ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
MERA AND DON RUBELL’S
ASTOUNDING ART
COLLECTION HAS NO END IN SIGHT
One of the world’s top collections of privately owned contemporary art—now housed in a 45,000-square-foot space in Miami, Florida, and slated to move to much larger digs next year—began very humbly more than half a century ago in a Manhattan apartment on 8th Avenue and 23rd Street. Mera Rubell was then taking night classes at LIU Brooklyn to get her master’s degree in education ('68, MSE). On weekends she would take long walks in Chelsea with her husband Don Rubell, who was in medical school, and they noticed that artists were converting abandoned storefronts into art space. Increasingly curious, they ventured inside.
One day they started talking to a shy young woman assisting in a gallery and found out that she was a photographer. Three months went by before she finally agreed to let the Rubells see her work. They convinced her to sell them a photograph they really liked for $25. The sum represented one quarter of what Mera was making teaching in a Head Start program while supporting her husband. But the couple agreed they had to have this piece—and they’ve never let it go. The photographer was Cindy Sherman, who is now recognized as one of the major creative forces of our time. Today that photo is just one of more than 7,500 art objects along with works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Cady Noland and Kara Walker, to name a few, the couple has acquired as part of the Rubell Family Collection, which they oversee through the Contemporary Arts Foundation that they formed in 1994 with their son Josh. Their daughter, Jennifer, is an artist as well. “The last thing I would imagine myself to grow up to be would be an art collector,” said Mera. Born in Russia, she came to America with her Polish parents when she was 12. While Don embarked on his medical career, she taught public school in New York City, but neither she nor her husband ever took an art class. “You don’t need to go to school to learn the language of art,” Mera said. She has a special message for LIU students who don’t think they have the time to go to an art museum or visit a gallery. “I say, whatever you do, sometimes the places where you waste time give you an opportunity to expand your vision of the world. Make the time to waste time well!”
STATUE OF LIBERTY by Keith Haring Sculpture, Felt-tip and Dayglo on Fiberglass
SPRING 2018 | LIU MAGAZINE
9