I’ve been collecting for more than forty years. During that time, I’ve advised collectors on building collections and helped revive interest in several important artists’ estates. Right now, I’m helping a gallery in Hangzhou, China get started. I’ve enjoyed every day I’ve spent doing this. There’s always something interesting to see —even when there isn’t— plenty to think about, and always too many ways to spend money.

What current art trends do you wish would die?
Figurative painting. I’m sick of it. Emerging artists doing figuration—that’s even worse. There’s just so much of it. We’re all drowning in it. The technical level of some of these painters can be so dazzling that it can almost be convincing. I want to believe, I really try to give it a chance. But the difference between what’s at stake in a work by Joanas Woods and a David Hockney is beyond mind-blowing. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye paints lovely youthful portraits, and they are incredibly beautiful but Kerry James Marshall paints with a mission. Thinking about the difference between Salmon Toor and Tom of Finland is at best laughable, and trying to contrast someone like Katherine Bradford with Milton Avery is so staggering that it’s hard to know where to start.

First, let me just say that all these contemporary painters I have named, I enjoy. Some I even love. But what are they risking by making works like this today? What is really at stake? These artists aren’t even bothering to try and squeeze something fresh out of the dried-up husk of figuration. They paint and they do it well. But today’s figurative painting seems to be part of the general passivity induced by the sea of images that flow past us every day. There is no reason for us to want to stop long enough and look hard enough to want to respond or engage. This painting does not provoke, does not generate aura, and does not absorb us into thoughts. However, it does decorate nicely.