Shared Space
The Joseph M. Cohen Collection

Edited by Ray Merritt

Why people collect art is as simple and as complex as why people fall in love. The reasons are many. Seeking and gathering as acquisitive traits have been part of human nature since the beginning of time and may well have found their most perfected and emotional manifestation when applied to fine art. Some may do it to leave a mark or create a legacy. Others may do it for sentiment, decoration, memorialization, worship, vanity, wealth display or investment. The most interesting members of this class collect because they are drawn to the skill of the artist and the majesty of the work. Those collectors are a breed above and are best described as art appreciators.

Joe Cohen, a New York collector, is one of those. He has been quietly amassing art for over four decades. His collection is without borders. Virtually no medium is missing; no subject is excluded. All basic art conventions are encompassed — portraiture, still life, landscape, urbanscape, realism and abstraction.

This volume presents an overview of the Cohen Family Collection. It seeks to show the works in their settings and, through informative and entertaining commentaries, to cast light on the breadth of the collection. It is hoped that this dual approach will give some insight into the mind, and perhaps the spirit, of the collector, as well as invite the reader to share in the fruits of his passion.

LIST OF ARTISTS

Appelt, Dieter
Atget, Eugène
Avedon, Richard
Baldaccini, César
Balthus
Barye, Antoine-Louis
Becher, Bernd and Hilla
Benton, Fletcher
Brauner, Victor
Burt, James Jackson
Cain Marcus, Caleb
Callahan, Harry
Cartier-Bresson, Henri
Chagall, Marc
Christenberry, William
Cienfuegos, Gonzalo
Clergue, Lucien
Close, Chuck
Cowen, Jeff
Cragg, Tony
Davis, Lynn
de La Tour, Maurice-Quentin
De Movellan, Pedro
Deacon, Richard
Degas, Edgar
Demuth, Charles
diCorcia, Philip-Lorca
Dijkstra, Rineke
Di Suvero, Mark
Dolron, Desiree
Drtikol, Frantisek
Dubuffet, Jean
Edgerton, Harold
Evans, Walker
Fischl, Eric
Flanagan, Barry
Francis, Mark
Frank, Robert
Freud, Lucien
Funke, Jaromir
Fuss, Adam
Gentileschi, Orazio
Gibson, Ralph
Gilpin, Laura
Ginsberg, Allen
Gonnord, Pierre
Gorky, Arshile
Groover, Jan
Hicks, Nicola
Hockney, David
Höfer, Candida
Hughes, Patrick
Iglesias, CristinaIlgen, Fré

Izu, Kenro
Keetman, PeterKelly, Ellsworth
Kertész, André
Lange, Dorothea
Leibovitz, Annie
Lethbridge, Julian
Lichtenstein, Roy
Lutter, Vera
Mann, Sally
Mapplethorpe, Robert
Massard, Didier
Mathis, Jill
Matisse, Henri
Meyerowitz, Joel
Michals, Duane
Misrach, Richardbr> Mitchell, Joan
Moholy-Nagy, László
Moore, Andrew
Moore, Henry
Muniz, Vik
Neshat, Shirin
Newman, Arnold
Newton, Helmut
Norman, Dorothy
Orkin, Ruth
Otterness, Tom
Parvin, David
Paulsen, Susan
Penn, Irving
Picasso, Pablo
Polidori, Robert
Rauschenberg, Robert
Ray, Man
Rickey, George
Romney, George
Rosenblum, Walter
Rovner, Michal
Sander, August
Shapiro, Joel
Steichen, Edward
Steinert, Otto
Stella, Frank
Stieglitz, Alfred
Strand, Paul
Struth, Thomas
Sugimoto, Hiroshi
Tang dynasty horse
Tiepolo, Giambattista
Wall, Jeff
Watanabe, Hiroshi
Weegee
Weston, Edward
Wilson, John H.