Marilyn Goldberg - The Queen of Art

“The biggest creativity of it all is the transmission of this energy to my children and grandchildren. This whole project is about family; a place to bond, a place to create; to do our ‘best-friending.’ This is what my life is about. I had a dream when I was 20 living in Amagansett on the ocean. It was to build a sanctuary and honor life.”

–Queen Marilyn d’Art

SunStorm/Fine Art Publisher Jamie Ellin Forbes, Reggie and Marilyn Goldberg

Editor’s Note

Chronicling the life of Marilyn Regina Huberman Goldberg has been, to this reporter, akin to earning a Ph.D. in a “Course in Miracles.” You may recall that very popular curriculum of days gone by, a supernatural primer designed to awaken us to the truth of our oneness with God and Love. We have been following Marilyn’s Miracles since first interviewing her at her very busy offices in the celebrated Townhouse, a stone’s throw from Central Park on 64th Street and Madison Avenue. The take-away is that Ms. Goldberg walked the talk then as she does now. You will discover in these pages that miracles, like Marilyn’s visions, have no limitations. Her “Ministry” started with a chance encounter at a restaurant in Sag Harbor with a couple who needed a house sitter to watch their place while they went on an extended tour of the world. Marilyn soon found herself in a rent-free luxury residence, replete with a fabulous boat, in the nick of time for she had just decided her marriage was an untenable situation and she had to make a drastic change in her life to fulfill her destiny. The rest of the story continues with the words of an Elvis impersonator, who upon meeting Marilyn in 2025 at a performance simply stated – out of the blue – “You look just like Marilyn Monroe.”

– VICTOR BENNETT FORBES

Publisher’s Letter

In our world there are people who watch the way it is done and those who are change-makers. Marilyn Goldberg is a change-maker. With each new campaign she creates, Ms. Goldberg fills a void she perceives within the arts with fresh imagery of value and merit. She has applied her visionary artistic insight and shifted the artistic mainstream acceptance of what is contemporary art. Upon introducing us all to the great fashion illustrator Erté’s work, Ms. Goldberg never looked back. Along the path of her 40 plus year tenure in art development and management, we all experienced John Lennon’s art, Tamara De Lempicka’s unprecedented multi-million dollar auction heights and the rise of a bevy of internationally acclaimed artists, many of whom were unknown before coming under the magical wand of Marilyn Goldberg. She developed the first cohesive line of museum gift shop items, scarves, porcelain, bags, etc., creating a change in perception and popularity of such artists as Picasso to Haring by bringing their art into the popular landscape to enrich our every day lives. Marilyn Goldberg is an icon within the very fabric of contemporary culture in which she has left an indelible expression and impression seen within the body of her work.

– JAMIE ELLIN FORBES

The paths of Marilyn Goldberg, Founder and President of Marigold Enterprises and its successor, Museum Masters International, and Jamie & Victor Forbes of SunStorm Arts Publishing Company, creators in 1975 of SunStorm Long Island’s Newspaer of the Arts which morphed into the internationally acclaimed Fine Art Magazine, producers of this book, first crossed in 1983.

“Together we take joy in celebrating our careers in the Arts as we do our meeting at the New York Coliseum at Art Expo in the early 1980s. Victor and Jamie have followed and chronicled my career and virtually every artistic product development from Signed & Numbered Prints (Picasso) to Neon Sculptures (John Lennon) to Fine Art Tapestries (Andy Warhol) to Celebrity Icon paintings (Sid Maurer), to Porcelain Dinnerware (Keith Haring), to Silk Ties (Erté) and much more. They have witnessed all of my shows and concepts before they became a reality. This book, on our mutual 50th anniversaries in the art area, celebrates our work together. The results of the time and energy we have devoted to the creative world in our businesses now lives on forever in these pages and online. The wonderful works of art presented herein form a welcome addition to the history of Art, The Spirit of Creativity and The Cultural Continuum. As you read on, please enjoy this compendium of our careers alone and together.

Our hope is that you will be inspired in your own artistic journeys.”

PREFACE

“Art Is The Expression of Innermost Feelings, Spiritual Needs”

By VICTOR B. FORBES

In these pages alone there could be many thousands of words detailing the life and accomplishments of Marilyn Huberman Goldberg. She carries an imperial air, one of a line of royalty…a living masterpiece testifying to the goodness of the Creator, of whom she is a primary example .

Marilyn lives a tune sung by the Spirits of Creativity, active beings whose task is to make the planet a more beautiful place. Fearlessly traversing the world, she is as comfortable in a museum in London, a department store in Tokyo or a formal buffet in Beijing as she is in her Villa Marilyn in Southampton, New York.

Her marketing expertise and acumen are second to none. A pioneer and innovator, she invokes the minds of the masters, bringing light and love into everything she touches. Marilyn Goldberg’s father was a physician; a European immigrant speaking several languages — Polish, French, German Russian — who arrived in the United States with his wife, Georgette (Mamita), from Paris in the 1940s. He had a very personal vision of America, an eye for beauty and a spouse he adored who resembled the great American movie star Marilyn Monroe. When their daughter was born, naming her was easy: M-AR-I-L-Y-N.

Ms. Goldberg has taken that gift as her first experience with branding. Her life honors her parents and the great Norma Jean and carves out a place in the history of humanity that is particularly and uniquely her own. A successful art publisher, merchandiser and creative home designer, Ms. Goldberg is also creator of legendary art programs for John Lennon, Picasso, Erté, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Tamara De Lempicka and enough others that to list them and note their accomplishments would fill many books.

Marilyn Goldberg employs her love of life, imagination and beauty into a potent elixir that we have come to call “The Art of Life.” Living in this spirit is a full-time experience for Ms. Goldberg, not an occupation. It is like breathing for her. Just as there is no peer or equal to the iconic status of Marilyn Monroe, in her field – which is her life – there is

none who compares to Marilyn Goldberg. Her impact and vision as it pertains to the arts through her museum innovations, Hamptons’ home renovations and the products and living spaces she has created and manufactured are unprecedented.

In 1985, when Artexpo was the biggest art fair in the world, people lined up at the doors of the old New York Coliseum and when they opened, made a beeline for

the Marigold Enterprises Ltd. booth to be first to see what great new artists and products Marilyn was presenting. Her art and art-related merchandise often sold out moments after the show opened. People built careers and art galleries based on her pioneering and intuitive ideas showcased in a plethora of creative merchandise.

Marigold Enterprises, with Ms. Goldberg as founder and president, was a pioneering international firm with limitless projects involving the marketing of art in varied media. She built an industry and lifestyle from and for art that was treasured in the homes of millions. She is a reservoir of artistic ideas and the enthusiasm she generates for art, artists and her projects is more than contagious – it is powerful. Yet with all the push and hype necessarily surrounding a business that will take a Picasso painting and exquisitely reproduce it with hand drawn border designs on a scarf or tie pattern to be sold from Bloomingdale’s to Henry

Bendel, there is an even more intense feeling one gets from Marilyn Goldberg: a positivity detected in her genuine love and admiration of good art and good artists.

Maintaining relationships of “great cooperation” with estates and artists, for Ms. Goldberg, while challenging, is relatively easy. “If I weren’t doing this,” she states,“I would still be designing, painting, printing, building and sculpting.”

Extremely well-versed in architecture and art history, Ms. Goldberg was awarded a painting scholarship to New York University and went on to earn her BFA at Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts with a thesis on Art Therapy. She majored in Advertising Design and Product Marketing with a minor in Psychology and later received her license for interior designing at the New York School of Interior Design, which led her to creative garden designs and landscapes in the Hamptons with her signature waterfalls and Monet’s waterlilies.

After a decade in that field, a stint at the American Contemporary Art Corporation, the Art Center and Jackie Fine Arts, Marigold Enterprises. Ltd. was founded in 1979 with its first major project a collection of lithographs with Marina Picasso to cover her grandfather Pablo Picasso’s estate taxes and release all the art they were holding.

“All my life, I have studied art, architecture, and home interiors in addition to the various periods in art. Often, very little has been stated on canvas that was relevant to the times — as opposed to pre-historic cave art, the Egyptians, the Art Deco movement and the whole 1950s scene. People started to go back to styles that were successful and popular in previous eras. I said to artists. ‘Go outside and look. See the way people are living. Bring the outside in and the inside out; let the colors work.’”

What Ms. Goldberg discovered was an entire generation had the potential and to become collectors with the money to pursue such interests. Mouseketeers, miniature Davey Crocketts, baseball card flippers grow up and decorate homes. Finding the secret of what they want to put on their walls, their dinner tables and their floors has put Marilyn Goldberg at the forefront of the art marketing and interior design world.

“The Queen of Art Has Rightfully Earned Her Title”

By ANNE PADDY

I never expected to be an art collector. We all appreciate art, and our tastes develop and change as we grow more familiar with the different eras and styles. Although the art we choose to purchase is displayed, most of us do not think much about the artist, their personal life or their legacy. Whether it is fine art, decorative art, collectibles, posters or prints, it has been created by a talented person with a specific purpose and reason.

My husband Richard and I started to purchase art as most people do – to decorate our home. As we discovered our personal preferences, we moved in the direction of 20th century design. When we heard that Barbra Streisand was selling her Art Deco collection at Christie’s New York, I bought the catalogue set. One distinctive name quickly attracted our attention – Tamara De Lempicka. Her painting Adam and Eve was like nothing we had ever seen. Of course, with an estimate of $500,000800,000 USD we couldn’t possibly afford to think about the painting which eventually sold for $1.9 million USD. But it did send us on a journey that would change our lives. Finding Tamara’s work was not easy. I finally discovered that Barry Friedman Ltd. in New York represented some of her less expensive work. With his help I was able to acquire Portrait of Kizette Adult II, a later portrait of her daughter who was a favorite model. Shortly afterward, A Street at Night from her first solo exhibition in Milan in 1925 became available. I loved the haunting buildings and the mysterious streetlights. With a price tag more than my budget could afford I was disappointed. The next day the tenant who was renting my former home called to say they were moving out. Wait! I could sell the house to buy the painting! And I did. Another early painting, The Gypsy Fortune Teller beckoned me, and the collection grew. By this time, unbeknown to us, a major exhibition of Tamara De Lempicka was being organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Expert and Parisian dealer Alain Blondel along with Barry Friedman enlisted Marilyn Goldberg

and her company Museum Masters to acquire loans and handle all aspects of marketing and merchandising. From the elegant exhibition poster featuring Portrait of Ira Perrot to all the items sold in the museum gift shop it was a monumental task. Marilyn had already assisted Alain Blondel in searching out and producing high resolution images of her work for his Catalogue Raisonné published in 1999.

Invited to attend the exhibition, we were fortunate to meet Alain Blondel and word of our collection spread. Several months later, I was contacted by the Kunstforum in Vienna, Austria to ask if we would lend two of our Lempicka paintings for the extension of the London exhibition. We were quickly catapulted into the fascinating world of art exhibitions.

When you visit an art exhibition it is completely invisible and transparent all of the preparation that has gone on, sometimes for decades. First someone has to envision the concept, a venue has to be found for the designated time and works have to be acquired from private and public collections. The exhibition space has to be designed, insurance and transportation

has to be arranged, and merchandising and marketing must be put into place. Few people realize that artists, living or deceased, have specific rights for their work during and after their lifetimes. Even when you purchase and own a painting, sculpture or other medium, the image still remains the intellectual property of the artist or their estate. Promoting and protecting these rights is Marilyn Goldberg’s specialty. We encountered Marilyn again in 2011 when she organized the exhibition Tamara De Lempicka - Queen of Art Deco at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, Italy. It was the culmination of decades of work by Marilyn and her partner William Weber to create the grandest exhibition of Tamara De Lempicka ever seen. Sadly, William passed away in a tragic accident before he could see the great appreciation of their years of work as the show was a fantastic success. Tamara De Lempicka exhibitions became one of the most in-demand events in Europe, with multiple shows in Italy, France and Spain as well as Mexico City and Japan. She also coordinated with the Kosciuszko Foundation New York to celebrate its 90th years of International Success by featuring Tamara De Lempicka at their Annual Ball and Fundraiser at the prestigious WaldorfAstoria Grand Ballroom. Later the Kosciuszko Foundation would organize the first Tamara De Lempicka U.S. exhibition in over 40 years. In 2017 Marilyn brought Tamara back to Asia with an exhibition at the Hangaram Art Museum at the Seoul Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea. Marilyn not only represents artists and their estates, but she also is instrumental as an art broker in connecting buyers and sellers of fine art. She was instrumental in assisting us in purchasing several original works for our collection. Her vast knowledge and connections in the art world have rightfully earned her the title Queen of Art bestowed upon her by Fine Art Magazine in 2014. She continues to be an inspirational and motivating force conquering new horizons for artists past, present and future.

The author is collector, historian and archivist of Tamara De Lempicka; Author of Tamara De Lempicka. Behind the Scenes and Tamara De Lempicka. Za Kulisami

Anne Paddy, Marilyn Goldberg

It Begins At The End –THE GLORIOUS EAST END

It Begins At The End –THE GLORIOUS EAST END

THE GLORIOUS EAST END Page 8

THE GLORIOUS EAST END Page 8

“I had a dream when I was 20 living in Amagansett on the ocean It was to build a sanctuary and honor life.

“I had a dream when I was 20 living in Amagansett on the ocean It was to build a sanctuary and honor life.

Each day I plant a new seed and watch its roots unfold into healthy offspring filled with sunlight as in the fields of Monet haystacks.”

Each day I plant a new seed and watch its roots unfold into healthy offspring filled with sunlight as in the fields of Monet haystacks.”

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Queen of Art is a compendium encyclopedia of Marilyn Goldberg’s journey in the international art areas. When we first walked up the stairs of the Marigold Townhouse headquarters on a crisp New York City Autumn day in 1983, we had no idea what we were about to experience. As neophytes in the big-time art world, we had just opened our printing plant and were finally able to (after seven + years as a newspaper) print our covers in color on glossy stock. Somehow, Marilyn accepted our phone call and invited us in to make our pitch. The office was a bee-hive of activity with so much going on it would take many books to describe. What we saw, from our seat next to Marilyn were accountants, trade show booth designers, international representatives speaking in foreign tongues, product samples all over the place and the occasional artist making his or her way to the boss’s desk to present a sleeve of slides. Laurence Gartel among them. Marilyn gave her undivided attention to all and if that sounds like an impossibility, the entire operation is one that defies the impossible.

Marilyn Goldberg, after years of international travel, detailed factory production and distribution, plus her endless creativity for branding the world’s greatest Art Programs, explains that “In all my experience, great Art – like a Fabulous Personality – comes about by pulling out the ingredients that make it special, different, and unique…and that helps the ongoing flow of creativity. When I started with Warhol, Britto, Ed Heck and others, I had the vision that no one else understood: All the fragments of their total Art Form could become elements of an amazing future of greatness.

Looking back on some of those years, we find Marilyn getting ready for yet another trade show. This time in London where the headlines ring out about terror attacks. The prior December she produced a major de Lempicka show in Seoul, Korea, where the imminent threat of unthinkable destruction permeates the entire atmosphere. War zones, terror attacks? Fugged-about it! Marilyn Goldberg is accustomed to laughing in the face of adversity. As blondhaired, green eyed beauty, she courageously broke down barriers all over Asia and Europe, taking down powerful corporate and government attorneys who were defending their thefts of her very own trademarks. Marilyn has never backed down from any challenge. She has done more for artists — living and dead — than just about anyone since a Renaissance Pope. The only comparable would be the legendary Absolut marketer Michel Roux. Marilyn is more than the Queen of Art — she is the Elvis of Marketing. She, like Elvis, was everywhere and almost every song was a hit. As you read through these pages you will see her accomplishments and discover artists of great talent you may have overlooked. But her greatest success, she will proudly tell you, is her family and the relationships she has forged with art agents and artists around the world.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Page 12

Jamie Ellin Forbes, Publisher of SunStorm Fine Art Magazine, first met Marilyn Goldberg at her Townhose Headquarters in New York City in 1983 to discuss mutual promotional opportunites. That interview morphed into a life-long creative friendship and partnership resulting in a wide variety of artful activites right up to the present culminating with the publication of Queen of Art.

TIMELINE

Page 19

Dr. Huberman sent spoke seven languages, but not English, and was hoping for an American daughter that he could name after his American patient, Marilyn Monroe.

“IT ALL STARTED WITH PICASSO” Page 29

“The Master: Only One Picasso. Artists worldwide were inspired by him. I felt his art, knew every line, every color, every cray-pas...loved his genius. I developed patterns and designs from his images and built his entire Merchandise, Trademark and Copyright program. His spirit guided my life.”

PETER MAX – “AMERICA’S ARTIST” Page 45

“Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others,” said Sri Swami Satchidananda, Peter Max’s guru, and few artists have reached countless millions with that message since Peter burst upon the scene as a pioneer of the psychedelic movement of the 60s. Marilyn helped revive his career by publishing a series of lithographs and hosting a major exhibition.

“MEET ME AT MARIGOLD”

Page 52

From the earliest days of Marigold and Art Expo, SunStorm Arts has been there chronicling it all. Marigold’s booth was the place to be — to get there early on trade days before the editions sold out. Marigold displayed a wide variety of ancillary products to go along with the high artists’ paintings, sculptures and limited editions. Art Expo was the colossal yet cutting edge art fair of the era.

ERTÉ

Page 73

In January 2015, Monsieur Erté began to contribute his extraordinary designs to Harper’s Bazaar. Critics declared: “To glance at an Erté design is amusing. To look at one is interesting. To study one is absorbing. That any human can conceive and execute such exquisite detail is positively miraculous…” Marilyn spent many years working with the master on a great variety of projects.

JOHN LENNON

Page 84

A request by Yoko Ono’s attorney who invited me to lunch and decided that Museum Masters International would publish and promote John Lennon’s art beginning at our 24 booths at Artexpo NY. Yoko and we went through closets of John’s clothing pulling out napkins and scraps of paper with pencil drawings from which we developed an entire collection of works still in demand today.

MUSEUM MASTERS INTERNATIONAL

Page 95

MMI brings Art to the new generations with Exhibition Planning, Product Design, Pre-Exhibition and Press Promotion expertise. Always presented in a fresh, highly elegant and enthusiastic way with young, fashionable in vogue “MariGold” architectural detail enhancing international spaces. MMI is respected worldwide for innovation, lasting value and dedication.

MARKETING MARILYN Page 105

Susan Bernard and Marilyn Goldberg were both Daddy’s little girls: “Our dads both loved “Marilyn!” We both honored our dads! I met Susan Bernard many years ago at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan. I had just completed contracts for Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe, for the first time co-branding the two icons together. This was truly a highlight of my life.

VILLA MARILYN Page 110

“Villa Marlyn was amazing. It was in the heart of The Hamptons, so there couldn’t have been a better location, and she designed it so well. It was like an Italian villa, which Marco loved because he’s from Sicily. Every detail of it was just really well put together. It was comfortable but still had these really nice luxurious effects. There is no other place in the world like it.” - Sheila Barrila

HERO OF CREATIVITY

Page 124

Marilyn Goldberg was recipient of Fine Art Magazine’s Hero of Creativity Award “I tend to think that all art is heroic. I think it’s a heroic enterprise from childhood, from the beginning, whenever it begins.”

– JASPER JOHNS

DALI - “I Taught Him To Sculpt” Page 136

Robert Descharnes personal assitant and photographer of Salvidor Dali for 30 years told me he was going to die after Gaia gave all to Spanish government. I represented him in court to contest the government’s ownership and won $2 million for him. I developed the licensing the trademark, and assorted product categories in addition to Dali Sculptures and promotion.

CATHERINE THE GREAT Page

142

The Empress meets The Queen. In 1990 Ms. Goldberg was invited by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to develop the Catherine the Great Collection. “In one of the most memorable moments of my career, the Hermitage closed its doors so I could walk through and view each area with the specialist curators. I discovered a box of Matisse line drawings in the basement.”

TAMARA DE LEMPICKA

Page 144

Tamara, the Art Deco Icon, was for years known as “The Baroness With A Brush.” She was the most fashionable portrait painter of her generation painting Grand Dukes, socialites and Duchesses. Her sharply outlined, poster-like portraits of the smart set owe much to what we now call art deco.

SID MAURER CELEBRITY ICONS Page 166

Beloved painter of Hollywood Stars, Americana, Endangered Species & even Penthouse Pets, he has created a vast collection of work that brings a touch of joy, respect and honor to the subjects of his portraits sharing his vision of a more perfect and beautiful world through his paintings.

ANDY WARHOL Page

184

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

And remember, in the future you will be famous for 15 minutes.

TOTA PULCHRA

Page 194

“It’s a marriage made in heaven,” The spirituality in evidence at our initial meeting portends new artistic advances for Rome worldwide.”

– Marilyn Goldberg.

CONTEMPORARY POPULAR ARTISTS Page

217

Marilyn’s promotion of artists began with all-time greats Picasso, Dali, Erté, De Lempicka, Peter Max. Over the years, Marigold and MMI have gone on to champion many contemporary artists including Kevin Kelly, Ed Heck, David Gerstein, Laurence Gartel, Ken Beberman, Marco, Arlen Schumer, Ben Bonart, Don Oriolo, Steve Zaluski, and Julie O’Brien, among many others.

JOHN MELILLO

Page 240

A Contemporary Realist Painter who was born and raised on Long Island’s East End, much of his art is inspired by his experience there and as a disabled Vietnam Veteran. His relationship with Marilyn Goldberg is international and Museum Masters has promoted his works widely. “To know Marilyn,” he says, “enriches your day when you meet her. She is brilliantly incredible.”

MARILYN’S MIRACLES

Praying at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. A hotel is built. A child is born. A book is published.

Page 248

My mother, Georgette — Mamita. I shared everything with her and she shared everything with me. The greatest influence in my life has been her innate creativity & elegance. The resultant transmission of this energy to my children and grandchildren is the greatest creativity of all. This whole project is about family; a place to bond, a place to create; to do our ‘best-friending.’ This is what my life is about.

Marilyn Goldberg — The Art of Life

By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES

Marilyn Goldberg’s father was a physician; a European immigrant speaking several languages — Polish, French, German Russian — who arrived in the United States with his wife, Georgette, from Paris in the 1940s. He had a very personal vision of America, an eye for beauty and a spouse he adored who resembled the great American movie star Marilyn Monroe. So when their daughter was born, naming her was easy: M-A-RI-L-Y-N.

Ms. Goldberg has taken that gift as her first experience with branding. Her life honors her parents and the great Norma Jean yet carves out a place in the history of humanity that is particularly and uniquely her own. It isn’t that being a successful art publisher, merchandiser, and creative home designer — creator of legendary art programs for John Lennon, Picasso, Erté, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Tamara De Lempicka and enough others that to list them and note their accomplishments would fill many books, it is that Marilyn Goldberg employs her love of life, of imagination, of beauty into a potent elixir that we have come to call “The Art of Life.”

Living in this spirit is a full-time experience for Ms. Goldberg, not an occupation. It is like breathing for her. Just as there is no peer or equal to the iconic status of Marilyn Monroe, in her field, which is her life, there is none who compares to Marilyn Goldberg. Her impact and vision as it pertains to the arts through her museum innovations and Hamptons home

Georgette Huberman, Marilyn’s French mom and the greatest influence of her security and lifestyle, “Mamita”

“Art is living. It is creation. It is the past, the present and the future. If you can bring it into your soul and into your being, and express it with joy, you’ve brought love to the world.”

renovations and the products and living spaces she has created and manufactured pertaining to the great artists she has represented, are pioneering and unprecedented. In 1985, when Artexpo was a the biggest art fair in the world, people lined up at the doors of the old New York Coliseum and when they opened, made a beeline for the Marigold Enterprises. Ltd. booth. Her art and art-related merchandise literally sold out moments after the show opened. People built careers and art galleries based on her intuitive ideas and plethora of creative merchandise. Marigold Enterprises, with Ms. Goldberg as founder and president, was a burgeoning-firm with seemingly limitless projects involving the marketing of art in varied media. She built an industry and lifestyle from art that was the treasured gift of any home, from her porcelains made in Germany to her carpets and tapestries from Denmark.

A boundless wealth of artistic ideas, when you engage with her the enthusiasm she generates for art, artists and her projects is more than contagious — it is powerful. Yet with all the push and hype necessarily surrounding a business that will take a Picasso

Marilyn Goldberg and Papa Joe after first house sale in Moriches

painting and exquisitely reproduce it with hand drawn border designs on a scarf or tie pattern to be sold from Bloomingdale’s to Henry Bendels, there is an even more intense feeling one gets from Marilyn Goldberg: a positiveness detected in her genuine love and admiration of good art and good artists.

Maintaining relationships of “great cooperation” with estates and artist, for Ms. Goldberg, while challenging, is relatively easy.

“If I weren’t doing Marigold,” says its founder, I would be painting, printing, building, sculpting. Designing.” Extremely well-versed in architecture and art history. Ms. Goldberg was awarded a painting scholarship to NYU and went on to earn her BFA at Boston University School of Fine SFAA and Applied Arts with a thesis on Art Therapy. She majored in Advertising Design and Product Marketing with a minor in Psychology and later the New York School of Interior Design, where she received her license for interior designing which led her to her creative garden designs and landscapes in the Hamptons with her signature waterfalls, and Monet’s waterlilys. After a decade in that field, a stint at the American Contemporary Art Corporation, the Art Center and Jackie Fine Arts, Marigold Enterprises. Ltd. was founded in 1979. Her first major project was with Marina Picasso for her grandfather Pablo Picasso’s estate.

“All of my life, I have studied art, architecture, home interiors in addition to the various periods in art. Often, very little has been stated on canvas that was relevant to the times — as opposed to pre-historic cave art, the Egyptians, the Art Deco movement and-the ’50s scenes. People started to go back to styles that were successful and popular in previous eras. I said to artists. ‘Go outside and look. See the way people are living. Bring the outside in and the inside out; let the colors work.’”

What Ms. Goldberg discovered was an entire generation — the first such generation in America — had the potential to become collectors with the money to pursue such interests. Mouseketeers, miniature Davey Crocketts, baseball card flippers ... grow up and decorate homes. Finding the secret of what they want to put on their walls to their dinner table to the carpet on their floors has put Marilyn at the forefront of the art marketing and interior design artistry world. Extensive research into what fabrics were being manufactured, what new paint chips were being developed, carpet designs and decor ideas has enabled Ms. Goldberg to instantly visualize people’s needs for their space and get a handle on what kind of art people would want to look at.“We need to be soothed these days. People’s lives are so crazy because they’re working so hard. They need an image — a lifestyle — a

home with floors walls and accessories they can relax with, feel proud of, entertain in and enjoy for even a few moments. We found that people want to escape viscerally, through art and decor, into an elegant world which for many is gone. I’d love to go home and get dressed for a beautiful evening, chauffeured to a magnificent estate to sample vintage wines…but if I can’t go because I’m here creating programs, at least I can look at the art I love, enjoy what is on my walls and escape into it for a while.”

FINE ART: How did you get started, and develop your enterprises of art and real estate in the Hamptons, bringing them all together in a way nobody else did.

MARILYN GOLDBERG: We started out with Marigold Enterprises, evolved into Museum Masters International and out here in the Hamptons it’s The Villas Del Arte, Southampton Cottages, Master Builders and as of 2011, Villa Marilyn Enterprises.

FA: There are a couple of swell stories about your history. Can you elaborate?

MG: A great story is that my parents came here after the War, from Europe. When my father arrived in this country, he spoke several languages but not English. His American idol was Marilyn Monroe, his dream girl, and he decided if he had an American daughter, especially with blond hair, her name would be Marilyn and so I owe my name to him based on his love for Marilyn Monroe.

FA: Can you tell us about Marigold?

MG: In 1977, there were articles in the Wall Street Journal about Pablo Picasso leaving his paintings to his granddaughter Marina Picasso. Unfortunately, since there was no will and she had to pay taxes, she owed four and a half million dollars to the French Government. The idea came upon me to raise the investment financing for the taxes and develop what is now called art merchandising for the right of reproduction of copyrights on everything from fine art limited edition prints to all kinds of museum products. Once the development of that took place, a Russian artist from London and Barbados via Paris named Erté arrived for the first time in this country (since 1923) and I was hired to plan the marketing program for his work. I had many meetings with Erté and decided at the time to go into a three dimensional phase. We selected a foundry Joel Meisner came to my office where we arranged for the three dimensional casting of the historic Erté sculpture collection. I traveled back and forth to Barbados many times to visit hi,, having cocktails with Erté at his home, with my young son accompanying me. He selected all the jewels for the tapestries we created, so it was a very interesting time.

FA: To put it in perspective, this was a phenomenon. When Erté became popular again, he was an icon amongst collectors. His work was highly sought after internationally and was a huge marketing event. A wonderful man, also.

MG: It had a huge marketing plan, and ultimately with the merchandising and publications that went on with both he and Picasso, the development of what I call the art brand took birth.

FA: So you were an originator of art branding…

MG: I was the Disney of the art world, meaning that artists and estates from Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Erté, Tamara Lempicka and a host of others came to me for copyright and trademark filing and securing international logos to brand the art which was highly recognizable.

FA: So this is your magic. When you instill it into marketing you see plan and you can go for it.

MG: I see a name. I see brand. I see how to get that to the consumer. I see how to market it to the public. I hand draw the look. I took the P of one painting in Picasso, the “i”, the “c”…I would then graphically with sumi-e ink redraw it so it was brand-able and later on, in many serious international litigations, when other parties tried to make claim to the trademark, they could never find a painting with a signature because they were all mine.

FA: That’s very interesting. The magic really works.

MG: My partner, Michael Rothbart, inspired me to run and find my magic each time, like a key unlocking the vision that the public will recognize. I take the embryo of an idea and turn it into a whole beautiful body of visual understanding. This is what the style of my life and the style of my home living and that which I bring to my clients is all about.

FA: I remember sitting with you, knowing at the time you were the spark of an entire movement. I picked that up instantly first time I walked the floor of a trade show. I understood that the magic and the music was coming from you, and you were moving a market. What I found interesting at the time is that you understood so much about people. When we originally interviewed you many years ago, you spoke of the integration between home, art, living and space and how you were adapting it. This was pioneering, way before anybody else had broached the subject of paint and decor as visual art along with the actual artwork. You were creating an environment and you were certain this process was to be the next big wave.

MG: I think it is important to understand that way before the art and artists, my real background was in architectural and interior design. The combination of gardens and houses and offices and commercial real estate and restaurants filled with art, filled with beautiful patterns, having everything coordinate and work together was a total vision for me. I didn’t see the prints being published, I saw the prints in a matte, in a frame, in a house on a wall with the surrounding textiles and carpet. An environment that it was going to grow in.

how the flowers and the gardens would tie in to what’s going on within each of the houses, the explosiveness of paradise. Through creative living and through the art of the masters and up and coming fabulous Pop artists that lend themselves to developing these environments in the Hamptons—this makes tenants and purchasers very happy.

FA: I think this is very important because you’ve affected the environment in which we live. You left a branding on the social environment because art was not popularly consumed before. Art was not quite so big until you began to do this.

MG: Art wasn’t branded for home lifestyle. People didn’t think about going to restaurants and finding giant murals and fabric that was coordinating with the art. People weren’t eating at dinner tables with plates that had the art on them coordinated with the paintings on the wall. All of this became a development of showing the public my vision and when I found the land of gold and heaven, which is where we’re sitting right now, I knew that I had found the place to make it all happen, and we have.

FA: You took your entire fabric in the way in which you weave an idea together and brought it into the Hamptons and created an inside environment to match the external one .

MG: I created a lifestyle and the lifestyle is the artistry of living life to its fullest. At this particular point of time, in that many of the properties out here have been sold and reinvested, as to the development of the houses here, we’re basically finding a very unfinished and messed up canvas that needs a lot of work. And in visioning, the trees, the gardening, the plantings, the pond, the house, the reconstruction, the extension — the art that would go inside — how the art would bring your eye to the outside;

FA: And the Realtors are all now very happy that you’ve brought your Marilyn magic to their particular stage, so to speak.

MG: Beyond the houses, the art, the furniture the decor, the colors, the gardens, the ponds, the sea breeze, are all one part of it. I’ve also put together the magic of staff that goes from house to house and takes care of the clients so that their homes are impeccable, their tables are set, their fresh flowers are cut from their gardens, their bedding is pressed, with the European linen, and everything brought in from all over the world tells you that this is not an ordinary house. It’s a house of art styling. It’s a house of love.

FA: Few, if any have done this out here prior to you.

MG: Correct. There are people who build houses, there are interior designers, landscapers, but there is no one singularly who creates the house for the art, for the landscaping, for the total environment, for the five star Ritz Carlton service that I offer.

FA: You have such a unique way of seeing things, and you’ve evolved your concepts over an incredibly prestigious career — what allows you to spark in this way? What about this environment allows you to see that real estate can benefit from this. What was you defining moment?

MG: I had a very defining moment when I was in my twenties, which resulted in divorce. I was married at the time to

a family of Realtors from the city and all I wanted was to be living on the beach in Amagansett by the dunes.

FA: For a few years, you had a retail gallery out here.

MG: Years ago in Southampton, across from Saks, I had the Garett Stephens Gallery, named after my son Garett, and I remember having a huge show at the time for Peter Max, who stayed in one of my houses. It was very interesting, because as he was in my European bed and European duvet, he dropped some ink while he was doing a drawing. So he made an entire drawing out of the duvet cover and said he was very sorry for messing it up. I said, ‘That’s OK, Peter. I’ll just hold on to the cover.’ The story goes on and on from there.

FA: It sometimes seems like you have a modest renegade in you that saw a very holistic picture that was inspired and that you’ve been graced and blessed, allowing you to integrate this into an entire life’s vision. It must be very rewarding.

MG: It’s very rewarding but it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work having a vision that no on else understands or will invest in. It started from the merchandise that no one wanted. I had an office in Japan for ten years. It wasn’t until I put that merchandise on the bookstore shelves of the Guggenheim Museum (which had no product up till then), that they turned around and said alright we’ll try it for a weekend. Soon there was an entire Guggenheim gift store.

FA: Did anyone manufacture museum gift bags before you? I remember when you started them, and I remember your concept in describing them; I had seen you describe ideas that nobody was doing, the Erté tapestries, the sculptures.

MG: Taking two dimensional art and putting it into a three dimensional form where the artist had not done that in his lifetime — and Erté was not a sculptor — this was all invented. Taking tissues or napkins found in John Lennon’s pockets with little sketches and turning them into stone lithography and hand-etched prints — all of these items have become very valuable today. The shopping bags that were a dollar fifty are trading for $800-900 each because they were a limited edition. The John Lennon prints that opened at $150 are between $8-$18,000. The Marina Picasso print collection which was numbered and endorsed by the estate that opened for $200 are selling between $7-8,000 a print. So it is interesting to see that the vision was very different from the vision that was making hats and tee shirts to sell at Disneyland. My vision to bring art to a young generation, informing them what was great, and why, and why it should be a part of their lives, worked out pretty well. Turning it into children’s books with stories that children can understand that are sold in museum gift shops all over the world so the art and the concept of the art and the houses and the lifestyle —it’s total. Making a Keith Haring rug for a child’s room, with Keith Haring chairs for them to sit and play on; making Andy Warhol tapestries, Andy Warhol children’s clothes, babies wear were all issues that ultimately brought art to the grandparents who knew the names, to the parents who were the young teenyboppers and suddenly to the children who grew up with the art.

FA: Watching this great success as it began to evolve, your ideas are very validated. How did you handle the opposition, or did you feel you had opposition at the time, or were you so inspired that you just drove through it as an energy because it is a remarkable. I used to watch you work and I had never seen anything like it. And you still have it.

MG: I still have it and always will have it. There was huge opposition. The estates in general felt, ‘Oh my goodness, if we do editions, if we do merchandising, if we do all of these things, it will devalue the art and were very opposed. However, my vision created exactly the opposite. Those articles most highly merchandised were the ones that went at top value on auction. The public started to know the paintings that were different than van Gogh’s Starry Night which everyone knew. They started to know all the paintings and everything started to go up and I think that the most ambitious of escalation and appreciation in the art world for me has been the 25 years of input that I put into Tamara De Lempicka when the paintings were $200,000 and the name unknown internationally, I am very proud to tell you that in the auction at Sotheby’s last spring, brought in $3.5 - 6.5 million a painting and I am in the middle of doing exhibitions internationally which have gone from the Academy in UK, to Venice, to Berlin, to Mexico right after Frida Kahlo and we’re leaving for Rome in the Spring. The sales came from the paintings that I merchandised the most. Those were the ones that were most in demand. Those were the ones that brought in $6.5 million per painting.

FA: So you were flying in the face of a certain aristocratic art market and yet you have overcome or defied or out-marketed … how would you put this? You have developed a market based on your techniques which had some opposition and now you are creating these entire environments, including paintings with the houses so the residents are comfortable they have their multi-million dollar properties for rent and they have their multi-million dollar paintings.

MG: And the best part of it all is watching the buyers and the tenants entertain in my environments. They open the door and every friend who walks in says, ‘Oh My Goodness! That’s a Warhol, a Picasso, that’s a Haring, that’s a Lempicka.’ All of a sudden they feel so important, they feel so proud. The young man that drove up and opened the walls, as soon as he saw the dinner ware, as soon as he saw everything he said, ‘This house is artistry from every wall to the garden.’ And then they go outside and find Monet’s Garden and because each of my gardens is planted with ponds, and waterlilies imported from Monet’s actual garden, and waterfalls and they feel the art outside.

FA: So this is your art form. Creating the environment, marketing the art, selecting it and inviting people in your generous way you are creating an environment to share that you have envisioned.

MG: Not only envisioned, but my greatest joy is watching them live it for themselves afterward. They walk into the environment and there is a tray with fresh flowers from the garden set up with art plates and tea or coffee or lobster or whatever it is that I am serving and when they feel how they feel, they call me to find out how to fix the first floral arrangement so that when their guests come in so they’re proud

FA: So this magic, this art form that you bring, you feel it enriches people’s lives. Art is important.

MG: Art is living. It is creation. It is the past, the present and the future. If you can bring it into your soul and into your being, and express it with joy, you’ve brought love to the world.

Timeline

“Doctor Nusyn Huberman, my father, was physician for Pablo Picasso and was often stopped in Paris and the South of France for his autograph as he and Picasso were thought to be twins. Based on this subject as a young child, I requested my elementary school teacher to advise me as to why everyone thought my father was Picasso....and who was Picasso? I was eight years old when I posed that question which was the beginning of my life in Art History — the seed that sprouted into working with the greats and their estates in my companies Marigold, Museum Boutique Intercontinental and finally Museum Masters International. After Picasso’s passing, Marina Picasso the only legitimate child (as Picasso had many mistresses) could not inherit the paintings taken by the French government as her father owed $4,500,000 in taxes.

Throughout the Revolutionary War, Jews loyal to American causes abandoned their homes and properties rather than live under British rulings. Aaron Isaacs merchant and ship owner and part owner of Sag Harbor wharf was among those Jews who fled to Connecticut when Long Island came under English control. Jewish merchants mortgaged their property in advance close to $150,000 to underwrite the Revolutionary army.

A very successful investment banker, Harris Shapiro (who later founded the Dyansen Gallery chain with Dr. Ronald Parker) thought that Marilyn would be the perfect person to travel the world and find backers. This was during the era of tax shelters and investors found many ways to benefit from their $100,000 investment.”I was successful in doing so and obtained the rights to some 40 lithographs. I had them printed under the guidance of Marcel Salinas, the official coordinator and chromiste of all Picasso printing projects. The editions and business arrangements were approved by attorney Martin Bressler representing the heirs of Picasso.”

