"Neither of us were interested in collecting 'pretty pictures.’ We love our collection. If we gave our money to the Symphony or Opera, we could enjoy a performance. With art, we can live with it in our home, having it stimulating us and keeping us asking questions." Norman and Norah Stone

Norman and Norah Stone in the park of Napa Valley Stonescape.

For the last two decades, Norman and Norah Stone have collected a wide array of artists and media transcending any cultural, geographical and social boundaries and have managed to assemble an extremely varied, cohesive and challenging art collection. Their collected body of work acts as the mirror of their individual sensibility, and is internationally admired for its daring and unique perspective. “The wisest thing to do is to know your end-game,” Norman Stone says. “We collect museum-quality pieces so that in the end they will go to museums.” Proving their commitment as art lovers and art patrons, the Stones have ties to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney and the Tate Modern, among others. “Our mission is to act differently” seems to be their collecting motto, which is reflected in the pieces hosted in their San Francisco house. Among the most iconic and envied pieces there are Jeff Koons’ “Two Ball Total Equilibrium Tank” (1985); Keith Tyson’s 2002 Turner Prize-winning “Bubble Chambers;” Marcel Duchamp’s “Fontaine” (1917) as well as “L.H.O.O.Q.” (1940); Robert Gober’s “Pair of Urinals” (1987). Andy Warhol self-portrait, “Fright Wig” (1986) auctioned at Christie’s in 2011 for $27.5 million used to be part of their collection, too.

The first pieces the couple collected were sixties and seventies European Modern Art including Tapies, Soulage and Dubuffet. But after meeting San Francisco Moma’s curator John Caldwell who introduced them to Thea Westreich, whom he recommended as an art advisor, their interest became more and more serious, and their direction took some shifts. “We initially focused on the most provocative and intellectually challenging emerging artists, particularly those from the “Pictures” generation including Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and Sheri Levine. We also acquired works by Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley, Robert Gober, Christopher Wool, Martin Kippenberger and Cady Noland. Our collection interests then expanded to include minimal and conceptual works by Donald Judd, John Baldessari, Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Robert Smithson. During the 1990s we added works by Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke Matthew Barney, Jason Rhodes, Larry Clark and Doug Aitken[whose video work is displayed in the couple’s garage]. At that point we realized that many of the younger artists were influenced by Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Bellmer and Bruce Conner, so pieces by these artists were acquired to give the collection resonance, balance and richer understanding,” the Stones affirmed. Some of the work is highly provocative. But, says Norman, who is a psychologist by training, and who works regularly as a psychological counselor with young people at a local community center: “Our art addresses upsetting issues and I don’t feel good about them but they exist and should not be shirked.”

Jeff Koons, Two-Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J. Silver Series, Wilson Aggressor); 1985; glass, steel, sodium chloride reagent, distilled water, and basketballs; 63 in. x 36 13/16 in. x 12 13/16 in.; Collection SFMOMA, fractional and promised gift of Norah and Norman Stone in memory of John Caldwell © Jeff Koons.

Joseph Beuys, Untitled (Vitrine with Four Objects/Plateau Central), 1962-1983; mixed media in painted wood, steel, and glass vitrine; 81 1/8 in. x 19 11/16 in. x 86 5/8 in.; Collection SFMOMA, fractional and promised gift of Norah and Norman Stone © 2011 © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, Germany.

Norman and Norah Stone in the living room of their San Francisco mansion. Their red brick Beaux-Arts style residence was designed by architect Arthur Brown in 1927. The house includes historic rooms decorated in the thirties and forties by the iconic California interior designer, Frances Elkins. In the back Bruce Nauman’s neon Run from Fear, Fun from Rear, 1972. Photograph by Elena Dorfman.

This far-sighted couple listed among Art News top 200 collectors has not limited to let collecting become a way of living, - six of the eight bedrooms in Norah and Norman Stone’s mansion in San Francisco have been given over to art- but being moved by genuine philanthropic aims the couple also created a new type of exhibition space to show the art that is part of their daily life. They have taken the old, commonly used modality of carving out an underground area for the storage of wine and transformed it into a spacious and functional space for the exhibition of art. The 5,750-square-foot Art Cave, designed by Bade Stageberg Cox, is situated inside a mountain on the Stones’ Napa Valley property. It is integrated as part of the Stonescape, which also features a pool and pavilion by James Turrell; a 1990 outdoor sculpture by Cady Noland; a farmhouse, built in 1887, that is installed with works of contemporary art and outstanding examples of mid-century Scandinavian design (all from the Stones’collection); a vineyard; and a majestic stand of redwood trees. Although Stonescape is not open to the public, the Stones are always delighted to arrange visits for museum groups. Needless to say that this one-of-a-kind art environment echoes a one-of-a-kind art experience that perfectly matches the couple’ s sparkling personality and endless curiosity.

