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Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Bob Rennie donates $22.8-million worth of contemporary art to National Gallery of Canada
Vancouver art collector Bob Rennie and his family have donated $22.8-million worth of contemporary art to the National Gallery of Canada, the gallery announced Monday. Rennie picked the gallery in Ottawa because he felt it has the resources to conserve and curate the art, and that a national institution was best placed to lend to regional institutions in Canada as well as making international loans. 'I looked at them as the right custodian,' Rennie said in an interview. A prominent international collector, he has given the gallery 61 works by such renowned artists as the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, the Palestinian-British installation artist Mona Hatoum and the American conceptual artist Dan Graham, who died in 2022. The donation also includes a career-spanning collection of 40 works by the Vancouver artist Rodney Graham, who also died in 2022 and was known for his large-scale photographic lightboxes. 'This is transformational for us,' said National Gallery director Jean-François Bélisle. 'It has been a dialogue about what do we want to add to the collection. His collection is a lot bigger than what he is donating to us right now. Not everything is on the table, but everything can be talked about: We really shaped this in terms of what would most benefit the national collection.' Bélisle added that the gift includes works that the gallery could never afford to buy and allows the gallery not only to lend to Canadian institutions but to enter into loan agreements with international institutions. For example, the U.S. National Gallery of Art in Washington is interested in borrowing one highlight of the gift: The American Library is a room-sized installation of 6,600 books wrapped in colourful African fabrics and bearing the names of notable American immigrants and Black Americans affected by the Great Migration. The piece was created by the British artist Yinka Shonibare, who explores the colonial relationships between Europe and Africa, and is known for his use of the bright Dutch-wax textiles once imported to Africa from the Netherlands. 'He could have given this collection to anyone in the world,' Bélisle said. The gallery, which already has one space named for the Rennie family, will name at least one more, as Rennie continues to discuss donating more of the collection. 'If you give to the National Gallery, you give to all galleries,' he said. 'If the National Gallery has them, the Art Gallery of Alberta doesn't need to buy them.' Rennie serves as chair of the collections committee at Washington's National Gallery of Art and previously served on committees at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Tate Modern in London. A collector with international reach, he was unlikely to make the gift to his local art museum: Rennie has been a vocal critic of the Vancouver Art Gallery's ambitious plans for a new building (now cancelled), saying it made bricks and mortar the priority instead of art. Unusually, the gift comes with no stipulation as to how or when it will be exhibited: Rennie said donors' requirements that their art be on permanent display tie a gallery's hands. 'I don't know if there is enough discussion about this,' he said, noting the pattern of donors' onerous requirements that he has witnessed in the U.S. 'You give one Monet; you want it displayed at all times. Everybody does that and you have no museum.' However, the gift does come with the expectation the National Gallery has the resources to lend the work. Rennie, who also gave about $12-million worth of art to the gallery in 2017 and has now donated a total of 260 works, has not endowed the gift with any cash contribution but has covered the costs associated with evaluating it and shipping it to Ottawa, Bélisle said. The $22.8-million figure is the evaluation approved by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, the organization that can issue Rennie with a tax receipt for that amount. Rennie added that he prefers to fund on a project basis, paying for catalogues and shipping when lending his art. For example, he has lent work and funded the catalogue for a coming exhibition devoted to the Black American artist Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy in London. The son of a Vancouver brewery truck driver and a homemaker, Rennie first bought a work of art at age 17 when he purchased a signed Norman Rockwell reproduction and had to borrow money from a neighbour to cover the shipping. He launched a highly successful career marketing real estate in Vancouver in his 20s, eventually becoming the city's 'condo king,' and began collecting in earnest. 'At what point are you a collector? When the works are stacked against the walls,' he said. His collection includes about 4,000 works by more than 400 artists. In the 1990s he preferred works that included text; in the 2000s, he began to specialize in works that dealt with social justice and artistic appropriation. Starting in 2009, he showed some of the collection in a private museum installed in the Wing Sang, the oldest building in Vancouver's Chinatown, but closed that project in 2022 and helped the Chinese community buy the building to create the new Chinese Canadian Museum. He has collected Canadian works in depth, including by B.C. artists Ian Wallace and Brian Jungen, but said he doesn't want to marginalize their work by placing it in a narrow national context. 'It is a Canadian collection, it's just not full of Canadian art,' he said. Similarly, he does not intentionally buy female artists but has 173 of them in the collection. Aged 69, he has three adult children by his ex-wife Mieko Izumi while another former partner, Carey Fouks, continues to oversee the art collection. Rennie has promised the family he will resolve the future of the collection by the time he turns 75. His plan is to donate art up to the $50-million mark with no stipulation that the National Gallery must show it or can't sell it. 'Will I roll over in my grave if they deaccession it? No. You have to trust someone if you marry them,' he said. 'Instead of my grandchildren saying, 'That's Bob's museum,' they can say Bob did something for the country.'
