An Artist Auctions Works by Picasso, Jasper Johns, Karen Karnes, Lichtenstein, Tom Levine, Rosenquist and Others

Painter Tom Levine lives and works in a 5,500 square foot loft in Manhattan, a space remarkable for both its windows facing four directions and the extensive art collection inside. Comprised of pieces from years of creating his own work as well as buying and exchanging art with his peers, Levine’s collection is one of varied mediums, styles and memories. Among them are a Picasso pitcher and graphics from some of his mentors, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, and particularly, Jasper Johns. “He’s the most amazing artist I know,” he says; “his thought process, his prodigious imagination; and from a technical standpoint, he has developed the skills to make anything that he chooses to. I know it may sound corny, but his work makes my heart beat faster.” Among his favorites is a series of etchings from Johns titled Red, Yellow, Blue.

Raised in Cincinnati, Levine studied English at Miami University, psychology and consumer behavior at the University of Denver, then spent a year at the Art Academy in Eden Park, and two years completing an MFA at the University of Cincinnati. He moved to New York in 1974 and “Ran out of money quick,” he recalls. To cover expenses, he took a job as a waiter at the Waldorf Astoria, where he waited on Andy Warhol, among other prominent diners. Months later, he wound up at the same dinner table as the Pop artist. Levine was amused at the capacity for path-crossing in Manhattan. “In the late 1970s, the New York art community really was quite small.”

Levine’s own work has received recognition, having been shown in several exhibitions over the years, and has been collected by The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum and the National Gallery in Washington. In Levine’s loft, pottery and ceramics dot bookcases and kitchen shelves, much of it made by Karen Karnes, with whom he would often have lunch when she visited from Vermont. “During her last visit, I discovered she didn’t really care much about lunch – she just wanted to see what work of hers I had acquired that she could borrow for an upcoming museum retrospective! “She was a brilliant potter, one of the first artists who went to Black Mountain College during the well-known period that Josef Albers was there,” he says. “I acquired work of Karen’s, from the early 1950s, many with exquisite salt glazes.”

Levine, who discovered EBTH after his mother passed away in Cincinnati, is downsizing in anticipation of a move to a smaller space. “Less expensive and easier to maintain,” he explains. As he embarks on the next move, Levine sees his past experiences mirrored in the items with which he’s parting. A set of two upholstered rocking chairs, for example, reminds him of time spent in his studio, looking and thinking. “They were where I would sit and look at the phase the painting was in and figure out the next step.”

David Hockney’s piece, Hollywood Bowl, really speaks of David’s California sensibility.

I heard concerts at The Hollywood Bowl many times, and David gave the piece to me several years later. It was from a design he had done for a poster and later a lithograph. I think it’s just a beauty.”

Tell us about the Chuck Close self-portrait.

That one is particularly unusual because the image is actually a watermark, which he made in New York. I found it so delicate and translucent.

What about the Gertrude and Otto Natzler pottery?

Those are particularly fascinating because Gertrude and Otto Natzler were a couple — they had a productive artistic partnership; she made the forms and he glazed them. They were especially well known for the works that were made with complicated glazes — crystal, volcanic and crater glazes of which the one in this auction is a good example.

And there’s the plywood chair

That’s by Herbert Von Thaden. There are very few examples of that chair that still exist. I found that one at an auction and I was so taken by the form. It’s in lovely condition for having been made in the late 1940’s, I’ve loved living with it.