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Salon Art + Design 2020
“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A COLLECTOR”
(Left to right) Joris Laarman, Bone armchair, cast marble resin, 2008; Ron Arad, Solid rocker, stainless steel rods, 2010
mixed with more avant-garde photography by Sally Mann. Since 2007, Friedman’s oeuvre has expanded with Friedman Benda Gallery, which he operates with Marc Benda and where he’s embraced more future-forward works by London-based designer Ron Arad and Dutch artist Joris Laarman. “I am still collecting after almost 60 years,” says Friedman, who in 2014 auctioned off 1,000 works from his vast collection, including art glass, photography, and 21st-century furniture. The 77-year-old has once again changed course, pivoting to antiquities from Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Tibet, Thailand, China, and Japan, between 1BC and 1AD. Moss maintains there’s something to be learned from all this trading. “Take the ride. Let the objects totally possess you. Because you should know, it will take you like a river to the next place. It’s not about the thing. It’s about, ‘Why are you so obsessed with a thing?’ Go for the high note. Then you can move on.”
Melissa Feldman is a writer and editor
