cy: Many times I collected art because I related to the paintings. I have one, done by an artist by the name of [Albert] Alcalay, of Times Square. When I saw it, I had to buy it, because there’s a sign in it that says ‘No Left Turn,’ and I’m the only one that made a left turn at Times Square and lived. A policeman [saw me and] got off his horse, eight feet tall, and he said, ‘Did you see that sign?’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t. My wife saw it.’ He said, ‘Then you should let your wife drive.’ So later, I saw this painting, and I had to get it.

Myrtle: When I look at a painting, I look at it differently than Cy. I look at space, the shapes, how the artist painted, how the painting moves, how he put it all together, and why he did it there.

Cy: We have a very eclectic collection—folk art, glass art, contemporary art. I love the folk art. And the glass work. I’m always amazed how some artists can do glass work and do such intricate detail. That is amazing—the technique.

Rasmussen: Your Nancy Graves [pieces] are also in the opening exhibit—I could see where they would satisfy both of you. There’s a sense of fun, and there’s a sense of craftsmanship.

Myrtle: We were in New York when we bought our first Nancy Graves. We bought a painting and loved that, then bought another of hers, then we loved her sculpture so we purchased that. This is a very important sculpture, it was in a garden in Monaco. It needs a lot of space. We had to take the window out and get a crane to get it in here [their apartment], and there was a group of swimmers at the pool, and they all stopped swimming and exercising to watch the crane that had this large—they didn’t know what we were carrying up here.

It’s sort of filled up in here, but we always find room. I say to Cy, ‘Why buy that? Where are we going to put it?’ He says, ‘Don’t worry.’ And do you know, we always find room. I can’t understand it. You can see it’s filled up.

Rasmussen: Well, we’re going to give you some more room.

Myrtle: A lot of people say to me, ‘Aren’t you going to feel terrible not having those beautiful things to look at in your home?’ I say, ‘No, we’re older now, I’m glad somebody else can enjoy them.’

Rasmussen: I sat in when the Voice of America-Russia interviewed you, and they were fascinated by the concept of philanthropy and what motivates somebody to give the way you’ve given. I also wonder about all the different reasons you’re doing this for AU and Washington.

Myrtle: Cy is very generous. Cy doesn’t do things for himself, but he wants everybody else to be happy. It’s just wonderful. It’s in him. And I like to give because I liked AU. It was good to me, it helped me throughout my life, taught me about art, taught me to see things differently. I can look at this room and make an abstract of everything—the table, the shapes. When I look at somebody’s face, I’ll stare at them, and I can just see how to paint them. AU taught me to see. Most of us, when we look, we really don’t see. You have to be an artist to see. Do you think I’m right, Jack?

Rasmussen: I think everyone has the aptitude to see, but not everyone exercises that part of their brain. An artist does.

Myrtle: AU taught me that. When I take a ride in the car, I look at the sky, the shapes of trees, and I figure, ‘How can I make that a painting? It’s so beautiful.’

Cy: That’s the difference between my wife and myself. When I went to Georgetown, I looked at women, not at the sky. Of course, it was an all-boy school then.

Myrtle: We both have a different idea! But yes, we both like the same things. We’re a pair.