Map of the Stonescape.

1. Farmhouse 2. Skyspaces 3. Pavilion 4. Art Cave 5. Cady Noland Cabin 6. Cottage 7. Waterman Path

THE OLD FARMHOUSE

One of the main buildings on the Stonescape property is the old farmhouse built one hundred and twenty years ago, serving as a weekend home for the Stones and as an interesting setting for their art and their collection of mostly mid-twentieth-century Scandinavian furniture and design. Currently installed in the farmhouse are works by: Mark Alexander, John Baldessari, Robert Beck, Julie Becker, Richard Billingham, Daniel Bozhkov, Olafur Eliasson, Ann Hamilton, David Hammons, Jamie Isenstein, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Cady Noland, Laura Owens, Richard Prince, Simon Starling, Cheyney Thompson, Keith Tyson and Lawrence Weiner. Furniture and decorative objects include examples designed by: Alvar Aalto, Tore Ahlsén, Maarten Baas, Campana Brothers, Josef Frank, Berndt Friberg, Alfredo Häberli, Piet Hein, Fritz Henningsen, Poul Henningsen, Axel Einar Hjort, Grete Jalk, Claudy Jongstra, Finn Juhl, Makoto Kawamoto, Ib Kotod-Larsen, Ingeborg Lundin, Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Bruno Mathsson, Barbro Nilsson, Gaetano Pesce, Jens Quistgaard, Marianne Richter, Paolo Rizzatto, Axel Salto, Torben & Hanne Valeur, Hans J. Wegner and Tapio Wirkkala.

Interior of the Farmhouse. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

Interior of the Farmhouse. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

Interior of the Farmhouse. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

THE SKYSPACES BY JAMES TURRELL

“I make spaces that apprehend light for our perception, and in some ways gather it, or seem to hold it…my work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing.” James Turrell

Throughout his entire career, James Turrell has always been fascinated by light, particularly the ways in which it can be exploited in order to alter our perception of the natural world. Since the mid-1970s, Turrell has been creating his most successful and acclaimed body of work, Skyspaces, structures that are both enclosed and open to the sky, allowing visitors to contemplate atmospheric changes through apertures in the ceilings of the structures. The patient viewer can experience the variances in light, which change according to the season, day, hour and the weather. Commissioned in 2001 and completed in 2007, Stone Sky, 2005 includes a pavilion and an infinity pool that stretches out toward the valley floor and the volcanic pinnacles beyond. Turrell’s installation within the open pavilion brings a square of sky through an overhead plane. By swimming underwater at the end of the pool, one surfaces within a cube-like Skyspace, whose interior is finished in teak. San Francisco-based architect Jim Jennings worked in close collaboration with James Turrell and Tom Leader to realize the artist’s vision for the Skyspaces, and to relate the elements of earth, water and sky to one another. The overall design includes both the pavilion and its fiberglass Skyspace — the 1,800-square-foot horizontal plane hovering 15 feet above a stone terrace — and the Skyspace within the black-tiled pool, which rests on columns immersed in the water.

James Turrell, Stone Sky, 2005. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

James Turrell, Stone Sky, 2005. Photograph © Drew Altizer.

The Pavilion. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

The Pavilion during an opening. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

