Paul Schupf

HAMILTON, N.Y.—HAMILTON, N.Y., Jan. 10, 2007—President of his own private investment firm, Paul Schupf is also a passionate collector of art. His collection includes major works by Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Ed Ruscha, Chuck Close, Richard Serra and Alex Katz. He has donated paintings to museums in Europe and America, and has shown particular generosity toward Colby College in Maine, where he has gifted the Paul J. Schupf Wing for the Works of Alex Katz, and the Paul J. Schupf Sculpture Garden.

Last spring he also made a commitment to Colby for the donation of his collection of works by Richard Serra, which will give the university the best collection of Serra prints outside of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

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My First Acquisition

When I started collecting in about 1971, my first focus was 20th-century master prints. At that time it was possible to acquire Picasso’s great Vollard Suite prints, and prints by Matisse, Whistler, Schiele, Munch, Nolde and Beckmann at modest prices. I have given away or sold all of these early acquisitions.

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My Most Recent Acquisition

The most recent edition is the suite of 13 very large etchings by Richard Serra called Arc of the Curve (2004). It’s an extraordinary suite, and they are among the greatest prints that I have ever seen.

Immediately before the Serra suite I acquired six Chuck Close pulp paper prints. In my opinion Chuck is an amazing printmaker, and on top of that he’s one of the seven most innovative printmakers in history: Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, Whistler, Picasso, Serra and Close.

He has made terrific prints of Lucas Samaras including woodcut, reduction linocut, and now a huge pulp paper Lucas—that famous image with all the energy. To see the three Lucases together is a tour of printmaking fireworks! It’s a great image to begin with, but the way Chuck changes the image through process is unique.