My First: How Peter Marino Started His Contemporary Art Collection

In advance of the opening, Whitewall spoke with Marino about his collection’s beginning, the first works he purchased, and the paint of writing that very first check to an art gallery.

WHITEWALL: Tell us about the very first piece you bought, the work that started the collection.

PETER MARINO: The first contemporary pieces I ever bought were two small Polaroids by Lucas Samaras that I saw at Pace Gallery, which was right around the corner from my first job, at SOM. I remember the trauma of writing my first check to an art gallery.

WHITEWALL: How did your collection evolve from then until now?

PETER MARINO: It’s many collections, really and not all I show. I collect rare books, I collect silver, I collect porcelain, I collect paintings, I collect drawings, I collect photography, I collect sculptures, I collect historical and contemporary pieces, I collect 18th century French furniture, Art Deco furniture, Wiener Werkstätte, and Tiffany silver.

Art that I collect–which I think reveals a lot about me, my architecture, my boxes, and pieces from my own collection of ancient and contemporary art—will be presented as iconic groups of works and artists that that are part of my life.

WHITEWALL: For the show at Southampton Arts Center, “COUNTERPOINT,” could you share the story behind a few works that are particularly personal to you? What makes this selection for the exhibition unique?

PETER MARINO: The Warhol watercolor of flowers will be exhibited and is signed, “To Peter, Andy Warhol.”

About half the works will be shown for the first time since Miami (“One Way: Peter Marino,” at the Bass Museum of Art in 2014). Glenn Brown’s sculpture We Reeled Drunkenly from Outer Space (2014), Zhang Huan’s Sea No.1 (2011), six by Baselitz, five by Joel Morrison, and a host of work by Tom Sachs.

“Counterpoint: Selections from The Peter Marino Collection” is on view through September 23.