Jonathan Prince, a sculptor whose recent works were the subject of a solo exhibition at Cynthia-Reeves in Chelsea, has placed a key sculpture, Light Box, in the noted collection of 20th- and 21st-century art of Julie and Edward J. Minskoff.
When visiting Manhattan, ARTKABINETT collector members can stop and marvel at their marvelous works which are located throughout the city in their numerous public properties and lobby spaces. Our fine art social network enjoys nothing more than to mix business and art!
Mr. Minskoff, President of Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc., a New York-based real estate acquisition and development company, creates buildings that are widely acclaimed as art forms themselves.
Mr. and Mrs. Minskoff generously display much of their art collection in public view throughout their buildings.
Light Box is now installed in the lobby of the former IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue in New York, alongside works by Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, John Chamberlain, Kenny Scharf, and Alexander Calder.
Prince developed Light Box after reading an article in The New York Times Magazine about dark matter. The article describes how matter actually consists mostly of empty space. This was the beginning of a body of work that explores how sculptural volumes can be created with minimal mass.
Light Box is a near perfect cube (32'by 32'by 32') of Zimbabwe black granite with twenty-five four-inch diameter holes drilled through all six sides.
The weight (or mass) of a granite block of this size would be approximately 4,000 pounds.
As a result of the multiple perforations, the mass of Light Box is only twenty-five percent of what a comparable volume of granite should weigh, or 1,000 pounds.
The black cube has been used as a symbol through the millennia to represent perfection in mathematics and geometry.
Perhaps the cube's most significant appropriation is through religion: Islam, Judaism and the Occult all use the black cube symbolically.
The cube as an expression of perfect geometry has been used to great advantage by the artist Donald Judd, whose quest for "clarity in the constructed object" led him to work extensively with the "box". Reference to Juddís mastery is given in the title of this sculpture.
Additional artists of note include Charles Ray, whose "Ink Box" (1986, seen right) is considered a post-modern masterpiece.
To say that Edward Minskoff is a developer would be like saying Picasso was a painter. In fact, there is a nexus between the two.
Mr. Minskoff, the founder and chairman of Edward J. Minskoff Equities Incorporated, creates tall buildings that are widely acclaimed as an art form. Picasso created works that took art to rarefied heights.
Mr. Minskoff began working in the real estate business while still a teenager. Picasso was a precocious draftsman whose talent was already established before he was 20.
Mr. Minskoff's father, Leo, was in the real estate business and almost certainly influenced his son's sensibilities. Picasso's father, Jose Ruiz y Blasco, was an art teacher who certainly had a great impact on his son.
No surprise, then, that Mr. Minskoff is drawn to Picasso's works. He owns several of them.
He also owns works by dozens of other famous artists, including Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, and Frank Stella. And, of course, he owns sculptures by Isabelle Minskoff, his mother.
"Besides being a sculptor working with stone and clay, she was a collector. Perhaps that's why I'm a builder with an artistic sensibility."
That sensibility is on display at numerous buildings Mr. Minskoff has raised. He emphasizes the use of granite, limestone, and marble, calling them "earth elements that will be around forever."
Sculptures and paintings from his collection are lavishly on view. His office is lodged in an 800,000 square foot tower at 1325 Avenue of the Americas (seen right); it is - there's no other way to put it - a dazzling museum of contemporary art.
"There's a strong connection between art and buildings," Mr. Minskoff said. "One has a functional purpose, the other is visual. But both have aesthetic qualities." He is insistent that all his buildings be perceived as works of art.
"Buildings are an art form. That's why I get very involved in the design of everything I build," Mr. Minskoff said. "I'm a very visual person, but the types of buildings that I develop are meant to have permanency and lasting elegance, and not offer just immediate gratification. I know that what I've built will be around during the lifetime of my great-grandchildren."
Julie Minskoff, who hails from Korea, shares his passion for art. They met at an art gallery in New York. She's now the de facto curator of his enormous personal collection.
A collection of a different kind in his office involves pictures of the buildings that Mr. Minskoff has built or bought, such as 51 Astor Place (shown left).
Before he started his current company in 1987, Mr. Minskoff was chief executive officer of Olympia & York, a Canadian company.
From zero holdings, he developed and acquired 43 million square feet in America for Olympia.
The 7.5 million square foot World Financial Center was among his prominent projects.
Mr. Minskoff, who majored in economics at Michigan State University and obtained an MBA from the University of California in Los Angeles, worked for several companies before he became Olympia's CEO. Among them were Cushman and Wakefield, where he learned about leasing, and Lehman Brothers.
Minskoff Equities is his special pride. Mr. Minskoff has developed or acquired nearly 5 million square feet of office space. Another 1 million square feet in a mixed-use residential and retail building is expected to open next year at 270 Greenwich St. He's also developing 650,000 square feet of commercial property in Long Island City.