THE ART CAVE

The core of Stonescape is the Art Cave, a 5,750-square-foot space specially conceived for exhibiting art from the massive and dramatic Stone collection. The project was commissioned in 2005 to New York-based architects Bade Stageberg Cox and completed a few years later not without efforts and difficulties, as the Stones recall: “The primary reason we built the Stonescape Art Cave was so that we could show larger pieces that were difficult or impossible to install in a domestic setting. We wanted to do thematic exhibitions featuring some of these pieces as well as others that may have been in storage due to lack of space to show them. The idea of building the cave evolved from our being unable to find suitable space in San Francisco and realizing that we had a location for a cave to be dug into the hillside on our property in the Napa Valley. We were at that time (2003) constructing our James Turrell pavilion, swimming pool and Skyspace in the pool. We consulted with engineers, soil specialists and architects and decided to begin excavating the cave. There were some challenges with numerous boulders and clay soil. However we were able to overcome these obstacles through engineering and devoted drill workers. In late December of 2005 the worst storm in Napa history hit the Valley as we were nearing completion of the main walls. We received a call from the drilling foreman letting us know that we might lose the cave as water coming down from Diamond Mountain was shooting into the cave through the material. Fortunately a wonderful man named Mike saved the cave by working through all of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.” While the cave echoes the architectural typology of wine caves typical throughout Napa Valley, there is nothing else like it in the world as a space to display art. The curvaceous geometry of the cave is exploited to create a space lacking the familiar architectural cues of corner, edge and detail. The intersections of tunnel vaults and the sculpted light pockets washing the interior surfaces with light create a seemingly boundless space. One’s encounter with art occurs in a context unencumbered by traditional functions or associations. Steel entry portals incised into the hillside articulate the cave’s presence. In contrast to the farmhouse, which is a symbol of the domestication of the landscape, the cave’s condition as architecture is ambiguous: its scale and form are indeterminate. The portals, serving as the transition between landscape and cave, are sculptural and abstract. The design of the art cave takes advantage of tunneling construction techniques, developed for the wine industry, which allow for the creation of a column-free interior volume. The cave provides a naturally tempered environment that benefits from the geologic conditions of the site. In designing the Art Cave, Bade Stageberg Cox paid particular attention to how the cave functions in relation to the larger property. This is the reason why, the entrance to the cave is aligned with the landscape designed by Tom Leader and with the Skyspaces by James Turrell, while the cave’s exit portal leads directly to the Cady Noland path. It is used to host the Stones thematic exhibitions, organized on a biennial basis and featuring highly challenging pieces, from Rirkrit Tiravanija’s site-specific intervention “Police the Police” to Monica Bonvicini’s conceptual pieces, from Vito Acconci’s large installation in the shape of a bra to Richard Serra’s magnificent sculptures, just to name a few.

Entrance of the Art Cave. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

Installation view of the show Breaking new ground underground, featuring the works of Jorge Pardo among others. Photograph by Jason Schmidt.

Installation view of the show Politics is personal, featuring the works of Joseph Beuys, Sigmar Polke, Ryan Gander, Rirkrit Tiravanija. Photograph by Ian Reeves.

THE CADY NOLAND SCULPTURE

“Log Cabin Blank with Screw Eyes and Café Door (Memorial to John Caldwell)” is Cady Noland’s only outdoor sculpture to date and is an integral part of Stonescape. It is not only an important and singular work in the Stones’ contemporary art collection, but a memorial to the former chief curator of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with whom the artist and the Stones were personally close. The couple regards Caldwell as a real mentor and inspiration along their path towards collecting contemporary art: “In 1988 we became more involved with SFMOMA, particularly with John Caldwell, the brilliant and inspiring chief curator. We traveled with him on many inspiring museum-sponsored trips and thus began our passion and interest in contemporary art.” But Noland’s piece is also an example of the efforts that the Stones put in supporting each artist they work with, and of the friendship they cherish with them. “ Many of the artists in the collection have become our friends and we love to see them in New York, Europe, Los Angeles, London or Paris, or at art events. We prefer to meet them after we have been introduced to their work so as not to be unduly swayed by personalities. Several of the artists in our collection spent generous amounts of time with us while installing large pieces. For instance, Cady Noland spent two or three weeks with us in Calistoga in 1992 when we were installing the outdoor sculpture “Log Cabin Blank with Screw Eyes and Café Door (Memorial to John Caldwell)” which remains permanently installed. Cady’s piece is the façade of a log cabin in line with her interest in American icons. While constructing the piece I had to drive Cady to Santa Rosa on several occasions in order to choose wood stain. Each time she would look at me as we began the drive over windy roads and in a plaintive voice say, “I always get car sick.”

The Cady Noland Sculpture. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.

THE COTTAGE

A new secret gem has been recently added to the already-rich cultural landscape of Stonescape: the cottage. This structure, located just down the road from the Cady Noland Log Cabin is used for the present and future installations at Stonescape, and has been turned into a one-room exhibition space, inaugurated with an installation by Jamie Isenstein (“Acéphal Magical and Saw the Lady”, 2007). The work is a two-channel video: on one screen, a magician dressed in a tuxedo with a top hat (seemingly in place of his head) plays a melody on a saw; on the other screen, musical notes come from water-filled bottles, the result of air blown across their openings by an oscillating fan.

The Cottage. All property photographs © Florian Holzherr.