Ottawa Citizen
7 hours ago
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Bob Rennie donates $22.8 million in art to the National Gallery of Canada: 'We want the works to be shown'
Article content Vancouver real estate marketer Bob Rennie is starting to think about his legacy, and where to place some of the 4,000-plus works in his art collection. Article content The National Gallery of Canada appears to be at the top of his list. On Monday, the Ottawa institution announced Rennie and his family had donated 61 works to the gallery, valued at $22.8 million. Article content Article content The trove includes 40 works by the late Vancouver artist Rodney Graham and three works by Ai Weiwei, the outspoken contemporary art superstar from China. Article content Article content Rennie has already donated a couple of hundred works to the National Gallery, bringing the total to 260 pieces of art valued at $35 million. Article content 'I'm 69,' said Rennie, a wildly successful real estate marketer and internationally known art collector. 'My kids don't have the capacity to manage this collection, so I want a custodian that is better than me and that is well-funded for conservation, preservation, (and) blending.' Article content Article content He also notes the National Gallery has a new position designed 'to make sure that there's a lending practice across Canada to major, modest and small museums. We want the works to be shown.' Article content There may be more art on the way. Article content 'We're discussing two major Kerry James Marshall works,' he said. 'I think (the gallery was) surprised that we might be willing to give them, because they're extremely valuable.' Article content Article content That isn't hype. A Marshall painting sold for $21.1 million US at Sotheby's auction in 2018. Article content Article content 'It's very hard for museums to keep up with contemporary market prices,' he said. Article content To get expensive works, art galleries rely on donations. Rennie said for a collector, donating art is like 'you're marrying off your children.' Article content 'You hope that they're marrying the right person, and the journey will be protected,' he said. 'And that's been our relationship with the National Gallery. We've been (that way) ever since our first donation to them 20 years ago. We've been very comfortable.' Article content Rennie had local shows of his collection for a couple of decades at his own gallery in Chinatown, located at the historic Wing Sang building. Many of the works he has donated were at shows at his gallery, including a Rodney Graham exhibition.
Vancouver Sun
8 hours ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Bob Rennie donates $22.8 million in art to the National Gallery of Canada: 'We want the works to be shown'
Vancouver real estate marketer Bob Rennie is starting to think about his legacy, and where to place some of the 4,000-plus works in his art collection. The National Gallery of Canada appears to be at the top of his list. On Monday, the Ottawa institution announced Rennie and his family had donated 61 works to the gallery, valued at $22.8 million. The trove includes 40 works by the late Vancouver artist Rodney Graham and three works by Ai Weiwei, the outspoken contemporary art superstar from China. There are also 10 pieces by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum, a large installation by British artist Yinka Shonibare, and three works by the late American artist Dan Graham, among others. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Rennie has already donated a couple of hundred works to the National Gallery, bringing the total to 260 pieces of art valued at $35 million. 'I'm 69,' said Rennie, a wildly successful real estate marketer and internationally known art collector. 'My kids don't have the capacity to manage this collection, so I want a custodian that is better than me and that is well-funded for conservation, preservation, (and) blending.' He also notes the National Gallery has a new position designed 'to make sure that there's a lending practice across Canada to major, modest and small museums. We want the works to be shown.' There may be more art on the way. 'We're discussing two major Kerry James Marshall works,' he said. 'I think (the gallery was) surprised that we might be willing to give them, because they're extremely valuable.' That isn't hype. A Marshall painting sold for $21.1 million US at Sotheby's auction in 2018. 'It's very hard for museums to keep up with contemporary market prices,' he said. To get expensive works, art galleries rely on donations. Rennie said for a collector, donating art is like 'you're marrying off your children.' 'You hope that they're marrying the right person, and the journey will be protected,' he said. 