Roy Neuberger | |
|---|---|
 Roy Neuberger (center, seated) receiving theNational Medal of Arts fromGeorge W. Bush Nov. 15, 2007. | |
| Born | Roy Rothschild Neuberger (1903-07-21)July 21, 1903 Bridgeport,Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | December 24, 2010(2010-12-24) (aged 107) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Financier and art patron |
Roy Rothschild Neuberger (July 21, 1903 – December 24, 2010)[1] was an Americanfinancier who contributed money to raise public awareness ofmodern art through his acquisition of pieces he deemed worthy. He was a co-founder of the investment firmNeuberger Berman. Roy Neuberger served for several decades as Honorary Trustee, Benefactor, and member of the Department of Modern Art's Visiting Committee at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.[2]
Roy Rothschild Neuberger (unrelated to the famousRothschild family)[1] was born inBridgeport, Connecticut, and spent his childhood in New York City.[3] Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he was orphaned at the age of 12 after the deaths of his father Louis Neuberger, an immigrant from Germany and his mother, Bertha Rothschild, who was originally from Chicago.[1][4][5] Neuberger described himself as having been interested during high school in tennis. He matriculated atNew York University, originally to study journalism, but grew restless and dropped out without obtaining a degree.
His first job was working in the Manhattan department storeB. Altman and Company.[3] Among the things he practiced selling were paintings, which nurtured his love of art. He sailed to Europe at age 20 on an inheritance from his parents, and went to live in Paris. He enjoyed abohemian lifestyle there, visiting theLouvre three times a week, where he met his lifelong friend, 20th-century art historianMeyer Schapiro.
Neuberger painted and studied art until 1928, when he readFlorent Fels' biography ofVincent van Gogh. He was startled when he learned how Van Gogh had only sold one painting, and was heartstricken to learn that Van Gogh, like so many other artists, lived in pain, poverty and misery.[4] Appalled that artwork was often only considered valuable after an artist's death, Neuberger vowed to support living artists, claiming "the contemporary world should buy the work of contemporary artists."[6] Neuberger often purchased works from artists who were struggling financially, including Jackson Pollock, Willem DeKooning, and Mark Rothko, believing that the financial support would help the artists stay on their career track.
He moved back to the United States and enteredWall Street in 1929, seven months beforeBlack Tuesday. He started out withHalle & Stieglitz[7][1] and sold short RCA shares, through the stock market crash and well into theGreat Depression. He founded Neuberger Berman in 1939 withRobert Berman. In 1950, Neuberger's firm started one of the first no-loadmutual funds in the United States, the Guardian Fund, which is still in operation today.[8]
By 1939, Neuberger had made enough money to buy the first painting that he would lend out to promote the artist:Peter Hurd'sBoy from the Plains.[9] He allowedNelson Rockefeller, another avid art collector, to useBoy from the Plains in a travelling American art exhibition. Rockefeller's exhibition travelled to South America, and many people in both South and North America were thus exposed to Hurd's art.
Among the other artists whose works Neuberger collected areJackson Pollock,Ben Shahn,William Baziotes,Alexander Calder,Stuart Davis,Louis Eilshemius,Edward Hopper,Jacob Lawrence,Jack Levine,David Smith and especiallyMilton Avery. The first Avery he ever purchased wasGaspé Landscape, which he bought during a snowstorm and wrapped carefully before going out, determined to keep the painting intact to make the man famous.[10] Neuberger still hadGaspé Landscape on a wall in his apartment at the time of his death. Neuberger also began donating works to institutions, among them theMetropolitan Museum of Art, theMuseum of Modern Art, and theWhitney Museum, as well as many college and university museums.
Rockefeller later became governor ofNew York and created theState University of New York system. For his friend Neuberger, Rockefeller established a museum atPurchase College as part of the new university where Neuberger could display a substantial amount of the art he had acquired.[1] With the help of architectPhilip Johnson, theNeuberger Museum of Art was built on the SUNY Purchase College campus and opened in 1974. Neuberger contributed more than 900 of his artworks toward the collection.
On November 15, 2007, President George W. Bush awarded the then-104-year-old Neuberger the 2007 National Medal of Arts.[11] Neuberger claimed to have never sold a work of art, stating that "It would be a criminal act for me to sell", and that "I buy because I love the work."[9]
Regarding the company he co-founded, he said "Art in the workplace has been a part of Neuberger Berman's corporate culture since the investment firm was founded in 1939. In 1990 Neuberger Berman began developing its own art collection, emphasizing the work of emerging mid-career artists from around the world and presenting their works in an enriching environment for employees and visitors."[12]
Neuberger was married for nearly 65 years[3][13] to Marie Salant,[14][15] also a distinguished patron of the arts, and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College;[16] together they had three children:[14]
In 1997, he published his memoir,So Far, So Good - the First 94 Years. His life as an art collector is chronicled in his 2003 bookThe Passionate Collector: Eighty Years in the World of Art.[17] In his later years Neuberger was often seen in the company ofKitty Carlisle Hart.[17] Neuberger died on December 24, 2010, at the age of one hundred and seven and was buried at Mount Neboh Cemetery where other members of his family were interred.[18][19]
moved to Manhattan from Connecticut in 1909
.. met .. Marie Salant, an economics graduate of Bryn Mawr College, at .. Halle & Stieglitz Co