All the editions, plus thirty Marilyn Goldberg

Sid Maurer’s 2016 Collage celebrating the 120th Anniversary of Temple Adas Israel, Sag Harbor, NY

Jospeh Fahy’s organization created Sag Harbor’s Jewish community when he brought 40 to 50 Jewish men, some with familes directly from Ellis Island between 1886-1888 to work in his watch case factory. Records indicate that already in Sag Harbor were six Jewish men who acted as the Village policemen.

Zach Erdem, Marilyn Goldberg, Kevin Kelly share the news in Southampton, New York

Harris Shapiro

Michi Aribe was instrumental in designing a museum on the top floor Mitsukoshi Department store in Tokyo where all the original paintings in the Picasso book which I got from Marina - first time I showed the signed prints everybody in Japan was buying them. The entire store was celebrating Pablo Picasso due to the exhibition of original paintings that were in the Picasso book we published in Japan and a large percentage of products in each category were designed by Marilyn Goldberg with the help of Michi.

designed products were presented for approval in France by all of the heirs. The resultant products became the beginning of the first Picasso merchandise ever created for museum gift shops. Attempts to sell rights in the United States were challenging as the American art market only wanted to buy Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. “Without licensees in the US, my trips to Japan became the essence of designing and producing all kinds of art merchandise. With the help of Michiko Kobayashi, factories began producing silk, porcelain, bedding, glassware, towels, vases and more from my designs with custom borders. Upon completion of this initial work, the Mitsukoshi department store chain immediately wished to partner with Museum Masters International (then known as Museum Boutiques Intercontinental). Mitsukoshi department store then sent me to all their producers of mens wear, womens wear, children’s wear to design continuous Picasso product which would be shown throughout their department stores in addition to an exhibition on the developed Museum Boutique top floor, which showed original Picasso paintings and the lithographs, endorsed, stamped, and signed and numbered by Marina Picasso.

“Upon my return to New York with the Picasso products, I presented them to the Guggenheim Museum which had only a bookstore with books and three posters for sale. In showing the sample products, there was no interest as the Guggenheim only wanted original paintings. I left a basket of samples on the counter and said, ‘Just leave these here for a week and I will pick them up, or you can keep them.’ One week later a telephone call came in. ‘Marilyn, get over here right away, everyone wants everything. Design our gift store as you are an interior designer.’ Finally, the concept of my dream of Art Merchandise from my youth came to fruition and became the exciting event of the art world and museums world wide. This initial success was followed by endless calls from established artists wanting similar merchandise developed with their name, brand, logo, and whole and cropped pieces of their original artwork. Bravo! Museum Masters International was in business and further became known

Montauk Lighthouse by John Melillo

for the hand-designed logo trademarks of many artists ranging from Picasso to Dali to Warhol to Tamara De Lempicka and dozens more!”

Marilyn Goldberg is responsible for creating, producing and marketing an ever-expanding collection of products all based on the works of living artists as well as the masters of the ages. van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Leonardo Da Vinci all had original trademarks filed by Marilyn Goldberg for international merchandise which is but a fraction of her output over the years.

Roberta Boxer Levy was introduced from Jacki Fine Arts, who also had many clients interested in art Copyrights that had a tax deduction for creating new Art Merchandise designed by Marilyn Goldberg as none existed before.

SALVADOR DALI

“Salvador Dali wanted to make sculptures but he didn’t sculpt. I was asked by Dali and his agent to come to Spain, develop the licensing the trademark, and assorted product categories in addition to Dali Sculptures and promotion. I spent two weeks at his home in Spain sculpting. I was hired by Robert Descharnes, Dali’s assistant of 20 years, to design his logo signature trademark, file his copyrights and design his sculptures. I lived with Dali in Spain for two weeks as I did with Erté in Barbados. When he died, his wife Gala (who lived separate from him), handed all rights to the Spanish Government. Descharnes was totally devastated as he was losing the sole income. He insisted I fly to Paris with my family to make a miracle and save him! In summary, I went to the Spanish government and their Dali Foundation and advised that they could not use the logo Dali trademark and copyrights without a major payment to Monsieur Desharnes! “They feared my court abilities and settled the dispute for two million dollars! When Descharnes received it, he was thrilled and claimed I made his miracle in life for all he did to promote Dali and I asked him for nothing! Descharnes was thrilled with his Art Queen saving his life and his family forever! I did not take a penny but was so delighted that he was saved and so deserved it!”

PETER MAX

Peter Max is a German-American artist known for his vibrant, psychedelic paintings and prints. He was born in Germany and moved to New York In 1953. He worked as a graphic designer and produced Peter Max artwork for ad campaigns and band posters In the 1960s.

His works are associated with the visual arts and culture of those days, particularly psychedelic and Pop Art. He was good friends with Andy Warhol and far more successful until he dropped out to study yoga with Swami Satchidananda. On his return to the art business,

PETER MAX

Max also did much to commemorate the United States, including US Postage stamps, Ellis Island works, and Statue of Liberty works celebrated with President Ronald Reagan on the 4th of July In 1986.

“Throughout the 1980s, I worked with Peter to produce and release signed limited edition lithographs for international exhibitions. Many of these Peter Max paintings were featured at the 1989 Peter Max exhibit, which opened the Garett Stephens Gallery in Southampton, NY.”

Peter Max’s art Is a kaleidoscope of color, optimism, and cultural vibrancy, making him an iconic figure in the art world of the 20th century.

TAMARA DE LEMPICKA

With William Weber, I worked on Tamara De Lempicka’s first exhibition in China. He had previously introduced me to Kizette De Lempicka-Foxhal as we sought to locate paintings done by her mother. All were researched internationally in Russia, Poland and Europe and contracts were signed exclusively with Marilyn Goldberg of Museum Masters International and later continued with the granddaughter Victoria De Lempicka for thirty-five years (every five years auto-renewals) and international exhibitions commencing in Boston, California and toured the world in London and the Vittoriano Museum in Italy followed by many additional locations in Europe, Asia, Mexico and Poland). In searching for the best location in Italy to present the Tamara De Lempicka exhibition the newly renovated museum Vittoriano was entered by William Weber who had a terrible fall and passed away. States Marilyn, “He was one of the greatest art dealers in the world and has been missed by all who knew him. De Lempicka would never have broken worldwide had he not met Branislav Huberman major Polish musician who created and Alain Blondel for concerts & Art Exhibitions for Tamara De Lempicka and Salvador Dali back in the day. Recently, Huberman’s guitar was located and the Warsaw Museum requested from Marilyn Huberman Goldberg to auction the guitar of the brilliant musician which was agreed to under the condition that Poland would have a major museum exhibition for the then unknown Polish artist Tamara De Lempicka. The guitar auctioned at $1,000,000.

MARIGOLD, ARTEXPO & THE TOWNHOUSE

In the first five years of Art Expo, Marigold Enterprises was the fledgling art fair’s largest exhibitor. Giancarlo Impiglia shot to fame there, gaining prominence with the artwork commissioned by Marilyn Goldberg for the 150th Anniversary of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Marigold/Museum Masters International represented 24 artists and booths in New York City where John Lennon’s art program debuted. This collection came about after Marilyn and Yoko went through John’s clothing, finding scraps of paper and drawings on napkins from which were create beautiful prints of his scribbles. “From these scribbles, Marilyn had beautiful Chine Colle prints made and she went on to represent John Lennon’s art and

copyrights with Yoko Ono. The lithographs were produced on handmade tiles for each color to be pressed by hand. Each of the editions was stamped similar to what Marilyn Goldberg prepared for Marina Picasso. For the Lennon stamp, she designed an Asian red stamp created by Michiko Horibe for each of the signed stamped limited edition prints. The artwork was then used by Museum Masters International for apparel, posters, neon lights, tapestries, silks, ties, porcelains and a series of three-dimensional sculpture. International exhibitions were established starting with Dyansen Galleries in New York City and assorted galleries in the U.K. attended by Marilyn Goldberg and Yoko Ono as partners.

SUSAN BERNARD & MARILYN MONROE

Susan Bernard and Marilyn Goldberg were both “Daddy’s little girls. Our dads both loved Marilyn and we both honored our dads! I met Susan Bernard at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan. I had just completed contracts for Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe, for the first time “legally” co-branding the two icons together. This was truly a highlight of my life. In those days, the Warhol foundation had no agreements with Marilyn, Elvis, Campbell, or Pepsi. I did them all and loved bringing the iconic brands together, visualizing nothing but double the power of Andy and Marilyn.”

Marilyn represented Andy Warhol for years before he was the superstar he became and requested him to paint Marilyn Monroe for my father as he always wanted an American daughter named after his crush after arriving from Europe. “I spent my early years growing up with her pictures in my room which I brought to Andy and asked him to paint Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, two family favorites.”

Marilyn created all of the product merchandise similar to that of the very successful Picasso collection for Warhol. Included in the mix were porcelains, glassware, apparel, silk scarves, silk ties, bedding, towels, wines, liquors, chocolate and finally perfume. “This was my second perfume collection with Jean Pierre Grivory the master perfume producer in Paris, France who produced the Dali perfumes for me.” For Warhol’s “Marilyn” and “Flower” Perfumes, MMI secured a $4,500,000 license fee guarantee against royalties. The Andy Warhol tapestry collection was also a huge success and some are still on the market today. Handmade of 100% Virgin Wool 80 knots per square foot and produced on India’s finest silk, the edition includes Warhol’s “Marilyn”, “Brigitte Bardot”, “Mickey Mouse”, and “Flowers” limited editions produced by Indian weavers and families working for months on these editions. William Weber, President of Modern Master Tapestry, and Marilyn’s partner until his untimely death in Italy, was responsible for bringing Marilyn into the world of Tamara De

Dirk Fabarius

ERTÉ

After first meeting him in the U.K. and France, Marilyn arranged with the French Embassy in New York to welcome Erté to the United States where the very first sculpture developed for Erté was exhibited. “Victoire” (“Victory”) was cast at the Meisner Foundry, one of the major sculpture factories in the USA. “This initial sculpture edition,” stated Marilyn, “was created from two-dimensional artwork to three dimensional bronzes.” To get everything just right for this and future projects, Marilyn would bring all of the pre-production samples to Erté — who was very hands-on even in his 80s and 90s — to approve the finishing touches and details so that the costumes, hair and all of the bronze colors were to his very high standards. The sculptures were shown in 22 Dyansen Galleries in the Unites States. “Victoire” at the French Embassy was the precursor of one of the most celebrated art programs of the 20th century with Circle Fine Arts publishing many lithographs from Erté’s vault of original costume and set design paintings. Further developments took place at his home later in Barbados where Marilyn and her sons visited annually to work with Erté on the colors and jewels for the tapestries, jewelry, watches, porcelains and the objets d’art designed by Marilyn. She also spent weeks at EGE in Denmark to finalize designs for carpeting used in five star hotels and cruise ships from Erté’s fabric patterns which are still selling till this day.

SID MAURER

The first meeting with Sid Maurer took place when Marilyn met Sid who was working in Andy Warhol’s pre-Factory studio. They were partners in an advertising agency. Sid was the Art Director at Clive Davis’s fabled Epic Records and befriended Donovan who was kind of overwhelmed by the New York City hustle and bustle. They became great friends —Sid and Donovan and Sid and Marilyn and had great impact on each other’s lives. Sid’s adventures in Swingin’ London (and later the South of France where he and Bridget Bardot were lovers for a while. The adventures of Sid in London with Donovan and Brian Jones are legendary. Back in New York, Sid and Marilyn worked with Bob Guccione of “Penthouse” magazine to style photos of the Penthouse Pets. Years later, “Penthouse” asked Sid to paint a series “Pets” for an exhibition in the South of France. All of the original paintings sold out, mainly to the Pets who adored Sid back in the day.

Sid contacted Marilyn stating that he wanted to start a licensing program as someone in his family had cancer. Prior to that, he had no interest in licensing as he only painted originals. Marilyn said she would think about it and once Sid heard Edith Piaf on the Museum Masters International website and Marilyn Goldberg received an original painting of Edith Piaf by saying “please let me make music in your life” the exclusive representation and friendship started and led to www.celebrityicongreats.com

TOTA PULCHRA

In 2020 after Marilyn’s annual visits to the U.K. Licensing Expo, she was invited to Rome and had her initial meetings with Marco Rotondi. Her long-time friend, Hilary Mostert made it a welcome affair for her due to a childhood experience that developed into a lifetime friendship. Hilary invited assorted members of the Vatican to the repast. After the incredible dinner, Marilyn was given a tour of the Vatican City the following day which concluded with excellent meetings and invitations to return. This resulted in the formation of relationships with members of the inner circle of the Vatican under the Pope — Monsignor Jean Marie Gervais and Ambassador Marco Rotondi. In reviewing the entire location including the Sistine Chapel and the grounds surrounding these areas, halls were selected for future art exhibitions, concerts, ballets, etc. The enthusiasm that the parties had for each other were furthered after discussions with Marilyn to be exclusive representative of Tota Pulchra Ars Vaticana which represents a vision of love for the people of the world. Additonally and most important were the paintings created by Museum Masters Contemporary artists to paint their own homages to the Vatican so as to foster to the young generations the art of giving, loving and helping the needy!

JOHN MELILLO, SOLDIER ARTIST

The famous artist of the East End, John Melillo, shares all of the beaches, farms, elegance and history of the Hamptons in his work, living, designing and exploring East Moriches, Center Moriches, West Hampton, Southampton, Watermill, Bridgehampton, Amagansett, Wainscot, Montauk Point. In his “Life Goes On” series, the Vietnam Veteran’s theme, is “Surviving PTSD Through Art.” John Melillo (retired) is an Oil Contemporary Realist Painter/ Disabled Vietnam Veteran who grew up on the East End of LI and is an avid fisherman. He uses painting as a Solace and Healing Mechanism. Much of his art is inspired by his East End Heritage, geared to detail and story telling. His realistic presentation, though definitive, enables the viewer to create their own narrative — of not the super-charged environment of today but of the tranquility of the water, beaches and farms from his youth. Says Marilyn, who represents the artist internationally, “When my father (who spoke seven languages) went out to Sag Harbor to work in the watch factory as a translator, he brought his little daughter — me — and we toured all of the Hampton towns. At that time there was just one hotel in Montauk and like John, I learned to love the places, the sunsets and the Bay. John and I have common ground in our life’s histories in the East End and we enjoy sharing it with friends around the globe who love to visit here.”

MARCO ROTONDI, Tota Pulchra Ambassador

IT ALL STARTED WITH

“The Master: Only One Picasso. Artists worldwide were inspired by him.

I felt his art, knew every line, every color, every cray-pas (oil pastels) ...loved his genius. I favored developing patterns and designs from his images and built his entire Merchandise, Trademark and Copyright program! His spirit guided my life.”

— MARILYN GOLDBERG

“My life’s business career began with My Daddy & his twin, Picasso!!”

Marilyn Goldberg was always fascinated by Pablo Picasso who looked like her father, Doctor Nusyn Huberman, a French man who was always asked for his signature as when he was in Paris as everyone thought he was Picasso. After Picasso’s death in 1973, Ms. Goldberg negotiated with a major US investor group to put up four million dollars to acquire the rights of reproduction for 15 years from the images inherited by Picasso’s granddaughter, Marina Picasso.

There were many discussions with the Krugier gallery who represented Marina Picasso in Switzerland and negotiations between Marilyn Goldberg and Marcel Salinas, who was the chromiste and printer for Picasso when he was alive.

Eventually, Ms. Goldberg negotiated with several other print ateliers (Chromacomp and Circle Fine Art among them) to be guided by Salinas to create plates to authentically and accurately reproduce the original oil paintings, watercolors, pastels and charcoal drawings. The first strikes were printed on 100% BFK Reeves rag paper that captured the quality of Arches paper, which was Picasso’s paper of choice. Each artist proof was hand-carried by Ms. Goldberg and her colleague, Eves Arman, son of the famous painter and sculptor, “Arman” of Paris.

The meeting of the group of heirs

to review the prints, lithographs and silk screens was done by the entire estate and signed off by each — including Marina Picasso, the only “legitimate heir” — and the children of Picasso’s mistresses Maya Picasso, Claude Picasso, Paloma Picasso, et al. Some of these meetings took place in Paris, others at the Negresco Hotel in the south of France in Cannes where Ms. Goldberg met personally with the lawyers of the estate, the children of Picasso and Martin Bressler who headed “VAGA” in New York City to ensure authenticity.

Each print is signed and numbered in pencil by the hand of Marina with the seal created by Museum Masters (pictured at left) embossed. The prints have the estate and chromiste’s seals with the elegant legend: “Approved by the Heirs of Pablo Picasso.”

Ms. Goldberg, after negotiating with each US investor to fund the production by a contribution to Marina of $100,000 dollars per image, agreed to have their name printed on the back of the posters and their contracted permission for Ms. Goldberg to create and design ancillary products made from the same litho plates.

The prints have greatly appreciated in value throughout the years and since their first sales through the Diners Club

in Taiwan followed by the Mitsukochi Gallery and major department store chains in Japan where for the first time all of the articles designed and produced by Marilyn Goldberg with the entire collection of originals & gift items owned by Marina Picasso.

Many of the editions have sold out and those pieces remaining are still distributed by Museum Masters. At the time of the investor groups, marketing programs which were led by Marilyn Goldberg internationally created for the first time in art history the concept of putting famous art on beautiful merchandise. Later she pioneered similar ventures with Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Gauguin, Klimt, Kieth Haring, Dali, Lempicka, Sid Maurer, Andy Warhol, and now Kevin Kelly and the Brietling Watch program.

Each of the images created have become collectibles which continue to escalate in value annually as the majority of goods created from porcelain, dinnerware, ceramics, neck ties, silk scarves are absolutely superb and caused an international positive response at the very first presentation at Art Expo at the Coliseum in NYC. .

So began the amazing Art Merchandising business that has escalated world wide today.

Picasso Dr. Huberman

COLLECTION MARINA PICASSO

Limited Edition Lithographs of

Pablo Picasso artworks!

Publisher:

These hand-pulled lithographs were published by Jackie Fine Arts, Inc., NYC and curated by Marigold Enterprises LTD. NYC from 1980 to 1983.

These original lithographs have two editions. 500 of each numbered works from the original litho plates, and 34 artists proofs (AP”s of every edition). Each created from an original painting of Pablo Picasso, signed and numbered by Marina Picasso as the official authorized heir of the Estate for her late grandfather. These editions plus 1,000 units of Litho Poster Editions, hand colored, by individual original plates, where financed by USA investors for limited edition’s stamped which from Marina Picasso Collection were all approved in April of 1981. Publication commenced in 1979, that were completed in 1983. Each supervised and completed by Picasso’s master chromiste Marcelle Salinas. There are no prior limited editions and no rights for re-strikes of signed limited edition of these images. Each investor donated $100,000 US dollars per image, to pay off the $4,500,000 note of tax’s owed by Picasso to the French government, in order to release the paintings to Marina.

Provenance:

The authentic Marina Picasso signed lithograph’s and Posters created from only the original hand made plates, created from the original painting each has a dry stamp on the back or in the front right corner below the image, documenting the date of the original painted by the master, Pablo Picasso and the authorized purchaser under contract with Marigold Enterprises whose corporation later changes to Museum Masters International. The 1,000 limited Jackie Fine Arts edition posters used a true signature selected by the heirs, Marigold Enterprises and attorney Martin Bressler of VAGA. All of the original paintings and the double fine art lithograph’s (signed editions, Stamped by Estate, and Poster Editions done from the original plates, comprise the inheritance know worldwide as “The Marina Picasso Collection”.

This Homage series was approved and endorsed by the heirs of the Pablo Picasso Estate witnessed by Marilyn Goldberg, Yves Arman, Martin Bressler of VAGA (Visual Artist and Galleries Association, Inc.). All after ancillary product and merchandising in Museum Stores worldwide, created thereafter use the signature created by Marigold for Jackie Fine Arts, Marina Picasso, as a graphism for posthumous ancillary products developed for the investors who fully financed this collection. Authentication is secured by the investors stamp located on the original Lithographs.

Photo © Robert Doisneau

Portrait au Cou Bleu Poster #3-A $900Buste de Femme Nue Face Litho #011-212 $1,250

The Marilyn Goldberg Collection was featured at the Tota Pulchra exhibition at Marco and Sheila’s Insatiable Eats restaurant in Riverhead New York where Marilyn tells guests about how she started in the big-time art business with Picasso’s daughter Marina

For 25 years, Marcel Salinas was the only chromiste Picasso used. He did all of Picasso’s prints when the artist was alive. When Picasso died, there was an article in the New York Times that said his only legitimate heir, Marina Picasso, who signed his name, s the only person that would be allowed to sign everything that wasn’t 100% complete, but they were all original Picasso’s and Marina couldn’t get the rights because Picasso was owing the French government $4.5 million. So I went around, all over, and got investors to put up $100,000 per image to get the rights, and give the money to Marina so she could pay the French taxes and get her father’s many paintings released. Then the investors would get an edition of 500 prints to sell and 1,000 posters of each image but the posters were not really posters done with offset lithography.

They were done from the original lithographic prints. I supervised and curated Marina and Marcel Salins exactly the way Picasso did when he was alive and because all of these and many more that I have were done, I did over 40 for $100,000 each and we opened the exhibition in Japan at a very famous department store there — Mitsukochi — who made a museum for me on the top floor, and because we had all of the licensing rights from giving Marina $100,000 per image, I started all of the fine art products. What are the fine art products? They’re scarves, they’re ties, they’re watches, they’re porcelains, all kinds of things, cups, aprons, everything. And ultimately, no museum had a museum shop in those days so I brought everything that I did to the Guggenheim Museum. I put it on their top counter, and Peggy Guggenheim said, “no, we only have original art here. We don’t have products.” I said, well, I’m going to leave them up here for a week. I can come pick them up, or you can throw them out if you don’t get a reaction. Two weeks later, I got a call, “Marilyn, get over here now!”

Thus began Marigold Enterprises which morphed into Museum Masters International and the story is a big chapter in Art History.

PICASSO SCARF COLLECTION

The Picasso Silk Scarves Collection created by Marilyn Goldberg for French & Italian Vogue — the first of many MMI products that opened the door to fine art merchandising in Museum shops

Marilyn Goldberg created a trademark Picasso signature from these many examples above in a pre-Photoshop era of her own hand design, using Japanese Sumi Ink and brush. In so doing, she has handled the heaviest of hitters in the art world. She created this logo using letters from several signatures to finalize one signature so as to create a

trademark that would protect the Estate from counterfeiters. These were not public domain but trademarked — “I painted it for the judge, all the people who represented the Picassoseven lawyers didn’t but I won. Made friends with asked for $8,000 to file trademarks in China - 50% and represent for another 15 years with “fraudster children”.

Dinner with Picasso

“I heard Picasso liked chocolate, so I made him some, with my cousin, Dominique Arnold, in Paris.”

ABOVE: Peter Max’s highly collectible suite of John F. Kennedy portraits

Liz Derringer (Director of Public Relations) with Marilyn at Peter Max Studio headquarters, New York City

Peter Max is a German-American artist known for his vibrant, psychedelic paintings and prints. He was born in Germany and moved to New York In 1953. He worked as a graphic designer and produced Peter Max artwork for ad campaigns and band posters in the 1960s at the dawn and then height of culture of the 1960s, particularly psychedelic art and pop art. Max also did much to commemorate the United States, including US Postage stamps, Ellis Island works and Statue of Liberty paintings which brought him back to prominence beyond the heights he experienced in the hippie era with President Ronald Reagan championing his patriotic paintings. Visiting Peter’s Manhattan headquarters was always a great adventure and his hospitality was always in evidence. Opposite page is the SunStorm magazine cover from 1986.

Photo right by Victor Forbes of Peter with his father and Tina Louise, Ginger of Gilligans Island.

SunStorm

PETER MAX

“America’s Artist”

Syd Solomon

By Kurt Vonnegut

Profiles on

WILL BARNETT

YURI KRASNY

FELIX ABADA

MAX FERGUSON

FRANK LICSKO

ALDO LUONGO

ALEKSANDER ZYW

MARTIN RAMIREZ

SHAKER SHOW at WHITNEY

GIANCARLO IMPIGLIA

DAVID GERSTEN

CHAMBERLAIN

Retro at MOCA

GLORY DAYS

Marigold, Art Expo and SunStorm

At the age of each Millennium, there arise scholars, sages and scribes that guide discreet ones into new realities. SunStorm’s Fine Art magazine, with it’s founders, Jamie and Victor Forbes, propel such a vision to new heights with their grand style and clever prose.

The timeless insights that are so eloquently portrayed throughout the pages of this stunning work of art, captivate the imagination and transport the viewer to the enchanted realms of creativity. Its solar flare pierces through the veil that sometimes obscures fine art, and delivers the reader into a sensuous embrace of artistic refinement. This high caliber of penmanship truly inspires one to reach new levels of awareness and appreciation for the visual arts.

As I reflect upon the symphonic melodies of SunStorm’s Fine Art magazine, I realize that I shall treasure such brilliance as a cherished morsel of my life.

With Warmest Regards, Lady Lori Churchill Spencer THE

“Everyone needs a sense of history and knowledge as to where today’s art industry originated.”

– JW HAFFEY, Publisher, Art World News

At Dyansen’s San Francisco Gallery celebrating Paul Wegner’s unveiling of his sculpture with Jamie Ellin Forbes, Joan Goldberg, Paul Wegner, Carlos Santana, Lady Lori Churchill Spencer

The Forbes Gallery, East Norwich, NY 1987, with Alfred Van Lowen and a wall full of Marigold published works by Impiglia and Kudo

Boris Karloff’s daughter & Jamie at Artexpo, California

Victor Forbes manning the publication table at Artexpo

Marvel’s Marvelous Stan Lee, Jamie at Artexpo California

Jane Seymour interviwed by Jamie Ellin Forbes at Artexpo NY

Romare Bearden checking out SunStorm

Jamie, Graham Nash at Nassau Museum

The Sri Chinmoi Singers celebrate the opening of SunStorm Galleries in Hicksville, NY, with a show of Sri Chinmoi’s paintings

Richard Forbes with his mother Jamie at Woodstock ’99, Rome NY

SunStorm Issue 1 on newsprint, October 1875

Interviewing Erte at his publishers Chalk + Vermilion headquarters inNew York City, 1987 with Ron Bell of The Artery and David Rogath

By JAMIE ELLIN FORBES

Harmony, values, absolute being, are things to think about on the Art Walk. I am an Art Warrior. For as long as I can remember Art is my passion. Art of any kind—dancing, singing, music, painting, acting — you name it. Art expression is the gesture of the heart; an impression stated from my soul driving my path. A walk taken though this portal is not for the faint of heart. This path requires great hard truths to be faced. If the balance and creative center is not met, the idea — whether an image or film, story, dance, song or just musical sound — is compromised. It matters little if you say great art, bad art, good sound, bad sound. If the harmony of the universe is not felt, the idea will not cross over easily and become embodied in a metaphor all may universally recognize.

Personal abstraction forming unique time space orientation delivers a glimpse of the infinite possibilities of experience one to another bringing together as a contiguous arch of analogous statements created similes or differences for comparison for imaginative review during the Art Walk. I like a raw edgy, blueslike feel embedded in my personal stuff. Still, I like to take a chance to get it right, to go for “IT.”

We have published the desirable and undesirable in Fine Art Magazine and SunStorm Arts for 39 years plus. Always focusing on the mirror reflection of the artist’s intent — not our personal idea of what is or should be. We have put our energy where our truth is: “On the creative.” I believe in art and channel the creative rhythms of the universe through my Art Walk as a dance, living creatively in my environment; tieing all the ribbons of color and idea together to resound as a horn blast, heralding positive living.

One of my personal heroes is Richard Poussette-Dart, a man on the edge of the frontier of the universe painting what no man had painted before. Over the years, we infused elements from conversations with him as well as Elaine de Kooning, Alfred Van Loen, Harriet and Esteban Vicente, Leo Castelli, Ting ShaoKuang, Erté, Orlando Agudelo-Botero, Jasper Johns, Donald

Hendricks, Steve Zaluski and many hundreds of many others who shared first-hand accounts of their artistic feats and experiences.

It takes brave people to paint, write, shoot film and pictures, make music allowing themselves to be seen nude in front of the world. Yet miraculous things occur when people take the leap of faith and display — pound out — the creativity held inside of us all, just because it has to be stated. We join together through image and words, sounds and ideas the best of what people have to offer. We change our times and the best of who and what we are as individuals or collectively are offered in art.

Art as metaphor becomes the alchemy, the igniting spark or emanation for delivering the parable message as an evocative image — the vehicle for crossing over or transferring a vision. This becomes a powerful abstraction of intent, used in language, allowing for the application of articulated allegorical or daily images as linguistic icons to become a one-to-one dynamic. The creativity of one plus one leading to a third shared vision becomes a powerful experiential trinity, whereby the metaphor creatively breaths life into the structures of the mundane offering open dialogue for all possibilities used to describe a vision. Metaphor is the universal common detonator in all forms of image transference and conceptual spatial reference.

To celebrate the creative energy and applaud the works of others is a job I have spent my life doing. Art offers sustenance for the internal to be seen in the external. I have enjoyed the creative life. I hope you all gain from our efforts when we publish this and all other issues. Our best to those from the past at the Miami Art Fairs as I remember an incredibly expansive idea David Lester shared with me on the floor of Artexpo many years ago: “Build a better art fair.” Thanks to Bob Edgell for understanding this concept and with David and Leeann Lester for having the absolute courage all these years to pursue their dream. They certainly have changed the face of the art community world wide after putting together the first Art Miami all those years ago.

Marigold Enterprises was SunStorm’s first full color cover advertiser printed on our own 29” single color Miehle press, necessitating the paper to run through 4 times on each side. It was a great beginning for our fledgling print shop and publication. Thank you Marilyn and Marigold. A few years later, 1987, Marilyn ordered a 12 page supplement for our Art Expo edition. At that time we upgraded to a 36” Miehle and we were seriously fighting a time deadline. We were still printing one color at a time like a Picasso lithograph and the press man was running the red, yellow and blue plates as I set the type for the black plate and hoping it all fit on press. Miraculously it did and we delivered on time!

Marigold published all the images for the Anniversary celebration of the Metroplitan Opera in New York City by Giancarlo Impiglia

Good Vibes, Good Business, Good Art Spell International Success For Marigold

Reprinted from SunStorm, A Cultural Revue, November 1984

By VICTOR FORBES

“SHE IS THE GREATEST PROMOTER WITH terrific good taste and whenever she picks an artist for a project, you can be sure that she will do her best to be successful in every way possible - artistically and financially.” So says Giancarlo Impiglia, a modern artist of renown of Marilyn Goldberg, president of Marigold Enterprises, Ltd., a burgeoning firm with seemingly limitless projects involving the marketing of art in varied media.

Impiglia, well-known for his portrayals of the faceless elite recently executed an edition of serigraphs and tapestries which Marigold has used as a means of raising funds for the Metropolitan Opera, the first in a series of art and sculpture planned by Ms. Goldberg to raise over a million dollars for that venerable institution. A similar arrangement has recently been completed with Lincoln Center and Marigold will be bringing out the work of a never-before published artist, Chuck Wilkinson (known for his neo-Gatsby flavored canvasses with a Magritte-like feeling) with an image in honor of that anniversary. In yet another project for Marigold,Wilkinson has recently completed the poster that has become the official image of the 1984 Art Expo, Dallas. It is indicative of the faith Ms. Goldberg instills in artists that the much sought after Wilkinson chose Marigold to handle his first venture into publishing. “Jerry Leberfeld, Director of Art Expo, asked us if we could generate an idea for the official poster,” said Marilyn recently at her Townhouse Gallery/headquarters on East 82nd Street in Manhattan. That would be like asking Ghandi if he had any new methods for passive resistance, or Gershwin if he could come up with a few tunes for a show. “I kicked ideas around with Chuck and we came up with a concept and then an image.”

Marilyn Goldberg is a reservoir of artistic ideas and when you talk with her the enthusiasm she generates for art, artists and her projects is more than contagious — it is powerful. Yet with all the push and hype necessarily surrounding a business that will take a Picasso painting and put it on a scarf to be sold in Bloomingdale’s, there is an even more intense feeling one gets from Marilyn Goldberg: a positiveness reflected in her genuine love and admiration of good art and good artists.

Marigold, through the national and now international marketing of an artist’s image, does much to foster the creation of original art. Royalties for sales from postcards to posters can often keep an artist alive and painting, creating for gallery exhibits and possible mass distribution of a particular image. Does that mean Marilyn Goldberg is pulling strings? Telling the artist what and how to paint? “Not so,” says lmpiglia. “She gave me the theme for the Met series and the rest she left to me. She is an excellent companion creatively and a wonderful friend.”

Maintaining relationships of great cooperation with artists for Ms. Goldberg is relatively easy. “If I weren’t doing Marigold,” says its founder, “I would be painting, printing, sculpting, designing.” Extremely well versed in art history, Ms. Goldberg was awarded a painting scholarship to NYU and went on to earn her BFA at Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts with a thesis on Art Therapy. She majored in Advertising Design and Product Marketing with a minor in Psychology and went on to the New York School of Interior Design where she received her license for designing. After a decade in that field, a stint at the American Contemporary Art Corporation, the Art Center and Jackie Fine Arts, Marigold Enterprises. Ltd. was founded in 1979.

“All of my life, I have studied art and various periods in art. In the past twelve years, very little has been stated on canvas that was relevant to the times, as opposed to the days and eras of Cave art, the Egyptians, the Art Deco movement and some others. People started to go back to styles that were successful and popular in previous eras. I say to artists: ‘Go outside and look! See the way people are living!’”

What Ms. Goldberg discovered was an entire generation of people — the first such generation in America — potential collectors with the money to pursue such interests. Mouseketeers, miniature Davey Crocketts, baseball card flippers ... grow up and decorate homes. Finding the secret of what they want to put on their walls has put Marigold at the forefront of the art marketing world. Extensive research into what fabrics were being manufactured, what paint chips were being

developed, carpet designs and decor ideas has enabled Ms. Goldberg to get a handle on what kind of art people would want to look at. “We need to be soothed these days. People’s lives are so crazy because they’re working so hard. They need an image they can relax with and enjoy for even a few moments. We found that people want to escape viscerally through art and decor into an elegant world which, for many, is gone. I’d love to go home and get dressed for a beautiful evening, chauffeured to a magnificent estate to sample vintage wines, but if I can’t go because I’m here creating programs, at least I can look at the art I love and enjoy what is on my walls and escape into it for a while.

The chauffeur may not be waiting this evening but it seems that Ms. Goldberg and her company are more than well on their way to such trappings of the well-to-do. Currently in the works is a plan to take Marigold public, something which the boss would relish. “Going public will allow me to do nothing more than concentrate on making money for artists and institutions.” Some of the projects her loyal group of investors have benefited from over the past five years have been the result of agreements signed with such diverse groups as the United States Postal Service and the estate of Pablo Picasso. Picasso aprons, paperweights, playing cards, shopping bags, ceramic trays, silk scarves and cotton handkerchiefs; bronze sculptures by Benjamin Saul; Harvey Edwards’ posters for the New York Philharmonic; a John Lennon Statue of Liberty fund raising poster; collector plates with baseball stars like Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and four others; stamp images from the US government and private sources; Erté tapestries and sculptures… as you read this, the list is incomplete because every day artists are submitting slides, paintings, drawings and proposals to Marigold for consideration. A smattering of the smörgåsbord may be seen at the New York Art Expo in April where Marigold will have five booths. Marigold products are distributed in museum gift shops from Brooklyn to Montreal and boutiques around the country and world. Offices and branches have sprung up in Tokyo, the United Kingdom and Europe.

In many respects, artists have no greater patron. “Artists who were artists for arts’ sake questioned why there were such things as bills,” said Marilyn. Even as she spoke, at the end of a long day, an artist was dropping off a portfolio. “Come back around noon tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll have a chance to have a look in the morning. We are able to open doors for artists. Galleries see images on cards, lithographs or calendars and people work their way back to originals so the artists are able to continue with new work. They can paint and paint and paint as a result of income derived from various marketing venues. I think it would take six galleries of people to go through as much work as we view.”

Impiglia reading SunStorm in his Mulberry Street studio

part

She is wild, She is sensuous, She is sleek, She is elegant

She is the combination men fear and want

She is the beauty • She is the beast • She is not a fairy tale

You could capture her “Dovanna”, “Thoroughbred”, “Feline” and “Fauve”

The question is: “Do you want only one awaiting you or … Would you prefer to have all four tonight?”

Serigraph By David Croland. The accompanying poem was

of the Marigold ad campaign for the “Beauties and Her Beasts” collection

A few years after the Artexpo debut of the Meihua Collection, Marilyn Goldberg made her own very special trip to China, as a guest of the Chinese Government for three weeks, all expenses paid. She was brought over to lecture on International Business Trade, Copyright Registrations and Trademark Applications to educate the Chinese in order to protect the artwork owned by the artists and prevent it from being stolen as it was from Picasso and Sid Maurer before it was retrieved by order of the courts.

This was not Ms. Goldberg’s first foray into the Orient. Initially, to get the Picasso project moving, Marilyn ventured to Japan to perfect and manufacture the initial set of products. There she found a way to manifest her vision of class and elegance in a country where the importance of packaging and supreme detail was understood. Exquisite, trademarked signature boxes were lined with pure silk for her porcelains. The packaging featured colorful wrapping tissue and ribbons for ultimate gifts using the trademarks of the artists with repeats of the artists’ signatures. Marilyn was invited by Mitsukoshi Museum and Hakone Museum to inaugurate the Picasso exhibit where she was greeted in the highest of hospitality with formal Japanese Tea Ceremonies conducted by Michicko Horibe Kobayashi and her mother, dressed in formal Japanese Kimonos.

Marilyn lived in Tokyo, the porcelain island of Arita, and Nagoya and worked at the factories to supervise the production of her various ideas. Her partners were Masao Kurimoto, and Michicko Horibe Kobayashi who helped fund the first book in Japanese of the Marina Picasso Collection. She manufactured the first Picasso porcelain on the island of Arita, and the first Picasso scarves at the Sisan Factory in Como, Italy. Within two years and despite major resistance, her ideas and concepts sold in the most prestigious world museums and stores. These great victories were cause for the estates to notice and they watched with appreciation as the products were sold and distributed around the globe. New copyrights were filed to protect these new designs. With blonde and hair green eyes, she was sole female Caucasian “in business” when it was unheard of as Japanese heads of companies squired her around the country.

Marilyn Goldberg wit/a her China team, Mr. Thomas Lin ( 3rd from left) who arranged far her lectures at all the factories

Marilyn Goldberg in Shanghai lecturing on internation1al copyright statutes

Discussing business trade

Marilyn with Heather Rothbart relax with Warhol Tapestries published by MMI, Art Expo, New York City

Dressed for success, Mitch Meisner and Victor Forbes “Wish I still had that jacket…and could fit into it,” said Forbes wistfully.

reversal

ANDY WARHOL 5th ANNIVERSARY ART EXPO NY POSTER

Art Expo Celebrates 5 Years in New York

Mayor Edward I. Koch, Andy Warhol, and Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden holding a poster created by Warhol for the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial, April 5, 1983. The poster was used to promote Art Week and the Fifth Annual Art Expo in New York. Mayor Koch Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Author/publisher/restaurateur Helen Dunn interviews Henry Fonda about his new coffee table art book prior to his Art Expo exhibition of his paintings.

