Art Elevated: The Hess Collection
This archive article was originally published in the Autumn 2016 issue of Antiques & Fine Art magazine.
One of the world’s major art collectors, the Swiss entrepreneur and founder of Hess Family Wine Estates, Donald M. Hess grew up in a home with no pictures on the walls. After seeing paintings at a neighbor’s house, the youngster asked why his family’s walls were bare. His father pointed out the window to a view of the scenic Berne countryside. “Give me a reason to buy a painting with an ugly frame,” he said.
Years later, Hess purchased a picture from a friend’s daughter who worked in an art gallery. He chose “a print of an old man with a beard,” he says, because “it touched me.” Afterwards, he learned that it was Picasso’s portrait of his dealer Ambroise Vollard, and that In contrast to the usual large editions of the artist’s multiples, Picasso had made only four impressions of this one, each a little different. “The nice thing is that I now have all four,” he says.
- Hess Art Museum at the Hess Collection Winery, Napa Valley, California. In the foreground, Armando’s (Amsterdam, b. 1929) Der Feldzug (The Crusade), 1989–1990. Bronze, edition 1/3. 75-9/16 x 90-1/2 x 59-1/16 in.Photography by Robert Russo.
Hess began to buy art, he says, “like most people, to decorate my home.” But when the walls were covered, he discovered that he was having too much fun to stop. Also, he saw an opportunity to unite his two passions: art and wine. A 1903 vine-covered fieldstone winery on the grounds of the Hess Winery in Napa Valley, California, inspired the solution: a museum. After renovations, the Hess Art Museum at the Hess Collection Winery opened to the public in 1989.
The exterior, in the same style and with stone sourced from the same quarry, blends seamlessly with the original structure. The interior sometimes surprises visitors. The Hess Art Museum is as modern on the inside as the contemporary art it houses. Light-filled galleries are handicapped accessible. Strategically placed windows look out at the vineyards on Mt. Veeder, the winery’s bottling operation, and the tasting room in the old winery.
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About seventy miles north of San Francisco, on a winding road surrounded by three hundred acres of vineyards in the heart of wine country, this off-the-beaten-track museum is approached through a courtyard garden designed by landscape architect Christian Barrett Hedberg, with sculptures by, among others, John Connell and Anselm Kiefer.
Hess’ art is personal and sophisticated. He rarely reads the opinions of critics. Neither is he influenced by trends or an artist’s reputation. As with his choice of the Picasso print, his selections are intuitive. Yet, he is not impulsive. He likes to sleep on a decision. The litmus test is if he wakes during the night thinking about a work.
His eclectic collection includes such diverse artists as Francis Bacon, Katsura Funakoshi, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Robert Rauschenberg. “Contemporary art mirrors the state of our world,” he says. “More people would appreciate it if they stopped and took the time to look. People who don’t know art, just walk by it. That’s like walking by a library.” At the Hess Art Museum art is displayed so that visitors may walk around it, get close, and view it from many angles. A self-guided audio tour also is available without charge.
- Installation of Franz Gertsch’s (Switzerland, b. 1930) Johanna II, 1985–1986 (left wall). Tempera on unprimed cotton, 129-7/8 x 114-1/8 inches. Also, Irene IX, 1982. Watercolor on paper (to right of Johanna II); and on facing wall, Luciano 2, 1976. Acrylic on unprimed cotton, 92-1/8 x 136-1/4 inches. Photography by Robert Russo.
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- Installation with (left to right) Katsura Funakoshi’s (Japan, b. 1951) Staying in the Water, 1991; Howard Mehring’s (1931–1978) Black, 1958; Morris Louis’ (1912–1962) Alpha Nu, 1960; and Funakoshi’s Lunar Eclipse in Forest, 2007. Photography by Paul Kirchner.
- Visitor center entrance, Hess Art Museum at the Hess Collection Winery. Photography by Robert Russo.
“I only buy art that really touches me,” he says. Also, he now buys only living artists with whom he has established a supportive, long-term relationship. “It is one of the great pleasures,” he says. “Good artists have good ideas. I’ve learned a lot from them.”
More than thirty years ago, Rolf Iseli, a poor Swiss artist, refused to sell a painting to Hess. He thought that the Hess businesses “polluted the environment.” After investigation, the Hess Family Estates wineries and vineyards adopted sustainable, organic, and biodynamic practices. Now they are certified by the Napa Green program.
Hess and the British artist Andy Goldsworthy enjoyed a long friendship, bonding over their mutual concern for the environment. “Once we were having breakfast at my home, and he suddenly announced, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go and do some work.’ He just left. When I looked out the window, I saw him making a drawing of snow on trees.” After a while, Goldsworthy returned, explaining that he needed to capture the transitory nature of the scene before it melted and was gone. “He was constantly thinking of nature,” says Hess.
Three Goldsworthy works are exhibited in a long, narrow gallery at the museum. Rock Pools (2000) consists of Greywacke stones that were melted in a kiln and arranged on the wood floor. The artist made the nine framed works (Snowball Drawings) in the 1990s by boiling seeds or earth in water to extract pigments and using the liquid to tint the snow, which he formed into balls and melted on paper. Surface Tension (1993), the spectacular screen suspended between the floor, the ceiling, and the walls at the far end of the gallery, is constructed of horse chestnut leaf stalks held together with hawthorn thorns. An adjacent gallery presents Torn Stones (2000), a rare example of Goldsworthy’s video work.
- Donald Hess photographed at the first floor of the Hess Art Museum at the Hess Collection Winery, in front of Frank Stella’s (b. 1936), Sacramento Mall Proposal #5, 1978. Oil on canvas, 103-1/8 x 103-1/8 inches; and Silverstone II, 1982. Mixed media on aluminum. 111 x 126 x 24 in. Photography by Robert Russo.
Hess also appreciates the innovative art of James Turrell, whose work he has collected since the sixties. “For hundreds of years,” Hess notes, “artists tried to paint light. James Turrell uses light to sculpt.” Hess has built the world’s only museum devoted exclusively to Turrell at his vineyards in Argentina. The collection includes Alta Green (1968) and Penumbra (1992). On seeing decades of his work shown in one place, the artist remarked that it was like visiting old friends.
Hess’ contemporary art is among the world’s most important collections assembled by a private individual. His private museums are open to the public and admission is free. Donald Hess believes strongly that art collectors have a responsibility to share with the public. The Hess Art Museum at the Hess Collection Winery in Napa Valley is located on 4411 Redwood Road, Napa, California. For more information call 707.255.1144 or visit http://www.hesscollection.com.
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Shirley Moskow is a freelance writer in Lexington, Massachusetts, who specializes in travel and the arts.
