(Photo by Caysea Stone)
Dr. James Cottrell and Joseph Lovett began collecting art over 40 years ago in Manhattan after getting together in 1976.
What started as an admiration for New York’s artistry and a way to support their community amidst the HIV/AIDS epidemic turned into a collection comprising of over 500 works from artists worldwide. The pieces stretch across various mediums, from conceptual to abstract art, and speak to the politically charged period in which they were created.
What sets the couple’s collection apart is their dedication to the relationships they’ve nurtured within the art community. Although Cottrell and Lovett have acquired pieces from established artists, their passion lies in supporting up-and-coming talent, many of whom go on to gain national success and recognition. Once they find an artist they connect with, they commit to supporting them, often purchasing more than one piece of artwork.
Now, Orlando will get a sneak peek at what the couple has been expanding on for decades.
Opening Jan. 24, the Orlando Museum of Art will feature the couple’s third major exhibition with OMA, “Relationships: A Love for Collecting.” Running through May 4, the exhibition will feature 84 artworks from artists like Suzanne McClelland, Deborah Kass, Noël Dolla, Philippe Mayaux, Adam Fuss, Tom McGrath and many others as part of the museum’s installation of the couple’s massive donation.
“It’s a really great way to allow the public to see the work of certain artists in depth,” says Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, chief curator at OMA. “You’re taken aback, and you get a glimpse of that genius, the incredible creative mind of an artist.”
OMA mounted its first exhibition with the couple, “Co-Conspirators,” back in 2004 when then-chief curator and close friend Sue Scott offered to store some of their collection at the museum while they renovated their home. Cottrell jumped at the opportunity, replying, “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“[It was] the first time that each of us had seen so much of the work displayed together; the pieces really talked to one another and talked to the viewer,” says Lovett. “Honestly, it was one of the most exciting exhibits I’d ever seen.”
The exhibition was followed by “The Conversation Continues” in 2016.
Lovett describes “Relationships” as “a bigger deal” than their past exhibitions with OMA since many pieces will find their permanent home there. In addition to the exhibition’s 84 works, OMA expects to receive another 250 pieces over the next few years, allowing the museum to continuously enhance its Cottrell-Lovett collection.
The couple hopes the exhibition will help facilitate difficult conversations about struggle, disabilities and discrimination.
“Because of the political nature of what’s going on in our country, and Florida in particular, we were very pleased to be able to gift this as two gay men [and talk] about issues that are relevant to people, that the museum is happy and excited to discuss as opposed to pretending that they don’t exist,” Lovett says. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to participate in helping to let people know what their world is all about.”
One of the first additions to the couple’s collection was an early work of then-unknown artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, which they acquired at an AIDS support auction held by Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Basquiat, who lost his life to a heroin overdose in 1988, used his paintings to introspect on his experiences as a Black man and call attention to issues like wealth disparity by combining historical information and social commentary. Through the auction, Nathan Kolodner, the president of GMHC and close friend of Cottrell and Lovett, helped raise nearly $1 million in support of AIDS research before losing his life to the disease in 1989.
As a couple within the LGBTQ+ community in Manhattan, Cottrell and Lovett were anything but immune to the tragedies that emerged following the peak of the AIDS epidemic. Their connection to the lives lost is reflected in the pieces they’ve spent years curating.
“I think the art world was very connected with the AIDS world from the very beginning,” Lovett says. “The gay community really didn’t become a community until AIDS.”
The exhibition unofficially pays tribute to several artists diagnosed with the disease, including Barton Lidice Beneš and Gregory Thompson.
Thompson, who died at age 35, was one of 46,000 people who had their lives claimed by the disease in 1988, more than half of the cases reported that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Created long before his HIV diagnosis, the exhibition features a piece by Thompson that shows a man on what could be a bed, or deathbed, being strangled by a succubus.
Beneš, who passed away in 2012 from unrelated reasons to his HIV diagnosis, will have 10 original works in “Relationships.” These pieces give viewers a glimpse of the struggles he overcame following his diagnosis, one of which displays a heart-shaped chocolate box of various pills in cupcake liners — something Claeysen-Gleyzon says may look controversial at first glance.
“You’re wondering, ‘Is it advocating [drug use]?’ When, in fact, those were HIV medicine,” Claeysen-Gleyzon says. “[Cottrell and Lovett] supported that artist because they felt it was important for them to be true to their mission of supporting living artists and finding a cure.”
The exhibition will also have a strong international element, featuring artists from Cuba, France and Haiti. Contemporary French artist Roland Flexner is credited with introducing the couple to global works after introducing them to a wide range of painters in the South of France.
A small-scale solo exhibition will accompany the eclectic and diverse “Relationships” with “Edouard Prulhière: The Inverted Sound of Painting,” showcasing Cottrell and Lovett’s whopping 34 original works by the French artist. The “Relationships” extension will highlight Prulhière’s less than conventional art style, which he adapted after becoming dissatisfied with two-dimensional painting in the late ’90s. His revamped approach incorporates heavy textures and structural practices — something he calls “volume painting.”
“He’s deconstructing the actual frameworks, and they’ve become these sculptural elements with the paint actually going 360 degrees around the wax,” Claeysen-Gleyzon says.
Prulhière will paint a mural installation live Jan. 21 and Jan. 23 to further strengthen the exhibition’s overall theme of nurturing the relationship between artist and collector.
“Relationships: A Love for Collecting” and “Edouard Prulhière: A Solo Exhibition” both open Jan. 24 at the Orlando Museum of Art and will be on display until the first week of May. For hours, ticket and general information, visit OMArt.org.
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