Dyansen Galleries President Harris Shapiro with Yuroz who was a prominent Artexpo artist known for drawing on clothing while the person was still wearing the garment. Long lines of patrons waited patiently for their turn.

Worldwide Influence Of Marilyn Goldberg

Recognized by Artexpo Hall of Fame Induction

Marilyn Goldberg, President of MariGold Enterprises (1980-1990) and Museum Masters International (1990-2008) is a graduate of Boston University’s School of Fine & Applied Arts and the New York School of Interior Design. A pioneer in the realm of Art Merchandising, Ms. Goldberg was instrumental in developing the first fine art gift locations at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She designed gift shop merchandise for the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan; created merchandise for the New York Philharmonic’s 50th Anniversary and the Metropolitan Opera’s 150th Anniversary; introduced the Metropolitan Museum to its Asian chain store partners; purchased licenses and developed 15 categories of merchandise for Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. She merged and purchased the first “co-brand” agreements of the famous artist and celebrity… such as between the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Marilyn Monroe Estate, the Elvis Presley Estate, the Campbell Soup Company, in addition to contracts between Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart with the Warhol Foundation and developed the original concept and license for “Les Parfums Andy Warhol” with the same company that launched “Les Parfums Salvador Dalí.”

When it comes to ArtExpo, few have had a more influential impact than Marilyn Goldberg. With 20+ booths, her ideas encompassed virtually every element of the art world… and those “products” never before adapted or in existence, she invented. “Before Marilyn started her programs, museums were dying. She single-handedly put many museums back on their feet by creating a wide variety of items for their gift shops at all price ranges. There was no copying her; she was and still is one of a kind. Now there are museum gift shops even where there are no museums,” said Artexpo founder Gerald Leberfeld. There Marilyn Goldberg inducted into Artexpo Hall of Fame, 2007 were years at the old Coliseum when members of the trade literally burst through the doors as soon as they opened and double-timed it to the MariGold Art Booths and Art Boutique. Even the exhibitors were on line to buy or trade her products. They wouldn’t be shut out of editions that were sure to sell out. Many very successful artists had their first national art platform with MariGold. One of her favorite collaborations was the 8’ x 8’ Erté tapestry that she had hand encrusted with “Bijou de Pearls” semi-precious stones, and every thread color for the wool weaving that she personally selected with Erté at his Barbados home. Along with Peter Max, Marilyn selected over 100 images for publication of his lithographs. Peter made personal appearances at opening events in her Southampton Art Gallery and dedicated his edition of Marilyn’s Flowers to her. She also developed and published the Alexander Calder tapestry collection in collaboration with Trans World Art. She took small John Lennon doodles from pen drawings on restaurant napkins to create the finest of prints, selected handmade paper with old European limestone plates to create the “chine collé” prints in black and white, and lithography for the hand-colored prints. Special Japanese red ink and embossed chop marks were designed for this collection by one of the most beloved artists of our time.

In 1990 Ms. Goldberg was invited by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to develop the “Catherine the Great” Collection. Such spectacular moments caused for the Museum to close its doors so she could walk through and view each area with the specialist curators. At such time, she discovered a box of Matisse line drawings in their basement. In 2004, she developed exhibitions for Tamara De Lempicka for the Royal Academy of Arts in London, UK and Musee des Annees 30 Paris, France. In 2005, she was the invited guest of the Chinese Government for the Shanghai Art and Gift Fair as a renowned expert in the field of licensing and merchandising. She was a guest speaker at the Louvre Carousel Paris, France and in 2007 was invited by LIMA to moderate a panel discussion at the Jacob Javits Center — “Branding with Art – A Billion Dollar Industry.”

This is a natural progression for Ms. Goldberg, who finds value in every element of art, taking two-dimensional to threedimensional and creating the textures, colors and new art for the young generation to enjoy.

For a few years, Marigold/MMI was the

Marigold Network Launches Art Consulting Enterprise

When Ms. Goldberg decided to go into the business of creating artistic programs based on art images, she initially met with resistance from the heirs of Picasso, an artist to whose images she held copyrights; on behalf of several international investors. However, when she personally presented the actual program, designed exclusively for sale in major museums and art galleries, the Picasso’s representatives and heirs realized that her creation was not only acceptable, but represented the spirit of the artist’s work that was a tangible memory of the museum experience. From that point on, Ms. Goldberg became recognized in the art world as the innovative force in licensing and publishing images, from Picasso to Erté to John Lennon.

Initially, Marigold buys the rights to an image, on either the company’s or an investor’s behalf. Before publishing a program based on the image, Marigold obtains pre-publication orders that determines the return on investment before expending manufacturing cost’>. Upon licensing, Marigold will advertise the image and let the response determine the size of the program and the manufacturing capital needed. Additionally, Marigold presents new images biannually at the ArtExpos in New York and Los Angeles to solicit prepublication orders. Only then, with orders in hand, does Marigold approach investors to attract funds for manufacturing.

“We’ve watched the mistakes of publishers who don’t test market or put capital behind advertising and promotion before production. Our formula for a successful return on investment is simple: let the market determine production. When we go to investors for manufacturing capital, we already have orders in hand. The only question is how big the profit will be.”

Ms. Goldberg’s success is largely based on her own ability to work with artists as an artist. She brings to her work an understanding of the artist’s life, from attitude to style. She also knows how to be selective in bringing aboard the artists.

For example, Marigold recently discovered a Southwestern artist, James Darrum. His line of originals with Indian themes sells out faster than the artist can create them. At ArtExpo, Marigold will present color C-print photographic blow-ups bf the originals and will decide whether to produce serigraph editions based on the number of orders received. For a successful program, “The artist and Marigold become one and the same. I focus on what the artist does best and what the market wants from him or her. I work with artists who have multifaceted talent and comprehend my direction to develop the balance and harmony of what the market place demands. Likening herself to an actress who becomes a producer, Ms. Goldberg notes, “As an artist, I understand the life patterns of artists-from their uneven schedules to attitudes and style. Marigold is a cor porate entity that handles the business aspects of art on the artist’s behalf, which frees them to create and be financially successful.” In the process of creating a program, the artist and Marigold form a reciprocal relationship with mutual goals,

‘Tm an art teacher for the era, bringing the market into play when I work with an artist. We don’t tell the artist what to paintwe feed him information about the market which he or she feeds back to us in art. I have a lust for programs that are creative-I get bored easily and I like to amuse myself. What amazes me when I look at our ArtExpo Exhibit is the incredible mixture. When I’m 80 years-old, I’ll probably have three new programs on the fire, and still be having fun. I’m exhausted, but sleep is secondary because there’s always another idea.”

largest exhibitor at ArtExpo. Pictured above is the Marigold booth at the old NYC Coliseum

Artexpo New York

Godfather of the International Art Fair

By VICTOR BENNETT FORBES

Ed. Note: This is the 40th year that Jamie and I have been creating this magazine. We don’t pretend to be anything other than what we are, what you are holding in your hands or reading on your computer or device. Some say it’s a great magazine, one of the best. Who are we to judge our own work? We can walk into any gallery or art fair with our heads held high based on the creative lives we have led. That is our contribution: fostering, understanding, promoting and respecting the Spirit of Creativity. We have survived all these years, have weathered many a storm and produced immortal work on our printing presses and in our pages. We have met and spoken with some of the greatest talents in the world — artists, actors, writers, musicians — getting to know them on an intimate level of shared thought and vision. How much longer we will continue only God knows but we know this:

“… all art is heroic. It’s a heroic enterprise from childhood, from the beginning, whenever it begins.”

— Jasper Johns

and we know this:

“If Israel could see India, and Japan could see Mexico, an international chain of artistic understanding might begin.”

—Robert Rauschenberg

I used to wonder, many years ago — when it seemed as if the exhibitors at Artexpo were on a mission to paper the world with their wares — where are the walls for these paintings, prints and graphics? On a larger scale, I thought, how great it would be to have a world of peaceful art buying consumers in the huts of Africa, the tenements o f Trenchtown, the apartments of Moscow. Through art, or for the sake of art, I mused, the international economy would percolate and the utopian society which, arguabl y, forms the basis of all this creativit y, could then emerge. We would be buying and selling each other’s creative output, getting to know each other in an entirely positive way, leaving no time for the hatreds and hostilities that sadly mark so much of the world today.

When the entrepreneurial gentlemen who took a chance and rented the one and only space in New York City large enough to host perhaps 100 exhibitors — the Coliseum in the heart of midtown on C olu m bus Circle at the southern tip of Central Park the art world as we know it now did not exist. In the late 1970s, during the first years of the show, you could find a modest

international gathering of gallerists, painters and sculptors bridging the gap from Abstract Expressionism to Pop, to the posters that rocked the late 1960s, to the latter days of the New York School of printmakers who cut their teeth at the Art Students League, around the corner from the Coliseum on West 57th Street. In those salad days, the silkscreen print was known primarily as an advertising vehicle, with Warhol, Indiana and Lichtenstein just beginning to use it for the purpose of multiples even as their predecessors in turn-of-the-century Paris (Lautrec and Mucha, et al) earned rent money by creating stone plate lithographs extolling the virtues of Absenthe and Job cigarette papers. I doubt if even Warhol imagined that his primitive six color silkscreens, pulled at his Factory overlooking Union Square, would spawn an industry that in its heyday cranked out 72” prints in editions of 300 with up to 200 individual screens. Bigger was indeed better and as Artexpo graduated from the friendly confines of the Coliseum to the Javits Center, the event grew to astronomical proportions. Artists and dealers, who at one time were happy to make a few dollars per print to cover the cost of a summer foray to Europe, now saw that a thriving American middle class was developing an interest in collecting over and above the traditional Dali, Miro, Chagall, Picasso, Rockwell, Soyer and Neiman lithographs. Laws changed and investors who funded the limited editions of an ever-expanding roster of artists from Will Barnet to Romare Bearden to reap tax sheltered benefits were now forced to actually find ways to sell what they produced. Artexpo was a perfect forum and there was a time when fringe artists of the great movements became superstars through Artexpo. There was a small shop in Port Washington, NY, that turned away customers for years just to produce over-size silkscreens on museum board to satisfy collectors’ needs for Tom Wesselman’s Great American Nudes. Our own print shop on Long Island experimented with positive plate mylar lithography and we were assigned by the Guggenhiem to print an image by Keith Haring for their “Learning Through Art” program. It was a five plate litho and just as we were running the green, we received word that the young, superstar artist died that morning. He never signed the print and they are extremely rare today.

While Jasper Johns, de Kooning, Pousette-Dart, Wyeth, and so many others were positioned in the heady and pricey realm of the Art Dealers Association of America galleries and Armory show (but not the

Peter Max Armory show as we know it today), there were those who hadn’t quite reached those lofty heights of critical and financial acclaim who saw Artexpo as the place to be.

And then came Erté. Actually, he was here since 1892, but it wasn’t until he was rediscovered by an expatriate Brooklynite living in London and brought to the attention of an aggressive American lawyer turned art dealer that an entire industry was spawned. There were those who say the elderly gent was abused with over-commercialization, but the fact is, Erté loved every moment of his latter day attention and provided his admirers and collectors with an extraordinary body of work in many media. We had a wonderful dinner and interview with him in 1987. While you could find Peter Max images on cereal boxes and lunch pails, Erté’s handlers took the high road and turned his brilliant gouaches executed in the early 20th century into exquisite prints and sculptures that invoked the attention of the cognoscenti, from museum curators, to Ileana Sonnabend, to Stella McCartney, to Barbra Streisand to Warhol himself. Erté was a great artist and a great man who relished the attention and in turn, played a very active role in the process of turning his original costume and set designs into graphics, sculpture, jewelry and objets d’art. He was the real article and his death marked the end of an era in more ways than one. With the success of Erté spawning

Donna Summer with her paintings at Artexpo

NYSE traded enterprises such as Circle Fine Art and Dyansen Galleries, companies that manufactured, wholesaled and retailed, Artexpo gained even more prominence. In the mid-1980s, Marilyn Goldberg’s limited edition releases of John Lennon’s doodles on napkins into chine collé prints. It can be said, however, that his many fans were correct in gravitating to anything legitimately created by such a beloved individual and as a gallerist as well as editor, I can attest to the pleasure such items bring. Not every work of art has to be created in an atelier, a basement or by a tortured soul in a setting out of La Boheme, or Rent.

The mid-1980s, some would say, were the heyday of Artexpo. I can tell you that the opening bell on Thursday morning caused nothing short of a feeding frenzy of legitimate dealers from the four corners of the earth besieging their favorite booths so as not to get closed out of limited editions that were selling out as quickly as they were produced, and in some cases, even before they were produced. Smart New Yorkers made up their own business cards to get themselves admitted on days that were supposed to be trade only, at which they could claim their 50% discount! There are many beautiful homes and estates in Hawaii, Connecticut, California and Florida that have been paid in full from the proceeds of those halcyon days. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of artists, and billions, if not tens of billions of dollars have passed through the velvet gates of Artexpo. Styles have changed, home decor has changed, love has bloomed and evaporated, exhibitors have prospered and been incarcerated; fortunes made, lost and sometimes reclaimed. One minute, an artist is burning his night’s work before sunrise so that the Red Chinese Army wouldn’t imprison him for not painting the party line; a few years later, he is living in a $34 million mansion in Beverly Hills. That was Ting Shao Kuang.

That is our American Dream, which is so vigorously under attack. This country has never inhibited anyone from worshiping their god of choice and now we are in a wicked battle against those who wouldn’t have a moment’s remorse about destroying our world and themselves with the flick of a remote controlled nuclear bomb or a box-cutter used to hijack an airplane, wreaking unimaginable destruction. In these times, we must remember that our former home of Artexpo, the oft-denigrated Javits Center, stood tallest the weeks after September 11, 2001, when it served as staging ground and rest area for the many who came to Ground Zero to offer their services. When we attend Artexpo at the Pier, we take note of the proximity to the catastrophe, and we must remember to appreciate the fact that we are still alive to wage the battle not only for our lifestyle, but for our creativity and artistic freedom despite these troubling times. Clearly, we are in World War III minus the nukes, for now.

We were in our print shop, producing a book for Neil Zukerman, 256 pages on Anne Bachelier, when those planes hit the towers and all those lives were lost. People forced to make decisions whether to jump from the

world’s tallest building or burn in an inferno hotter than hell. Zukerman had to cancel his Dali show scheduled for that Thursday, but Anne’s was set for a month later. October 11th. He insisted on carrying on, despite the fact that most of the streets near his Soho gallery were closed to traffic and international travel was highly curtailed. His statement was this: the only way to show them they haven’t won was to simpy live our lives. Paint on! Act on! Write on! Last but not least, ROCK ON!

Erte SunStorm/Fine Art Cover 1992

Jamie with the inimitable Stan Lee and Friends at Artexpo, Anaheim

Victor Forbes, Artexpo Anaheim

At Art Expo, Marigold introduces a new Sculpture program by MISHA FRID representing Neo-classical designs of women and animals. Each sculpture literally has a story behind it — a tale presented in calligraphy in a mytholologic style to accompany the strongly thematic pieces. These underlit lucite acrylic “cloud” bases, supporting the multl-colored patina on the bronze, highlighted with white gold are extremely evocative.

Misha Frid, well-known sculptor who worked with Joel Meisner at the Meisner Foundry on the Erté bronzes fine tunes one of his pieces.

Working on the sculpture, Misha Frid perfects the wax before casting and creating the bronze

DecO riental Master Muramasa Kudo

In art as in life, categorizations abound. People tend to look for quick ways to label an artist’s style. With some artists, categories fit easily. For Muramasa Kudo, categories must be created.

To Kudo, his manner of fashion is art is “like a poem that doesn’t have any rules. Some view his work as bridging Eastern and Western styles. Others see it as a melding of traditional and modern. He sees it as “expressing himself with spiritual elegance in a totality of body, mind and soul.”

One of the most sought after artists of the era, Kudo’s charming, sensual and very painterly images caught the attention of a generation. In 1985, he entered into an exclusive distribution and publishing arrangement with Marigold. With the phenomenal success of the first editions, a second collection of prints utilized a mixedmedia combination of stone lithography and up to 70 individual silkscreens. In addition, Marigold published Kudo sculptures, the first of which, Madama Butterfly, became the official sculpture of the Metropolitan Opera, followed quickly by Stormy Weather and Enchantment. Cast in bronze, each used exquisite color patinas to accentuate the outstanding costume design of the artist.

From his large and beautiful studio in Southern California, Kudo continues to create day and night in a variety of media. This environmental cocoon keeps the artist focused on the perpetual present, from which he draws his inspiration. His spiritual beliefs are the foundation of his creativity and his artistic and personal code of simplicity. “People,” he states, “seem to have overlooked in these years of computer driven high technology, that less is often more. Life is too sped up in this generation, and even with all the excesses, life is still not complete. The whole world is very much unbalanced, except maybe, for very indigenous peoples in their habitats or ‘native-feeling’ people out here in the world. Kudo’s approach is to confront the future by going to his past. He is involved in every aspect of every piece. He uses traditional Japanese methods in a style that incorporates Art Deco, Art Nouveau and classical oriental techniques and supplies. His handmade brushes are extensions of his fingertips, he considers each one alive with its own personality. He is truly an analog man in a digital world who loved to spearfish in the Hamptons at Marilyn Goldberg’s pond front home.

Using only the most natural and pure ingredients, Muramasa highlights his exciting technique with vibrant colors. His favorite colors are black and white black from the sumi calligraphy ink and white made of crushed oyster shells — the bases of many other colors which he mixes instinctively. To achieve a singular brilliance, each painting contains more than 120 colors. He primes his papers prior to painting, which ensures everlasting colors that will not bleed. Muramasa’s paintings, which grace the walls of prominent gallery owners as well as sports, entertainment and political figures celebrate women-females who arc “part innocent, part sexy, part elegant, part mother…everything one seeks in the perfect woman.” He paints not to freeze a moment in time but to begin a story.” My paintings do not show what is actually going on, but rather fantasies. They are meant to be thought provoking, to make viewers question what they’re feeling at the time,” he explains.

David Gerstein’s Cut-out Sculptures Portray The Masters and A Cool Collection of Art Cats

David Gerstein is an internationally renowned Israeli artist best known for his Pop-Art pieces which combine bold colors with striking multi-layered metal cutout pieces. Gerstein binds these elements to create stunning wall sculptures that catch the eye and convey unique stories and statements. He was introduced to the American art market-place in 1986 by Marilyn Goldberg at Artexpo and his collections of Art Cats and world famous artists, produced in his ground-breaking format, are sought after till this day.

When Gerstein was introduced to Ms. Goldberg she made him a lovely dinner and introduced him to her beloved cat, Coco Channel. As a gift he did a “cat sculpture” of Coco which he painted on cut out Aluminum. She loved it and had an idea. “David, this is great!” Paint me ‘Cats of the Masters’ and their owners!” Such creative thinking gave birth to Picasso, Mondrian, Boterro, Chagall, Miro, Pollock, van Gogh, Botero and Lichtenstein cats. She then published the signed limited editions and unveiled the series at Artexpo. These depictions of our feline friends in the style the masters have since been exhibited at both the Haifa and Tel Aviv Museums in Israel, where Gerstein makes his home.

Today at Villa Marilyn in Southampton the Art Cats and “real cats” patrol the Villa, and live at The Villa Marilyn Cat Chateau that was built on the property. The Cat Chateau has cats painted by Any Warhol, a sunroof and upholstered cushions that match the main villa. For sure they are the luckiest cats in their own residence in Hamptons!

Gerstein is a masterful painter whose original works have long been attracting the attention of curators of major museums. Through his astute studies of art history, his “Portraits of the Masters” series expresses the satire, humor, appreciation and love he has for the world’s greatest artists. Experimenting with opposing art styles, such as the cubism of Braque versus the Impressionism of van Gogh, his genius creates the ultimate statement and development of art stylization through the ages. The “Portraits of the Masters” series was released at Artexpo NY in 1987 following the successful presentation of his “Museum Art Cat” collection.

David Gerstein didn’t start out with wall sculptures, either. Gerstein is an accomplished artist who has worked (and still works) in a variety of mediums, though his recent work beautifully tows the line between painted work and aluminum wall sculptures. Combining both his love for vibrant and intoxicating colors with the sharp and bold features of steel and aluminum, Gerstein has become quite well-known for his unique wall decor and his vision.

Gerstein is considered to be one of the most innovative artists in the world today, as you can find his pieces in various Israeli museums, along with being displayed in public venues and galleries in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and many more countries

Gerstein Picasso Cat patrols Villa Marilyn

Remembering Erté

When I was 13, as I was flying with my parents to the United States, my mum pointed towards a gentleman seated a few rows ahead of us, whom she referred to as being the famous Russian artist Romain de Tirtoff, better known as Erté. She went on to explain to me who he was and encouraged me to go and talk to him and seek his advice, as she knew that I had a deep-rooted interest in becoming a fashion designer one day. He was kind enough to extend an invitation for me to visit his archives back in London.

A couple of months later, I went to meet him and have become a huge fan of his work ever since. It was a life-changing experience for me. I shall never forget those illustrations and that first experience I had of Erté’s world. Their highly stylized simplicity, their perfect composition, his exotic and feminine expression, their fascinating technical virtuosity and strong attention to detail: his work is simply beautiful, incredibly delicate and overwhelmingly sensual. Erté’s work will always have a tremendous impact on me. He was a true inspiration.

— Stella McCartney, London 2004 from Robert Sandelson Gallery Erté exhibition catalogue

COCKTAILS WITH ERTÉ

“After our first meetings in the UK and France,” said Marilyn, “I brought Erté to the United States and introduced him to Circle Fine Arts. Carolyn and Jack Solomon, the owners, published as lithographs all the first editions. Further developments took place at his home in Barbados where I took my sons for visits when I went to work with him on the colors and jewels for the tapestries I published. Then I designed jewelry, watches, porcelains and carpeting used in five star hotels and cruise ships from his patterns. I contracted the French embassy in New York to welcome Erté to the United States and to show the very first bronze sculpture, Victoire, which I oversaw at the Joel Meisner Foundry, one of the first to re-introduce the traditional “Lost Wax” process. Erté was very particular about the shades and colors of his patinas created from two-dimensional gouaches into to three-dimensional sculptures. He was that way from the beginning of his career. We worked closely on the intricacies — costumes, hair and other details and together we selected all of the bronze colors to complete each edition. The sculptures were shown in 22 Dyansen Galleries in the United States and many hundreds more were produced in limited editions by his future publishers which went on to become one of the most successful and lucrative art programs of the 20th Century. A critic in 1915 wrote the following: At first his eccentric drawings were not fully understood by the general public, and his ideas were criticized as impracticable. But to those who are able to interpret his charming originality and develop in fabric and garniture his clever ideas, Erté has been an inspiration. In the January 1915 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, Monsieur Erté began to contribute his extraordinary designs to the publication as well as regular columns on art, fashion, theater and all things of interest to the young man. He spent many years at that publication to great acclaim.

An art teacher for the ages, Marilyn holds court at Barrila’s Pastaria Tota Pulchra Galleria, Riverhead, NY, with a lesson in Art History for a room full of dinner guests, discussing Erté, Picasso, Warhol and Peter Max

I don’t know if many of you know who Erté was, but I knew him personally, and hosted his opening at the French Embassy in New York many years ago. I have lots of pictures of my visits with him. He lived in Barbados as well as in England and France. I would go to Barbados with my two little sons in those days and sit with him and say, ‘Listen, I can take these pieces and we can do wonderful tapestries and jewelry and all kinds of things’ and we did it all. I made the tapestries in India using the finest Indian silk and it began a very rewarding chapter of my business with addtional tapestries by Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, among others. As a matter of fact, my Keith Haring tapestry just sold in Southampton a few days ago for $24,000. So the bottom line of it is, it’s important to understand the logistics and the investment of having limited edition products of famous artists. On display in the restaurant gallery tonight you’ll see some van Gogh items, some Monet, some Lautrec and different famous artists whose images were on things that I created, licensed and trademarked for the estates of these renown artists early on in my career. As soon as the products went into the museum shops, slowly but surely, one person after another was calling and wanted help to get their products known. Then the prices started going up, up, up and up. With Picasso it was very interesting because my father, who was French and the President of the Sorbonne in Paris, was Picasso’s doctor. He delivered his children and when I was a little girl, three years old, people would stop my dad in the street offering to pay him a thousand Francs for his autograph because they thought he was Picasso.

Among the many events to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Erté’s birth, 150 years of Harpers Bazar and the 50th anniversary of his first exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery were a major retrospective at the Hermitage St. Petersburg with a beautiful catalogue of which 2,000 copies went in one week alomg with celebrity dinners, etc. The show was followed by the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition and dedicated exhibitions at the Martin Lawrence Galleries. Harpers Bazaar projected four Erté cover designs on the Empire State building. This has led to a revival of interest new clothing lines from Ragyard a UK Company, Ernie and Tess, Denmark. Jewellery created from unused designs will be available in the Spring and there will be other products derived from the master’s designs.

Dyansen Galleries CEO Harris Shapiro, Erté

Marilyn, pictured above with Ted D’Agostino, presented the first sculpture “Victoire” at the French Embassy with Erté as an introduction to the United States, and to Circle Fine Arts. She was instrumental in creating Erté’s first bronze sculpture which launched one of the most successful limited edition programs selling a few thousand pieces a year

Art Expo Hall of Fame Salutes Erté

“It would be difficult to find an artist, or any person, who has led such a full, strong life.”

“If Michelangelo were to come back from the dead, he could hardly have greater or more eulogious publicity than has been accorded to Erté,” wrote John Russell, an art editor for The New York Times, in reference to an Erté retrospective in 1969. The statement was true then, and it remains true today.

To many, Erté was not just the artist of the 1920s, he was the 1920s—the embodiment of Art Deco, the style, which (in his words) “for the first time fused pure with applied art, which had previously been considered fairly contemptible.”

Although Erté enjoyed an enormous amount of fame, he never allowed it to go to his head. Work always came first, and he continued to produce his exquisitely delicate designs with the same enthusiasm that, as a child, he brought to fabricating imaginary ballets from his mother’s perfume bottles. At the age of 6, he even designed an evening dress for his mother, which she had made.

Erté was born Romain de Tirtoff (he took the name Erté from his initials to avoid causing his family embarrassment) on Nov. 23, 1892, at the St. Petersburg Naval School where his father was an inspector. His family was highly musical. His mother had studied singing, and his father was a friend of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

At 19, Erté attended art school in Paris, but it only lasted three months. After spending nine months looking for a job, he was taken on by an obscure, second-rate fashion house from which he was fired within a month. “I want to give you a mother’s advice,” the owner said to him. “Give up the idea of being an artist. You have no talent for it.” Rescuing his drawings from the wastebasket, he left them at the fashion house of Paul Poiret, who gave him a job. The next 18 months were to be his apprenticeship, and in 1915, he contributed his first fashion design and covers for Harper’s Bazaar.

An element of theater was never absent from Erté’s fashion drawings, and it was through the stage that he was first able to achieve an international audience. The economic boom and great spending spree of the 1920s changed the concept of popular entertainment, and during that period, he worked for the Follies Bergère, the George White Scandals and the Ziegfeld Follies, in addition to spending a short, frustrating spell in Hollywood, which included costumes for Ben Hur. Throughout this period, he continued to design women’s clothes, jewels, shoes and various accessories. But the Wall Street crash, in which Erté lost almost everything, ended all of that. After World War II, during which he remained in Paris, Erté became increasingly involved with opera and ballet. Singers no longer commissioned their own costumes, and he was given greater scope for design in those fields than ever before.

A meeting with Eric and Salome Estorick in 1967 created a new turning point in Erté’s illustrious career. Erté constantly held sold-out exhibitions of his original designs at the Estorick’s galleries in New York where 170 works were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum and in London where numerous works were purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1974, he produced his first limited-edition lithographs in collaboration with Circle Galleries. The demand for his work and his insatiable appetite to create led to the production of elaborate embossed and gold-block serigraphs, editions of art to wear as jewelry, sculptures and objects of art. At the height of this new career with his work selling in hundreds of galleries throughout the United States, Erté was asked if he thought he had become something of a cottage industry. He replied with a mischievous smile, “No, more of a chateau industry.”

In his 97th year, Erté completed costume designs for the Radio City Easter show, the last commission before his death in 1990. At the end of his life, Erté was the acclaimed Master of Art Deco, the subject of many films, the recipient of several honors and deemed one of the most successful artists of the 20th century.

In his 90s, Erté was still very hands on, determining and approving everything to do with everything he created.

Erté worked small, his hand-painted gouaches were rarely larger than the page size of this book, yet he thought in grandiose terms. His meticulous creations were transformed by a team of theatrical workers, actresses and actors, dancers and opera singers, seamstresses and pattern makers for the greatest impresarios in the entertainment world to present on stages from Paris to New York. Sketching, planning, mathematical calculations and even specific inventions for the stage, special effects before the age of computers, combined with an intimate knowledge of plot, choreography, musical movements and motifs, even to the posture and hand gestures of not only the principal players, but of the least important girl in the chorus line, went into every image Erté created. Often he was given carte blanche, in fact, he was invited to Hollywood by Louis Mayer’s MGM studios to create environments out of which scripts would be fashioned. They said, literally, make a ballroom, we’ll write a plot with events and emotions There probably never existed a more prolific or immaculate artist than this diminutive Russian, whose creations were more than works of art: they stand as symbols of rebellion against brutality, war, even bad manners. Some would say these images, these small paintings when brought to life on the stage, had the power to transmit some secret essence of life to an audience.

To glance at an Erté design is amusing. To look at one is interesting. To study one is absorbing. That any human being can conceive — and execute — such exquisite detail is positively miraculous, and we become even more impressed when we consider his combinations of colours and materials. (October1917)

The designer for one of the best known New York houses remarked that he has obtained more ideas from Erté’s drawings in the Bazaar than from any other source of fashion. Many others, to whom originality, in good taste, means everything, have told us the same thing. From Erté they take a touch here, a touch there, and adapt them to their own needs. (January1918).

Marilyn Goldberg adhered to these comments by meticulously informing all of his reproductions (from ballroomsized carpets, eight-foot high hand-made tapestries, table-top sculptures and all sorts of products into works of art unto themselves. As you can see from the photographs, he didn’t miss a beat. Says Marilyn, “After our work days in Barbados at promptly five o’clock, Erté would stop and we would always partake in a cocktail.

“For me, Creativity is life. I couldn’t imagine living without painting, I like to design for the theatre because that gives me an opportunity to give my opinion of a musical or literary work in the language of colors.

Designing for the stage is the thing I like best. I do a great deal of it and I study deeply all phases of its history.”

Marilyn Goldberg’s Erté tie rack as displayed at Museum Masters International trade show booths. “I wear mine proudly as you can see from the Heroes of Creativity pages.” – Victor Forbes

The carpet, above, is taken from one of Erté’s border designs appropriated by Marilyn and purchased by five hotels and cruise boats, one of 12 such creations usings Erté’s designs

Museum Masters International represented 24 artists and booths in New York City where John Lennon’s artwork was featured. With Yoko Ono at their apartment in the fabled Dakota building where Marilyn and Yoko went through closets of John’s clothing pulling out napkins and scraps of paper with pencil drawings. There they signed the documents to represent John Lennon’s art and secure the copyrights for Yoko.

After bringing each of the drawings to Gordon Novak in Canada for the most prestigious hand lithographs on handmade tiles for each color to be pressed by hand. Each of the editions was stamped similar to what Marilyn Goldberg prepared for Marina Picasso for the stamp she designed for John Lennon with an Asian red stamp created by Michiko Horibe for each of the signed stamped limited edition prints. The artwork was then used by Museum Masters International for apparel, posters, neon lights, tapestries, silks, ties, porcelains and a series of threedimensional sculpture. International exhibitions were established starting with Dyansen Galleries in New York City and assorted galleries in the U.K. attended by Marilyn Goldberg and Yoko Ono as partners.

Family Tree, from the John Lennon Collection. Note the chop mark created by Marilyn especially for the Lennon works to assure their authenticity. Lennon fans will recognize this image as John’s rendition of the photographs on the album covers of his first solo release and Yoko’s companion record, featuring John, Ringo and Klaus Voorman.

While John Lennon will always be revered, remembered and respected for his musical and lyrical gifts, his talent as a visual artist now being more fully recognized. Marigold Enterprises, in association with Yoko Ono has released 17 limited edition prints created by the famous Beatle giving fans a glimpse of the joy and celebration the artist shared with his family as the works of art toured the US, England and Japan. The talent of John Lennon coupled with the marketing capabilities of Marigold Enterprises brought Lennon’s art to fans on a worldwide scale. These works are highly sought after and cherished by thousands of fans and collectors.

The Bag One portfolio, originally sketched and quite scandalous for the time (1969) contains drawings that have been favorably

Yoko Ono and her “partner in design,” Marilyn Goldberg at John Lennon Collection opening

“It’s Only Rock & Roll”

compared to those of Matisse and even Picasso, Yoko and John are the subjects with scenes such as The Wedding Ceremony, The Embrace, John and Yoko walking together in Paris and the memorable rendering of their Bed-in For Peace. These prints, published in 1986 in 17 limited editions, were hand-colored by Yoko who fondly referred to Marilyn as “My partner in design.” Marigold’s John Lennon Boutique also offered John’s art on a variety of media from playing cards and stationery to clothing, to carved crystal sculptures as well as kinetic neon creations conceived by Marigold in collaboration with Harushi Matsui. “These works show the brilliance, fun, excitement and glamour of John’s creativity in a new art form. Kinetic neon is the latest development in neon technology,” said Marilyn as reported in the pages of SunStorm. “The colors sweep through the pictures depicted then stop and repeat the action via electronic impulses transmitted from computerized circuits inside the display box. The most unique feature of this kinetic technology is that it allows the gases to move through the tubing. The actual movement of colors employs the most sophisticated state-of-the-art technology, patented worldwide and not available through traditional neon craftsmen. Each glass piece is individual hand blown. A control switch can be set for either kinetic movement or to remain stationary.”

All these years after his tragic murder, John Lennon’s spirit lives on to entertain and encourage via simple sketches on napkins that are treasured world wide.

Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Lennon, Rhonda Esser, and Marilyn Goldberg

“Yoko

entrusted me to add color to John’s drawings that we found on napkins and scraps of paper in John’s pockets. ”

– Marilyn Goldberg

The Kite, static neon after John Lennon drawing

Taken from the title of one John’s most tender and classic songs, from his final recording sessions, a tribute to his son Sean Ono Lennon. The collection was so popular that Marigold requested dealers to make appointments and reservations to view the works at Artexpo.

THEQUE EN OF ART LE GRAND TOUR 2018

“The Queen of Art”, Marilyn Goldberg, capped off a rousing 2018 with her annual visits to European cultural capitals beginning with BLE Brand licensing show in London, then off to Milan to meet with Dali Art Founder Benjamino Levy, followed by Rome and Tota Pulchra Group at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City with Monsignor Gervais (Presidenza Tota Pulchra Org), followed by Waldorf Astoria Berlin for reunion with 20 year partner at ProSeiben and Merchandisin Munchen, followed by Marina Picasso Exhibition at Louvre Carousel Paris & meetings with Jean Pierre Grivory producer of Dali and Warhol perfume licenses in Paris. Last stop: Lake Bled in Slovania for Dali Exhibition.

Mickaella Himmelström, Svenska Konstgalleriet Sweden

Lake Bled, Slovenia; Dali exhibition

Rita Kennedy, London representative

Helmut Pitchler, Austria Agent

Dirk Fabarious, Marilyn Goldberg’s partner for ten years 1999-2009, having a reunion in Berlin

David Lewin Kevin Kelly Shirt by Robert Grahm

The Louvre, Paris

Sotirous Papiagerous, Greek Agent

MARILYN GOLDBERG

The Queen of Art & Her Court

BY VICTOR BENNETT FORBES

In the PlayIng FIelds oF Modern Culture, Few have done as MuCh to Make great art aCCessIble to so Many as

M arilyn G oldberG , President of Museum Masters International. A reservoir of artistic ideas and ideals, her unbridled enthusiasm to elevate life into the Art of Living has brought the imagery and energy of the icons of art history into the homes of countless art lovers. The myriad of beautiful and functional products she created from the imagery of great masters and contemporary talents also reside in museums worldwide.

A model of grace seasoned with grit, Ms. Goldberg has curated and organized exhibitions and developed product for Picasso, Erté, Dali, Haring, van Gogh, Tamara de Lempicka, Warhol, John Lennon, Muramasa Kudo, Giancarlo Impiglia, Peter Max, Ed Heck, Marco, Lois Brand, Randall Henrie and many others. She single-handedly revolutionized the concept of museum gift shops which were now able to show profitability by selling her custom-made items, creating great revenue streams for cash strapped organizations. She blazed the trail in the merchandising of art while helping artists and their heirs secure the rights to their work and protect their most valuable asset, their trademarks.

With her bright smile and attitude filled with beach sunshine and ocean waves (she grew up in Amagansett on Long Island’s sundrenched East End and now lives in Southampton), Marilyn has not slowed down a bit over the years. She relishes challenges and works tirelessly and enthusiastically on each of her projects. She starts her day with a rigorous exercise program, consisting of Spin classes, gym workout, and a round of tennis all finished by 9:30 a.m. Then international business calls and deals, followed by attention to the Hamptons’ houses she architecturally designed, landscaped and filled with art and accessories she has created.

Marilyn Goldberg began her ascent to lofty terrain as the world’s foremost art marketer and pioneer of art branding at a townhouse in

Marilyn I, Marilyn II World Tour Exhibition

Sid Maurer’s Bob Marley portrait

“My visions have no limits.”

New York City’s posh east side between 5th Avenue and Madison. Her self-designed Museum Masters International headquarters launched with an exhibition/celebration of the life of Bob Marley, http:// www.nytimes.com/1991/05/13/arts/celebratingbob-marley-voice-of-the-dispossessed.html Over 1,000 visitors waited on line to see a collection of photography, artwork and memorabilia, and groove to the reggae riddims of the late Jamaican Rastafarian superstar with Marley family members in attendance. The event was further celebrated with Jamaican food and attire, described in the New York Times as an international New York sensation. Her second major art show was for Peter Max at her Southampton NY Garett Stephens Gallery, named for her son.

This was on the heels of her major breakthrough when the Guggenheim Museum, which initially was quite reluctant to change the drab shop into an attractive boutique, placed their initial order. “I sold them their first products after I left a basket of samples,” recalls Marilyn from her spectacular waterfront headquarters in the Hamptons. “I introduced artist-related products that ran the gamut from Picasso scarves — first advertised in VOGUE — to Tiffany quality dinnerware, vases, candlestick holders, fragrances, crystal and tapestries.” Other museums that carry MMI product include the Mitsukoshi in Tokyo, the Hakone Open Air Museum in Hakone, Japan, the Louvre, the Vittoriano in Rome and the Picasso Museums in Paris and Barcelona among others.