'And that's been our relationship with the National Gallery. We've been (that way) ever since our first donation to them 20 years ago. We've been very comfortable.' Rennie had local shows of his collection for a couple of decades at his own gallery in Chinatown, located at the historic Wing Sang building. Many of the works he has donated were at shows at his gallery, including a Rodney Graham exhibition. 'I wanted to keep (the Graham works) all together, and (thought) the National Gallery would be a really safe place for it,' he said. A neon globe that was the centrepiece of Mona Hatoum's show at the Rennie gallery is not going to the National Gallery, however. He donated it to a museum in Qatar. He sold the Wing Sang building to the province in 2022, which converted it into a Chinese Canadian Museum. Much of his focus now is on lending art from his collection for exhibitions. He currently has 62 artworks on loan around the world, and is lending some Marshall paintings to an exhibition that will open this fall at the Royal Academy in London, England. His collection is largely focused on what he calls 'raising artists' voices.' 'Social justice is too weak a word. It's used too often,' he said. 'But raising artists' voices and making sure that topics of our time are raised.' He has blue-chip international art connections. He is chair of the collections committee at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. After 17 years of association with the Tate Gallery in London, he stepped down as president of the Tate Americas Foundation last November. He has also been a critic of the Vancouver Art Gallery's proposal to build a new facility. But he had breakfast on Monday with the two people currently running the VAG, Eva Respini and Sirish Rao, and said he now has 'the nicest relationship with the Vancouver Art Gallery that I have had since 2002.' And he is still collecting. 'I've acquired 342 works since Jan. 1, 2023.' jmackie@
CTV News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Vancouver businessman donates $22.8 million worth of artwork to National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada has received a gift of 61 iconic contemporary artworks from Vancouver businessman Bob Rennie and the Rennie Family, valued at $22.8 million. The donation comprises of 40 works by Rodney Graham, 10 works by Mona Hatoum, pieces by Dan Graham, and three works by Ai Weiwei. Rennie started collecting when he was 17, and the collection has been put together with Carey Fouks. 'We have always thought about custodianship, which is about making sure that artists are seen and their voices are heard beyond their life and beyond my life,' Rennie said in a statement. 'This is foundational to the collection. The National Gallery of Canada shares our values and our intentions. Values of preservation, conservation and allowing the works to travel to museums and venues, which are not only across Canada but within the broad reach of relationships the Gallery has cultivated across the world.' Rodney Graham Rodney Graham, A Partial Overview of My Brief Modernist Career (2006–2009), 2006–09. Installation view, Rodney Graham: Collected Works, Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2014. Gift of the Rennie Foundation, Vancouver, 2024. © Estate of Rodney Graham, Photo: Blaine Campbell. (National Gallery of Canada/submitted) Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum, Undercurrent (red) [detail], 2008, ed. 1/3. Installation view, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin. Gift of the Rennie Foundation, Vancouver, 2024. © Mona Hatoum, Photo: Jörg von Bruchhausen, Courtesy Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris. (National Gallery of Canada/submitted) Rennie and his family have now donated more than $35 million in gifts to the National Gallery of Canada, comprising over 260 artworks. In 2017, Rennie donated 197 paintings, sculptures and mixed-media pieces in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday. 'We are most grateful to Mr. Rennie for this major donation and for his trust in us to share stewardship of these works on behalf of Canadians,' said Paul Genest, chair of the board, and Jean-Francois Bélisle, Director and CEO, of the National Gallery of Canada. 'We also want to acknowledge the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, who works tirelessly to cultivate relationships with philanthropic partners who share our passion to bring people together, especially in these divisive times, through shared experiences through art.' Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare, The American Library [La bibliothèque américaine], d'installation, When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. 2019–2020. Don de la Fondation Rennie, Vancouver, en 2024. © Yinka Shonibare ; photo : ICA, Boston/Charles Mayer. (National Gallery of Canada/submitted) The National Gallery of Canada says it will be able to make the collections available to Canadian and international museums in the future. The Upper Contemporary exhibition gallery at the National Gallery of Canada has previously been renamed the Rennie Gallery.
