In the Sanderses’ “midcountry” home, photographs from the 1930s to the ’70s by Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand, among others, share space with Conceptual art from the 1960s and ’70s, as well as pieces by contemporary stars like Banks Violette. The collection is cerebral and somewhat eclectic. “To have pieces by Ad Reinhardt, Richard Serra and Brice Marden in dialogue with works by Joseph Kosuth and Rirkrit Tiravanija, to have all these voices in the same room means I can be a curator in my own home,” says Pamela. “It gives me incredible joy.”

The Sanderses may own a number of works by household names, but Pamela insists that theirs is a “thinking collection, not one where you check names off,” adding, “We don’t think about the market.” High prices, she says, are “what help sell magazines and newspapers. My collection doesn’t. We want to establish relationships with curators and artists.” She adds, “We don’t want publicity. But this is a community that seems to get publicity whether we like it or not.” 

"Pamela and Arthur Sanders" originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's July 2008 Table of Contents.