Ms. Goldberg’s product designs presented at the Negresco Hotel to the Picasso heirs in 1981 were approved to be sold internationally. They hardly imagined at the time that the Marina Picasso Collection and Picasso Collection would become overnight sensations that would launch the birth of a most important and vibrant new industry — branding — that could be used for the development of many products: jewelry, watches, bed and bath, furniture and upholstery, porcelains, glassware, fashion items, mobile phone covers, fragrances and cosmetics…even masterpiece baby wear and elegant baby bedding.

painting were different. van Gogh only signed Vincent and I added the rest. I won a Picasso trademark case in court when I drew the trademark I created in front of the judge. I know what it is like to have your trademark stolen. At least I had fifteen years to make money from mine, but artists like Sidney Maurer (Rolling Stones Tongue logo) and Robert Indiana (LOVE) earned nothing from their iconic images.” Editions made by Ms. Goldberg were very successful and each limited edition product of her artists has soared in value along with ever-appreciating limited edition dinnerware, silk scarves and many other very collectible products. Paper shopping bags she designed for museum gift shops that originally cost $1.25 trade at $500 today. The Lennon prints that opened at $150 escalated to $5,000-10,000 and as high as $20,000 for extremely sought after ones. The Picasso prints are also in demand. All the graphics are sold with their own certificates of authenticity. She has done this over and over with virtually every celebrity artist and photographer she has represented.

Among Marilyn’s greatest accomplishments was adapting original Picasso paintings to estate co-branded prints on BFK Reeves paper signed by Marina Picasso, granddaughter of Pablo Picasso; making exquisite silk fabric scarves from Picasso images recognized on the cover of Italian Vogue and treasured today by galleries that frame these as limited edition silks; and designing elegant Tiffany quality tableware featuring more Picasso imagery. She also devised the mark for Erté sculptures, and the backs of these two dimensional figures and for the debut at the French Embassy in New York via their director Monsieur George Henri of Victoire, (the first Erté sculpture) thereby launching one of the most successful sculpture programs of the 20th century.

Another early success was brought about when Yoko Ono presented Marilyn with a box of John Lennon’s pen and pencil doodles on tissues and napkins. To turn them into something people could hang on their walls, Marilyn, with the help of her exhibition manager William Weber, used hand-made papers and limestone lithography resulting in stunning limited edition Chinecolle prints loved and collected by Beatles fans to this day. They were signed and endorsed by Yoko Ono with a chop mark and embossed seal similar to that which Marilyn devised for Picasso and more recently for Tamara de Lempicka. Marilyn is also responsible for the development and filing of the first trademarks in history to protect the merchandise that she pioneered world-wide “so that artists and their estates could secure the rights to their work.”

“I drew the marks in my own hand because the signatures on each

There have been many other collections and celebrity campaigns for which she developed products, touring exhibitions and major sponsorships, among them Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Vincent van Gogh, Renoir, Klimpt, Monet and Toulouse Lautrec. Pepsi licensed her Marilyn Monroe images on limited edition cans of Pepsi. Her Warhol tapestries featured the artist himself at openings and Yoko Ono made many appearances at John Lennon Art Collection exhibits.

Ms. Goldberg brought Keith Haring to Germany, created Dali trademarks, hosted the Time Warner Dali Exhibition last year in New York, followed by The Tamara de Lempicka exhibitions in Milano, Rome and Paris and designed the patterns for her limited edition merchandise.

After designing the licensing, product and marketing programs for Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, she sold her company to ProSeibenSat1, http://en.prosiebensat1.com/en/home a Munich-based public company in Germany where she formed Art Merchandising and Media AG. She served as a Vorstand, (senior hierarchically subordinate member of the management). The appreciation of the art that has

At home with Picasso art & Erté telephone. Over the years Marilyn Goldberg has introduced a myriad of products in collaboration with exhibitions of van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Klimpt, Erté, Dali, Warhol, Haring and de Lempicka.

Picasso’s Montecuba cigars

resulted from her inspired, ground-breaking products has brought beauty and joy to many. Her clients, estates and living artists have benefited greatly via the value of trademarks she has developed for everyone from Picasso to van Gogh to Lennon to the Catherine the Great Exhibition at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, to de Lempicka in Rome, Milan, Paris, Japan, Mexico and Korea. She also designed brand trademarked Certificates of Authenticity that are issued with the signed and numbered editions used by the Estates for their Museum banners and books to this day. Initially, to get everything moving, Marilyn ventured to Japan to perfect and manufacture the initial set of products. There she found a way to manifest her vision of class and elegance in a country where the importance of packaging and supreme detail was understood. Exquisite, trademarked signature boxes were lined with pure silk for her porcelains. The packaging featured colorful wrapping tissue and ribbons for ultimate gifts with repeats of the artist’s trademark signature. Marilyn was invited by Mitsukoshi Museum and Hakone Museum to inaugurate the Picasso exhibits where she was greeted in the highest of hospitality with formal Japanese Tea Ceremonies. She lived in Tokyo, the porcelain island of Arita, and Nagoya and worked at the factories to supervise the production of her various ideas. Her partners were Masao Kurimoto, and Michicko Horibe who helped fund the first book in Japanese of the Marina Picasso Collection. She manufactured the first Picasso porcelain on the island of Arita, and the first Picasso scarves at the Sisan Factory in Como, Italy. Within two years and despite major resistance, her ideas and concepts sold in the most prestigious world museums and stores. These great victories were cause for the estates to notice and they watched with appreciation as the products were sold and distributed around the globe. New copyrights were filed to protect these new designs. With blonde and hair green eyes, she was the sole

female Caucasian “in business” when it was unheard of for such a young woman to be traveling the country. Japanese heads of companies took her to all of their internal meetings and invested in her vision.

Then there was a three week all expense paid visit by the Chinese Government for Ms. Goldberg to lecture on International Business Trade, Copyright Registrations and Trademark Applications in order to protect the artwork owned by the artist and preventing from being stolen as it was from Picasso and Sid Maurer but then retrieved by order of the courts.

These days, with her Hampton investor groups, she designs estates which are known as the “Villas Del Arte,” The Houses of Art. The combination of her own artistry in tandem with that of Renoir, Erté, Dali, Warhol and many other famous artists

comes to fruition in the amazing five star Hamptons Homes — Villa Marilyn I, Villa Marilyn II, Villa Marilyn III — designed by Ms. Goldberg from the inside out. Natural landscaping and the changes of color each season project comfort as do each piece of luxurious bedding and furniture, also designed by Ms. Goldberg. The houses contain drapery fabric from Monet, fine Picasso dinnerware, Erté, Warhol and Picasso sun umbrellas, Degas and da Vinci sun caps, luxurious towels with Keith Haring and Dali designs and rare limited edition tapestres on the walls. There are MMI published prints and porcelain accessories in every corner of each home telling the story of her life contracts, designs and production experiences. Even the wine cellars consist of limited edition vintages labeled with van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne images as well as a Marilyn Merlot. Soft drinks in the refrigerators are Marilyn Monroe Pepsi limited edition cans.

It’s a beautiful life made possible by one woman’s drive, upright business ethic and limitless vision, with of course, the cooperation of many: family, friends, artists and their heirs and an ever-expanding corps of believers.

Sidney Randolph Maurer, Andy Warhol’s friend and one-time partner, is next on the agenda with a 2015 world tour exhibition.

New artists in the Museum Masters stable include Lois Brand (left); Marco (center) and Randall Henrie, whose Yin Yang Crown is pictured above.

Marilyn Goldberg was inducted into the Artexpo Hall of Fame by her peers in the art industry. Her distinctive display booths and unrivaled energy and enthusiasm were hallmarks of the Artexpo for many years.

At Artexpo Hall of Fame ceremony with Fine Art Magazine’s Jamie Ellin Forbes & Victor-Forbes.

“When the path you have walked on for years is no longer working, invest in PAVING A NEW PATH”

MARILYN GOLDBERG

Museum Masters International: Revolutionizing the Art World

The Vision That Changed Museum Commerce

Marilyn Goldberg burst onto the international art scene with a revolutionary concept: the first-ever Guggenheim Museum gift shop in New York City. Her groundbreaking vision proved that art merchandise could do more than just sell—it could triple the value of original works. This innovative approach would become the cornerstone of Museum Masters International (MMI), forever changing how the world experiences art.

Pioneering Art Merchandising

As founder of Museum Masters International (MMI), Goldberg masterfully bridged the gap between fine art and mass merchandising. She transformed masterpieces into accessible art—from home decor to apparel—creating conversation pieces that worked seamlessly in both corporate boardrooms and private homes. Her unique “MariGold architectural detail” became renowned for enhancing international spaces while preserving each venue’s distinct character

Global Expansion and Japanese Innovation

MMI’s journey began in Japan, where Goldberg established offices in Tokyo and Nagoya. During her decade-long focus in the Japanese market, she developed crucial partnerships with retail giants—Takashimaya, Isetan, Seibu, and Daimaru groups. Her first major breakthrough came with Marina Picasso’s lithograph collection, inherited from Pablo Picasso himself. This success opened doors to prestigious global exhibitions, including Tamara De Lempicka’s works in Seoul, Turin, and Paris’s Pinacothèque.

Celebrity Collaborations and Artistic Legacies

The company’s work with John Lennon’s art exemplified MMI’s innovative approach. Goldberg developed Lennon’s distinctive chop mark and transformed his doodles into everything from sculptures to tapestries, all with Yoko Ono’s blessing. The roster of artists MMI represented reads like a who’s who of modern art: Bob Marley, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and many more.

Trademark Innovation and Estate Management

Before anyone else, Goldberg recognized the immense value of art and celebrity trademarks. In the early 1980s, she began securing international trademarks for old masters from Van Gogh to Da Vinci. This foresight led to remarkable successes, including the $6 million sale of Picasso trademarks to Citroën for their car line. Her work extended to managing complex estates, including:

•The Marilyn Monroe Estate

• Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe rights (1980s-2013)

• Pablo Picasso’s trademark portfolio

• Vincent van Gogh’s international rights

• L eonardo da Vinci’s brand development

Museum Innovation and Development

Goldberg ’s comprehensive approach to museum development revolutionized the visitor experience through:

• Sophisticated color styling and architectural planning

• Exhibition and gallery space optimization

* Advanced lighting design and implementation

• Custom installation techniques

• Educational program integration

• Press and media coordination

International Exhibitions and Partnerships

Her expertise earned her unprecedented access to prestigious institutions worldwide. At the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, she became the first invited guest to develop merchandising for the “Catherine the Great” exhibition. During this period, she discovered and photographed the “Sleeping Models” line drawing collection by Henri Matisse in the Hermitage cellar.

The Frida Kahlo Legacy and Modern Initiatives

A crowning achievement was Goldberg’s work with Frida Kahlo’s artistic legacy, designing the catalog for Kahlo’s 100th anniversary exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. This project exemplified MMI’s ability to honor artistic legacies while making them accessible to contemporary audiences.

Educational Impact and Future Vision

Understanding art’s educational importance, Goldberg developed comprehensive programs including:Museum gift shop educational materialsLower school art programsArtist lifestyle studiesInteractive art experiences for childrenAgeappropriate merchandise collectionsCharitable donation programs through art sales.

Continuing Innovation

Today, MMI continues to break new ground in the art world. The company has organized exhibitions from Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes to Amsterdam’s van Gogh Museum, collaborating with prestigious institutions including:The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Royal Academy UK, La Maison Leleu,The Palazzo Reale Milano.

Through MMI, Marilyn Goldberg has proven that commerce and creativity aren’t just compatible—they’re essential partners in bringing art to new generations. Her legacy continues to shape how the world experiences and values art, making masterpieces accessible while enhancing their cultural and commercial value.

MMI display at Art Expo

Marcestel is a French artist who was based in Japan for over fifty years. He also worked in China, in Korea and all over Asia. Inspired by his beloved relationship with nature, his work also reflected the historical and cultural links of the Japan-China-Korea Super Asian triangle that adorned his paintings’ personality, daily creativity and origin of understanding the world. He illustrates the major events of the Kojiki Records of Ancient Affairs and Accounts of Ancient Imperial Lineage” along with the “Kami” or sacred matters and spirits of indigenous Japanese religions. These convey to us that there is a real connection between the Japanese Imperial collection of myths of origins which inspired some of the beliefs of Shintoism. Because of his subject matter and the quality of his output, the Shinto world was quick to recognize the value of Marcestel’s work. In 1996, solicited by Ise Jingu Shrine, he made his first donation of paintings dealing with mythology. Therein began a long series of donations, currently totaling over 200, made to some of the most important shrines of Japan resulting in a series of four books describing the history of the 200 sanctuaries, as well as the associated mythological theme painted by Marcestel. In 2007, he received the “Bunka Shoreisho” award, representing the highest honor from the Shinto order, and in 2014 he was awarded the Bunka Kankeisha Monbukagaku Daijin Hyo sho National Cultural Distinction prize from the Japanese Minister For Culture. November 2019 marked a peak of recognition of his output and a deep gratitude for his devotion to Japanese culture when fifteen works were projected on the Imperial Palace Square during the National Ceremony celebrating His Majesty the Emperor’s Enthronement. Marcestel sadly died the 24th of April 2023 during an exhibition in Osaka. Far from slowing down his output at 80, Marcestel’s motivation for creation remained unabated. He continued daily to expand his field of activities, even until the last days of his life.

Mastering multiple painting and sculptural techniques, he was especially adept in his creative color and oil painting. His exceptional designs were selected to represent the Vatican at an exhibition at the Cannes Film Festival presented under the auspices of Tota Pulchra Ars Vaticana. He was a friend of Pope Francis and they often traveled together. His style blends pictorial substance borrowing the osmosis and fluidity of hues from Japanese Sumi-e inks that he observed and utilized throughout his prolific career. Museum Masters International is proud to represent his art and we look forward to furthering the causes he fought for and gaining worldwide recognition for this uniquely gifted artist.

The light of Izanagi and Izanami

Okuninushi ask to consult to his two sons

Okuninushi meets the rabbit from Innabata

MARILYN GOLDBERG’S ARTISTIC ENCLAVE

“HOME

IS WHERE THE ART IS”

Reggie and Marilyn 4th of July Parade in Southampton

Sid Maurer Celebrity Icon painting of Marilyn Monroe

Tbig-time licensing agreements with Salvador Dali and the estates of Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and John Lennon. Years with Erté have influenced the decor, carpet designs, and even gift bags and note cards for the guests who will be staying in this grand and palatial environment. Marigold evolved into Museum Masters International (MMI), headquarters newly ensconced at Villa Marilyn with one of major victories so far has been the international promotion of the artist Tamara de Lempicka to prominent museums which brought her paintings to the eight figure mark at recent auctions. For most, this would be more than enough work for a dozen lifetimes, but to Marilyn Goldberg, it was all a practice run for her dream: the Villa Marilyn Art of Living home in Southampton, New York, which was completed in June of 2012.

Marilyn Monroe Cinema Theater, graced by Sid Maurer Celebrity Icon paintings covered with European bed linens custom made for 25 years for Ms. Goldberg by Bette Nagle in Germany.

o truly understand the impact and influence of one woman on not only the art world but on the lifestyles of multiple generations, you would need to have been at the New York Coliseum, circa mid 1980s, when Artexpo was the king of art fairs and Marilyn Goldberg’s Marigold Enterprises was the star attraction. For many consecutive years, there would be a crowd lined up at the Coliseum’s massive glass front doors on opening day for the trade, waiting for the bell to ring so they could make a beeline to the Marigold booth. There, they would find hundreds of products from Picasso ashtrays to stunning paintings from unknown Chinese masters to works by the giants of the 20th century to unknown but soon to be famous artists. Kudo, Impiglia, Markus Pierson, John Lennon, Erté, Warhol, Dali all shared display space. As many of the items were limited editions, the rush to the booth was not unwarranted. Art galleries from around the globe could fill their walls and gift counters with one visit to Marigold’s sprawling exhibition space where they would find Art Merchandise headlined by Pablo Picasso dinner wear, bedding and gift bags that revolutionized Museum shops from staid money losing space wasters to profit centers for such stalwarts as the Guggenheim and Hermitage. She went on to formulate the incredibly lucrative Erté sculpture and tapestry pro grams, and big-time licensing agreements with Salvador Dali and the estates of Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and John Lennon. Years with Erté have influenced the decor, carpet designs, and even gift bags and note cards for the guests who will be staying in this grand and palatial environment. Marigold evolved into Museum Masters International (MMI), headquarters newly ensconced at Villa Marilyn with one of her major victories so far has been the international promotion of the artist Tamara De Lempicka to prominent museums which brought her paintings to the eight figure mark at recent auctions. For most, this would be more than enough work for a dozen lifetimes, but to Marilyn Goldberg, it was all a practice run for her dream: the Villa Marilyn Art of Living home in Southampton, New York, which was completed in June of 2012.

The landscaping includes sculpted stones from Arizona, carved bronze banana leaf bronze bases for coffee tables from Hawaii, outdoor furniture hand-carved in Indonesia, with the most amazing parachute umbrellas of Mandarin orange that can dance in the wind, and flow with the breezes of the Atlantic.

“I had a dream,” said Marilyn, “when I was 20 living in Amagansett on the ocean. It was to build a sanctuary and honor life. Villa Marilyn has replicated the gardens of Monet in Giverny, and The vegetable garden and fruit orchards are graced with Liechtenstein and Miro Art cats. Fresh mint abounds so we can drink home brewed teas in the Moroccan Arch rooms. The abundance of nature thrives in this Villa! It is a paradise for children who are awestruck and entertained incessantly with the boat dock pond, and waterfalls.”

This incredible place welcomes you with handmade iron gates, a large private circular drive surrounded with stone and Belgian Block and exquisite double glass handcrafted mahogany doors opening into the entrance foyer where you are greeted by a Keith Haring Americana tapestry and European hand-made crystal chandeliers. Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe tapestry and Sidney Maurer’s Brigitte Bardot portrait add to the star power to delight for the tasteful and artistic eye.

Says Marilyn, “Living with art, color and design has been my life!

Entry foyer, Picasso umbrellas

This incredible place welcomes you with handmade iron gates, a large private circular drive surrounded with stone and Belgian Block and exquisite double glass handcrafted mahogany doors opening into the entrance foyer where you are greeted by a Keith Haring Americana tapestry and European hand-made crystal chandeliers. Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe tapestry and Sidney Maurer’s Brigitte Bardot portrait add to the star power to delight for the tasteful and artistic eye. Says Marilyn, “Living with art, color and design have been my life!

Every window explodes with views of flowers and gardens planted from bulbs from around the globe. With impeccable taste honed over decades of international business, this stylish woman has built her dream. Inside the gorgeous and newly furnished home are six fabulous bedrooms with custom electric positioning beds covered with European bed linens custom made for 25 years for Ms. Goldberg by Bette Nagle in Germany.

Every window explodes with views of flowers and gardens planted from bulbs from around the globe. With impeccable taste honed over decades of international business, this stylish woman has built her dream. Inside the gorgeous and newly furnished home are six fabulous bedrooms with custom electric positioning beds

New headquarters for her company, Museum Masters International, Villa Marilyn is also available as the place to enjoy family reunions, special friends, and business meetings with clients. Vacations here may be reserved in advance by contacting MMIMarilyn@aol.com or calling 917-273-8710. Special thanks go to Gaetan Berube Builders South Hampton, Victor Rojas Landscaping South Hampton, East End Country Kitchens Custom Cabinetry, GE Granite and Marble and Anastasios Tzakas MA, AIA for the architecture, Carolina Santiago and Elif Varna of MMI for their work in assisting with the creation this masterpiece. There will soon be a documentary made in Rome on Ms. Goldberg’s Art of Living as well as a book on her life in the arts by Victor Forbes.

The landscaping includes sculpted stones from Arizona, carved bronze banana leaf bronze bases for coffee tables from Hawaii, outdoor furniture hand-carved in Indonesia, with the most amazing parachute umbrellas of Mandarin orange that can dance in the wind, and flow with the breezes of the Atlantic.

“I had a dream,” said Marilyn, “when I was 20 living in Amagansett on the ocean. It was to build a sanctuary and honor life. Villa Marilyn has replicated the gardens of Monet in Giverny, and the vegetable garden and fruit orchards are graced with Liechtenstein and Miro Art cats. Fresh mint abounds so we can drink home brewed teas in the Moroccan Arch rooms. The abundance of nature thrives in this Villa! It is a paradise for children who are awestruck and entertained incessantly with the boat dock pond, and waterfalls.”

Villas Designed With Emotions of Warmth and Loving Care

T he homes designed by Marilyn Goldberg have been enjoyed by both Marilyn’s immediate and international family. Her sons, daughters and grandchildren have celebrated bonding at these her life’s work each home filled with equisite detail and creativity and each close distance to the exquisite beaches of Watermill and SouthHampton. Clients from around the world have enjoyed doing their business at the Villas, where they plan exhibitions, licensing deals various other projects while also enjoying visiting the Hamptons villages and beaches, From 18th century farm houses to contemporary new homes, the touches of warmth, color, tasteful design, equisite European bedding and incredible art and landscaping fill the eye in each corner with new delights.

“Marilyn has many lives and this was my lucky day,” commented Bruno Dupre, a . “We stayed at her sumptuous villa, ate lobsters and shared many thoughts. We walked the dogs on an endless beach next to a crystal clear ocean. All of this in a fluid and relaxed atmosphere despite the fact that Marilyn had her family and friends coming from all over the places to celebrate Villa Marlyn was amazing. It was in the heart of Watermill, so there couldn’t have been a better location, and she designed it so well. It was like an Italian villa, which Marco loved because he’s from Sicily. So every detail of it was just really well put together. It was comfortable but still had these really nice luixurious effects.

Villa Marilyn’s Cat Chateaus & Kitty Condos shelter Many Feline Friends

David Gerstein Portrays A Cool Collection of Art Cats

David Gerstein is a masterful painter whose original works have long been attracting the attention of curators of major museums. Through his astute studies of art history, his “Portraits of the Masters” series expresses the satire, humor, appreciation and love he has for the world’s greatest artists. Experimenting with opposing art styles, such as the Cubism of Braque versus the impressionism of van Gogh, his genius creates the ultimate statement and development of art stylization through the ages. The Portraits of the Masters series was released at Artexpo NY in 1987 by Marilyn Goldberg following the successful presentation of his Museum Art Cat collection.

Gerstein is considered to be one of the most innovative artists in the world today, as you can find his pieces in various Israeli museums, along with them displayed in public venues and galleries in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and many more countries.

Israeli Artist David Gerstein, upon meeting Sasha and Marilyn, created a sculpture of Sasha as a gift for them both. Marilyn’s creativity popped in and she requested David to paint Museum Master Cats — Lichtenstein, Chagall, Miro, Botero and Picasso. The Museum Masters rescues now became The Cat Museum with signed and numbered limited editions, sold out at Artexpo, NYC.

Villa Marilyn Southampton Estate is home to many amazing art collections including the Andy Warhol Cat Chateau, exclusive to a group of Sasha’s feline friends.

Sasha and her family and friends take good care of the grounds

Individual rooms for the feral cats, complete with bedding

Tiger awaiting his sister Sasha’s return from the city

TANDY PHOTO

Museum Masters International New Hamptons Headquarters

Marilyn Goldberg started investing in Hampton Real Estate when she was 20 years of age. From Montauk Point to East Moriches she then settled in her favorite areas, Southampton and Watermill, close to her favorite beach, Flying Point, where the bay meets the ocean. The area enamored her since childhood, as she felt the most creative, and found her health blooming with the breezes of the ocean and bay air that surrounds her. The tradition of the first Europeans landing here made her most comfortable as her heritage was European, and she was the first American in her family.

As a major in Design Architecture, and interiors, designing new spaces, using the talents of landscaping, ponds, waterfalls, color, and space planning she created one sanctuary after another where family and friends found total relaxation and comfort. She then started designing her own line of furniture, mixed with accessories she designed over the years from the great art masters which became unique collectibles.

Her first little project was the Bishops’ carriage house, which was the carriage house of the “Bishops” — the first British family to move to the Hamptons. She converted the horses stable into a charming pool house, and from there went on to the 18th century farm house, and the new house built from the start up of her outdoor gardens viewed from each window, to the houses of art and color that tantalizes the emotion of warmth and loving care with vegetable gardens and fruit orchards.

All of the properties are developed with Waterlily ponds from Givorney, France, and waterfalls with hand-picked stones from Arizona. Marilyn Goldberg designs the landscapes from the outdoors to the interior, so that from every room you see seasonal gardens, fruit orchards, and colors that coordinate with interior artwork and Museum Master Accessories.

“The beach breezes and the fruitful land draw visitors from around the world. The culture, sports and activity of The Hamptons has stimulated my own creativity as I look forward to sharing the heavenly land with international visitors. My visions have no limits. Each day I plant a new seed and watch its roots unfold into healthy offspring filled with sunlight as in the fields of Monet haystacks.”

Marilyn sporting her Warhol-inspired jacket at Bishop Pond

Reggie playing at the Condo, Bishops Pond

Bishops Pond Condo – Ecstasy Replete with Exquisite Amenities

Condos are taking the Hamptons by storm. They are exquisite Villas with all of the amenities of a great hotel, fully serviced!

Pied-à-terre in Southampton — A wonderful easy home to love and enjoy with family and friends or use as an investment for a marvelous summer rental two minutes from the ocean beach, replete with catered barbecues and lobster bakes and much more.

Bishops Pond Condos commenced development one year ago. It is a Five Star community with a varied age group consisting of families, singles and couples with plenty of places for fun exercise, a wonderful gym for training, tennis courts and lovely grounds to walk around for miles!

I started this as a place for our family to spend the summers when we rent the big houses, but it has now turned into our favorite, conveniently located near beautiful beaches and two minutes from the hopping elegant village of Southampton.

The community offers Class A helpers, grounds care, maintenance of swimming pools and ponds throughout with miniature bridges. Bishops Pond Condo has a classic appeal which reminds one of the Seine River in Paris or the Lido de Vennicio in Venice.

The grounds are exquisitely manicured and luxurious for guests and entertaining! It is your own waterfront home withfull ocean living next block over at Halsey Neck Road Beaches and Coopers Beach. Great and easy life for a glorious life. Once

again from what was “the ordinary” Marilyn has created a full new Art of Living in the Hamptons to provide a most comfortable life with custom made furniture, rooms lit with custom chandeliers, top quality bedding, lighting that is romantic and that sparkles in the evenings with the BEST SOUTHWEST SUNSETS IN THE HAMPTONS. Everyone wants to live here, and stay.

It was time to create a new path. The old path was phenomenal for our “Big House” renters which led us into a new path combining a healthy lifestyle with sound investment for rental or resale. At Bishops Pond Condo, we created our own Ecstasy and Exquisite easier way to live, with full amenities!

Club House Terrace

Museum Masters International’s New Headquarters A Stunning Estate

A stunning estate in New York’s world famous enclave of the rich and famous — The Hamptons — was funded by the Art Merchandising investor group and Japanese partners. “Villa Marilyn I, II and II” opened in 2012 through 2014 under the auspices of architect/designer Marilyn Goldberg who created a total environment from gardens planted with Monet Waterlily Ponds with Waterlilies from Giverney — to plates and mugs that coordinate with Monet’s works. Each room of each complex is designed to foster “The Art of Living.” They are the pilots for the artistic lifestyles enhanced by Museum Masters’ creations and the base for the new Hampton condominiums and hotels in Ms. Goldberg’s future plans for Marilyn Goldberg Interiors (MGI). Ms. Goldberg is in the process of raising investment and private funds for the yet-to-be-developed hotel spa and luxury condos.

“The beach breezes and the fruitful land draw visitors from around the world. The culture, sports and activity of the Hamptons has stimulated my own creativity as I look forward to sharing the heavenly land with internatopnal visitors. Each projevt has doubled in valuen, my visions have no limits.

Each day I plant a new seed and watch its roots unfold into healthy offspring filled with sunlight as in the fields of Monet haystacks.”

From her beach towels by Picasso, Keith Haring and Dali to her Monet Giverny fresh water koi ponds with water lilies, to serving coffee and tea in her Monet waterlily cups and glasses with cheese and hors d’oeuvres on her Monet plates by the pond, this visionary creator ties each of her businesses together with passion, love, determination and skill.

Villa Marilyn II

Villa Marilyn III

Master Bedroom Suite, Villa Marilyn I

Gourmet Kitchen, Villa Marilyn 1

Living room, Villa Marilyn 1

Theater with Sid Maurer art, Villa Marilyn I

Sid Maurer Marilyn Monroe painting

Marilyn GoldberG A Hero Of Creativity Leads The Parade

By VICTOR BENNETT FORBES

With a dynamism unparalleled in the universe known as the art world, Marilyn Goldberg is a true hero of creativity and will be feted as such at Fine Art magazine’s 40th anniversary celebration, to be held at the World Bar in New York City November 9th, 2015. It is fitting that this landmark event will take place in a building across the street from the United Nations as Ms. Goldberg has fearlessly traveled the world, carving out new territory for both her artists and for a woman in what was formerly (and may still be) a heavily male-dominated arena. With the alacrity of a lioness, the grace of a panther and the tenacity of a mountaineer ever in search of new summits, she has reached uncharted heights. Almost singlehandedly she has changed the course of not only art history, but of the relationship of art and commerce. By bringing the works of the great masters — Picasso, van Gogh, Dali, Matisse among them — into the homes of millions via her inventive concepts manifested in the presentation of art as utilitarian functionality, she has accomplished what she set out to do: make the infinite beauty of art accessible to all.

From where, one wonders, did this vision emanate?

“Every time I see a new space of raw land or old white dinnerware or fabric for upholstery in a particular room, the ideas click and I seem to see what should be rather than what it is,” stated Ms. Goldberg. “My karma comes from the international flavors of the Mediterranean from parents who tasted the luxurious colors and styles of their foreign heritage. I have taken my worldwide travels and personal experiences from nature and put them all together in a melange that feels so right.”

As an artist herself, Ms. Goldberg brings to the company she founded in 1980 expertise in sculpture, painting and graphics, and

a total understanding of mediums and techniques. “She has the uncanny ability to glean the best part of a work under consideration for licensing and instantly determine what approach to take and what media will be most suitable to expanding that artist’s market,” commented Harris Shapiro, of Fine Art Acquisitions, whose galleries around the country offered many Marigold art products.

Marigold’s initial success was based on a combination of test marketing techniques, large-scale advertising and promotions and the expertise of its founder who studied art history and stylization at New York University’s School of Fine and Applied Art and Boston University. She completed her postgraduate work at the New York School of Interior Design where her lifelong interests in design, color, fabrics, textiles and architecture were refined. After a successful decade of serving corporate and residential design clientele (specializing in art and artistic accessories) Ms. Goldberg became a consultant to several graphics concerns. In her new role, she was responsible for the publishing of over 300 prints, including the selection of hand-made papers and appropriate printing ateliers for each project.

Her work designing professional space led to concentrated efforts of her major loves — art, sculpture and artistic accessories. Her vision and insight, however, weren’t strictly limited to art. Early on in her career she decided it was time to create a subtle yet powerful representation of the role of the sexes and she worked with a sculptor to develop a collection in Lucite and bronze to express her thoughts in three dimensions. “The man,” she said, “has always been and will continue to be the strength of the union, but the strength can never be complete without the passion and fulfillment of his

Shinnecock Nation Tribal Chief

”There's always another idea.“

woman at his side — each needing the other for completion of the dreams that an equal relationship can solidify.”

With that being said, we segue to the project that put Marilyn Goldberg on the map and paved the way for her inclusion into not just the Artexpo Hall of Fame, but into the very annals in which the great minds of inspired creativity will be immortalized.

In 1980, at the helm of her first business, Marigold Enterprises, Ltd., she conceived the idea to publish and distribute some 200 Pablo Picasso images from the many paintings inherited by Picasso’s grand-daughter Marina Picasso, his only “legitimate” heir (Picasso married her mother, Olga, a ballet dancer of great beauty. All the other descendants were from his many mistresses). When Ms. Goldberg decided to go into the business of creating such an artistic program based on Picasso’s images, she initially met with resistance from the heirs of Picasso, an artist to whose images she held copyrights on behalf of several international investors. However, when she personally presented the actual program, designed exclusively for sale in major museums and art galleries, Picasso’s representatives and heirs realized that her creation was not only acceptable, but represented the spirit of the artist’s work that was a tangible memory of the museum experience, and would bail Marina out of a very steep tax bill imposed by the French government.

“There was nothing to prove this could become anything,” recalled Marilyn in a recent interview. “In the US, only Mickey Mouse and Disney items were selling. I had to go to Japan, which back then was what China is today, where I could produce the scarves, watches, vases, ashtrays, candy dishes and candlestick holders which I then sold to small locations until suddenly Mitsukoshi saw the line. They flipped and invited me come aboard. I did on the condition that they had to make a museum on the top floor of their department store, which was the Saks Fifth Avenue of Tokyo, so people could see the original paintings and then see the estate-endorsed prints, signed and numbered by Marino Picasso.”

Marilyn was so dedicated to the tradition and quality of Picasso that in order to make these reproductions as authentic as possible, she engaged the finest ateliers Chroma Comp and Circle Fine Art (which ran a steam driven lithographic press from the early 20th ce n tury) and sought out Picasso’s long-time chromist Marcelle Salinas from Paris, who was the producer and platemaker for Picasso when he was alive to ensure the plates would be made the way he would have done them.

In addition, Marilyn went to Paris and bought the special craypas that Picasso used in order to color match his paintings and drawings

for reproduction. She gave those color samples to the printers. For even more accuracy, Marilyn researched what kind of pencils and brushes Picasso used to make everything as authentic as it could be. Her product designs, presented at the Negresco Hotel to Marina and her representatives, in 1981, were ultimately approved by the estate of Picasso, and the final deal was done between herself and Jean Krugier, the exclusive dealer for the Picasso works inherited Marina Picasso.

The resultant “Legacy of Pablo Picasso,” a limited edition collection of never before published Picasso prints, as well as the Pablo Picasso Boutique Collection, became the foundation upon which Marilyn Goldberg’s empire was built. No one (except Marilyn) imagined at the time that this Collection would become an overnight sensation that would launch the birth of a most important and vibrant new industry — branding — that could be used for the development of many products: jewelry, watches, bed and bath, furniture and upholstery, porcelains, glassware, fashion items, mobile phone covers, fragrances and cosmetics…even masterpiece baby wear and elegant baby bedding.

That first Marina Picasso exhibition/merchandising program took place at Tokyo’s famous Mitsukoshi department store where Marilyn insisted that a legitimate museum be created on its top floor so that the original Picasso paintings could be exhibited in a proper setting. Featuring a full spectrum of art-related gift accessories with exquisite packaging along with the prints exhibited for sale downstairs, it was a smashing success.

Another major breakthrough followed when the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, which initially was quite reluctant to change its drab gift shop selling mostly posters, postcards and books, placed their initial order after Ms. Goldberg left a basket of samples. An attractive boutique was soon developed, a template for museums around the world to follow. Ms. Goldberg’s companies, Marigold and now Museum Masters International, has created art merchandise programs for renowned institutions such as The Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Mitsukoshi Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Royal Academy (London), The Hakone Open Air Museum (Japan), and the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City) as well as department stores throughout the world such as Henry Bendel’s, Bloomingdale’s of New York; Harrods of London; Gallery Lafayette Paris, and the aforementioned Mitsukoshi.

The Picasso scarves, first advertised in VOGUE, were in great demand, not just to wear, but to frame and hang. They are highly sought after collectibles even today. Tiffany quality dinnerware featured Picasso images on cups and saucers.

From that point on, Ms. Goldberg became recognized in the art world as the innovative force in the licensing and publishing business. She was the largest exhibitor at the Artexpos in New York, Dallas and California and single-handedly brought artists from all over the world to the marketplace.

“Before Marilyn started her programs, the art business was without a focal point and museums were dying,” Gerald Leberfeld, one of the Artexpo founders stated. “She single-handedly put many museums back on their feet by creating a wide variety of items for their gift shops at all price ranges. There was no copying her; she was and still is one of a kind. Now there are museum gift shops even where there are no museums.” Adds Marilyn, “What amazes me when I look at our ArtExpo exhibits is the incredible mixture.”

Indeed it was. Marigold Enterprises Ltd., moved quickly from the Picasso success to the art of another international superstar, John Lennon. After the shock of his tragic murder began to dissipate, Yoko brought to Marilyn a few shoe boxes full of John’s doodles on

Darren and Garret with their mother at the Townhouse

napkins and scraps of paper. No stranger to the art world, Yoko was a museum-exhibited artist in her own right and actually met John at one of her shows, at which the focal point was simply the word “YES.” John and Yoko then produced the notorious Two Virgins suite of lithographs, which featured the lovebirds stark naked from the front and back and was banned just about everywhere just as the Beatles were breaking up. Marilyn immediately saw the potential of these scribbles and became Yoko’s trusted collaborator in developing ways to produce and market this work. Staring with limited edition prints from John’s sketches, the John Lennon Boutique Collection was developed which produced a myriad of ancillary products. These products were so hot that buyers would line up at the old New York Coliseum doors hours before they opened to make a beeline to the Marigold booths to stock up on product for their clients and galleries. Yoko called her “My partner in design.” All these years later, images from that first collection are highly regarded on the secondary market and very difficult to come by.

Between Artexpos and international forays, projects and ideas would fly around the Marigold headquarters with a flurry. If it were an artist’s studio, it would probably be Pollock’s or Picasso’s — packed with frenzied, yet highly organized genius. Canvases strewn about, many being worked on simultaneously. All eventually completed, and when exhibited they would sell out. At the helm of all this, Ms. Goldberg thought nothing of spending a week in Paris negotiating with Chagall and Matisse representatives about handling the licensing of the estates, then flying to back to New York for an hour and a half business meeting at the airport before catching a connecting flight to Palm Beach to meet Yoko Ono for an opening of a show of John Lennon’s art, all the while keeping in close contact with the Marigold staff in New York, who were busy preparing for another exhibition. Even today, Ms. Goldberg at the helm of Museum Masters International, keeps an equally frenetic schedule. Off to Milan for a Tamara de Lempicka exhibition, then to London for the International Marketing Expo, back to New York to sew up the next deal.

Marilyn Goldberg has synergisticly blended the world of fine art with mass merchandising. Creating previously untapped markets and expanded awareness for both artists and manufacturers, Museum Masters stands above all others in bringing together the best of two worlds. The merchandising of art, for Ms. Goldberg, goes handin-hand with the creative process. While curating exhibitions and developing product for Picasso, Erté, Dali, Keith Haring, van Gogh, Tamara de Lempicka, Warhol, John Lennon, Muramasa Kudo, Giancarlo Impiglia and bringing an ever-expanding new group to market, she is sought out by artists today not only for her expertise and contacts, but for her reliability, honesty and unflinching resolve to do her best for the artists and estates she represents.

For an artist of great renown, she created extravagant lines not only from their famous paintings but from “Borders, designs and concepts that I feel would have come from them if they were alive to envision these products. I meditate on the space given to me and suddenly the finished designs appears in my mind. I then execute them on paper so the manufacturers can conceive how the products should look.

“Visuals are the shorthand of art merchandising technology,” continues Ms. Goldberg from her posh and stunning Southampton, New York headquarters, decorated wall to wall and floor to ceiling with paintings, prints, tapestries, sculptures and a plethora of gift items that she created. Sipping afternoon tea from a Monet cup and saucer takes on a special meaning when one is sitting in front of the authentic Monet waterlily pond at her Villa. Same can be said for enjoying a can of Pepsi from a Sid Maurer-designed Marilyn Monroe soda can in a room of Andy Warhol tapestries and Maurer’s original Marilyn Monroe painting.”

