Jennifer Gilbert’s Detroit Vision Reaches Sotheby’s
Jennifer Gilbert is sending a group of prized works from her collection to auction as she prepares to open Lumana, a new culture space in Detroit’s Little Village neighborhood. The designer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector is offering contemporary art this month at Sotheby’s in New York, followed by design objects in June, with the sales intended to support the project.
The strongest lots include Joan Mitchell’s 1976 canvas Loom II, estimated at $5 million to $7 million, and Kenneth Noland’s 1958 Circle, estimated at $4 million to $6 million. George Rickey’s 1955 kinetic sculpture Orenary (Space Churn Theme), estimated at $50,000 to $70,000, will follow, along with an untitled wire construction by Harry Bertoia from around 1950, estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, in Sotheby’s Important Design auction.
Gilbert has made Detroit central to both her professional and civic life. She founded the design studio Pophouse, where she serves as creative director, and sits on the board of the Midtown Detroit nonprofit BasBlue as well as the board of governors of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Art Museum. Her collection was also featured this past winter in Seen/Scene at Shepherd in Little Village, alongside works by Barkley L. Hendricks, Mickalene Thomas, Jeffrey Gibson, Kerry James Marshall, Henry Taylor and Ewa Juszkiewicz.
“Once open, Lumana will support new generations of artists, designers and the institutions that champion them,” Gilbert said. “It felt fitting that the work of the great Modernist artists I deeply admire could continue to uplift those following in their footsteps.”
Gilbert also discussed the habits behind her collecting. Her first purchase was Bo Bartlett’s Gifts of the Spirit (2001), acquired from David Klein Gallery in Detroit. More recently, she bought works by McArthur Binion through Library Street Collective and by Tavares Strachan after seeing his major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
She described herself as decisive, saying she usually knows quickly when a work resonates, even if she waits a day or two before finalizing a purchase. Among the works she regrets missing is a Gerhard Richter diptych from the 1990s. If she could choose any museum work, she would take Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring from the Mauritshuis.
For Gilbert, collecting is not only about acquisition. In this case, it is also a way of underwriting a future institution in Detroit — one that links modern art, design, and the city’s next generation of cultural makers.
