H
er elegant, discerning manner is matched only by her impressive list of contacts:
BJ Topol, who grew up in Lake Tahoe, is the absolute go-to art advisor for major collectors and has inspired new designs from the likes of Phillip Lim and Derek Lam. In ”Sex and the City,” Candace Bushnell modeled the role of Charlotte on the knowledgeable art historian, and as a little girl, Topol appeared in the The Godfather as Al Pacino’s little daughter. She lives with her family in a loft full of art in the Flatiron District in Manhattan. Where does your interest in art come from? Having the direction to major in art history in college, your interest must have started at a
There are key moments in your life that change the trajectory, really lightning bolt moments. My grandmother was from the Deep South, and her family came over on the Mayflower. She collected antiques. That was where I first got this idea of beauty, and history and tradition. I learned that early on from her. Because in Lake Tahoe, California, where I grew up, there are no museums, there’s no culture. It’s all about the outdoors, it’s all about hiking, it’s all about the natural beauty. But my first light bulb was when I went to visit my great aunt in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. She was a docent at the Philadelphia Art Museum and she was a very cultured woman. There was a whole Marcel Duchamp wing at the Philadelphia Art Museum, which blew my mind. It opened me up and that was really when this passion started. She and her husband took us to the Barnes Museum. It was life changing. That’s what I’ve come to –that feeling where art seeps inside and you can’t live without it. There was someBJ Topol’s days are packed: She visits clients, attends gallery openthing in that moment.
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younger age.
it was spending time on your knees looking at a Chippendale chair and being able to tell the difference between this carved foot and that carved foot. And why this wood had aged and the patina was making it more valuable. My business partner and I call it eye mileage. We always encourage clients to look and look because the more you see, you develop this understanding for what’s good, what’s great. But yes, I’ve been doing this for 27 years. How long was the Sotheby’s program? At the time it was a ninemonth graduate program. I ended up getting a job at a gallery right after, and I worked there for 10 years. I was very lucky. It was a small gallery and at the time there still were masterpieces available in the 19th and early 20th century painting world. We handled so many of them and worked with museums and private collectors. How did your role change during those years at the gallery? I started at the front desk. I would go in early and I’d stay late and I’d read catalogues. I would tip-toe to my boss’s office and listen to conversations with clients – I just poured myself into it. There was a moment where I had gotten an offer from Christie’s, so I went into my boss’s office to talk about it. He said, “I know that you’re ambitious, but one, you’re a woman, and two, you’re not quite manipulative enough to make it in the art world.” Hearing that was the biggest challenge I could have been given. I thought, I’m a woman but I can do it better, and I can also do it my own way. I don’t have to be manipulative. I can develop my own relationships with my clients based on integrity, trust, knowledge and all of those things. So it gave me that push. So after 10 years at the gal-
It was really exciting – to slowly build that confidence and to get to the point where new clients wanted to work with me and not necessarily with my boss. There were a couple of art advisors – amazings and goes to volleyball games when her two daughters play. How did you get involved in the ing women – who came in the This doesn’t leave much time for sitting on the sofa with her feet up. art business? My father, who gallery and I would watch them was more traditional, wanted me to go to business school. He didn’t and think eventually, this is what I’d like to do. What was happening in your personal life during this time? I was know what I was going to do with art. I said, “there’s a place called Sotheby’s that’s in Beverly Hills, and I’ve walked by it and I had immersed in my work. I used to say the Metropolitan Museum was read about it and I was intrigued, and it’s a business.” And I saw my best friend on Friday nights before I met my husband, because him just perk up. I loved it. I knew that I wanted to continue working, but I also wantThe “B” word! Exactly! He took me to lunch one day after my classes ed to have a family. The idea was to start my own business as an art in L.A. We were walking on Rodeo Drive, and he said, “Oh, here’s advisor so when children came I would already have my business Sotheby’s! Let’s go in.” We get to the front desk and he says, “My established and I could work around it. And that’s what I did. It was daughter’s interested in an internship.” I interned there for my senreally scary. Any change is so hard – you question yourself. I went ior year, which was unbelievable. It was incredible because, when out to lunch with one of my clients and he said, “I’d like to be your you are study-ing art history, you’re looking at slides, you’re reading first client.” I had wonderful support. So how many clients do you work with now? I have a business partner the facts. At Sotheby’s, you’re looking at the paintings, you’re holding them and you’re turning them around. It’s a whole different aswho I’ve been working with for 10 years, we did the Sotheby’s propect. The woman I worked for, her name was Meriwether Morris, gram together. We have clients that we’ve been working with – I’ve was amazing. With her help, I did the Sotheby’s American Painting been working with – for 25 years. We have clients who are looking program in New York. My father was very supportive. That’s how I for very specific works, so we’ll find the perfect Agnes Martin from came to New York. the right period. They’re not as active, but we’ve had such long relaWhat’s always been so impressive to me about those who study art tionships with them so they’re always in our minds. I would say we history is the vast amount of knowledge you have when you realhave maybe five very active clients, so around 10 all together. Kay, ly know art. The amount of memorization and to know things like a my business partner, and I have a very specific way of working, so brush stroke… It becomes like a connoisseurship. That’s what they we’re not right for everyone. Continued on page 154 were teaching in this Sotheby’s course. Instead of memorizing dates,
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