Even as we go to press, barely a week before the London Inter-

national Licensing convention, Ms. Goldberg is typing out a contract on a computer for an artist she has been admiring for years, Juan de Lascurain. He is already highly popular but has decided the only company that could properly represent him is Museum Masters International. His motto is “Dream big” and Marilyn is right there with that. She sees him as the next Peter Max or Romero Britto. Another artist new to the Museum Masters fold is Kevin Kelly. His work is powerful, colorful, romantic and representative of the times. “MMI,” he says, “are indeed masters at generating international merchandising appeal and have done so with Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Tamara De Lempicka.”

This success is largely based on Ms. Goldberg’s own ability to work with artists as an artist. She brings to her work an under-standing of the artist’s life, from attitude to style. The artist and the company become one and the same, focusing on what the artist does best and what the market wants from him or her. “I work with artists who have multifaceted talent and comprehend my direction to develop the balance and harmony of what the market place de-mands.” Likening herself to an actress who becomes a producer, Ms. Goldberg notes, “As an artist, I understand the life patterns of artists, from their uneven schedules to attitudes and style. We are a corporate entity that handles the business aspects of art on the art-ist’s behalf, which frees them to create and be financially successful in the process of creating a program, the artist and MMI form a reciprocal relationship with mutual goals.”

An an art teacher for the era, bringing the market into play when she works Marilyn has “a lust” for programs that are creative. “When I’m 80 years-old, I’ll probably have three new programs on the fire, and still be hav ing fun. I’m exhausted, but sleep is second-ary because there’s always another idea.”

Marigold’s collection of Giancarlo Impiglia signed and numbered prints for the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1984 was a very big success.

Hero Of Creativity Award Party

Marilyn addressing the crowd at the Trump World Bar across from the United Nations in New York. Victor Forbes in his Erté neck wear.

Marilyn’s family and friends join in the festivities.

“I THINK THAT ALL ART IS HEROIC. I think it’s a heroic enterprise from childhood, from the beginning, whenever it begins.”

– JASPER JOHNS

Marilyn’s skill, talent, and entrepreneurship is unparalleled. She is warm. She is bright. She is knowledgeable on the issues, and she certainly carries herself with extreme grace. Original and fearless, she is, in the lyrics of Marvin Hamlisch, “A Dreamer who has shooting stars they must chase…” I think of Marilyn as a Dreamer, in the best sense, who on countless occasions dared to dream. And with a lifetime of dedicated hard work and determination, she made the dreams of varied artists and dealers come true.

Since 1983, Marilyn has conceived and orchestrated abundant star-studded entertainment, elegance, and beauty one would be hardpressed to compare. She was so ahead of the curve and I’ve been blessed to experience her art, passion, and dreams.

Marilyn is one of those rare individuals who changes lives. She is a do-er in the best sense of the word. She is a force of nature, a dynamo who works tirelessly at her passions. She is elegant and thoughtful, gracious and powerful, spontaneous yet purposeful.

Believe everything will be alright and it will is the key to her lifelong success and the inspiration you give to us all!Your friendship is one of the great blessings of our lives. – JAMIE FORBES

Jamie Ellin Forbes presenting award

Lovebirds - Michael Rothbart and Marilyn Goldberg Celebrate Hero of Creativity Award

Garett Goldberg, photo by Neil Tandy

Marilyn, Darren Goldberg

German agent for two decades Michael Lou of VIP at Brand Licensing Expo, London

English rep Andrew Maconie of LMUK at Brand Licensing Expo in Las Vegas

The Genius of Salvador Dali at Garett Stephens Gallery

Salvador Dali’s impacted the world with his bizarre and dream-like creations. With careful detail, fantastical symbolism, and a one-of-a-kind capacity to combine the common with the remarkable, Dali’s creative mind and his unrivaled commitment to his art form has assured his place in the pantheon of art history.

The Garett Stephens Gallery, founded by Marilyn Goldberg in Southampton, NY and now internationally visible at www.garettstephensgallery.com, features a collection of Dali paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture. In addition to his show stoppers, — liquefying clocks and dreamscapes — there are less well-known yet equally dazzling works. Each piece offers a brief look into Dali’s surreal universe, where he twists reality to his will. “Dalivision”, then becomes much more than the title of a famous painting, it is the artist’s very strange and unique way of seeing.

“Our collection,” notes Gallery Director Garett Goldberg, “is organized to give a far reaching perspective on Dali’s artistic journey, showcasing his development as a genius of the ages featuring the real and surreal subjects that characterize his work.”

Marilyn Goldberg created Dali’s trademark, copyrighted his images, and worked personally with him on a portion of his most famous pieces that have made a permanent imprint on the art world. “I spent two weeks at his home in Spain sculpting. These works, with their striking visuals and significant imagery, reflect the profundities of his very unique psyche. Every image shows Dali’s specialized ability as well as his capacity to bring out feeling and incite thought, making them ageless.”

Dali’s art continues to spellbind and motivate as it rises beyond physical limitations and taps into the all-inclusive human experience. His otherworldly dreams challenge our insights, empowering us to investigate the limits of the creative mind. Dali’s work isn’t simply seen, it is experienced, offering an entrance into an existence where the fantastical becomes substantial making his art ceaselessly applicable and unendingly interesting.

“At Garett Stephens Gallery,” continues the Director, “we have faith in the force of Dali’s art to transport individuals across time and space. Our mission is to give a stage where Dali’s genius can be valued and where art lovers can discover works that resonate with their own dreams and fantasies. We strive to make a connection for all who wish to experience Dali, whether on the web or in person, and welcome you to investigate the universe of Salvador Dali’s surrealistic artwork. Whether you are a seasoned collector, a casual admirer, or someone seeking inspiration, the gallery offers an exceptional chance to encounter the sorcery of this wizard and witness the splendor of his creations.”

Dali Paranoid Face

Dali portrait by his friend Sid Maurer

Dali Bible

Dali Embroidered Towels and Robe

“Melting Clock” published by Dali Art, Paris, “One of the first pieces I did with him when I was in Spain.”

Robert Descharnes personal assistant and photographer of Salvidor Dali for 30 years “Demart Pro Arte”was going to die - after 20 year Gaia gave all to Spanish govt -Robert Descharnes of Demart ProArte who represented Dali and hired Marilyn to do all the trade marking and Merchandising left and his son Nicholas Descharnes (right) at Marilyn’s Hotel in Paris.(with her entire family) Sons Garett and Darren, daughter in law Mara, and Mom Georgette Huberman. Every year Marilyn stayed in a suite at the same Hotel “Westminster” Chanel Suite to deal with the estates Picasso, and Dali. His son Nicholas Descharnes on the right.

Dali and Tamara De Lempicka with “The Mother Superior”, photo by Nicholas W. Orloff from the collection of Anne and Richard Paddy

The State Hermitage Museum Catherine The Great Collection

In 1990 Ms. Goldberg was invited by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, to develop a full exhibition with an entwined licensing and merchandising program for the “Catherine the Great” collection. Such spectacular moments were cause for the Museum to close its doors so she could walk through and view each area with the specialist curators. At such time, she discovered a collection of heretofore hidden treasures. The Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died before the palace’s completion and only Catherine the Great and her successors were able to enjoy the sumptuous interiors of Elizabeth’s home.

The Hermitage Museum is the largest art gallery in Russia and is among the largest and most respected art museums in the world. The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased a collection of 255 paintings from the German city of Berlin. The Hermitage’s collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, a unique collection of Rembrandt’s and Rubens, many French Impressionist works by Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet and Pissaro, numerous canvasses by van Gogh, Matisse and Gauguin and several sculptures by Rodin. The collection and joint venture between the Hermitage and MMI took Marilyn Goldberg over a year to develop, and review all the artifacts with all of the curators in 1990. The collection is both enormous and diverse and is an essential stop for all those interested in art and history. The museum closed it’s doors as Marilyn was hosted by each of the curators of each department. It is here she uncovered in the basement the unopened Matisse line drawings and photographed them. The Sleeping Model Series was then licensed to Bruce McGaw graphics for over twenty years.”Trying on the dresses of Catherine the Great and seeing her horses’ bridles encrusted in Emeralds was one of the most memorable moments in my career.”

The Hermitage holdings include nearly three million items dating from the Stone Age to the present. Among them is one of the world’s richest collections of western European painting since the Middle Ages, including many masterpieces by Renaissance Italian and Baroque Dutch, Flemish, and French painters To go through all of them, you will have to pass 24 kilometers. To get acquainted with all the showpieces of the Hermitage, you will have to spend approximately 11 years, provided you watch each item for no longer than a minute during an 8-hour daily visit.

Born: April 21 (May 2), 1729 Szczecin, Pomerania (Prussian Kingdom)

Died: November 6 (17), 1796 Tsarskoye Selo, Russia. The future Catherine the Great was born a German princess in one of many tiny German states, but ended her life a powerful and enlightened ruler of the vast Russian Empire. In 1745 she married Prince Carl Peter Ulrich, the heir to the Russian throne (the future Emperor Peter III). Being a bright personality with a strong sense of determination she joined the Russian Orthodox Church, learned the Russian language and through personal study acquired a brilliant education. She was proud to be a friend and an active correspondent of some of the brightest thinkers of the day, such as the prominent philosophers of the French Enlightenment, Rousseau and Diderot.

“Trying on the dresses of Catherine the Great and seeing her horses’ bridles encrusted in Emeralds was one of the most memorable moments in my career.”

– Marilyn GoldberG

Bruno Dupre, a big fan of Marilyn and Tamara, holds his novel the cover of which features a Tamara De Lempicka painting which Marilyn helped him locate and license. He is a remarkable man who is PhD in law (European University Institute) and a Master of Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder, on behalf of the EU, of the Centers of Excellence concept (a regional coordination mechanism to assess security threats) and co-founder of Negotiators of the World together with ESSEC Iréné. He was Security and Defense Advisor to the EEAS Secretariat General. He has recently published a French novel “Si tu veux une vie, vole-la”, edited by l’Harmattan

My Tribute to Marilyn and Tamara: A French Perspective

Rencontre avec Marilyn Goldberg, pionnière de l’art Merchandising

By BRUNO DUPREE

“I WAS HEADING TO THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO DELIVER MY SPEECH ON NUCLEAR TERRORISM, A THREAT THAT NO DIPLOMAT CAN IGNORE ANYMORE, BUT MY MIND WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE …”

Tomorrow, I will get under way for Long Island to meet with Marilyn. The weather forecast was terrible but that did not concern me a bit. Armed with my natural optimism and a beautiful portrait of Mrs Allan Bott on the cover of my-just-publishednovel, I felt like I was invincible and already familiar with someone I had never encountered before.

The perfect cover

For once, my well-tempered nature was justified. I was about to deliver in person a copy of my first novel dedicated to the legendary creator, editor and precursor in art, Marilyn Goldberg. I was blessed. She had just granted my Parisian editor, against all expectations, the right to reproduce one of the most famous Tamara De Lempicka paintings. Of course, I knew perfectly that a book should not be judged by its cover but, let us be honest, a good cover does make a difference and mine was a knockout. Tamara’s painting captured all too well the main character of my novel. At first glance, you would think that the posture of the young Mrs Allan Bott, wife of a rich New Yorker, is composed, almost frozen, but looking closer, this provocative pause reveals inner dynamics that tell you that things are about to change. Nothing could better describe the very nature of my heroine, Eve Dieuleveult, a French aristocrat who was not any more satisfied with her life.

By all standards, it was the perfect cover.

Going out of your way

On my way to Southampton, watching the raging sea through the window, I wondered how best to summarize, in just a few words, the story of my character,  a well-educated French diplomat who decides to investigate the double life of her renowned father. A quest that will take her to Iran, Central Asia, China. A journey that will take her to a better self.

In Harvard, I was taught that the best way to target your audience is to put yourself in their shoes. I did. I started to Google Tamara and Marilyn’s bios to compare them with the story of Eve. Soon I realized how much the three of them had in common. Yes, I did say the three of them. It starts with their stringent beauty coupled to an aristocratic allure, something of a European elegance. It continues with their past. All of them had parents who fled the war, Nazism, Communism and faced the sort of rejection that goes with migrants, rich or poor. All of them had a father who suffered humiliation, something to be never repeated. They took the best from this ordeal to realize their dreams. What a better place than Warsaw, Paris or New York to start afresh? They shook each city in the bottom of their art and they would not stop there. They traveled as far as Japan, China, Mexico. They changed the world in every region they reached. Their energy urged them to act and exploit “new spaces of raw land”. Precursors in art, in business, in opening new territories, they developed special talent for contrasts, provocation, new flavors, violent colors and shapes. They brought art and imagination to every one’s home. No models. Only ruptures, signs and destiny would lead their actions. No complaint or complacency. After each failure, they will raise again.

“Si tu veux une vie, vole-la”.

On all fronts

I was reaching this strange and probably abusive conclusion when I finally grabbed my phone in my bag to realize that Marilyn had already sent three messages, letting me know her frustration at not finding me at the bus station. We were two hours late. So much for my wake-up call!

But Marilyn has many lives and this was my lucky day. We stayed at her sumptuous villa, ate lobsters and shared many thoughts. We walked the dogs on an endless beach next to a crystal clear ocean. All of this in a fluid and relaxed atmosphere despite the fact that Marilyn had her family and friends coming from all over the places to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Of course, she had not told us. What was I thinking!

A lesson for my daughters

On the way back to Brussels, looking for some sleep, I tried to remember why I started to write this novel in the first place. Oh, I know. That’s right. My daughters. Diane and Eurydice. I wanted to leave them with something that will survive me. One of those ego things, of course. But also something else, something I better understand now. The assurance that it exists out there, in the vast world, incredible women, women like Marilyn and Tamara, women like my own heroine Eve, who released themselves from their times, who broke the rules and created their own modernity, listening to no one but their instinct. Revolutionary women with a French classy touch.

No one should be surprised. There is definitely something French about Marilyn.

Un je ne sais quoi.

—Bruno

“After the very successful exhibition in Paris everybody was so interested in seeing more and finding out more about Tamara De Lempicka. I went to Poland because she was Polish, but few in Poland knew of her name. A few years later, I hosted the Kosciuszko Foundation because they were highly financed with all the top people in Poland. I invited them all to come to New York where I hosted a gala event at the Waldorf Astoria and did a comprehensive catalog which I gave to each of them as they entered.”

The Rediscovery of Tamara De Lempicka

In 2025, a Tamara De Lempicka painting, “Portrait du Docteur Boucard,” sold for $8.51 million at Christie’s in London. This marked the highlight of the auction, exceeding the low estimate by 35%. Last time the painting hit the block, in 1985, it went for just $285,000.

De Lempicka’s “Portrait of Marjorie Ferry,” an oil on canvas from 1932, became the artist’s most expensive work selling for $21.2 million in February 2020.

“Say the words ‘Art Deco’ and most people think of architecture and Miami Beach hotels,” wrote Chris Jones in his Broadway Column in The New York Daily News, April 15, 2024, “but they also apply to the chic, tubular paintings of the modernist artist Tamara De Lempicka, the title character of LEMPICKA, the fervently ambitious musical from the writer-lyricist Carson Kreitzer and the composer Matt Gould, with Eden Espinosa as the Polish-born artist known for her spectacularly cool portraiture filled with curvy yet crystalline expressions of the mostly female form. Madonna is a famous fan.”

Commented De Lempicka expert Anne Paddy, “This story of a strong, independent trend setting woman ahead of her time artist changing the terrain of the world is magnificent, was nominated for three Tony awards and has now been licensed to Korea. They will rock it and it will come back stronger than ever. We saw it every step from the first inception in Williamstown to La Jolla to the opening and close on Broadway.”

Marilyn’s Goldberg’s role in bringing this relatively overlooked artist back to the limelight is reminiscent of Leon Russell’s quote regarding his own “resurrection” by Elton John. “Elton found me in a ditch on the side of the highway of life and took me up to the high stages and treated me like a king....” While selling at $285,000 doesn’t necessarily conjure up visions of an artist in a ditch, the recent multi-million dollar prices would arguably not be happening were it not for the efforts of The Queen of Art.

Yet, amongst many artworldings and the general populace, while her work is highly recognizable, “Nobody knew who she was,” according to De Lempicka biographer and uber collector Paddy.

Well, that sure has changed beginning around 1995 when Marilyn Goldberg was encouraged by her business partner, Greenwich Village art dealer William Weber. His words were: “Marilyn, you must meet Kizette Lempicka-Foxhall, the daughter of Tamara De Lempicka. There is an archive of work that has intrigued me for years that has never been cared for or promoted the way I know only you can. I have discovered many of the originals and plan to collect these paintings for a Japanese company known as Braintrust for an exhibition in China and promote Tamara to the Asian community. Please help me.”

Weber and Marilyn went traveling around to a lot of different places and Bill somehow found the names of enough people to amass a collection of nearly 100 paintings for an exhibition in Japan to promote Tamara to the Asian community. Adds Marilyn, “We secured the paintings. Bill scouted them out and procured documentation notes from the various owners. We did the Braintrust exhibitions and had the paintings photographed properly. This was a time where there were no cell phones or digital photography, everything needed to be done with 35mm films.” Marilyn ultimately wound up with a collection of high quality transparencies suitable for reproduction. Alain Blondel, who is the author of Tamara De Lempicka’s catalogue raisonné and Ingried Brugger, Director of the Kunstforum, Vienna, loved Tamara’s work and wanted to represent her in Paris. They were in need of films on all of the original work that were the real deal suitable for high quality printing for the exhibition catalog. It was during this time that Anne “really came to know Marilyn and actually get to a real understanding of the expanse of the repertoire of Tamara De Lempicka.”

“After China, we did Paris and after Paris I wanted to take everything to Italy. Bill went there as they were re-doing a museum at the time called the VIO in Rome. He sent me pictures of the construction, and I said, ‘Bill, this looks fantastic. Let’s try to get this for Tamara,” and so he introduced me to the head of the museum. We sent photos and some promotional materials. They loved it wanted to do the exhibition. Unfortunately, since they were renovating and rebuilding the museum, when Bill was coming down the steps he tripped, went flying and died. It was heartbreak for me. He was such a wonderful guy. And that was the beginning of how

Marilyn and French cousin Micheline Conquy-Arnold At Kosciuszko Foundation Gala

The Kosciuszko Foundation is dedicated to promoting educational and cultural exchanges between the United States and Poland and to increasing American understanding of Polish culture and history. Founded in 1925, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of Thaddeus Kosciuszko’s enlistment in the American revolutionary cause, the Foundation is a national not-for-profit, nonpartisan, and nonsectarian organization which awards up to $2 millionsannually in fellowships and grants to graduate students, scholars, scientists, professionals, and artists, and promotes Polish culture in America. The Foundation has awarded scholarships and provided a forum to Poles who have changed history. The Foundation’s work reaches audiences throughout the United States, and is supported by contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals who share the Foundation’s mission of fostering the relations and understanding between the United States and Poland.

“I have fulfilled my dream to develop and bring Tamara’s inspiration to life.”

it all happened. Now, decades later,” states Marilyn. “I am still proud to celebrate the inauguration at The Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome.

“Having been involved in the arts and major estates throughout my lifetime, starting with Picasso, Dali, Warhol, Haring, and many exhibitions of the old masters (Monet, van Gogh, Klimpt to name a few), when I came upon Tamara De Lempicka, I was awestruck by the beauty and power of her work, I proceeded full steam ahead into learning all I could about this wonderful, yet unheralded and forgotten, artist. Tamara De Lempicka pioneered an elegant yet erotic vision of life in the “Flapper era” as the new and self-confident woman came into being. Not only did she paint portraits of modern women, she lived like one herself, changing aspects of femininity and masculinity. De Lempicka’s work is often inseparable from her life. However, what should always remain the primary focus is the way in which she transformed artistic technique and form into revolutionary methods of representation in the Art Deco era. She paved the way for strong, successful and independent women symptomatic of their time.”

Along with contemporaries such as Coco Chanel and Simone de Beauvoir, Tamara De Lempicka re-defined what it meant to be a woman and an artist. Her heritage has been greatly appreciated by the South Koreans who have fought hard and long for recognition as did she! Whether she was an art Deco artist, a neoclassicist or post-Cubist, De Lempicka ultimately struck a chord with a cosmopolitan public that found its own image reflected in her work. The artist pioneered a new vision of life in respect to the new and self-confident woman, changing aspects of femininity and masculinity. Not only did the artist paint portraits of modern women, she lived like one herself. De Lempicka’s work is often inseparable with her life. “However,” continues Marilyn, “what should always remain the primary focus is the way in which she transformed artistic technique and form into revolutionary methods of representation in the Art Deco era. Like those who came after her (such as Madonna Ciccone, who was one of her biggest collectors), she paved the way for strong, successful and independent women symptomatic of their time. Along with contemporaries such as Coco Chanel and Simone de Beauvoir, the artist redefined what it meant to be a woman and an artist. Her legacy will live on through her spirited, original paintings.”

“So privileged am I, wrote Marilyn in an article that appeared in Fine Art magazine in 2012, “to have worked closely with Victoria De Lempicka and Mssrs. Weber and Blondell who were so dedicated to Tamara and led me into the fascinating world of taking this incredible woman and developing her name, her life, and her art as a leading icon of Deco history.

Even though it has been long accepted throughout the international art world today that Tamara De Lempicka in her very singular way brilliantly captured the whirlwind decade of the 1920s on canvas by painting the portraits of the illustrious and renowned socialites of Europe, you could find her on posters in obscure sections of various Artexpos. Her work, of course, is unique, stunning and sexy. “Tamara co-branded herself by attaching her name to the royal families of Europe. Her daughter, The Baroness Kizette De Lempicka=Foxhall wrote in her book Passion by Design (Abbeville Press) that, “She painted them all, the rich, the famous and renowned…the best; and with many, she had love affairs.” Tamara’s iconic paintings of the Jazz Age, the period between the wars, remain forever to remind us of the elegance and frivolity of that period.”

Hers was the era of flappers, fashion, music, and politics at a time when the stock market crashed in 1929 followed by many years of The Great Depression. Tamara captured it all, including the epic transition from simple modes of transportation to the advent

Kosciouszco leadership from Poland in NYC with Marilyn at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Ball Room

Vittoriano Museum “The new pride of Rome,” where Ms. Goldberg organized and opened her exhibitions starting with Victoria De Lempicka with the president of Italy, the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Tamara De Lempicka in collaboration with Italian curator Gioia Mori and long time gallery handler Alain Blondel. Once again the gift store thrived and De Lempicka products were bought by the thousands who visited. The buses, airports and street corners all celebrated with banners showing the De Lempicka paintings.

of the automobile. In one especially grand piece, her self-portrait Tamara in Green Bugatti, she created her iconic statement of self. While in Paris, she soon adopted the name Tamara De Lempicka—(as everyone in Paris had a “de” before their fancy names). Her mother instilled in her the need for her to have titles in order to attract the right social climate. She signed her works “T. Lempicki” instead of the Polish feminine way before changing it to Lempicka.

At the onset of World War II, The Baroness and Baron Raoul Kuffner departed from Paris. They settled in Hollywood in the former King Vidor Estate. He was one of her earliest and wealthiest collectors. The house was previously owned by Hungarian movie director, King Vidor who had completed the movie War and Peace. The couple then moved to East 57th Street, (the early corridor of the Abstract and Impressionist art world) in New York City in 1943. Tamara put her interior design talents to use in her dramatic two story studio where everything from the floors to the drapery to the pearl gray upholstery was adorned. Tamara waited patiently for the war to end and when it was over, she returned to the street she loved best and by which she was most inspired—The Rue Mechain in Paris. There, she designed her own special décor and surroundings once again but this time in the Rococo Style known as “Late Baroque.”

Having moved to the United States at the beginning of World War II with her second husband, the Lempicka was almost forgotten in Europe, which was uninterested in the world she portrayed. It was not until 1972, when an exhibit at the Luxembourg gallery in Paris rediscovered her works and reignited the passion for, in the words of Magdalene Dayot, “the improbable and certainly curious trinity of extreme modernism, of the purest classicism, and the most burning romanticism” that Lempicka embodies

In 1978 Tamara moved to a beautiful and peaceful Villa designed by a Japanese architect in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She could not easily adjust to her aging appearance in the mirror so she surrounded herself with young attractive and passionate people and wanted to be remembered for her talent and style. She also wanted to be cremated and remembered as she was in Paris, the most beautiful portrait painter of her day.

Mid-20th century abstract art promoted American greats such as Jackson Pollock. Tamara tried to change her recipe, blurring colors and dissolving shapes which were not well-received, The Baroness Kuffner’s pride was damaged; she no longer wanted to play the game of winning and never exhibited her work again. Tamara De Lempicka died in her sleep on March 18, 1980. Her daughter Kizette was at her side and spread her ashes as she wished on top of the Volcano.

In 1966 The Musee des Arts Decoratifs created a Paris exhibition called Les Annees 25.” The elegance and the success of the show created a serious Art Deco revival and inscribed Tamara with another Deco great, “Erté.” Later, Alain Blondel of Paris, inspired by her work, opened The Galerie du Luxemburg to launch a Tamara retrospective. This was followed by The Knoedler Gallery show which was organized by William Weber, an international art dealer living in Greenwich Village. Tamara made many demands on how the exhibition would be mounted and the curator from Knoedler dismissed it.

Weber, after completion of The Lempicka exhibition in Japan went to Rome years later to establish a relationship for a museum exhibition. In 1994, after Tamara’s death, he arranged for the Brain Trust Exhibition in Japan in her honor. This was planned and organized with the guidance and assistance of Marilyn Goldberg, who he had introduced to Kizette and her daughter, Victoria. He requested that I devote my creative time and energy to Victoria De Lempicka, her granddaughter.

In a sudden dramatic turn, a phone call was received at Museum Masters International that Weber fell down the stairs of a large Rome museum and instantly died of a concussion. His dream of a Rome exhibition was revived years later in March, 2011. Both Victoria De Lempicka and Marilyn Goldberg commemorate this exhibition to the memory of men from opposite sides of the globe—Blondel in Paris, and Weber in New York who formulated the international impetus to bring Tamara De Lempicka to world audiences. Now, over two decades later, I am proud to celebrate the inauguration at The Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome. After the Japanese Brain Trust exhibition, Lempicka paintings were exhibited at The San Francisco Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Royale Academy, Caixa de Galicia in Mexico, Austria Kunstforum Vienna, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico, The Bunkamura Museum of Art in Japan, Hyoto Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan followed by the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome for which MMI organized the merchandising.

The experience I have had for many years as owner and President of Museum Masters International Inc. of creative, transformative, and dynamic marketing on the international stage has been the thrill of a lifetime. I have designed the worldwide creative market for preserving the trademarks and logo seals of Da Vinci, van Gogh, Picasso, Haring, Warhol, and De Lempicka for younger generations to learn about and enjoy their works and history. I have had the great honor and pleasure to consult with and bring new innovative exhibitions and presentation models to the greatest Estates and Museums in the world from The Guggenheim Museum in New York, to the St. Hermitage in St. Petersburg Russia, and to develop programs for The Metropolitan Opera and The New York Philharmonic. Tamara and her paintings have captured my heart, spirit and soul. I understand what she needed and wanted and how she played the game of winning for her own survival on her own terms.

I am truly honored to participate in the Rome Exhibition La Regina del Moderno (The Queen of Modern) at The Complessa del Vittoriano curated by Gioia Mori and I dedicate the 2011 Exhibition to this woman who was far ahead of her time, and modern beyond today. The Queen of Modern will be followed by Goddess of Innocence in Athens, Greece 2014 at the B & M Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts directed by Dr. Fotis Papathanasiou who I had the great pleasure of meeting in October 2010. Through her art I know that my life is blessed and that I have made the right career choices in acting as the promoter of Tamara, promoting her art and protecting her intellectual property rights.

Marilyn at De Lempicka exhibit

Tamara De Lempicka’s auction prices place her in sixth place in the pantheon of auction sales by woman artists, topped only by Georgia O’Keeffe, Leonora Carrington, Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois and Frida Kahlo. . In 1994, after Tamara’s death, William Weber arranged for the Brain Trust Exhibition in Japan in her honor. He requested that I devote my creative time and energy to Lempicka. In a sudden dramatic turn, a phone call was received at Museum Masters International that Weber fell down the stairs of a large Rome museum and instantly died of a concussion. His dream of a Rome exhibition was revived years later in March, 2011 in an exhibition commemorating the memory of men from opposite sides of the globe—Blondel in Paris, and Weber in New York— who formulated the international impetus to bring Tamara De Lempicka to world audiences.

Korea Opening

Marilyn Goldberg, Gioia Mori, Italian art consultant Korean group

Seoul, De Lempicka Paris Art Exhibition, 2017 following shows Marilyn marketed in London, Japan, China, Vienna, and the Vittoriano Museum in Rome.

The Gift Shoppe at the Vittoriano Museum with all of Marilyn’s produced products on De Lempicka - pillows, scarves, eye glass cases, make-up cases, fragrances and vases. Above Marilyn holds eye glass case, a very popular item.

The Miracles of De Lempicka Making her famous internationally and her auction prices skyrocketing

By Marilyn Goldberg Pres. Museum Masters International

Maria Tamara Gorwik Gorska, later self-ordained “Tamara De Lempicka”, was born in Warsaw, Poland. She was sent to the wealthiest boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland. On her holidays during her youth at the hand and direction of her great aunt Stephanie, she was introduced to imported French ;luxuries from Maison Jansen, and jewels of all colors and shapes which Stephanie used for the lavish balls of The Emperor Nicolas II. Tamara, then a strikingly beautiful ingénue, envisioned for herself a life of grace, class, wealth and of course, haute couture.

By 1916 Tamara had chosen the most eligible and handsome bachelor in Warsaw, an attorney named Tadeusz Lempicki. The marriage of this most enviable couple took place in St. Petersburg near the magnificent State Hermitage Museum. Tragically, Tadeusz was then arrested by the Bolsheviks. Tamara did everything possible during the Russian Revolution with her exquisite looks, flair for fashion and charming personality to acquire the favor of the Swedish counsel in order to secure the release of Tadeusz. The couple escaped to grand Paris where Tamara studied with all the Polish and Russians of influence and class who already knew the French ways. Her incredible future awaited her! Having studied art in St. Petersburg’s she decided to paint portraits, winning her first major award in 1927 which was the first prize medal for Kizette on the Balcony at the exposition in Bordeaux.

In 1978 Tamara moved to a beautiful and peaceful villa designed by a Japanese architect in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She could not easily adjust to her aging appearance in the mirror so she surrounded herself with young attractive and passionate people. She and wanted to be remembered for her talent and style and remembered as she was in Paris, the most beautiful portrait painter of her day.

Abstract art mid-20th century promoted American greats such as Jackson Pollock. Tamara tried to change her recipe, blurring colors and dissolving shapes which were not well received, The Baroness Kuffner’s pride was damaged; she no longer wanted to play the game and never exhibited her work again. Tamara De Lempicka died in her sleep on March 18, 1980. Her daughter Kizette was at her side and spread her ashes, as she wished, on top of the Volcano Popocatepetl.

In 1966 The Musee des Arts Decoratifs created a Paris exhibition called Les Annees 25. The elegance and the success of the show created a serious Art Deco revival and inscribed Tamara with another Deco great “Erté”. Later, Alain Blondel of Paris, inspired by her work, opened The Galarie du Luxemburg to launch a De Lempicka retrospective. This was followed by The Knoedler Gallery show which was organized by William Weber, at international art dealer living in Greenwich Village. Tamara made many demands on how the exhibition would be mounted and the curator from Knoedler dismissed it. Mr. Weber, after completion of the Lempicka exhibition in Japan, went years later to Rome to establish a relationship for a museum exhibition. Just

after Tamara’s death, he arranged for the Brain Trust Exhibition in Japan in her honor. This was planned and organized with the guidance and assistance of Marilyn Goldberg, whom he had introduced to Kizette and her daughter, Victoria. After that very successful exhibition, De Lempicka paintings were exhibited at The San Francisco Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Royale Academy, Caixa de Galicia in Mexico, Austria Kunstforum Vienna, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico, The Bunkamura Museum of Art in Japan, Hyoto Prefectural Museum of Art in Japan, followed by the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome.

Before William’s trip to Rome to check out the then under construction museum and present the Director with the concept of a major Tamara De Lempicka showing, he asked that I devote creative time and energy to Tamara’s granddaughter Victoria. Then, in a sudden dramatic turn, a phone call was received at Museum Masters International that William fell down the stairs there and instantly died of his injuries. When the exhibition was finally mounted there a few years hence, we dedicated the show to the memory of two men from opposite sides of the world, Alain Blondel in Paris, and William Weber in New York, who formulated the international impetus to bring Tamara De Lempicka once again to world audiences.

Decades later I am still proud to celebrate the inauguration at The Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome and playing a part in the rise in prices of De Lempicka paintings, skyrocketing up to 22 million dollars. Quite a jump from the winning bid for On the Telephone which sold for $1.9 million in 2009.

The experiences I have had over many years as owner and President of Museum Masters International Inc. of creative, transformative, and dynamic marketing on the international stage have been the thrill of a lifetime. I have designed the worldwide creative market for preserving and expading upon the names of Da Vinci, van Gogh, Picasso, Haring, Warhol, and De Lempicka for younger generations to learn about and enjoy their works and history. I have had the great honor and pleasure to consult with and bring major innovative exhibitions and presentation models of the greatest estates and their estates to museums from the Guggenheim in New York to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, and to develop programs for The Metropolitan Opera and The New York Philharmonic.

Tamara and her paintings have captured my heart, spirit and soul. I understood very well what was needed for her revival and how she played the game of winning for her own survival on her own terms. I am truly honored to have participated in the exhibition at The Complessa del Vittoriano and many others on her path to incredible heights. She was certainly a woman far ahead of her time and modern beyond today. So privileged am I to have worked closely with Victoria De Lempicka and the two men on both sides of the world who helped me find the earliest films of Tamara to fulfill her international marketing dream — William Weber who invited me to Japan to photograph her works and my dear friend, Alain Blondel in Paris who assisted me all those years ago. Through Tamara’s art I know that my life is blessed and that I have made the right choices.

A very special thank you and my deepest vows of friendship to Wiliam Weber who introduced me to Alain Blondel and Kizette De Lempicka-Foxhall.

Around the World with AnnE Paddy, De Lempicka Collector

& HISTORIAN

“NeveR A DULL MOMENT

In De Lempicka LAND”

A self-described “art addict”, Anne Paddy’s most recent book, Tamara De Lempicka Behind the Scenes, uncovers the very circumstances that birthed each canvas, introduces the charismatic subjects that inhabit them, and illuminates the profound rapport they shared with the artist herself, delving deeply into the world of Tamara De Lempicka. In contrast to previous works centered around the artist’s life, this book takes a fresh perspective, focusing keenly on her masterpieces. Beyond this, Paddy traces the journey of these artworks into the hands of fortunate collectors, revealing their destinies after leaving De Lempicka’s studio.

VBF: Let’s start at the very beginning. How did you get so deeply interested in Tamara De Lempicka?

ANNE: It was via the great dedication and talent of Marilyn Goldberg to introduce art and artists to the world. There’s really nobody more deserving than her for that because of the unique story of just how she is able to move with the people who get things done. One minute she’s representing the scandalous Tamara De Lempicka and the next minute she’s representing the Vatican. Before meeting Marilyn, we were very involved in Louis Comfort Tiffany and art glass. When Barbra Streisand was selling her collection, we heard about the sale at Christie’s and while I was on the phone to buy a Tiffany lamp, we were looking through the catalog. I turned the page and there was Adam and Eve, the famous painting by Tamara De Lempicka, and my husband and I both went, ‘Oh my God. This is just incredible.’ We’d never seen anything like it and at the time, just like (most) everybody else, I’d never heard of Tamara De Lempicka. Then I read Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara De Lempicka by her daughter Kizette De Lempicka-Foxhall and Charles Phillips and started finding out about her, how fascinating she was, but the thing that really fascinated me was how obscure she was. When Adam and Eve sold for 1.9 million dollars I said to Richard, ‘We really must start paying attention to her.’ It seemed the whole art world was totally unaware of this incredibly talented person and the story of her life, which is even as interesting as her art. In 1997 we bought our first painting. It’s not one of the multi-million

dollar ones. It’s a 1950s facial portrait of her daughter Kizette when she was an adult. It’s a smaller painting but it was a start and I was fascinated by her. When we were starting to collect, we discovered Barry Friedman, who was one of the big New York dealers for Tamara. His secretary called me and said, ‘We just got something in’ and she sent me a picture. I responded, ‘How much is it? She told me and I told Richard, ‘This is like my dream painting.’ It was the Street At Night, but we couldn’t afford it. The very next day I got a phone call from the lady who was leasing my house. When Richard and I married, I had a house and he had a house. We opted for his. My tenant said, ‘I’m moving up north and I’m going to be leaving in a month’ and I thought, ‘Wait…I could sell the house and buy the painting’ and I did! We’re probably “The Unexpected Art Collectors” because we’re not wealthy by any means. My mother used to laugh at me. ‘Why are you spending all this money on the paintings? You don’t have any money in the bank.’ I said, ‘Well my money’s on the wall and my money’s in Korea today and my money was in Vienna. Tomorrow, my money’s in Italy…’”

VBF: Through Marilyn did you collect any other artists?

ANNE: With Marilyn it was strictly De Lempicka for us, although she’s dealt with Erté and we do collect his work. Everybody thinks we have Tamara De Lempicka stamped on our foreheads and we do but we’re also well known in the Tiffany world, and the Art Deco and Art Nouveau worlds as well as for our art glass. Our collection is quite diverse. I have a history on our collection that I release when I do my lectures.

In 1999 the Catalogue Raisonne was published and it came out that Tamara had over 500 paintings which nobody could have even imagined as well as drawings and other important tidbits pertinent to art history and the era. There was also a biography written by Laura Clearage in 1999, Tamara De Lempicka A Life of Deco and Decadence. I just I couldn’t imagine that so many people didn’t know about her. Marilyn was very involved in the creation of the Catalogue Raisonne in that nobody knew where all the paintings were. Nobody knew how to

Marilyn, Richard Paddy, Anne Paddy and collector at De Lempicka exhibition in Korea

find them and nobody had any good pictures of them — certainly not good enough for a high quality book. She and William Weber and Barry Friedman and a number of people all got together with Alain Blondel in Paris to try to track things down and to get documentation. I didn’t really know Marilyn at that point but she was instrumental in coordinating all of that and actually getting us to a real understanding of the expanse of the repertoire of Tamara De Lempicka. In 2004, there was a retrospective — the first major one — in London. Marilyn was involved in that, too, organizing it and helping to get loans. It’s very hard to get loans for expensive paintings from people — especially overseas. When you spend millions of dollars for a painting, it’s very difficult for some people to say, ‘Oh sure. Go ahead. Take it. You can have it for six months It’s all right.’ By then we were involved and went to the exhibition where we met the Parisian expert Blondel. When it was extended to Vienna, he called us stating extra paintings were needed because some of the people had dropped out. The curator asked if we would lend a couple and I said, ‘Sure. Why not?’ and we started lending paintings. The Street At Night became a very important painting because it’s one of the first she did that used Cubic Art Architecture to represent the Paris skyline. They asked

to borrow that one and also The Gypsy Fortune Teller which was one of the first two paintings that Tamara did when she started to paint commercially to support her family. Ever since then, when there is an exhibition, we lend paintings and that’s how we really got to know Marilyn, who was involved in so many facets of the merchandising and promotion.

VBF: Was that one of your paintings that sold for 11 million dollars a few years ago?

