Robert Scull (1915–January 1, 1986, age 70) was an American art collector, best known for his "world-famous collection of Pop and Minimal art". Born in New York to Russian immigrant parents, Scull dropped out of high school and had various jobs until his wife inherited a share of a taxi business. When this thrived, the couple started buying abstract art and later pop art.

Early life

Robert Scull was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents who had

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

their family name from Sokolnikoff. His childhood was spent in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

. His interest in modern art began when he visited the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

as a ten-year-old boy.

Career

Scull dropped out of high school, but studied and took some courses in art, while doing miscellaneous jobs. He worked as a freelance illustrator and industrial designer until his wife Ethel's father died, leaving them a share in his substantial taxi business. Scull grew his share of the business into his own Super Operating Corporation, which had 400 drivers, and a roster of 130 taxis, and was later known as "Scull's Angels". Scull even recruited Amy Vanderbilt, an expert in etiquette, to teach his drivers customer courtesy. He and his wife started buying the works of

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of th ...

artists including

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter ...

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

, and

Franz Kline Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert M ...

. In 1965, they auctioned 25 works, as they were moving on to collecting pop art, including

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

and James Rosenquist, with help from the dealer Leo Castelli. The proceeds went to establish the "Robert and Ethel Scull Foundation", with the purpose of raising money to encourage unknown artists. From 1960 to 1965, he provided financial backing to the art dealer Richard Bellamy, and his "innovative" Green Gallery in New York. The 1973

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

auction, "The Collection of Robert C. Scull", of 50 mostly Pop Art lots yielded $2.2 million, and was the first single seller auction of contemporary American art. However, the New York art world saw it as the " nouveaux riches cashing in".

Personal life

He was married to Ethel Redner, they had three sons, Jonathan, Stephen and Adam, and divorced in 1975. His second wife was Stephanie.

Legacy

In 2010, Acquavella Galleries in Manhattan hosted an exhibition, "Robert & Ethel Scull: Portrait of a Collection", with paintings, sculptures and drawings by

, Michael Heizer,

, James Rosenquist,

Myron Stout Myron Stout (1908–1987) was an American abstract painter whose geometric paintings and drawings bridged the styles of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism.Brenson 1987. He was born in Denton, Texas. During his senior year at North Texas State U ...

, Larry Poons,

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in ...

Mark di Suvero Marco Polo di Suvero (born September 18, 1933, in Shanghai, China), better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. Biography Early life and education Marco Polo di Suvero was b ...

, John Chamberlain,

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

, Walter De Maria, Robert Morris and others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scull, Robert 1915 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American art collectors American people of Russian-Jewish descent Businesspeople from New York City