ANNE: No, none of ours are million dollar ones. The big one was Portrait of Marjorie Ferry done in 1932. That was almost 22 million USD and we’ve seen that one quite a few times. It used to belong to Wolfgang Joop, the German fashion designer. He was a major collector of her work. In 2009 he decided to sell his collection and that did go for a lot of money, maybe four or five million at the time, I think, but then Portrait of Marjorie Ferry sold for more than the entire collection. The prices have gone up so crazy after Wolfgang sold his. When curators ask collectors if they can get somebody that’ll lend a lot of things, they call it a core group. We have something from every decade that Tamara De Lempicka painted. We don’t have the biggies, but we have a real good and adequate example of a cross-section if you’re

Richard Paddy, Anne Paddy, Marilyn Goldberg at the De Lempicka exhibition, Korea

looking for a wide variety of her different styles and her different ways, different repertoire things that she painted. When Marilyn needed some works to do the exhibition in Korea, she called and said, ‘Would you guys lend?’ We sent five crates. It was everything we had and it was funny. When we got home from the day that we had everything packed up and ready to ship, Richard walked in the house and he goes, “Oh my God, we’ve been robbed!” because everything was gone off the walls. It’s a unique thing to lend to the exhibitions and we enjoy it. We’ve met an incredible number of amazing people and I’ve done a lot of research about her. Now I’ve written a book about her that’s doing very well. It’s been translated into Polish also, because now there’s big interest in her there. We’re deep in Lempicka-land, deep. We were talking to somebody the other day and they said, ‘When my husband does this, then I get to do that…’ They just didn’t have that connection. When I see something like the sketchpad of watercolors that we bought, I said to Richard, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘Do you want one? Do you want two of them?’ ‘They’re a set,’ I said. ‘You can’t break them up. We have to have all three.’ It’s great that we have the support of each other and sometimes it’s a mutual admiration addiction.

VBF: I remember seeing her at the various Art Expos during the ’80s. Her work was unique and stunning but not very well promoted.

ANNE: Everyone knows her work, but they don’t know who she is. We have really learned from the experience of all of these things. We’ve been to every exhibition or involved in every exhibition over the past 25 years. There were two exhibitions in Japan. We couldn’t go to both of them, but our paintings were there. We’re the only collectors that have been proactively and consistently lending ever since 2004. We also have pictures of the exhibitions and the largest poster collection from the exhibitions including the advertising posters some of them.

VBF: Did you lend to the Korea show? The one that the government there did not want to return the paintings without a huge customs fee?

ANNE: That was such a strange thing. The exhibition was to open in December and I think it was the second week in October when Marilyn called asking if we were going to go. We did and sent

everything. As usual, Marilyn took care of all the complications and everything turned out well. We had already been committed to sending our paintings to Poland for a 2019 exhibition which was in the middle of the pandemic. That exhibition was canceled and in the middle of that, one of the people who is a an expert on Lempicka was talking to people in Russia about an exhibition. They called us and I said ‘I’m sorry, we’re already committed to Poland when things get back to normal’ and she said, ‘Oh, no. You’ve got to go. It’s going to be in Moscow. It’s going to be great, it’s going to be terrific’ and I said, ‘I can’t. I’ve already promised to Poland and I can’t go back on that.’ About three months later, here comes Putin and that was the end of Russia. The thing with Poland was that Marilyn actually had talked to people there for a long time and told me she was planning something. Then the plane crash happened that killed the President and some of his family and officials and the whole country just went into shock. The exhibition was canceled at that time.

VBF: What’s the purpose of these exhibitions? Do they help boost the market value of the work or are they just historical expositions to show what a wonderful artist she was?

ANNE: I think it’s a little of both in Tamara’s case. I think it’s really to educate people and to say ‘Look at what a talented person she was because people say, ‘Oh yes. She just painted nudes,’ or ‘She just painted women,’ or ‘She just painted Art Deco.’ But she was a very much more talented and versatile painter than that. We have works from her sketch pad when she was in her early teens, and her raw talent was quite evident. She evolved into different styles that most people aren’t aware of. When you do an entire retrospective, you educate people about how her work transitioned just like all the other great artists as well as her impact on the world as a woman artist. Sure it elevates the market value when you exhibit a painting. People think, ‘Oh, I saw that’, or you can say “Mine’s in this book” and it does increase the value. Sure collectors want to buy and sell and make money but it’s the idea of the exposure and owning a piece of art by a talented artist — a major artist — who’s really now coming into their being known.

VBF: Her survival story is also of great interest.

ANNE: It is. She was a refugee twice and just now we’re finding out new heritage and birth information about her and her family and additional history. Tamara is fascinating because she could reinvent herself and she was a personality. She didn’t need a manager. She was her own manager and she could manage and knew how to promote herself. She was photographed by the best photographers. We have one of the better collections of original photographs of her, including those by Willy Maywald and Madame D’Ora who was one of the famous female photographers that did quite a bit with her. In my book, there’s a whole section about the photographers and how they were connected. Their life stories are fascinating, too.

VBF: Art Deco is happening now big-time in its Centennial year and you are making the rounds, even in your home city, Detroit.

ANNE: My husband and his family and my family all were from the Detroit area. Richard and his family pretty much all worked for Ford. My father was in the tire business. We’ve always lived in this area and there’s a very strong Art Deco presence here which is interesting. There’s the Guardian building that was done by the same architect as the Chrysler building— a small building in New York nobody’s ever heard of (laughs).

VBF: I know you also have an affinity for Erté and Leonor Fini.

ANNE: It’s interesting to be art collectors and those two are fantastic.

Marilyn with Mucha’s grandson John and Anne Paddy in Korea

VBF: I’ve been working on a history of Erté and was involved with Neil Zukerman on one of his definitive Leonor Fini books.

ANNE: That’s great. Most people don’t know that he did serigraphs in connection with almost all of his sculptures. We have sculptures and serigraphs and actually have an autographed photograph of Erté in his apartment in Paris. He’s another one. People know his designs and know his work, but they really don’t know him. We’re always interested in things that have stories and that’s the thing my book is about. It’s not a biography, it’s not a picture book and it’s not a “Mommy Dearest” although there’s some juicy things in it. It’s the stories behind the paintings and how Tamara met these people and who they were, where the painting was, who bought it who stole it, did they get it back?

VBF: How did you get that information?

ANNE: Just because I’m kind of a Nancy Drew it, I guess.

VBF: You had to dig deep for that stuff.

ANNE: I just like to research things and that’s kind of how I ran into to Marilyn. We had found out that she was representing the estate and you just want to meet the people and know the people that are in the know about things. There are always people behind the artist that are the catalysts. And while Marilyn wasn’t a dealer, she’s just so key at promoting things and knowing who to talk to to get the merchandising done, who to talk to to get this project accomplished and that kind of thing. There are a lot of artists that have families that don’t know what to do with their art. Louis Icart is a prime example of this. We collect Icart, too. His family didn’t really do anything to promote him and to continue his legacy other than just sell the prints and the occasional painting here and there. One of the families that is very involved in continuing the legacy and licensing and everything is the Mucha family – Alphonse Mucha and The Mucha Foundation. We’re very familiar with them but we don’t have just Mocha posters, we have original Mocha paintings. We’re very good friends with the family. In fact, when we were in Korea, we were on the third floor of the Hangaram Art Museum and the Muchas had an exhibition on the second floor. They flew back from Japan to see us because they knew we were going to be in Seoul at the time. It’s funny how it’s all related, but if the family doesn’t take care of the legacy and doesn’t take care of the licensing and the copyright issues, they’re really throwing away something that a talented family member needs to have looked after.

VBF: Exactly. Were you involved in the Broadway production at all?

ANNE: Not technically. We were invited to all of the performances. We were in Williamstown for the first performance, we were in La Jolla for the second. We know the writers, producers, the actors in the cast. We know all of the people in the cast and we were at Broadway for opening night and sadly for closing night, which just was heartbreaking.

VBF: What happened there? It was such a great story.

ANNE: What happened wasn’t really relative to De Lempicka Musical itself. There were 30 new plays that hit Broadway that season and when you take that and you realize there are a thousand seats per play in many theaters and there are only so many people that can attend the shows. My grandmother would have said, ‘There weren’t enough butts for the pews.” There were just not enough people to support them. The producers of the show were amazing, the score is just outstanding and there still is life in it. It’s just that was the wrong place at the wrong time. There was a lot of discussion about it wasn’t historically completely accurate — it’s a musical for heaven’s sake! It’s not supposed to be a documentary. You have to be okay with a little artistic license here and there. We’re now still finding out things about Tamara’s life because everything she said in certain circumstances is not true. I strongly don’t believe that she lied about it. I strongly believe that her parents lied to her and I think that was part of trying to protect their family because their heritage was Jewish and they were persecuted in Europe, eventually having had to flee again to the United States. They just didn’t want that part of their heritage to be known that well because they were afraid for their life in many circumstances in Russia, Poland and then in France. It was lie or die. That’s the thing that they had to deal with and it’s tragic. This part of her story is told very vividly in the musical — that she had to get out of Russia and Poland I don’t think people were ready for that much history — brutal history — because it’s not pretty history. I think that was part of it. I thoroughly loved the show and everybody I know, they would leave in tears. It was just so emotional for people.

VBF: Somebody should do a Frida Kahlo type of movie on her.

ANNE: They’re going to. The movie has already been in the works and there was a German documentary that done about five years ago that was geo-protected from the United States so you could not see it here and it was not promoted outside of Europe. The U.S. documentary just world premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in San Francisco and is getting great reviews. It also has been chosen for the New York City Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Then there’s another Polish documentary that’s being done. I’m in the U.S. documentary as well as the Polish documentary, and our photographs are contained in the German documentary. VBF: You have something that you love. You’re able to do it and promote it and you have the time, energy and resources to enjoy that element of your life, you and your husband and it’s a beautiful thing. Thank you very much for your time and invaluable input.

ANNE: If I was going to write a book about myself, I would probably call it “The Art Addict”, but Peggy Guggenheim already did that.

VBF: Well, if you’re going to be an addict, other than love, I can not think of any habit better than art.

Anne Paddy, Marilyn Goldberg

An Amazing Array of Products from MMI

Fabulous KLIMT art mugs

Sunflower dessert plates – after Vincent

Andy Warhol’s Grace Kelly collection

Marilyn Goldberg is responsible for creating, producing and marketing an incredible and innovative collection of products all based on the works of living artists as well as the masters of the ages. Shown here is but a fraction of her output over the years.

One of the true superstars of the Art World, Haring made his mark on Pop Culture after stunning New York City subway riders with graffiti-like billboards rife with his own personal heiroglyphics. From the depths of the Big Apple to the heights of international acclaim, Haring, before his untimely death, found himself to be the second Absolut artist (following Warhol!) and an in-demand artist for museum shows internationally. His Pop Shop in Soho was an acclaimed attraction for tourists and art lovers. Marilyn Goldberg was a natural when it came to choosing

Playboy 50th Anniversary “Pop Art” Wine

With the help of Museum Masters international agents, Keith Haring was slowly bought throughout Europe and Asia and further developed in the United States in porcelain, silk scarves, silk ties, vases, textiles, signed numbered limited edition tapestries, watches, t-shirts, apparel (for men, women and children). After years of efforts Marilyn Goldberg formed a partnership with Dirk Fabarious and Burnd Backens in Munich, German. The growth of Keith Haring (and also later Ed Heck) became the most famous in the German territory with the first major Keith Haring exhibition in Europe created by the partnership which ultimately became further developed by a public German company which represented all of the TV and sporting essentials in Europe.

“Pop Art Collection” Bags

Limited Edition Masterpieces of renown Japanese

Artist Ichico Tsuruta

SIDNEY RANDOLPH MAURER

American Art Hero 1926 - 2017

It is with our deepest sorrow that we inform our friends, family and clients of the death of our beloved artist, best friend, father, grandfather and husband on July 28th 2017. A small memorial service was held on July 29th in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Barbara Maurer, his children: Marge Southern, Dennis Maurer, Claudia Maurer, Craig Maurer, his many grandchildren, great grandchildren and his beloved agents. Museum Masters continues to honor his artistic legacy, along with his incredible sense of humor, remarkable stories involving The Rolling Stones, Donovan, The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Michael Jackson, International Sports Icons like Babe Ruth and Cristiano Ronaldo and politicians including JFK, Martin Luther King, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Sid Maurer’s long and prolific career began with his incredible paintings music and art in the 1940s. He was associated with Andy Warhol who was influenced by his amazing combination of painting and photography. Over the years Maurer’s art exploded, along with his A-list clients, many of whom now hold a special place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame including his the great recording artist Donovan, who celebrated Sid at his concert in Guild Hall of East Hampton, raising millions of dollars for children’s foundations with Marilyn Goldberg and Jamie Forbes. His recognition as an art director for major record labels and then as a painter soared at galleries in London, Paris and New York. His dearest friends included Andrew Loog Oldham manager of the Rolling Stones, and Brian Jones, the Stones original band leader. Jones’s then girlfriend Linda survived Brian and is today married to Sid’s most special mate, the internationally renowned Donovan. Another of Sid’s good friends was Salvador Dali, whom he photographed and painted. Dali’s assistant was Enrique Sabatier (prior to Robert Descharnes of Demart Pro Arte, Paris.) Sabatier purchased Sid’s “Marilyn Monroe” painting.

“EL SID THE KID” WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOLD!

This American art hero used his personal friendships, relationships and love to embrace each celebrity’s unique ambiance of emotions and passion for their respective careers into his original paintings. His artworks were created from collages of his photographs, which he made by hand, and then painted and bombarded with a mixed media of crayons, acrylics, watercolors, sumi ink and varnish.

His charitable nature helped orphanages, Sandy Hook victims and Animal Shelters like Arf (Animal Rescue Fund in East Hampton). His Brigitte Bardot’s “A Voice for the Voiceless” showed examples of our beloved artist making a life goal for the betterment of mankind,.

Many years ago I received a painting from Sid Maurer as a gift and personal tribute to my dad’s favorite Parisian singer Edith Piaf singing “No Regrets.” My heart is in painful agony in losing my every day soul mate and most special best friend. We, his representatives from all over the globe, send out flowers of love to his amazing family Marilyn Goldberg, Museum Masters

“THE

Donovan’s Art Director, Collaborator and Friend

Sid Maurer is a man of great and many stories now compiling the soon to be published book of his life and times globally in the music industry. His long career in the world of Art and Music began at seventeen when he was hired as Assistant Art Director at Columbia Records in New York City, where he spent weekends playing trumpet in Jazz clubs. As the music business exploded, Maurer worked designing album covers and promotional material for popular artists, many of whom live beyond their years in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His friendship with and ground-breaking work with Donovan is a classic marriage of music, art, packaging and branding in the big-time music business. Thanks to Marilyn Goldberg of Museum Masters International for our introduction to this great artist and very cool guy....—VBF

Marilyn Goldberg, Pres. Museum Masters International, builds on Sid’s legacy with future exhibitions

“Sid Maurer and Salvador Dali were great friends,” recalls Marilyn. “I often went to Studio 54 with them and Andy.”

Sid Maurer’s Brigitte Bardot graced the cover of Fine Art Magazine

attendance where Oldham and Sid bonded over a warning to not touch the punch. “‘It’s loaded with LSD,’ he told me. That’s how it was back then. You had to be careful. Our ’60s conversations were mostly, ‘Take a hit. Far out. Have another hit. Too much. What’s your sign?’”

Through Oldham, Sid met the doomed Brian Jones who commissioned him to paint a portrait of himself with his girlfriend Linda Lawrence, mother of his son Julian. Sid recalls, “Brian loved collecting. He had tidbits here and there, and many photographs. He loved my baby picture from 1927! Unfortunately, the photo was old and not in great shape so I found an alternate (not of me) and embellished it with a little graphic concept with a tongue and lips penciled in, basically to reflect the Stones as they were: the bad boys of the era sticking their tongues out at authority, as opposed to the Beatles, who were considered more safe. He liked that image a lot and asked me to make a color drawing, which, unknown to me at the time, morphed somehow into the famous Rolling Stones tongue logo, which originated from my baby picture, of all things. I first offered the drawing to their record label, Decca, who were willing to give me a few hundred dollars for it but Brian liked it enough to pay me 500 British Sterling pounds, which was about $1500 back then. I thought nothing of it until years later. In 2013 I was commissioned to make shirts and other items in France featuring my original tongue painting. Shortly after they were placed on display in a Paris department store, they were seized by Musidor and taken off the shelves for trademark infringement.Without Brian around to tell the real story, the manufacturer had no choice but to comply.” The next thing Sid created for Brian was a portrait of the Stone and Linda. The photo Sid is holding (preceding page) became the basis for the initial small painting. “This shows how beautiful a guy he was,” said the artist. “I painted that picture somewhere along the line and tucked it away. After Brian died, Linda married my best friend, Donovan, and they became a family.”

In 2013, by Linda’s request to honor the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones, Sid was commissioned to re-create the portrait on canvas from his initial painting done all those years ago. The final painting is exactly the same but on canvas. The new version now resides in Ireland with Linda.“I traveled all over with Donovan,”said Sid,”and even accompanied he and Linda on their honeymoon. After one of his concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, Tommy Smothers threw a party for him. Hendrix, Janis, Morrison, Mama Cass, and a new kid on the block who didn’t even have a record out — Elton John — were all there. Many of the people I met became casualties, but Don did not. He was always very careful where he hung out and didn’t do drugs. After he made some money, he asked me to invest it for him so I put it in a bank in the Bahamas that I found out was ready to go under a year later. Somehow, I managed to salvage the dough and we bought a boat and took it to Greece with a crew of 12 and three hippies — me, Don and a friend. We landed at the Island of Hydras, to visit Leonard Cohen, who had a house up on a hill, accessible only by donkey.”

A long way from The Bronx, where Sid was born and raised when “the streets were black from horseshit, not asphalt. I was going to attend Taft (high school) but somewhere along the line a typographer friend of my family saw some of my work and suggested that I would be more suited to attend The School of Industrial Art on Jones Street in the Village. There were two teachers there, one for art, the other for academics and it was great, kind of like being an apprentice in the Renaissance. In the morning, we’d find our teacher on the stoop recovering from the night before and the first who arrived was designated to get him coffee. One of my classmates was Anthony Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett, singer and artist. Anthony Benedetto is the name the signs his paintings with. I wrote the class theme song and conducted our band. After graduation, I worked for Columbia Records in the art department. Their office was then in Bridgeport, Connecticut and I made the com-mute every day via the elevated Jerome Ave. Line, bus crosstown to Grand Central and then a train ride. I was drafted, injured and sent home. After the war and I was OK, I started knocking on doors of record companies and was hired by Decca.”

During the late ’50s and early ’60s, Sid frequented the fabled Cedar Tavern where he met artists such as Rauschenberg, Johns, and Larry Rivers in their salad days and witnessed the zaniness of that particular scene. “Every night they would knock each other to the floor, fueled by alcohol. This was just before grass became mainstream in the mid ’60s and in those days I would run into Dylan, Joni Mitchell and many others in small clubs in Greenwich Village. That’s where I became especially close to music. My whole life as an artist has been fueled by my love of music.”

Sid’s career in the art and music field flourished in New York City where among his friends were Alan Klein (the businessman who helped form Apple Records for the Beatles and managed the Rolling Stones) and Bob Guccione. “He came to my exhibit at the Beilin Gallery on Madison Avenue, liked my stuff and asked me to show him a few things. I also met him in London. He was a slick guy, loved the girls and very handsome. I painted his portrait and helped him style the girls for photo shoots. He had his own penthouse, the girls were there and that was his life. We hung out,” Sid continued, “and I began to write chapters — not a book — about El Sid The Kid.”

Sid and Donovan’s classic vinyl package

With his myriad of friends, acquaintances and close encounters with the brightest stars of the era, Sid’a pages are tucked safely away as is his planned venture into the world of literature that was to coincide with his world tour under the auspices of Museum Masters International to open later this year in Southampton, New York and travel to Korea, the Vittoriano Museum in Rome and then the Centre Pompidou in Paris where Maurer imagery and merchandise created by MMI will fill their gift stores and bring his intimate portraits of the grandeur of ‘The Stars’ to the public.

“Sid realized that the empire of music and art that he had helped to build by befriending the greatest musicians and band leaders of the globe left him little time to pursue his true passion: painting,” notes Marilyn Goldberg, who represents Maurer internationally through MMI. “Sid moved to Georgia where he has lived In a quieter and calmer locale, his painting thrived. Here he created his Americana series and Vanishing Georgia and developed a vast catalog of works revolving around the Civil War. He continues to portray an ever-expanding group of cultural icons including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, George Harrison, Marilyn Monroe, and the Rat Pack in Vegas, to name a few.

In the last decade, his work has hung in a wide variety of venues, including the U.C.L.A. campus, the Carnegie Museum and Retroback Exhibition in Granada, Spain 2011 hosted by Sean Ferrer the son of Audrey Hepburn who Sid Maurer also painted. Sid also worked with many artists and photographers among them Salvador Dali and Carl Vechten back in 1939. Sid’s works were purchased by Enrique Sabatier, from Spain, who was executive assistant to Dali for many years. Enrique gave this work to Museum Masters at the Salvador Dali exhibition in New York City in 2012.

Duke Ellington

Sid Maurer and Bob Guccione, founder of PENTHOUSE, were friends in London and New York. Bob, an accomplished fine atrtist (and photographer) in his own right, came to Sid for instruction and all these years later, Sid has been commissioned to be an integral part of the PENTHOUSE brand re-launch and world tour.

The Celebrity Icon paintings of Sid Maurer consist of a vast collection of his art that portray, in his inimitable style, important and well-known actors, singers, musicians, athletes and political figures from Edith Piaf to Miley Cyrus, from Dali and Picasso to Bob Marley and Justin Bieber, from FDR to JFK. This pictorial history has become known colloquially as Sid’s “Bible of Stories.”

Sid’s adventures in the uppermost echelons of the rock and roll world, a love affair with Bridget Bardot and a partnership with Andy Warhol are chronicled in vibrant paintings that accurately portray stars of Popular Culture in works of lasting value in a world of 30 second Tik Tok videos.

Sid was more than simply an accomplished artist. His humanity was genuine. Let’s begin with the story of a little boy Sid met while traveling in Argentina. The child had great potential in soccer but was too small to be accepted onto any important league team. In those days the lad went by his given name, Lionel Andres. Today he is known as “Messi,” rated by some as the best futballer of all-time. Sid suggested that the parents try a growth hormone that was very popular in London and in the United States. It worked but the boy’s family did not have the money to continue his therapy. Sid then contacted a friend in Spain and secured the proper treatment for the boy.

Also included in Sid’s “Bible of Stories” are his remembrances of Marilyn Monroe when they were “best of friends” and neighbors on East 57th Street. He did many photos, portraits and paintings of her. Based on the special relationship of his love for Marilyn Monroe and Marilyn Goldberg (his consultant on all business activities), he created the Marilyn series.

Sid’s popularity was on the rise when Pepsi Cola awarded him Artist of the Year and memorialized him by creating the Maurer/Marilyn Pepsi Cola cans and bottles which were featured in exhibitions around the world resulting in very amicable relations between the estate and the artist. These have become collectors items along with the co-branded Marilyn Monroe Estate Sid Maurer signed limited editions prints that traveled with The Marilyn Monroe Exhibitions created by Marilyn Goldberg of Museum Masters.

How do you follow a Marilyn Monroe series? Old friend Bob Guccione had the answer by commissioning a series of Penthouse/Maurer co-branded limited editions prints of the Penthouse Pets after a year-long negotiation as a commemoration to Guccione and the art lessons Sid gave him in London. “He came to me for insight and I told him ‘It’s not how you draw but what you do with your head.’”

Guccione’s magnificent townhouse, the setting for his muchtalked about movie Caligula, was designed by Marilyn Goldberg, which started the initial relationship with the new Penthouse team. The new owners of the Penthouse brand designated the Maurer portrait of Guccione to be a center-piece of the new Penthouse Gallery of Art and assigned him to create the first portfolio of Penthouse Pet portraits. Marilyn Goldberg created the new logo for the Penthouse Art Exhibition and Art Sales, of the co-brand Penthouse-Maurer editions. During this time frame while all this was underway, Sid reported, “Meanwhile, I’m sitting in Atlanta and just selected the Pets for the portfolio.”

Sid Maurer’s suite of Penthouse Pets was a sold-out edition for MMI

BOB MARLEY

Futbol superstar Lionel Messi

My Father, Sidney Maurer

“The rare and special combination of soul, technique and genuine love for his subject matter live on in the works

of Sidney Randolph Maurer, one of the world’s most recognized artists.”

Following is an interview with Sid’s daughter Marg Maurer

By VICTOR FORBES, Editor Fine Art Magazine

Sid Maurer is a man with many stories. His long career in the world of Art and Music began at seventeen when he was hired as Assistant Art Director at Columbia Records in New York City, where he spent weekends playing trumpet in Jazz clubs for extra money. In the period that followed, the music business exploded and Maurer worked designing album covers and promotional material for popular artists. His co-worker at the time: a young artist by the name of Andy Warhol. As Andy left to pursue a career in “serious” art, Maurer expanded his commercial art studio to tackle a wide range of projects for the music and film industries. His position brought him into contact with a group of artists whose names are well-recognized today, from Pollock to Rauschenberg, and Maurer was strongly influenced by their work and ideas as he developed his own unique style of painting. Throughout the mid-sixties, Maurer continued his work for the music industry. He worked with famed British recording artist Donovan, developing album covers, poster designs, and even a film for Warner Brothers. It was during this period that Maurer’s work as a painter first gained recognition, appearing in galleries in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.

MARG: Here’s a memory that I would like to share with you regarding my dad, Sid Maurer. When he was in first grade he drew a picture. The teacher held it up to the class and asked what it was. They all said “it’s a cowww”. That is when he knew he wanted to be an artist and the picture hung on his parents wall for years.

MARG: I would also like to talk about Marilyn Goldberg and her positive influence on my father. Marilyn is very special

to my family and loved not just in business but personally. Marilyn has been a godsend. She worked with him and they were very close. Everything she does for him now she does in his memory. She just didn’t let him go so I love her very much. She’s a very special person.

VBF: I really enjoyed knowing your father even a little bit, never met him but we had a couple of great interviews over the phone. Had a three-way call with him and Donovan that I’ll never forget. That was kind of great — yeah, your dad and Donovan both of them.

MARG: He’s one of a kind.

VBF: So that’s a good way to start so let’s talk about what’s going on lately with your dad’s work overseas now.

Marilyn told me that there’s a whole bigger resurgence in his work.

MARG: Well, she would know because she really has done great by keeping his memory alive and as far as I know, she’s the only person who’s really doing that and she is just done a great job. I mean she’s more than just representing him. She’s personal, she cares about his work and she

believes in him and she cares about me. She’s just been wonderful over the years in every way that I could think of. I owe so much to her.

VBF: Well, so does the whole world

MARG: And you know it’s funny because more people have his artwork than I do.

VBF: Yeah, well that’s a tough situation. It would be nice if you had 100 originals sitting around.

MARG: No, I don’t. I have a few. I have some originals, but they aren’t of the icons that he was doing but some things he did of me kind of as a study.

VBF: Well, that’s how it goes in this crazy society.

MARG: Yep, it’s OK. I mean you know he was very generous with his artwork and he was very generous with people. In fact that’s one of the things I remember so much about him is his generosity and I learned a lot from him from that. He may have seemed a bit naïve because he trusted. He said ‘If I shook your hand on something, you’d have to break my arm for me to change it” and that’s the way he was. He was a very generous person. I have a friend since I was 16 years old and he came from a poor family. My father invited him to one of his art openings and he was so impressed by that and he went to my father and said ‘You know, I really don’t belong here’ and Dad said ‘Yes you do’ and he gave him so much encouragement, encouraged him to go to school and get his art degree. He gave him his first photography job and my friend never forgot it. He opened up his own art business and I’m still friends with that guy today but you know he attributes it all to my dad as so many people do. He was so

encouraging of people.

VBF: That whole story about him helping Donovan adapt to America is quite a story.

Donovan and Sid with one of Donovan’s paintings

MARG: They’ve they’ve been friends for many, many years since that first meeting in 1966, close friends, family friends. Not just hello I love you.

VBF: Two great talents at work and at play at the height of flower power.

MARG: I haven’t spoken to Don for a while, but he’s still around, still doing gigs and creating.

VBF: He’s a rare genius Donovan oneof-a-kind — like your Dad —very gifted talent. I loved the two of them on that telephone call. It was just like there was no space between them.

VBF: Speaking of their first meeting at the record label in Manhattan, did you grow up in New York?

MARG: I grew up in Queens and then Manhattan after Sid met my mother when I was about 13 years old. I loved him instantly. You couldn’t help but love Sid and from there on everything just clicked. He was a good stepfather to me in fact, I never called him my stepfather I always called him my father. Because that’s who he was.

VBF: I know what you mean,

MARG: He encouraged me and gave me lots of opportunities, but never mixed business and family. He kind of kept that separate so I can’t say that I ever got to meet the Beatles or anybody like that who he did. He was right there with the greats of the era because if you knew him you loved him. He would talk to anybody anywhere anytime about anything and I saw that he had no filter on that. Here’s a funny story I recall. One time he and my mom were fighting and she wasn’t talking to him and they were walking down the street and she wouldn’t look at him either. She was mad at him and he start bouncing around like a gorilla and ran around her. He crossed the street and would do it and then cross back over until she had to crack up with laughter. He loved my mom very, very much They were two totally different people But they were anchors for each other. Mom was very down to earth and practical, and she would kind of know he was always up in the air — uninhibited — and they were very good for each other. It was a true love story I mean everyone knew that they had a love story.

VBF: You met him when he was 13, so what was he doing?

MARG: He had his own advertising business then and they were very successful with offices on 57th Sreet right off Fifth Avenue. One of his partners died

and that’s when that’s when Dad found out that his other partners were embezzling him which was very sad for him because he was a very honorable man and they had racked up all this debt that went on him. It had to be a bankruptcy and he paid everybody off. He didn’t owe anybody anything and people would come up to him and say ‘Wow I can’t believe you paid me, I know you didn’t have to do that’ but he had a code of honor. He had lots of work destroyed or stolen from him. One time when we lived in Lefrak city and we moved to another apartment he paid for the apartment that we lived in and had all his canvases there, and they came in and threw it all away. Another time he had a studio and junkies broke into it and smashed all the canvases. In fact he was in line to be one of the first artists at the UN and his model was there and they destroyed it. So he had a lot of things happen. Lots of setbacks and it was a while before he would pick up a paintbrush again. Even though he was doing celebrities he was still always doing his own work and very undeterred, but it

just hit him really hard.

VBF: He did much more than celebrities and an album covers. His Americana series comes to mind. He really was more than a portrait artist. He captured the essence of these people.

MARG: I remember when I was in my teens in the 60s and he had a studio. I would go with him and watch him paint and take pictures of him studying the canvas. He intent and knew where each stroke was going to be. It was just fascinating to watch. Such memories.

VBF: Did you know him when he was affiliated with Warhol?

MARG: I know he was friends with Warhol, and I only met him once at a

party and Warhol was there. He had stories about him and I knew that they were contemporaries in many ways He kept a lot of that stuff separate from me. Here’s a story about Dad and Marilyn that you might find amusing. He loved talking to her and strategizing. One time he was talking in his sleep to her, and he had his hand to his ear like he was talking on the phone discussing their next move.

VBF: He produced a tremendous body work his legacy is being propped and promoted by Marilyn and I want to say me also. That’s my great pleasure to do anything for the guy. He was just something else again. He talked about Tony Bennett. I think they went to school together, didn’t they?

MARG: On the Lower East Side of the City. He just knew so many people and he was a man full of stories. He just captivated you with his stories and not just about famous people, but he could make you laugh on a dime he could make me chuckle, belly laugh And it’s just the way he told things too. I can’t do that. His sense of humor was what I would call genius — he had a sharp wit and he could read people and he could read a line. The artist and the man are two different people but in a way they’re not because they were so intertwined with each other. He just was like Pollock who was one of his idols, and he had that kind of personality in that he was just not unhinged, but I’m trying to think of the word … he was uninhibited that’s what Shirley Caesar said about him. He did one of her album covers and was called “The Mother of Gospel Music” and she said to me, ‘If it’s in your father’s brain, it’s out his mouth.’ He had a very little sensor, you always knew where you stood with him.

VBF: That picture of him and George

Sid’s wife Barbara Maurer, Sid, Marg

and Donovan playing music together.

MARG: It’s a special picture. He played trumpet and he played on 52nd at all the jazz clubs. He always had music in his heart and if he couldn’t play something, he’d play spoons or he’d tap on something. One of the funny things that I used to tease him about was this: I would go up to him and sort of mumble a song, like “That’s When The Red Drop Comes” — and keep doing it and keep doing it and the next thing you know he’d be singing along and then we’d wonder where that came from? It’s because I planted it in his head — he always had music in his head. He had a thing called a “musical ear” and he say that he kept hearing a song playing over and over and over with full orchestration and then it would stop and start up all over again. It was Man of La Mancha orchestration and I would say ‘How do you deal with that?’ and he just kind of shrugged it aside and kept on going. He was very dearly loved by all. I never met anybody who didn’t like him or anybody who he had not an in someway helped encouraged or loved. I just have one more thing about him personally. He got me into photography and in my teens. I was visiting home from college and I had my camera with me. My mother and I were having lunch and I walked out without it. I was devastated. Inconsolable and when we got home, he was on the phone with mom and he asked what was wrong and she told him over the phone that the camera was gone and he said, ‘Tell her not to worry it’s just a material thing it can be replaced. She knows where I keep my cameras. Tell her to go up in the in the closet and

take my Nikon. Tell her it’s just a material thing and not to worry about it.’ That really shaped the rest of my life — that one thing. He never said she can pay me back you know a little bit in a month or she can borrow it anytime. It was ‘Just said, tell her to take my camera. It’s only a material thing.’ And that’s who he was. When he passed he was in his 90s and been through so many health issues that we just always expected him to bounce back. I can’t even remember all the stuff that he had.

Sid Maurer and Donovan

A Hall of Fame Collaboration

Fine Art magazine publisher Jamie Ellin Forbes spoke with Donovan and Sid from Maurer’s home in Atlanta. “Friends since meeting in Clive Davis’ office at CBS Records in 1966, they completed each others sentences, lending insight as to how deep and easy the artistic rapport is between them. The cascading ribbon of ideas flashed as they spoke. For an instant as I listened I saw the evolution of their art as process; how it manifested in the album packaging as a visual concept unfolding allowing the route — the continuance of the story telling — to be seen. Each described how they collaborated on the albums that showcased both of their formidable gifts: Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Hurdy Gurdy Man and Barabajagal provided a vehicle for the multi-dimensional impressions that Donovan envisioned and with the help and encouragement of Maurer was able to convey.

“I was under contract to CBS/Epic to create all their album covers when they signed a young man named Donovan to the label,” said Sidney. “They invited me to come up and say hello. They called him Mr. Donovan and it was just the beginning of long hair. He was wearing a white Hungarian wedding gown down to the floor. I thought I was talking to Jesus…no shoes, just barefoot in a robe in the Black Rock building and all the girls in the offices were gaga. It was quite a thing. He and I struck up a friendship when I said, ‘Let’s get out of here and go over to my studio.’ I rolled a couple so we could relax and we spent the next few days working on the first of his album covers for Epic - Sunshine Superman.”

Here Donovan picks up the story. “I am an artist myself and I wanted my covers to be visual just as I was making my appearance on stage visual to illustrate my lyrics. I was a bit ahead of the scene. Nobody really cared or had done this before. At most there was a photo of the band or the artist and ‘Let’s get that album out as soon as possible.’ I wanted Sunshine Superman to be Art Nouveau, Pre-Raphaelite because my songs were so romantic. Sid said to Clive ‘This boy’s right, you’ve got to do it. Clive went along and Sid became my champion. The first album was really why I was nominated. That’s the one that initiated the psychedelic revolution.”

Sid continues: “A year later, I’m sitting in the office and get a call from England. ‘What are you doing? Why don’t you come over this weekend? We’ll do a few things…”

George Garriosn on the 12 string with Donovan and Sid harmonizing. A very special photo.

Donovan performs in Southampton, photo by Marilyn Goldberg

“Wear Your Love Like Heaven”

The stage is set, photo by Marilyn Goldberg

Donovan’s wife, Linda, with Marilyn Goldberg

Donovan came to East Hampton’s Guild Hall to weave his magic before a sold out crowd. He performed all his well-known songs plus Calypso classics made famous by one of his major influences, Harry Belafonte. Donovan also added harmonica to a few cuts on a dazzlingly brilliant album by his grandson Joolz Jones and his ensemble which is quite reminiscent of his grandfather Brian Jones group, the Rolling Stones. Brian was married to Linda, above, who married Donovan after his untimely and still unsolved death. Inducting him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, John Mellancamp described his hero as “The psychedelic guru of folk poetry.” The entire world owes a big debt of gratitude to the bard for teaching John and Paul guitar techniques that showed up in a number of their best songs.

Jerry Garcia attributed a living spirit to each of his guitar notes and Dino Danelli succinctly said, “When art is alive, feelings are captured, otherwise it is just paint.” These sentiments and attributes are perfectly apt in describing the work of Sidney Maurer. His Celebrity Icon collection, comprising some 300 portraits of famous and important past and present citizens of the world from Justin Bieber to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, conveys their lives in luminous captured frozen moments that sparkle with joy, power and confidence in a totally original, non-derivative style loaded with energy and creativity, with masterful strokes and insightful characterization. Combining bold, dynamic colors with painstaking layouts and typographical elements, the result is the unique blend of a painter’s passion tempered with the calculating compositional eye of a graphic designer. He explores his themes and subject matter primarily through symbols and personalities evoking pride, nostalgia, and hope. What can be said for his portraits can indeed be said for the artist.

In a few conversations with Sidney Maurer from his studio in Atlanta Georgia, we developed a kinship that extends deep as our mutual Bronx roots. He attended a special high school for the gifted (a classmate was Anthony Benedetto — Tony Bennett) and went on to a career in creativity that most of us can only dream about. It began in the music world where he put on some man-tan and dark shades and played trumpet in a jazz band at the famed Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. He also made the scene on the fabled 52nd Street in New York City, home to small but intoxicating jazz clubs where he met the likes of Billie Holliday, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and all the other greats of the era. Then, one day with the brashness that comes from being a self-described “smart ass kid from the Bronx,” he hopped a train to Connecticut, where Columbia Records was then located, and landed a job as an assistant art director at the age of 17. As the music business with the advent of the vinyl long playing record exploded, within a few years Maurer was operating his own art studio in Manhattan, landing

Photograph of Sidney Maurer; paintings of Justin Bieber, Edith Piaf and Henry Fonda

“These paintings, both individually and as a body of work, have more gravitas than the silkscreens by Warhol…”

covers for Columbia’s subsidiary label, Epic. His studio/workshop became a home away from home for the burgeoning music crowd and amidst the easels, work tables, glue pots, T-squares and all the elements then involved in producing art for reproduction, Maurer became one of the hottest graphic artists in New York City. This was expanded to worldwide fame when he met the British pop star Donovan. Said Sid, “He was really a poet and came up to the label’s office in flowing robes, no shoes, long hair and had his own concepts for the artwork for his new album. He was quite put off by the acrid business-like atmosphere up there so we went over to my place, smoked a joint and became friends.”

Sid managed to translate Donovan’s concepts into some legendary and radically creative album covers, along with a Hollywood billboard which they painted together. Their collaboration lasted for years with Sid branching out to manage his musical career, documented in Donovan’s autobiography, The Hurdy Gurdy Man. Sid also gets a few pages in 2Stoned, Andrew Loog Oldham’s autobiographical account of his life as manager of The Rolling Stones.

Sid’s resurgence today comes after a few bad breaks both personally and professionally, but at the age of 85 he is once again approaching the pinnacle of the creative world thanks to the support of his childhood buddy, actor/producer Allan Rich (Serpico) and the legendary art marketer, Marilyn Goldberg, President of Museum Masters International who told me, “For many years my favorite song was La Vie on Rose by Edith Piaf which simply means ‘always seeing the glass half full and life thru rose colored glasses.’ I so enjoyed receiving a painting of this great singer from Sidney that I couldn’t stop thinking of countless ideas to develop an international campaign to promote his art to the world. ”

Noted art dealer Michael Miller who has sold millions of dollars worth of Andy Warhols and operated some of the

country’s largest art galleries, concurs. “These paintings, both individually and as a body of work, have more gravitas than the silkscreens by Warhol, not only because of the power of paint itself over the use of inks, but because Maurer’s concern with iconic figures (Einstein is just as stunning and important a painting as Marilyn Monroe) has more breadth and feels more compelling than Andy’s primarily playful focus on celebrity. Marilyn and Allan, in my humble opinion, have a phenomenal artist on their hands.”

Even today, Sid will wake up two or three times a night, come into the studio and work. “That’s my life. That’s what I do and this is what I intend to do until I die. It’s like having a mistress. You don’t own her, she owns you. I paint because it’s all inside of me. I have been like this all of my life. In New York, I had a record company and a publishing company. I made a lot of money, lost a lot of money. The stories go on forever. I made other people stars, played in that land and moved to Atlanta. That’s my creative life. It’s the journey I’m on and the journey is finishing this collection.”

“Onward and upward,” he says. This is one story surely to be continued.

JERRY GARCIA

Marilyn sits in front of the Warhol “Marilyn” tapestry she published for a televsion interview at Barrila Pastaria restaurant in Riverhead, Long Island

“While representing Andy Warhol for twenty years (unknown to the world at that time) I requested him to paint for my father Marilyn Monroe. As my father named me after Marilyn Monroe fifteen years after arriving from Europe and wanting and American daughter after his crush. Spent my early years growing up with her pictures in my room which I brought to Andy Warhol and requested him to paint Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley two family favorites.

“I created all of the product merchandise similar to that to Picasso for Warhol including porcelains, glassware, apparel, silk scarves, silk ties, bedding, towels, wines, liquors and finally the second art perfume after doing the Dali perfume collection with Jean Pierre Grivory the master perfume producer in Paris, France who then agreed to produce Andy Warhol Marilyn Perfume and Andy Warhol Flower Perfume the first art perfume which acquired a $4,500,000 license fee guarantee against royalties for Andy Warhol through Museum Masters International finalized by the Andy Warhol tapestry collection handmade 100% Virgin Wool 80 knots per square foot and produced in India including Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe limited edition Brigitte Bardot limited edition Mickey Mouse limited edition, Flowers limited edition. All which weavers and Indian families working for months on these editions were introduced by William Weber President of Modern Master Tapestry.

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good …. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

— Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Goldberg at Studio 54, New York nightclub

Warhol Flowers Cosmetics, Perfume & Nail Polish

Warhol “Marilyn” - Humidor for Andy Cigars

Warhol Tapestry room shot at Villa Marilyn

Warhol portrait by his friend and partner Sid Maurer

Marilyn Goldberg and Luciano

Andy Warhol Fragrance Collection

Andy Warhol Signature Shirt

1984

Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species and Marilyn Goldberg’s Benjamin Saul sculpture share the cover of the

October edition of SunStorm. An in-depth article on Warhol’s fascination with “Endangered Species” follows is must-reading for fans of Warhol and those interested in the survival of these animals.

Andy Warhol’s Species at Risk

Reprinted from “SunStorm”, A Cultural Review, October 1984

By ELEANOR FLOMENHAFT

Former Executive Director Fine Arts Museum of Long Island

Imagine that the year is 2020; the place, Paris. Above the sofa in an art connoisseur’s living room hang two serigraphs equal in size. The work on the left is of a Campbell’s Soup can, on the right is a picture of a “black rhinocerous” which is painted blue. Standing before the works holding cocktail glasses are a couple conversing. One is heard to remark, “Such interesting iconography; by that Pop artist from New York; you know the famous one, Andy Warhol.” Pause. The other yawns and adds. “Oh yes. They’re actually quite important historically. The soup can is representative of media over-processing in the nineteen-sixties and I do believe the animaI on the right has legendary significance. Good coloration, don’t you think?”

Rather than a fictitious game, Andy Warhol fears that this appalling script may indeed become a reality. A black rhinocerous — one of nature’s creatures — may be remembered only as he painted it, in bright blue against an apricot ground. In time, it will be no more missed than a Campbell’s soup can, a tin container for a quick meal. He has taken on the cause of species at risk, a formidable task to which he brings all his visibility as an artist and a celebrity. This is hardly inconsiderable, even for someone who created his own persona as the most famous art personality since Salvadore Dali, and a living Pop legend. Curiously his most effective tool may be shock appeal. Disbelief in his concern for animals or his authentic desire to jostle an inert public is a common response. But it also makes his art all the more intriguing to viewers who think of him as the archetypal example of detachment, indifference and irresponsibility.

At this time, a deeper scrutiny of his personality is probably called for and even a revisionism as to the meaning of his entire oeuvre. Certainly, compelling questions are raised. For example: “How can so ‘blasé’ a Pop artist convincingly convey the plight of threatened ammals? Were seeds of caring apparent in his earlier imagery? And, isn’t his interest in endangered animals a sharp contrast to a disinterest in people?”

In 1983 Warhol created ten boldly conceived serigraphs which are now on display at the Fine Arts Museum of Long Island (FAMLI). Each is of an animal, bird or insect Each is a thing of beauty. Confined in thirtysix mch square frames, they appear as if behind the bars of cages or perhaps within the prongs of jewelers’ settings; captured, frozen, but proud. They have no relationship to their backgrounds, nor at first to each other. But they do share a common fate. Man - perhaps unwittingly - has slated them all for extinction. They are our endangered species with habitats destroyed and their mating disrupted. Powerfully, Andy Warhol has brought them together

to confront the viewer in a unified voice all the louder because it is mute. In their very stillness, with majestic bearing and depicted in royal tones made brilliant with a wonderful luminosity, they remind us that they are a precious legacy; and they are totally at our mercy. Together they are lobbying to any.one who cares to hear for their right to existence.

According to the Office of Public Affairs of the Museum of Natural History “Three hundred species and subspecies of vErtébrate animals have disappeared from the earth in the past 300 years due to the pressures of habitat destruction, hunting. and commercial demand for their products. In the past eighty years, the Passenger Pigeon. Caribbean Monk Seal and the Tasmanian Wolf, to name only a few species, have vanished.” After culling through hundreds of photo gr aphs, Warhol chose the following to include in his suite: The African Elephant. Bald Eagle. Bighorn Sheep, San Francisco Silverspot Butterfly, Giant Panda, Black Rhinoceros, Grevy’s Zebra, Orangutan, Pine Barrens Tree Frog and Siberian Tiger. All are listed as on the brink of extinction by the International Union for Conser vation of Nature and Natural Resourses (IUCN) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Endangered Species print suite (one of an edition of 10), was first seen in the Reptile Room of the Museum of Natural History in New York City, from April 12 through May 8, 1983. Subsequently it travelled to eleven visual arts centers including its present location at FAMLI. The request list for future viewing grows daily.

To assist threatened animals, Warhol and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Inc., who published the series, have established a gift program for wildlife organizations around the world. One or more individual works from the Endangered Species Series is given, with no tax deduction, to applicants with difficult to fund projects. The recipients can utilize the work in a number of ways, auction, raffle, direct sale, or any other for its own cause.

Appropriately. Warhol selected the serigraph — the major Pop medium — for his message. Serigraphs are actually silkscreens, differentiated from the others in that they represent the original artists’ prints rather than commercial reproductions. Because an essential characteristic is sharpness of outline, silkscreens have been greatly flavored commercially for posters. Of course, posters have long been a major advertising device to sell an idea or product. Since Warhol, before he became a serious artist was one of the most successful commercial illustrators in New York, it is easy to understand why he was also the leading Pop proponent of the serigraph.

Whereas the poignant appeal of an Endangered Species would represent a leap for most Pop artists, the departure from Pop ethos seems even greater for Warhol. Pop art was a movement which rejected the emotional

excesses of Abstract Expressionism. Its images were drawn from the popular urban culture which was gimmicky and glamourous, based on big business, mass production and information devoured at break-neck speed.

Fittingly Warhol’s Pop art is all about objects, situations and people processed by the media to the point that they became legends, and so stereotyped that viewers became indifferent to their fate. Consider his systemic paintings of Coke bottles and dollar bills which appear to have been created with the same boredom and aesthetic indifference as his auto disaster paintings or portraits of Jackie Kennedy after her husband’s assassination or Marilyn Monroe after her suicide.

Because Pop Art emerged from a culture based on obsolescence, its own brief life span was inevitable. Yet, we need not assume that Warhol’s mold was indelibly cast by the Pop culture. In Pop art’s heyday, most critics would have agreed with Robert Hughes, Australian born art critic, who contended that Warhol had “become a wellknown artist by silently proclaiming that Art could not change Life.” However John Coplans, artist and critic, appears to have been the more prescient witness when he wrote that Warhol’s work “almost by choice of imagery alone ..... forces us to squarely face the existential edge of our existence.”2

Sid

Looking back at Warhol’s famous Pop imagery from the vantage point of two decades, we can isolate ideas seminal to eschatalogical works such as the Endangered Species. Central to his art from the outset was a fascination with the glorified legend, the celebrity who no longer interests a fickle public, bored because of the media’s over-processing. More than likely his attitude was one of non-acceptance, and his apathetic stance may well have disguised fear and its steadfast companion, cynicism.

The celebrated figure has continued to haunt Warhol. In 1981, he created two series, one comprised of Jewish portraits of already legendary people, among them Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka and Golda Meir. The other, called Myths , are portraits of ten famous characters who inspire collective fantasies. Among them are Santa Claus, Superman, Mickey Mouse, Mamie and the Shadow. Not coincidentally, the Shadow is Warhol’s own portrait, a clearly provocative statement which opens up much speculation about his true nature.

Whereas Warhol’s fame as a celebrity rests on his myth-like image as the unconcerned thoughtless malco ntent, his Endangered Species are hardly works of detached cerebration. He is involved. More than that,

he is petrified that the animals at risk will survive only as myths. To be most effective he utilizes all his skills as an advertising illustrator and Pop artist. The subjects, super-real and in vivid hues, are made to stand forth in sharp outline against brightly colored backgrounds. In time to come, the subjects may well live only as legends, devoid of their own characteristics, but perhaps thought to have the charm and qualities bestowed on them by the artist.

Patently implied in these works is an even greater concern than the fate of the doomed species. In fact Warhol uses the endangered creatures rather sym bolic ally, for what he fears most is the consequence of apathy on every level. As guileless animals silently plead for their right to survive, Warhol pleads with the public to awaken from its torpor. With these works he cautions that indifference to all threatened life is indifference to ourselves, and will ultimately lead to our own extinction. Warhoi’s Endangered Species forewarn that we too may become as mere myths.

1. Robert Hughes, “The Shock of the New” (1981, Alfred A. . Knopf) p.346

2. 2. John Coplans, Ibid; p.348

Approaching Another Milestone

The November 1984 issue will mark the ninth anniversary of SunStorm. We will be celebrating at Art Expo in Dallas, manning our booth - hope to see you there.

Maurer’s “Oranutan” from his Endangered Series Species, Courtesy MMI

In the annals of our society’s ongoing and relentless obsession with popular culture, few have reached the heights of Legend, Icon, Superstar and managed to maintain their lofty position for more than the proverbial “15 Minutes.” Over the course of her life, spanning nearly eight decades now, Brigitte Bardot has

done so, initially for her youthful beauty and sensual fervor, and now for her dedication to all creatures great and small who are at risk from mankind’s insensitivity and wanton destruction of their natural habitat.

Bursting upon the scene in her then-husband Roger Vadim’s film classic, And God Created Woman (1954), which attained such status as a result of the fabled Bardot beauty—a central element of all her movies—she instantaneously became an international celebrity rivaled only by her American counterparts Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield and Italy’s Sophia Loren. Through her work as actress, model and occasional songbird, Bardot influenced a generation of young woman and seduced the world. Glamor, fame, riches, lovers and husbands—she had

Bardot Tapestry by Andy Warhol, published by Museum Masters

it all. French President Gen. Charles de Gaulle once said that she was an export more important to his country than the Renault or Peugoet.

“When the music’s over,” Jim Morrison sang, “turn out the lights.” For Bardot, when her film career ended (on her own terms at the age of 39 with over 50 films) a new light went on, brighter than any that ever emanated from a celluloid image on a theater screen when, in 1986, she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation Welfare for the Protection of Animals and became a vegetarian. She raised three million francs to initiate the fund, which over the years has evolved to lead a strong battle in favor of pet and wild animal protection worldwide. Today the Brigitte Bardot Fondation has over 57,000 donors living in over 60 different countries as well as 323 inspectors, headquartered in Paris and run by 30 employees.

Even in retirement, Bardot was revered. Andy Warhol, according to the Christie’s auction catalog blurb, had known Bardot since the mid-1960s and “as he had done with his two other portraits of 1960s screen goddesses, Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor, Warhol chose this moment of Bardot’s descent from the glare of the spotlight to commemorate and idolize her by painting her portrait. Bardot was as beautiful and as famous as ever, her blond hair, heavy eyeliner and pouting lips an instantly recognizable trademark of her free-spirited energy and sexual allure. In this work, Bardot’s image has not been transformed into a cold, impersonal and possibly dead Pop icon or commodity of mass consumerist culture. Warhol appears to be celebrating Bardot as a living and breathing icon—and she remains one till this day.”

As a timely tribute on the occasion of Brigitte Bardot’s September 28 birthday celebration, Marilyn Goldberg president of Museum Masters International (MMI) and Mary De Vivo of Le Reservoir in Paris (Bardot’s exclusive World Wide Master Licensee) have joined forces to preserve the immortal beauty of Brigitte Bardot and her total authenticity as a woman of magnificence and integrity. Elements of a world tour exhibition L’Amour Brigitte Bardot— produced by Ms. Goldberg and curated by Mme. De Vivo—are currently in development. Consisting of paintings, photographs, films, music and personal artifacts of and relating to Brigitte Bardot and the many important people and events in her life, the initial event of Exhibition L’Amour Brigitte Bardot will premiere in Hollywood, Spring 2012 in a venue to be announced. This will be followed in the Hamptons next summer at a major art fair. The Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) will be the major beneficiary of revenue generated from sales of merchandise, prints, paintings and a portfolio of Brigitte created by master artist Sid Maurer and renowned photographers. MMI, with international credentials in art marketing and licensing from

Warhol to Haring to Picasso, to name but a few, will publish and distribute the collection.

“My fascination with Brigitte Bardot dates back to when my Parisian father left his hometown to come to America. He loved beautiful women and his favorites were Brigitte and Marilyn Monroe. Since I was born in America, they named me after Marilyn, but Brigitte was always a family favorite and remains so to this day.” Marilyn and her family spent every summer in the Cote D’Azure and she idolized Bardot growing up as did so many other girls of a certain age at that time.

“The way she looked and took care of herself was inspirational. She invented the bikini and changed women’s feelings about their bodies, which was very important to me. She created the Tanga in Brazil which became so famous that there are giant bronzes all over Brasilia of Brigitte wearing one. She was a role model for me of what every young girl goes through when we are changing from girl to a woman. I came from a very proper European upbringing in which a daughter wasn’t free to be herself unless she had a husband. I used to long to have the freedom that this woman had. After reading Fear of Flying, I learned from Erica Jong to just fly into the sky, be who you are and not be concerned about what the world thinks. Brigitte Bardot was an influence in my own creation of myself—doing things on my own terms. “I love doing things for people, doing things for animals. I love people and I love art and I appreciate her genuineness. To this day I live my life in Southampton as she did in St. Tropez, walking on Flying Point beach barefoot in the sand as she does there. I stay fit because it is so important to care for ourselves and to influence the people that we love to care for themselves. Brigitte was the epitome of health and beauty and a very strong influence for me as I grew into a woman.”

It is a perfect confluence of influences that brings Ms. Goldberg and Mme. Bardot together at this time. Their mutual love of animals is certainly a factor in this relationship and the gain will be for those who cannot help themselves via ARF (Animal Release Fund) as beneficiary.

“I love the warmth and comfort that animals bring to people who love them. It relieves all the pressures and anxiety of life. A kitten in your arms and a puppy that curls up to you have essentially given the purest form of love. Twenty years ago, when I bought a house in Watermill, NY, I went outside one winter night and found ten baby kittens born in a wood pile in the midst of the snow. I contacted ARF and they helped me care for the animals and have them neutered. I couldn’t bear for them to be outside another winter so I built them little houses with rain awnings and sun roofs, which are now known as the

Kitty Condos of Cobb Hollow. I love them and I cherish the story and as the kitties get too old for their condos, ARF gives them a retirement home. So it is only fitting that my life at the Hamptons beaches, with memories of my French heritage on the Cote d’Azure, Brigittes life in St. Tropez where I spent summers in a villa with our french family , my 20 years in France of Pablo Picasso licenses and International Museum Exhibitions just completed in Rome, has suddenly all woven into each other and created the best of my tapestries. Now my universe seems to have embellished this combination of beauty, art, fitness, health of my total family, treasured friends, who are all caring for the planet the endangered species as one. This Celebrity series has soul! It has embellished to fruition my most treasured marketing project. I love working with a live superstar! Bravo Brigitte!” exclaims Ms. Goldberg whose recent triumphs included a tour of European museums last spring with a Tamara Lempicka retrospective and a Marilyn Monroe exhibition in Spain.

From her beginnings as the seminal “sex kitten” Brigitte Bardot went on to great acclaim, conquering the world of the flesh with a pout, a cute accent and a physique that drove men wild. Victorious in that world, Mme. Bardot has turned to the spiritual realm of loving and caring for the earth and its endangered species’, perhaps her greatest role yet.

DEFENDING THE WOLVES

Bardot’s Letter to Gov. Palin

More than two years ago, I contacted your predecessor to denounce the cruelty of aerial wolf hunting. Today I am shocked to learn that you firmly support this cowardly practice, both morally and financially.

Your fight to keep polar bears off the Endangered Species list even though they are threatened by global warming demonstrates your total irresponsibility, your inability to protect or even respect animal life, but it’s true that for you, a good animal is a dead one! By campaigning for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, you are putting an already fragile habitat at risk, as well as all the biodiversity of a sensitive area that must absolutely be preserved.

Governor, by denying man’s responsibility for global warming, by being a proponent of the right to bear arms and shoot anything that moves, by making numerous declarations of alarming stupidity, you bring shame upon women and represent, all on your own, a terrible threat, a true ecological catastrophe.

Defending life means showing compassion for all the beings that populate this ailing earth. Since we are only on this earth for a short time, think of what you are leaving behind for future generations...

To finish, I beg you to no longer refer to yourself as a ‘pit bull with lipstick’, since I can assure you that no pit bull, no dog, nor any other animal is as dangerous as you.

In the name of the respect and preservation of nature, I hope that you lose this election, because then the whole world will win!

Brigitte Bardot, President

Sid Maurer’s Grey Wolf

In 2020 after Marilyn’s annual visits to the U.K. licensing expo she was invited to Rome and had her initial meetings with Marco Rotondi, Hilary Mostart who made a welcome affair for her due to a childhood experience that developed into a lifetime friendship and on the welcome event had invited assorted members of the Vatican. Based on the incredible dinner Marilyn was invited to take a tour of the Vatican City the following day. This tour ended with excellent meetings and further invitations to come back which ultimately caused for a most exhibiting request for the head of the Vatican under the Pope Monsignor Jean Marie Gervais and Ambassador Marco Rotondi. In review of the entire location and the Sistine Chapel and the grounds surrounding these areas, exhibition halls were review for art exhibitions, concerts, ballets and etc. The enthusiasm that the parties had for each other formed after discussions with mutual counsel the exclusive representation of Tota Pulchra Ars Vaticana.

Marilyn Goldberg’s hosts in Rome: Hilary Mostert and her son Ruggero Mostert Manciati.

The photo was taken on a terrace overlooking St. Peters Basillica.

Hilary Mostert, Marilyn Goldberg in Rome

With Art 4 Peace, Tota Pulchra presents our Angelic Vision for all people, all countries, all ages. A founder of Creativists for Art, Ballet, Music and more to bring good cheer to overcome problems in the world. Our Post Modernism Art celebrates the Beauty and Color and Emotion to purify our world!

The brilliance of our artists’ colors and their contributions to Tota Pulchra Vatican Art traverse the world to guide us in future paths of hope, love and lifestyle for future enhancement of merging our people, children and friends into new paths of light!

TOTA PULCHRA bridges the fight against darkness and pain and invites the entire world to brighten the entire path of help for travel toward the light together. We bridge the gap between unreal, real and eternity for those who have the eyes to see our Angel paths!

Tota Pulchra Art 4 Peace is The Guiding Light we offer the world and all cultures to join.

— Marilyn Goldberg , USA TOTA PULCHRA Ambassador

MuseuM Masters InternatIonal, tota Pulchra VatIcan art

ROME & NEW YORK, 6 December, 2018:

The organization known as Tota Pulchra Vatican Art, and Museum Masters International of Southampton, New York, are in the process of forming a long-term series of exhibitions and merchandising accord, for art and music expositions for Rome and Vatican through the creative organization known as Tota Pulchra, and throughout other Rome and Italian locations. It was announced jointly by Dr. Valerio Monda, Secretary, and Gabriele Russo, of Tota Pulchra and Marilyn Goldberg, President of MMI.

Ms. Goldberg was chosen for this prestigious position based on her lifetime work of establishing successful art programs around the world, notably the Catherine the Great exhibition at The Hermitage in Russia and numerous other major museum presentations including Vincent van Gogh, Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol and Tamara De Lempicka to name a few. According to Monsignor Jean Marie Gervais, head of Tota Pulchra, “Marilyn Goldberg was our first and only choice to head this major new direction for our participation in such a cultural experience. We are in need of your passion for both Art and Music to plan the futures of Rome and Vatican ground exhibitions. One of Ms. Goldberg’s primary functions is to assist the Ambassador of the United States in Rome as Ambassador of the Arts due to her endless passion with valid artists and major accomplishments worldwide.”

Additionally, Museum Masters has been asked to propose Tota Pulchra Vatican Art and assorted exhibitions all over the globe and Ms. Goldberg will be participating in organizing an Art School in Florence for which Alan Pascuzzi was selected by Monsignor Gervais to become headmaster.

“This whole thing came about as a result of my passion for Rome, and introductions made by Marco Rotondi, a close friend of the Vatican Group and Tota Pulchra,” commented Ms. Goldberg, who has been selected to make special efforts for Rome, as she has done for Russia (State Hermitage and Catherine the Great); France (Picasso); London (Erté); New York (John Lennon, Bob Marley exhibitions); Spain (Dali) and The Netherlands, van Gogh.

The first artist discussed for future release by his publisher for a launch in a few months, was Alan Pascuzzi, considered an offspring of the great Michelangelo, who has studied every detail of ancient Vatican art. Ms. Goldberg and her past successes, from Pablo Picasso, his granddaughter Marina Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Erté, Tamara De Lempicka and many new up and coming artists, will honor the goals which are: to encourage young artists to experiment with bringing spirituality into their paintings and music. Tota Pulchra reserves the right to approve the choice of artists, exhibitions and merchandising that will be exhibited in Roma.

An ongoing series of future exhibitions are planned and details about how to become part of this exciting new art program for the ages that will soon be made available. Artistic venues from Japan and other global entities jointly selected by Museum Masters and Monsignor Gervais for their spiritual and artistic visions will be showcased. The first artist they have approved and are releasing December 6 is María Teresa Munoz Guillen.

On her recent trip to Rome, Ms. Goldberg received an honorary membership card in addition to a card from the Pope signed by Monsignor Gervais. The next honor planned will be at the “Sala del Versary” in the Palazzo. The brand logo of the association is two linked figures intertwined TOTA PULCHRA ROMA. Museum Masters will create a seal using the logo with TOTA PULCHRA and below: ROMA. The expression sounds very good and for cultured people and indicates a refined brand, linked with Rome, culture, art, the seat of the Papacy Andella Canncelleria Vaticana. Ms. Goldberg will be presented her award in the splendid Sala del Vasari in the Palazzo della Cancelleria Vaticana as Ambassador of the Arts.

“Tota Pulchra,” states Marilyn, “was the first prayer to honor The Virgin Mary when Jesus was born and its logo represents the entwined figure of love for the people of the world! The contracts for exclusive Art Representation were negotiated from 2018-2020 and signed through 2025! Most important were the explanations to Museum Masters Contemporary artists to paint Homages to the Vatican so as to teach the young generations the art of giving, loving and helping the needy!”

Juan Henri Tamenne, Tota Pulchra

Marilym Goldberg, Pres. Museum Master International; Monsignor Jean Marie Gervais (her right); Angelo Erriu (far right); Valerio Monda (far left)

Laurence Gartel, Angel Bouquet

LAURENCE GARTEL

“As a young artist I had the privilege of meeting Art dealer Marilyn Goldberg at her New York City townhouse in 1982. It was so exciting that I brought my mother along on the appointment. I was at a budding peak in my career having my cutting edge Polaroid SX-70 murals included in MoMA PS1 as well as early video drawing included in the MoMA Collection. I was tapped by uptown gallery Gimpel Witzenhoffer to be included at the Museum of Art University of Oklahoma. Meeting Marilyn was a giant step forward. I got a chance to witness her collection of Picasso ceramics, Miro and Alexander Calder rugs, along with beautiful Giancarlo Impiglia prints. It was an amazing enrichment that I never forgot. Never did I see such a marvelous private collection. Marilyn made a lasting impression, one my mother surely never forget. Close to 40 years later Marilyn and I reconnected. It was a moment when I created a very special work when I was one month old being held by my Mother in Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx where we lived across the street. I called the piece “Madonna and LG child.” My mother always put me on a pedestal and told me I was “The Greatest.” She instilled confidence and positivity. I grew into my art career with self-assured essentials. Marilyn remembered my mother and brought my work to The Vatican. Monsignor Gervais signed the work along with cultural attaché Marco Rotondi. A special blessing was made with the kindness of Pope Francis. Moments like this are forever lasting and the generosity and kindness of Marilyn are measured in abundance. The future will always be there, etched with miracles.”

—Laurence Gartel, February 18, 2025 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Madonna and Child for Tota Pulchra

Marco Rotondi showing Pope Francis Laurence Gartel’s “Madonna and Child” limited edition; opposite page Msgr. Gervais does same

Msgr. Gervais, Marco Rotondi, Marilyn Goldberg signing Gartel prints in Monaco

Tota Pulchra Vatican partner Juan Henri Tamenne with Monsignor Gervais, assistant to Pope Francis, organizes gala charity events worldwide, most recently at the Cannes film Festival in France and Le Grand Prix in Monaco for Tota Pulchra Ars Vaticana.

Monsignor Gervais signing Ken Beberman and Laurence Gartel prints at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican approved by Tota Puchra and The Pope

With Marco Rotondi, Vaticana Ambassador, at Cannes Film Festival exhibit featuring Marcestel

“It’s a marriage made in heaven,” The spirituality in evidence at our initial meeting portends new artistic advances for Rome worldwide.”

– Marilyn Goldberg.

Receiving the Honorary Membership Card from the Pope and signed by Monsignor Gervais

The Art Mission of Tota Pulchra USA

All our artists have been working tirelessly to complete a beautiful presentation for Tota Pulchra, as of course have you. I too plan to put together a professional booklet printed (once the final insertions from certain Italian artists are completed) that could be sent around when the world. Until that time as a fellow lover of the Lord, I will continue to work with you and the artists as we develop our enterprise. At such time, when the products travel around the world, we can have the introduction and the products themselves translated into Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc. They will all understand the importance of loving the Lord, babies, families, animals, those in need, orphans and widows.

Mommy2,

May your memories of Reggie bring you comfort and peace as he was a very special part of the family. We will cherish the paw prints he left in our hearts and I will always remember the way he greeted me with his wagging tail and love. Reggie was truly a special puppy, one of a kind and he will be missed very much – Elif

Elif’s husband Deniz Turkmen, Marilyn, Reggie and Elif

Marilin Goldberg’s Vatican Angel award honor at Cannes Film Festival

Saint Portraits by Julie O’Brien

Julie O’Brien, was Vice President at JP Morgan Chase, leading the Southampton Branch in overseeing, managing and retaining $733 million in deposits and investments. She partners closely with Financial Advisors from Chase Wealth Management, Business Banking Management and Mortgage Advisors. Julie is a dedicated manager with a strong desire to succeed in growing the business with a passion for helping all of her clients. She has over 16 years in the financial industry and over 22 years of ex:experience in delivering excellent customer service.

Julie began her career at Bank of America in 2007 as a Teller. In three years she became a Customer Service Representative for TD Bank, dedicated to servicing clients in the branch. In 2011 Julie came to Chase as a Licensed Relationship Banker acquiring her Life & Annui1y Licenses. Over a four year span, Julie worked in two branch locations in which she acquired her Small Business Certification and became Manager on Duty. She was then promoted to Branch Manager in 2016 and currently runs the Riverhead branch. Previously to her start in the Financial Services Industry. Julie worked for New York Stale for over four years as a Parks Specialist, overseeing and supervising the Main Estate community service workers and over 691 acres in Oakdale NY. In addition, Julie has over 25 years of experience as a professional artist with a specialty in Watercolor.

When Marilyn Goldberg was asked by the Vatican to provide portrait paintings for Pope Francis to honor two of his dear friends, Julie was chosen and as you can see by these pages was well up to the task. The paintings hang in the late Pope’s residency. Julie attended multiple art colleges and was selected for multiple programs at Adelphi College, Huntington School of Fine Arts and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology during secondary school before attending Sacred Heart University where she earned an Associates Degree in Science from Suffolk Community College in 2002. Julie was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha and on the Dean’s List in 2002 for outstanding academic performance. In addition Julie studied Medicine at Sanford Brown lnstitute from 2003-2005, including an internship at New Island Hospital for Diagnostic Medical Ultrasound. Julie is a proud wife and mother of three children and when not working enjoys spending time with her family, painting and attending sports events with her kids as well as helping people and volunteering in her community.

“My two favorite people,” said the Pope. “I want them in my residency.”

Queen of Art Christens Hamptons Newest Swingin’ Hot Spot Southampton’s Blu Mar ®

For combining synergistic innovations with creative energy! Great Innovative Cooperations when you put The Queen of Art and Design Creativity with only a two weeks deadline to put together with Five Star Chefs, Successful Resturaunt Owners, World Renowned portraitist of Celebrities, Outdoor Sculptures and Patios, Night Club Disco, Fabulous Emerging Nuevo Deco Cubist Artist paintings, Historic Masters in the Above "Harpoon House" Hotel, just opened under the food preparation  start up guidance of Chef Terrance Brennon, ( and

fabulous assisting chefs),owner Zach Erdam, and Hampton's Art and interior Designer of several Villa Marilyn's, Queen Marilyn Goldberg founder of the new International Venture "Marilyn's Miracles".(I would add logo of Le Mar, Harpoon House Marilyns Miracles, and Villa Marilyn Logo's) It has always been “my heaven” to be by the sea and create my life dreams in The Hamptons. I

The beautiful Blu Mar Hamptons restaurant and Harpoon House hotel came together in a few short weeks a few summers ago as a result of Marilyn Goldberg’s combination of synergistic innovations, creative energy and plenty of hard work. Marilyn and owner Zach Erdam brought in a series of famous chefs to go along with The Queen of Art and Design’s roster of a world renowned portraitist of celebrities (Sid Maurer) for the night club disco, a well-known Hamptons sculptor of site specific works for the patio and gardens (Steve Zaluski), and a collection of large paintings and tapestries for the restaurant walls from Andy Warhol and Nuevo Deco Cubist artist Ken Beberman. Along with a slew of carpenters and painters, the job was done in time for the season, a shining example of Queen Marilyn’s new International Venture “Marilyn’s Miracles.” Miraculous is the only way to describe the result of this frenzied period of activity. Queen Marilyn states, “It has always been my heaven to be by the sea and create my life dreams in The Hamptons.”

Marilyn Goldberg, Chef Terrance Brennan

Ken Beberman

“I have lived and breathed art all of my life.”

Ken Beberman is a South Florida-based artist whose vibrant and accessible Art Deco Cubist style captures the energy and spirit of his surroundings. With a career deeply intertwined with the revitalization of Miami Beach’s Art Deco District in the early 1980s, Beberman played a key role in securing its historic designation. His art was featured in many of the restoration projects of that era, solidifying his connection to the area’s iconic aesthetic.

Growing up in the Golden Isles of Georgia, Beberman was immersed in art from a young age, surrounded by creative individuals. This early exposure nurtured his passion for artistic expression, leading him to pursue formal training at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.

Beberman’s artistic influences are diverse, ranging from the pioneering spirit of Wassily Kandinsky to the masters of the Renaissance, Baroque, Fauvist, Impressionist, Cubist, and Realist movements. He delves into the lives and minds of his artistic heroes, seeking to understand their creative processes and translate their inspiration into his own unique style.

His work often features bold colors and geometric forms, reflecting the architectural and design elements that define the Art Deco era. Beberman’s art is both nostalgic and contemporary, capturing the essence of a bygone era while remaining relevant and engaging to modern audiences.

Beyond his individual artistic pursuits, Beberman is also the proprietor of Artrepro, a giclée and scanning company in Pompano Beach, Florida. This venture allows him to further contribute to the art community by providing valuable services to fellow artists.

Ken Beberman continues to create and inspire, leaving his mark on the art world with his distinctive style and unwavering dedication to his craft.

Says Marilyn, “I love to promote artists that I adore and are very talented who I think with the right promotion could get the price of the originals up high.”Adds Ken, “I adore Marilyn. She’s one of my best friends in the world and we get along very well. I met Marilyn when I was painting murals in people’s houses for years and years and I decided I did not want to do that any more. I didn’t want to be hondled all the time feeling that I’m stressed out. Then I had an explosion of art come out of me all at once. I was putting it on Facebook and out of nowhere Marilyn contacts me and says ‘Who is representing you?’ and I said YOU! I always wanted to have someone like Marilyn representing me and I didn’t think people like Marilyn existed.

“When I was in Florida,” continues Marilyn, “I was going to different restaurants and when I saw Ken’s paintings I flipped out. Then when I started doing the hotel in Southampton for Zak Erdam, I brought Ken up to display his works in the Blue Mar Restaurant. They looked so beautiful with the Andy Warhols and could see something terrific happening. For the Vatican project, I commissioned Ken to do a couple of special paintings and his portraits of Jesus and Mona Lisa were the result.” According to Ken, “The Jesus just so happened to be the best piece I ever did. It has a lot of controversy and I feel I broke ground with it. Yet it has been very well received and Msgr. Gervais really loved it.” Concludes Marilyn, “The public has been very excited to see Ken’s work from The Hamptons to Rome.”

Ken recalls that while putting the Tota Pulchra deal together “Five guys came to my studio one day and they were the coolest guys I’ve ever seen — totally not what expected. We had us a little party and drank two bottles of champagne together. They were a riot and interested in my work for an NFT program they were setting up. After a few months of putting everything together internationally, the deal feel through due to some intertnet chicanery.”

Dining room at Villa Marilyn features Impiglia serigraph

At work in the Mulberry Street Studio, Little Italy, New York City

Victor Forbes, Marilyn Goldberg, Giancarlo Impiglia and son Christopher at Giancarlo’s ArtHamptons booth in 2012

Giancarlo Impiglia

We were neophytes in the publishing business when we came upon Giancarlo Impiglia’s work on display in a gallery in Syosset, New York, a suburb about a half hour train ride from the epicenter of the art world of New York City. We were out selling advertising for our publication, SunStorm Long Island’s Newspaper of The Arts. We learned from the gallery owners that the artist was represented by Marigold Enterprises in the Big Apple and enterprising as we were, we contacted the owner Marilyn Goldberg and that history is well documented in this book. Ms. Goldberg’s Townhouse gallery and office was then the epicenter of the epicenter and we established a relationship with her at our first meeting in 1983. She saw fit to publicize Impiglia in our fledgling publication as we had just expanded into printing and were now able to wrap a full color glossy cover around the newsprint pages. As Bruce Springsteen so aptly wrote and sang, “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)” and this was true for us at SunStorm and also the artist who became not only a stalwart of the Art Expo era but was “discovered” by the legendary promoter of Absolut Vodka as one of the artists in the Absolut Collection, published in SunStorm after we became a full glossy magazine in 1987. Impiglia went “viral” as the kids would say today when Michel Roux placed “Absolut Impiglia” (an artist he discovered in the pages of SunStorm) on the back cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine, read by some 25 million. Following is an article from that Absolut Collection insert from SunStorm/Fine Art.

“There is a tremendous variety of imagery that goes into my work so it’s not exclusively relate to one period, but rather to the entire history of modern art,” says Giancarlo Impiglia, who cites among his influences the Cubists, Futurists, Dadaists and Surrealists. Based on his observation that clothes are costumes, that costumes reflect culture and Occidental costumes reflect the influence of Western values throughout the world in general, Impiglia’s paintings are more than merely symbolic statements about social values. “They underlie our preoccupation to hide reality behind our superficial appearance,” continues the Italian-born, New York-based artist, whose scenes of crowded streets, elegant nightlife and the privileged at play under a brilliant moon or on a polo field contain, amidst their brilliant colors and faceless characters, a resounding commentary worthy of cover art for any Sociology course text book.

Since his arrival in America in the mid-seventies, Impiglia has established himself as one of the more popular artists of this era. His original paintings, silkscreen editions, wood and aluminum life-size cut-outs of his figures, along with a wide selection or published posters hang in literally tens of thousands of homes, offices and restaurants. Elegant bistros from coast to coast are decorated with Impiglia’s work. In fact, it was a sixty-foot mural, executed for the owners of a building near the Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan that jump-started the newly-arrived immigrant’s career in 1974. Fortunately for him, the building had been enhanced by WPA-era large-scale works and the owners sought to continue along those lines. Impiglia was hired, he believes, because his style very much related to the Art Deco period of the 1930s when he acknowledges, “Art was a little more serious than it is today.

With strong ties to the Cubists working in France early in this century, the futurists of Italy and the Cubo-Futurists of postRevolutionary Russia, Impiglia says “I still get a tremendous kick from Picasso and his contemporaries but no more so than from all the great personalities in modern art history. It was the Cubists who started to look at objects from different positions and put them all on one flat space — the canvas. The Futurists were representing the dynamism of the new society of the modern era. Then along came the Dadaists and Surrealists with all kinds of visual experiences and inventions. All this blended together to create my style. But when you think you know something, there is always something that comes up in the working process. For example, if you go backwards and see Frank Stella’s work, you will find the kind of line that has taken him to where he is now.”

Impiglia’s line has taken him, in addition to the Absolut Collection, to many solo exhibitions and important corporate and private collections around the United States and beyond. His work has graced the pages of magazines in Europe and America, including a cover for The Wine Spectator. He was selected for a major exhibition by the Contemporary Gallery of Marywood College in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “Impiglia’s oeuvre,” stated curator Rosanna Sharpe in her notes to the exhibition catalogue, “is flavorecl by a social commentary on the human condition. He continues the linear theme two dimensionally and captures the dynamism of speed, reminiscent of the Italian Futurists, with a vibrant palette ... using the figure to convey spiritual, personal and mystical experiences borrowed from life ... (and) surface treatments to indicate organic and painterly processes.”

Is the irony and humor inherent in Impiglia’s artistic psyche lost on his collectors? Are the very people that the artist is poking in the side his most ardent collectors? Impiglia isn’t saying, but he will go so far as to describe his work as delving into “Aesthetic solutions combined with a satire of human conditions. The black tie, the moonlit nights, the tuxedo, the parties, the nightgowns, the beautiful life, the champagne ... many people miss the satire for the glamour because when I paint the glamor, I paint a satire of the glamour.”

Today from his loft at the crossroads of SOHO, Little Italy and Chinatown, Impiglia is creating paintings that are just as strong, just as vibrant as ever. With his Absolut campaign breaking nationwide, his popularity and recognition factor are at a new high. Impiglia’s work is on view at many galleries nationwide, with self,published editions that have not yet sold out available through his studio. This past summer, he completed a 10’ x 12’ mural for the Bank of Ohio which included his interpretation of the neighborhood buildings. Another Impiglia mural resides at the new USAir Terminal at Laguardia Airport in New York, which resulted in a commission for a painting for their VIP Club, which is part of the new pavilion. Through that work, he is up for another commission at the new USAir Terminal in Miami. “I love the challenge of having to put things together that please me creatively as well as the commissioners. So far everything has worked out well. It’s like when the artists were commissioned by the church to do a fresco for the chapel or a painting for the altar. Today, it’s no longer the church that calls the artists, not the Vatican or the Pope ... it’s the banker and in some cases, someone even more important— Michel Roux or Marilyn Goldberg”

—VICTOR FORBES, from “Absolut Collection” in SunStorm Fine Art magazine

Don Oriolo – Good Cheer in A Variety of Art Forms

The owner of Blue Arrow Farm, Don Oriolo is well known across the entertainment spectrum, having been a fixture in the art, music, television and film industries for decades. He took over the Felix the Cat franchise when his father Joe Oriolo, co-creator of the modern day Felix cartoon character, passed away in 1985, and he has become beloved as the “Felix the Cat guy” for his work in continuing the legacy.

Don is also widely admired for his charitable and philanthropic endeavors — the latest of which being Blue Arrow’s commintment to providing a sanctuary for animals in need, often as a last resort. Don’s passion is so very evident and few have a bigger heart for helping horses, dogs, cats, and the occasional pig. Midnight runs to Blue Arrow from wherever an animal is in need are not that unusual and Don has never been known to refuse any creature. The fact that he is a top notch entertainer and has highly regarded musicians regularly perfoming as his “Cats” only adds to the legend. There are not enough words in the language with which to recognize his gargantuan heart. His Farm, named after a childhood toy, is a Heaven on Earth. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, Pine Island, New York, stop by and say hello. You’re sure to find a friendly face and be greeted with a smile. And of course, bring a few carrots!

For a luthier or guitar builder, there is nothing more cool than having Jeff Beck play one of your guitars as he did the one below, auctioned at Christie’s London in January, 2025 after the star’s untimely death.

Marilyn and Don Oriolo at Fine Art Magazine’s Hero of Creativity Party, 2015, at the World Bar in New York City

A THREE-QUARTER SIZE SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, FELIX VIBROTAIL FE-01

Bearing the logo Oriolo at the headstock, the logo Oriolo / FE-01 0039 to the neckplate, with 'Felix The Cat' visuals and FELIX The / CAT lettering to the body, together with soft case and tremolo bar, --- Price realized GBP 9,450 - ---Estimate GBP 300 – GBP 500

Don is an accomplished musician, producer, artist and guitar designer

Ed Heck, Don Oriolo, long time friends, both received Artist of The Year Awards on a plaque created by Mitchell Meisner that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (also a Hero of Creativity award recipient) described with these words: “HEY VICTOR - THANK YOU SO MUCH & FINE ART, I’M TRULY HONORED ~ WOW!!! THAT’S ONE BEAUTIFUL GOOD-LOOKING AWARD ~ LET’S KEEP ROCKIN’”~D

Don often says, “l’m only a guitar player!” But he’s so much more — a painter, a cartoonist, an entrepreneur and an animal lover with an incredible sense of humor that shines through in his paintings!

Ed Heck

“I will always appreciate Marilyn Goldberg...”

The day Marilyn Goldberg approached my booth at Art Expo in NYC so many years ago I knew without a doubt that she was a force to be reckoned with. With deliberate focus she pointed upward to one painting after another saying, “That’s a product line, that’s a product line, and that’s another whole line right there!”

Turning to me, she introduced herself and with a no nonsense straightforward approach she offered up a proposal on the spot for how we could work together.

It’s one thing to promise something and a whole other thing to deliver, and deliver she did. I credit Marilyn and Museum Masters International as an important part to my early success because of her immediate international introduction of my work to the world including museum gift shops around the world. One of my personal favorite moments was when I went onto the Museum Masters website and saw my name listed between Picasso and Warhol. Not a bad sandwich to be a part of : )

I feel quite fortunate to have not only met Marilyn as a person, but also to have had such a fulfilling business relationship with her as well. I will always appreciate Marilyn Goldberg and continue to call her my friend.

Ed Heck, made this multi media art to commemorate 40 Years of SunStorm Fine Art

Marco with skateboard star Tony Hawk beach in his MarcoMobile, and we said, ‘let’s do it’”! In this posh neck of the woods, creativity abounds and artistic energy is at an all time high. “MARCO, like a Phoenix, has risen from the streets of the Lower East Side to Southampton NY, my hometown, where we are reaching out and grasping the fresh creativity bubbling about the new Parrish Museum, which is under construction here,” said Marilyn.

Ms. Goldberg first came upon Marco 20 years ago when he was painting graffiti on buildings in Greenwich Village and Soho. Now, after years of representing great but deceased Pop stars such as Haring and Warhol, she is glad to have “a live Pop program to ignite the fires and winds of today’s world.”

“He is his own musical creation as he flies through life as Peter Pan and me as his Tinkerbell.”

All of Marco’s paintings start with a simple black series of hard lines, each individually its own art form. Pending the final art application, color from Marco’s palette can be added, or the color of the hard lines changed. This concept affords a wide variety of both two and three dimensional art to be delivered, from images on paintings, to signed prints, merchandise, and even three dimensional life-size sculptures.

“Marco,” says Ms. Goldberg, “is my live Peter Pan, the little boy who wouldn’t grow up. He is alone with and totally committed to his art. He loves what he does, and his enthusiasm exudes in his work. He is his own musical creation as he flies through life as Peter Pan and me as his Tinkerbell.” Adds Ms. Goldberg, “I am the fairy Godmother who has always believed in his potential for greatness! I just want to sprinkle him with diamond dust and watch the miracle unfold!”

Marilyn Goldberg of Museum Masters International and MARCO

SUPERHEROICA

The (Licensing) Art of Arlen Schumer

COMIC BOOK ART continues to infiltrate American popular culture on all fronts, with Hollywood green-lighting countless films and television shows based on four-color characters beloved by generations, the art gallery and museum worlds exhibiting comicinspired work, the academic world teaching and studying comics, conventions like San Diego’s annual Comicon International sprouting up all over the country, and elite publications like The New York Times reviewing “graphic novels.”

Yet, for all its growth in the pop cultural marketplace, comic book art’s potential as quality licensed art has barely been tapped.

Arlen Schumer is here to change that.

Over the course of his career — he’s a member of The Society of Illustrators — Arlen’s created comic bookstyled art for the advertising and editorial markets, garnering industry awards and acclaim.

He combines backgrounds in graphic design and advertising illustration with expertise in — and enthusiasm for — the comic book medium, producing distinctive imagery that stands out from the crowd of conventional illustration and photography. Arlen knows that everyone reads comics, understands their vocabulary, and (secretly) loves them. Young and old. All classes and colors. Everyone.

Now Arlen is licensing his vibrant and bold graphics, for the first time with Marilyn Goldberg’s Museum Masters International, as Classic Comic Art for the 21st Century. “I’ve known and loved Arlen’s work for years,” said Goldberg,” and I’m thrilled to finally bring his distinctive comic style to a world of products — and to the world!”

Marilyn with son Garett

Custom sire-specific painting of Montauk Lighthouse by Ken Beberman at Blu Mar Restaurant, Southampton

Marilyn designed not only the interior of the Blu Mar restaurant but the Sculpture Garden as well with the work of Long Island sculptor Steve Zaluski

“TRANQUILITY” - JOHN MELILLO

Soldier/Artist John Melillo’s

Perspective On War, PTSD & Growing Up on Long Island

John Melillo, a proud Eastern Long Island native and Vietnam veteran, found solace in art to combat his PTSD. Through his paintings, he captures images of both Vietnam and Long Island’s East End, reflecting themes of adventure, culture and resilience. “I’ve traveled the world, but I’ve never seen a place like the East End,” said John. Adds daughter Beth, who works closely with her dad, “My father met Marilyn Goldberg at a local real estate meeting where he mentioned to me at that time that he had met a very insightful women who knew a lot about the art world and that I might want to call her. He gave me her card and we met with Marilyn a week later to explore art synergies. Since I manage my father’s paintings and do his PR/Marketing/Content campaigns, I always enjoy meeting such experienced experts in the art field to evolve and expand my father’s reach. You never know. That said, we met with Marilyn and she provided an insight and resource to expand his already very successful art career as an East End Hampton artist.

“We brought a selection of oil paintings to Marilyn that tell his story of growing up on the East End as our family heritage goes back to the early 1900’s there. It was a wonderful sharing of ideas and we were presented with an equally wonderful opportunity to introduce my father’s art to the international art world with Museum Masters. Side note: As a TV Producer, I was engaged by Marilyn’s history and experiences. She definitely has a unique story to share.

“We soon settled on a plan to launch John Melillo internationally through Museum Masters. To be able to bring the beauty of the Hamptons through my father’s Art to others is a gift and Joy for us.”

States Marilyn, “John Melillo, known locally as the ‘Famous Artist of the East End’, shares my love of the beaches, farms and historic tradition of the Hamptons. That, combined with our lifetimes of living, working and exploring the beauty East Moriches, Center Moriches, West Hampton, Southampton, Water Mill, Bridgehampton, Amagansett, Wainscot, Montauk Point struck a chord with us both. While John was born there, my visits to the Hamptons started from the age five when my father Dr. Nathan Huberman (who was fluent in Polish, French, Russian, Spanish, Czech and no English when he arrived at Ellis Island) was requested to travel to Sag Harbor to the Bavoli Watch factory as the workers there spoke those languages and no English and needed medical care and a translator. When he went out he brought his little daughter — me! We toured all over when at that time there was but one hotel in Montauk. As did my father, John and I loved the towns, sunsets, the ocean and the bay from a very early age. We have a common ground of love for the East End and enjoy sharing it with friends around the globe.”

Adds Beth, “Another opportunity came about for Marilyn to share one of my father’s paintings to the Vatican’s Tota Pulchra organization of which she is Ambassador. Marilyn is always a happy smiling face and positive energy. To date we are friends with Marilyn and look forward to success to come internationally through her huge expertise. We are big Fans and want you to continue shine and for people to see you are brilliantly incredible.”

John Melillo, a proud Eastern Long Island native and Vietnam veteran, found solace in art to combat his PTSD. Through his paintings, he captures the images of Vietnam and Long Island’s East End, reflecting themes of adventure, culture, and resilience.

“Our relationship with Marilyn Goldberg is strictly international, and we’re excited to talk about her,” commented Beth Melillo, a film producer who also works closely with her father in promoting his art and charitable work. “She chose about a dozen of John’s paintings to showcase on the Garret Stephens Gallery website to entice people and to offer limited edition prints as well. Marilyn is a true icon and to know her enriches your day when you meet her. She is brilliantly incredible.”

Following is Victor Forbes interview:

JOHN: Marilyn has been a huge support/friend and came to my Solo Art Show that Beth produced “East End Perspective/Life Goes On 2” at Southampton Cultural Center the first year we met her. I was then booked to teach an Art Class to 12 Veterans at the van Gogh Exhibition in Roosevelt Field and she came with her Dog Reggie. Beth and I met Marilyn through her residence in the complex that we worked in at a real estate meeting and we got talking about art. I mentioned that I was an artist, and she told me she did a whole thing with art. Shortly thereafter we signed a merchandising agreement where we authorized Museum Masters to merchandise a collecton of my paintings to market outside the United States.

VBF: And where are some of the countries where she’s getting the work displayed?

Italy is her main focus, but France and Belgium as well.

They like that whole Hamptons thing that you have going there?

I’m a disabled Vietnam veteran and I found art as a gift from God, a third act of my life when I retired, when I was suffering from an extreme case of PSTD, and I paint two things. I paint that life goes outside of Vietnam from actual photos that I took in Vietnam. I leave the shock and awe out of it, but I also paint my history — my history of the Hamptons going back to the 1890s with my family from Sagaponic to Southampton. I was raised out there, my mother was born in Watermill, all my aunts and uncles were born in the same house. Many family cookouts and this and that, so I paint a lot of the Hamptons, and I like my paintings to tell stories so I like to put characters and locales in them that you could trace around the island. To me, Long Island is one of the — I’ve traveled the world, but I’ve never seen a place like the East End. In a matter of eight miles, going across, going vertically north-south, you cover topographies like the Great Gatsby Cliffs on the North Shore and the Long Island Sound. You hit Peconic Bay. You got the flats of the Great South Bay, and you got the Atlantic Ocean. If you go further east, you got the races at Montauk Point. So all within that locale, and in two hours, if you wanted to be in Manhattan, you could do that, too. I’ve never seen a place like that where you could see all those different topographies of different bodies of water, and it brings a treasure trove of inspiration and certainly a treasure trove for painting.

Marilyn wanted an artist with deep Hampton experience and was promoting me locally to collectors who, if they wanted a Hampton experience, I would custom paint something that was meaningful to whoever the individual was. Maybe their Hampton house, maybe their house in Sagaponic, in Watermill, East Hampton, Amagansett, Sag Harbor — whatever and wherever meant something to them.

As you know, a lot of people come here and say, oh, we’ve got to work. These are local artists, and they come from 1986, 1992. They came from Russia, Lithuania. I’m the real deal. I grew up here, you know. I sailed on these boats. It was a town story adventure for me out here.

My family owned the Black Bowie

Bar, a very famous bar in Sag Harbor, $2 pitches of beer. In the 50s, my cousin and I would rent rowboats to go out flounder fishing right where all the yachts are. There were no yachts back then. There was nothing like that there. So we would rent a boat and go out flounder fishing and come back in. My aunt had a boarding house called the Sea Breeze Boarding House on Main Street in Sagaponic and they owned the farm that backed up to the pond. Then my cousin and I would live a town story adventure because it was a fresh and a salt water source, and we would catch crabs and turtles at the same time. There was not much out there in those days, everybody stayed at that house. It was built in the 1700s and it was very close quarters. I’d meet William de Kooning. I’d meet Pollock. I’d meet Arthur Miller. I met that famous guitar player from Spain — Segovia. I’d meet all these celebrities because that was the only place to stay. She served fantastic meals. You’d see even more people on the porch on Sunday brunch. It was interesting to get to know them. A lot of Europeans would come in. It was a very interesting upbringing. My uncle would sell plots of land for his kids through college.

It’s a beautiful thing, the art business, isn’t it, when it works?

Well, it’s varied. Art is a humbling thing no matter what level you’re at. There’s so many different forms of art, particularly out in the Hamptons, that are accepted because of the nomenclature of the houses. They have big walls, so they like big paintings. Sometimes it’s abstract art. I’m not an abstract painter, but I get it. Sometimes when I see a big abstract painting on a wall, it kind of brings the whole room together. There’s so many different forms of art and so many different venues of art. You’ve got the Parish Art Museum. You’ve got the Southampton Cultural Center, Southampton Art Center, Guild Hall in East Hampton, Ashawa Hall out there, Montauk oint, all these different galleries in Sag Harbor. You know, there’s the church in Sag Harbor that shows art. There’s so many different venues for art, and there’s so many different artists, because it’s really an international community that comes here because of the light, because of the topography, and because of all the different inspirations to paint. It’s not only very competitive, but also a very varied and diversified painting area. In other words, you’ve got contemporary realism, you’ve got cubism,

you’ve got abstract art, you’ve got abstract surrealism, and it all sells and it all fits.

Absolutely. It’s just the capital of the culture, you know. Plus, they’ve got the collectors there who can afford to spring for a painting every now and then.

More than that, painters themselves are very well to do.

We’re a good family. My family were dairymen. We used to deliver milk to the Montauk Lighthouse and my grandfather was a tenant potato farmer for the Halsey family. So we were pretty much farm people. Fortunately,we owned the land, we’re farm people. So when you got that mixture involved, it kind of all fit because it really was in a relaxing atmosphere. Everything was a dirt road. There was nothing out here. We used to do cookouts at Flying Point Beach in Southampton where there was a particular current and a sandbar that would bring in big shipwrecks. One day we saw a German U-boat show up. Me and my cousin would play in the wrecks while the family was doing the cookouts. Sometimes a beached whale would come in and the town didn’t clean up because there was nothing there. There’s a lot of history that I remember and I paint that history, by the way, that belongs to me, and I haven’t met anybody else who does that.

I think it’s important to keep that going. What’s also interesting is that as much as things have changed out here, some things haven’t changed. I can show you spots out behind the Nationals or the Shinnecock Golf Course where they’re still throwing their nets at dawn to catch bait. And nobody knows about it. These beautiful pristine inlets with maybe two people there and it’s still that way. Gibson Beach in Sagaponic, we used to ride our

bikes down there. That was our beach. It wasn’t the Gibson Beach. It was called Crooked Down. There was nobody there. And it’s still that way. You can still park in the dunes. You don’t need a permit. So, you know, there are certain things that as much as things have changed, they haven’t and I get a big kick out of that.

I was on the cover twice of Dan’s Paper. The first was a painting of Oregon Beach birdwatchers. That’s a long strip of land for two miles and then the following week they did another article on me.

It’s nice to get recognized.

The Hampton Library had a veterans thing and invited me because I teach a lot of classes and do a lot of talks on PTSD to veterans and first responders particularly. I received a small grant to put on a solo art exhibition at the South Hampton Cultural Center and donated proceeds to Paws of War and Pal-o-Mine, which is a horse ranch in Islandia where they treat veterans and first responders with horse therapy. We’ve done classes for their causes where we teach painting.

I painted both Paws of War dog paintings and a Pal-o-Mine horse paintings for my solo show to donate proceeds to these organizations. I’m all for giving back because I was given a gift and I like to share that gift with other people. Certainly, if there’s any way I can relieve some of their pain and give them a path of solace that was given to me I want to pass that on.

I’m of that era, you know, the Vietnam era. I was very fortunate because the very semester that I was due to lose my student deferment, Nixon ended the draft.

I was the last of the draft taken. I had just graduated from Cornell University. Tell me how many Cornellians you think I saw in the service? I graduated in ’69 and got out of Vietnam in ’72, the end of the war.

Those were tough days over there…You know what? It’s what you make out of it. I did good things. You meet heroes, too. It takes all kinds to make a war. But you know what? It’s not what other people do — it’s what you do. Sometimes you go into a jungle or something like that and all your animal instincts take over. It’s an amazing thing to be able to hear sight and sound and realize you’re an animal yourself. When I came home, I could hand feed raccoons.

You got to know the rules. But, you know, it’s funny. It’s kind of an amazing thing. I look at the positive side. I saw all the shock and all you want to see. But I look at the positive side, a series called “Life Goes On” which is the lighter side of Vietnam where we tell stories, for example, of women that had orphanages, that took orphans from both sides of the war. They humbly cut sugarcane to survive. We try to make even that a positive thing.

“James Corwith’s Grist Mill, Watermill, NY,” 20 x 16

“Whimsical Hamptons Mill,” 30 x 40

Because, you know what? It was just a civil war. Ho Chi Minh came to us first and said, look, you are a colonial America with the British. Why don’t you side with us? Because we don’t want to be colonial with the French. We said no and sided with the French. But, you know what? People don’t realize that in Vietnam I heard of no starving Vietnamese, not even in the slums of Saigon. It’s an economic issue. Vietnam is the rice bowl of Asia. It produces more rice than all of Southeast Asia. Plus, it’s a beautiful country.

“I try to take the positive side of it all. My paintings tell Hampton stories by experience and I’m excited to share them with the world. Marilyn is a huge voice internationally and it’s a true honor to have her support. Her experience and background is something to celebrate.”

– JOHN MELILLO

“Don’t Be Afraid, Sagg Beach, Long Island”

“Days Gone By”, 14 x 18

“Spring Came Early”, 36” x 48”

“Recently,” said Beth Melillo, “we all enjoyed a night of food, art and a healing panel talk event where my father was a speaker and presented at the East End Arts Event help at Barilla Pasterilla Restaurant. Marilyn was attending and I sat with her as we listened to my father present and eat Marco’s wonderful food. We are holding one of Marilyn’s Warhol tapestries that is on view at the restaurant.’’

Pictured above are Beth, Marilyn, and John

Insatiable Eats is a restaurant in Riverhead owned by Celebrity Chef Marco Barilla & his wife Sheila (above). Marilyn invited John Melillo to showcase his paintings in their Event Room where she would exhibit works of Picasso and others in her MMI stable as well as the

John LGO 3 Exhibition 2023

Praying at the Sistine Chapel, Vatican

Create a Miracle With A Solid Rooted Foundation.

The Miracle once again is seeing with VISION, and reaching for the stars the moon and the sun with NEW ideas to promote the brand! Marilyn Goldberg is a recognized visionary, initiating action developed for Direct Results.

Here is how:

• Marketing Stage develops the tone to go into business markets desired by clients and identifies new markets for such clients.

• Solves problems of corporations, manufacturers, art imaging issues, counterfeiting, co-branding, partnerships.

• Revitalizes and rehabilitates companies normal and every day “thinking patterns.”

• Focuses on Team building for Artistic and Business Estates as well as organizational issues and problems.

• Produces measurable results and performance. Solving problems, finding solutions and compromises for Real Results.

• Because she is an artist and an accomplished business woman she can add great business solutions, working “miracles” through personalities both corporate and individual.

• Marilyn’s Miracles assesses leadership and organizational strengths and weaknesses to create a multi-faceted solution.

• She applies all the knowledge and wisdom from her Real Life experiences of Miracles and creates a synergistic effect!

• Marilyn’s Miracles are a direct result of her visions concerning your problems and branding needs and future direction as needed to proceed with vigor into a great future.

• She is a Visionary for such tasks and creates the final acceptable resolution previously known as the Impossible. and now shows the world ANOTHER MIRACLE.

A Convertible, A Condo, A Chef & A Baby

The

Miracles Continue

Marco and Sheila Barrila have been friends with Marilyn for many years. This is their origin story. Insatiable Eats is the catering company and Barrila’s Pastaria is the restaurant. The Shinnecock Lobster Factory is an acclaimed seafood take-out restaurant with a food truck that is co-owned with Shinnecock tribal leader Lance Gumbs.

This interview is the closing chapter of The Queen of Art, saving the story of the Biggest Miracle of All – “Baby Barrila” – for this segment.

SHEILA BARRILA: “Marilyn had just bought a condo in Southampton Village, and she had her Villa Marilyn. We had our Shinnecock Lobster Factory seafood restaurant, less than a mile away and one day she pulled up in her Mercedes convertible while we were out there doing something with the landscaping. It was her birthday that week so she talked to us about the menu and options for catering on a boat that she was going out on for her birthday. We we’re caterers too, with a catering company for 18 years called Insatiable Eats. We did a really beautiful menu for her, a combination with lobster rolls and some other things and catered her birthday party. She then had us to Villa Marilyn a few times after that to cater events for her family and friends. We started off with that and then became friends.

VICTOR FORBES: What did you think when you first visited Villa Marilyn?

SB: Villa Marlyn was amazing. It was in the heart of Watermill, so there couldn’t have been a better location, and she designed it so well. It was like an Italian villa, which Marco loved because he’s from Sicily. So every detail of it was just very well put together. It was comfortable but still had these really nice luxurious effects. We ended up staying there with our family a few times when she was out of town. There’s been occasions, even for New Year’s Eve, one year when she was out of town and offered us her place to have our family stay with us there. It’s not only a great fun family house, but it’s also upscale with the swimming pool, theater outdoor kitchen and all of that.

VF: It’s a spectacular place and I’m so sad that it’s gone

SB: Yeah, we all are. I wish she had that forever. We cater at a lot of properties and you can definitely tell when a designer designs a

house. There are a lot of estates that are nicely designed, but Villa Marilyn had many extra small personal effects, as well as big details were put into that estate making it very special.

VBF: Did you serve on the Picasso plates and things like that?

SB: Yes, all of it. The villa was like a hotel with the big bed mattresses that elevated by remote with big down pillows. It was pure luxury, with a lot of art. The consummate host, Marilyn had props set up on the bed as gifts for the guests. It is there where we started learning a little bit about art and her connection to artists, especially with the Picasso family.

VBF: A house museum, that’s what it was. When did you open the restaurant in Riverhead?

SB: In 2022, Marco decided to relocate Insatiable Eats from the South Fork to the North Fork on Main Street in Riverhead. The large space prompted him to open an Italian restaurant there too doing fresh pastas and more. We’ve had other restaurants before including one in Watermill called Manna that was very close to Villa Marilyn. It is there where we got to know Marilyn even more as she frequented the restaurant with her family and friends. Back to Riverhead. Marco relaunched the space with his new Italian restaurant concept that has become Barrila’s Pastaria. For the next three years, we won the award for number one Italian food on the East End by the North Forker magazine. Marco created a great family style menu that has been ideal for hosting large groups and for celebrations. Guests can order individual or share plates. Once Marilyn came to visit, she saw that the restaurant was spacious and offered to curate an art collection for us. She had just returned from a trip to Italy and attended a Tota Pulchra event while there. She talked to the Vatican group about her dear friend Sicilian born, chef Marco Barrila. Upon sharing his background, they soon nominated Marco as the Tota Pulchra chef for New York. There is only one nomination per state, so it’s a great honor. Downstairs at the restaurant is our private dining room, La Galleria, that now hosts Tota Pulchra events. The space is filled with fine art including lots of Picasso art. Last year, 2024, was the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death. We commemorated this with a large event where Marco performed a five course family style dinner with over 15 of Picasso’s favorite dishes. We love art and are looking forward to more events. We now collaborate once a month with East End Arts across the street for “Art & Eat” nights celebrating local artists with different mediums. Together we are re-enforcing Riverhead as East End’s art district.

“Marilyn really liked my Mediterranean style, using fresh herbs and more fish.”

Marco Barrila and the pasta

Villa Marilyn Theater with Sid Maurer art

Insatiable Eats, Sustainable

Living, Incredible Art at Barrila’s Restaurant Museum

INSATIABLE yet SUSTAINABLE are maxims of Marco Barrila – a chef of the past, cooking in the present, planning for the future. Just one look at the photos of the dishes on the website for Barrila’s Pastaria Restaurant and Bar in Riverhead New York where a wall full of Picasso lithographs, hand-signed by his daughter Marina, from Marilyn Goldberg’s esteemed collection, speaks out from the walls: “If art be the food of love, sing on.” Dedicated to the traditions learned in his homeland of Messina, Sicily, Barrila made a name for himself in New York City where he sang opera as he worked his magic in kitchens at a number of famous dining establishments beginning at Lincoln Center’s noted Café Fiorello, “where I really started meeting a lot of people, doing radio and TV. I’ve been considered a celebrity chef since that time.”

Marco was a top 40 chef in New York City in 1999 with Daniel Boulud and Marcus Samuelsson and all these TV chefs now. “Had he not come to the Hamptons when I met him, said Sheila, “He would be a regular on TV cooking shows. Even so, he’s done a ton of Food Network events, competitions winning many awards and accolades. He was also on the Board of Jurors for the French Culinary Institute in New York City. We now do cooking classes at the restaurant for all ages and experience.

The creative kitchen of Chef Marco Barrila is an open space allowing guests to enjoy their own culinary experience of movement between an expansive antipasti bar; a light filled dining room with soaring ceilings; a pasta laboratory where pastas are paired with signature sauces; a pizzaiola station making Sicilian style pizza alla pala; an Italian dessert section and take-away market that are all “delizioso of course!,” he exclaims.

Drawing on the rich unique traditions of the many regions of Italy, Chef Barrila’s trattoria style menu was carefully curated to showcase the very best of authentic Italian cuisine. Continues Marco, “Our mission day after day is to be able to involve the customer in a culinary experience outside the box of the city. When you enter our house you must feel like you would in Italy, the same smells, the same flavors, the same sensations.”

Another mission close to Marco, Sheila and Marilyn’s hearts is “Citizens For Humanity” a non-profit organization of which Marilyn Goldberg is the dynamic leader as Marketing and Communications Chair, driving awareness and engagement for the organization’s mission. She is well-known in the non-profit sector, renowned for her exceptional contributions to the arts and her commitment to community service. As the U.S. Ambassador of Tota Pulchra for the Vatican in Italy, she has forged meaningful connections between the arts and humanitarian efforts. According to Marco, “We started working together on several events she was doing and in time she became like my mom and she was always there for me. She’s such a great soul and a natural fit for our Citizens For Humanity efforts, which started in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy when we were called by the Red Cross to feed families that were displaced from their homes. Since then we have been feeding hundreds of under-served families and homebound senior citizens on the East End. This has led to another project with a mission to serve that the trio are actively engaged in is Tenuta San Leonardo, Italy.

“It is our project of a life-time: a hotel, farm and cooking school in Umbra, Italy. The mission is to continue the combination of food and art on a beautiful piece of land. Marco’s dedication to the traditions of his homeland will be imparted to young people who will be offered residencies and scholarships”

– Sheila Barrila

Family style dining at Barrila Pastaria

Children learning from the master chef. He will teach them the recipes of his ancestors and of his own creations.

“Our restaurant was created because of the pasta, fresh pasta. We have a machine, a technique. We prepare fresh pasta from fettuccine to pappardelle and ravioli. We make it ourselves so that is an attraction.”

SB: We had been looking for a place in Italy to retire and Marco found this perfect three and a half acres property in Umbra, which is called the Green Heart of Italy where Agritourism is really huge right now. It’s a central location between Rome, Florence, and Peru. The property has two large stone structures surrounded by hundreds of acres of wheat fields that we might expand into later. We’re going to do a cooking school hospitality academy. Our Italy project will become a huge part of Citizens 4 Humanity.

MARCO: “I found this beautiful private estate in Italy, where we’re going to create something like a resort with a working farm on a very special piece of land.” It’s a site where I’m going to teach underprivileged youths from America to become chefs and place them in America. I came up with the idea because right now there is a shortage of authentic chefs. So the plan — the mission — is to take underprivileged children and make them professional chefs and send them back to America trained.

Tenuta Leonardo, dates to the 1400s. It was built for Saint Leonard and is a very special place known for the miraculous healings that happened there. People who could not walk would come. Many were farmers whose long days of hard work resulted in a lot of joint pain and arthritis. They were working so hard they couldn’t even move anymore. Leonardo was making the miracle, healing them and many walked away without the assistance of a cane or wheelchair and so it became that the people dedicated the place to Saint Leonardo. We chose this property not only for its historical and spiritual value, but also because it’s the center of Italy and also because it is one of the few such pieces of land left untouched by pesticides.

“Nobody messed with that land. It’s very clean. We want to create a country spot to be sustainable in itself. We believe the children now have less sustainability of eating healthy food. What we will try to achieve is to teach children how to cook

well and how to live well. That is the project, to also use all the local products from vegetables to fish and meats. It is three and a half acres with a beautiful suites where people can stay. There will be a spa. Then downstairs is going to be a restaurant. In the other building, we will have the cooking school, plus a seven bedroom residence.

SB: People in the community can sponsor students ages 18 to 24 to go to Italy, where they’ll learn not only how to cook, but also all aspects of hospitality management including financial management and marketing. Students will be taught by instructors that are in Italy and also by experts in this field remotely on Zoom. They will be immersed in the culture to learn all things Italian. There is a three year plan to open in 2028. This project will be half social mission, for Citizens 4 Humanity to bring students to come learn and graduate from there. The other half will be a destination resort. The students will be working on all aspects of the properties amenities. There’s a chapel on the property from the 1400’s that is owned by the Vatican where can cater weddings. The hotel aspect of the Barrila Resort offers a unique opportunity for students to learn the hospitality trade in a world-class destination. Guests will also be able to take part in cooking classes if they wish or enjoy themselves in a number of different ways. Umbra has more than 14 different incredible tourism attractions and excursions. We will have a concierge service to help coordinate everything. It’s a boutique hotel experience — not a big project, only two buildings — the perfect size to bring in eight to ten students maximum at a time. They’ll help run this beautiful farm-like facility, while preparing for a brighter future for themselves.”

Marco working the grill at the Shinnecock Lobster Factory truck

Lance Gumbs, Vice Chairman of the Shinnecock Nation Council of Trustees and a longtime tribal leader

SB: We get a lot of big groups and tourists at the Lobster Factory. Marco does and award-winning lobster chowder that people really love. We get celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg and many other high profile customers. Also, private chefs from the estates who come and buy their lobster from us. We are located on the Indian reservation, but the parking lot looks like a world class destination with the best cars lined up in the parking lot to get their lobster rolls.. all out of this tiny little seafood shack.

MARCO: This year, our seventh season, we are planning to expand the Lobster Factory. On the fifth anniversary, we got a lobster roll food truck, which is uber popular everywhere we go. Marco does six types of rolls including a signature fra diavolo, an homage to his native Sicily.

SB: The food truck has become popular for graduation parties, birthdays, ocean beach celebrations, weddings, late night food for clubs, backyard brunches and so much more. We do larger events like the Palm Tree Music festival for 10k people.

MARCO: This year we will do The Hamptons Fine Art Fair on the Southampton Fairgrounds. It’s one of the biggest events of the season. They chose our catering company Insatiable Eats to do upscale festival foods to serve with champagne and rosé. Our Shinnecock Lobster Factory food truck will serve lobster rolls and local seafood. Here we will also set up a space with

“We are located on the Indian reservation, but the parking lot looks like a world class destination.”

Marilyn’s art including original Picasso posters where connoisseurs can say, wow, a miracle. Look at this collection of fine works. At the Shinnecock Lobster Factory, I’ve been partnered with tribal leader Lance Gumbs. We both have a big passion for seafood. It was difficult for us for the first couple of years at the reservation because there was hesitancy for the mainstream public to come to the land. I wanted to show to the world that the Shinnecock people are a beautiful nation of great people. We have gained more and more confidence with the Tribal Nation too for the respect that we give them as we work together, its been an incredible transition into this business. We have never experienced any problems and overcome the stigmas. What did we create? We opened a door. Now that we have put the Shinnecock Lobster Factory there, we gave people the opportunity to come visit, sit down, eat excellent seafood and have a good time on the grassy lands.

Downstairs the private dining room, complete with its own entrance and bar and seating for up to 55 seated guests. Located in the heart of the East End, this thoughtfully designed event space is the perfect choice for any corporate, social or private affair. An elegant and timeless decor combined with an exceptional curated art collection enhances the experience of any celebration. “I didn’t know anything about art,” said Marco. “Marilyn taught me so many things. I learned so much in the last two years with Marilyn. Never did I think in two million years — I was at a point in my life at 60 years old — that I would have all this knowledge about art. I mean big names like Andy Warhol, Sid Maurer, Peter Max, Keith Haring, Impiglia. I didn’t even know who they were. And I feel now with the miracle, the Marilyn miracle, it’s like they pray, look, now we present ourselves at the art show. And all these beautiful things together, they’re going to really change for the future. Thanks to this beautiful art, beautiful people, they really care about the community. We call it one of Marilyn’s Miracles” So that is a really big blessing for me, for us especially, because now we kind of mix this art and food together. “People were very impressed to see all this beautiful art in the restaurant that hadn’t been seen in one place in public for many years, if ever. Sitting in front of the incredible Picasso’s is like dining in a museum. My alarm went off and I realized, Okay and this restaurant became a gallery — a restaurant gallery — where we pair art and food. We consider ourselves artists as chefs because of the beautiful variety of color on the plate. The beautiful pieces Marilyn put on the walls are like a piece of history that was forgotten by everyone. That’s how the Tota Pulchra Gallery came into being here and how we focus on this art, especially to sell this art, to give an opportunity to people to enjoy a piece of the important historical and American, modern art. I say I discovered Marilyn’s treasure.”

“And this is what it’s all about. It’s not about gain or anything. It’s about leaving something to the new generation.” – Marco Barrila

Melina Raffaella Barrila

Born January 12, 2025

Continuing along those lines of miracles is the recent birth of the Barrila Baby, Melina. After the tragic death of their unborn child in a difficult pregnancy, Sheila became pregnant shortly thereafter but, continues Marilyn, “This baby had to be removed from her Mom’s belly one month before birth. I contacted my Doctor family members to participate with the treatment at Stony Brook Hospital. When all was done in positive assistance and the pre-mature baby went home after a month in an incubator, I went to a fabulous baby store in Hampton Bays advising the owner how the Barrilas do fabulous catering for the needy every Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving. I made a Marilyn’s Miracle to get all needed baby clothes and goodies totally free for them for a full year to welcome and bless Baby Barrila for year one!

AFTERWORD

“RISE HIGHER ACCOMPLISH YOUR DREAMS LEAVE YOUR MARK.”

The Queen of Art and her Prince of Publishing

As I was in the throes of the production of this book, I tuned into Joel Osteen for encouragement and he said the above words, so applicable to this project. Marilyn is a shining example of rising higher, accomplishing dreams and leaving a mark. Since 1983 we at SunStorm — Jamie Ellin Forbes and myself —have been adhering to these same tenets in conjunction with Marilyn. She has been, and continues to be, a dear friend, mentor and now co-conspirator in what Laurence Gartel describes as a book that will “Bring back great art and surely put a dent in the superficiality of it all.” Ok … I’m with that. As we get ready to go to press, I would like to congratulate the wife of my youth and my business partner of 50 years, Jamie Ellin Forbes, on her ascension as an elder in the Manzanita Band of the Kumeyaay Nation and her photographs being featured in the grand opening celebration of Native Star, the first Native American store in San Diego’s vibrant and historic Gaslamp District that honors the rich tapestry of Native American culture, art, and heritage. “This landmark establishment is set to showcase the incredible artistry, fashion, and crafts of our people, marking a historic moment for our community,” commented Ruth-Ann Thorn creator and Director of this establishment. On another note, I would like to thank Grand Master of Fine Art Charles Carson for this unsolicited compliment. “You have done an immense amount of work over the past 45 years for many artists and visual artists.You have a lot to be proud of for all the work you do in collaboration with Jamie. I hope your health is doing well and that there will be many years for both of you.We are very grateful for everything that has been done with great professionalism, you are one of the disappearing people where the love of your work, your passion and especially the love of people have made you accomplish great things. We are very proud to be part of your friends and very privileged too. A big thank you for being there and for being there in very difficult moments of life. Take care of yourselves, dear Victor and Jamie.”

And a big Thank You to Marilyn Goldberg, a woman of great love and compassion. The Queen of Art.

Greetings From Aruba

Warhol, Haring and The Queen of Art