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Texas Tech Museum hosts exhibition featuring the art and collections of award-winning actor and artist.
Written by Sally Logue Post
Actor and artist Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Quinn died in 2001 at the age of 86. He appeared in more than 200 films and won two Oscars.
From bits of wood and seashells to world-renowned artists such as Renoir and Matisse, Anthony Quinn’s art and the works he collected demonstrate that art is found everywhere.
Quinn, who is best known as an actor, also was a skilled artist and avid art collector. Of the more than 3,000 pieces in his collection, 100 have been assembled to form the traveling exhibition “Anthony Quinn: A Lifetime of Creating and Collecting Art,” on display June 22 to Nov. 30 at the Museum of Texas Tech University.
“Mr. Quinn saw beauty in everything,” said Benjamin Bergenholtz, curator of the Anthony Quinn Trust. “The exhibit is a good cross section of his collection. I believe that those viewing the exhibit will walk away understanding that one doesn’t have to be rich to enjoy or collect art. He came from a very poor background, but he always loved and collected art. The heart of the matter is that art is everywhere.”
Revolutionary Birth
Quinn was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1915, during the Mexican Revolution. His Mexican-Indian mother Manuela Oaxaca-Pallares and Irish-Mexican father Francisco Quinn both supported Pancho Villa. His mother followed her husband into battle, cooking for the soldiers and cleaning their guns.
After Quinn’s birth, Manuela smuggled her son in a coal wagon across the Texas border to El Paso. In 1917, Francisco joined his family in Texas, becoming a migrant worker. In 1922, the family moved to East Los Angeles, where Francisco found work with American motion picture pioneer William Selig.
The Wright Advice
Quinn’s interest in art began early and he won numerous awards for both his painting and sculpture. The young Quinn wanted to be an architect and one competition earned him a chance to meet Frank Lloyd Wright – a meeting that changed the teenager’s life.
Quinn had a severe speech impediment as a child. “Wright told Quinn that, while he had great talent, no one would ever buy a house from him because of his speech problem,” said Bergenholtz.
Quinn had oral surgery to fix his speech impediment and returned to Wright’s Taliesin studio in Illinois. But the architect sent him home once more – this time to learn how to speak correctly.
Quinn began taking acting lessons to improve his diction and became interested in acting, securing a few roles and earning as much as $75 a day. When Quinn asked Wright if he should continue to act or become an architect, Wright told him there was plenty of time to be an architect later.
Artistic Tastes
Quinn went on to make more than 200 movies, earning two Oscars. His movie career allowed him to travel the world, giving him access to art and artists not often seen by mainstream collectors.
“Mr. Quinn enjoyed going to places not everyone went to buy art,” said Bergenholtz. “He had very progressive tastes and the exhibit reflects that. I think that it’s important to note that there are some major artists in this collection, but there are also lesser-known artists.”
For Gary Edson, executive director of the Museum of Texas Tech University, one particular film reflects the emotion in the art Quinn made and collected.
“This art collection is as complex and sophisticated as Anthony Quinn. At the same time it reflects the honesty and sincerity of the person behind the image on the silver screen,” he said. “My favorite Quinn movie is the 1954 film La Strada directed by Federico Fellini. The Quinn character, Zampano, with all his faults, is a compelling character that disguises self-doubt with bluster and cruelty. I do not suggest that those were elements of Quinn’s life, rather that he had the intuitive insight to capture those conflicting qualities in his portrayal of the chain-breaking bully who ends the film in an outpouring of remorse. The Quinn art collection draws upon all the emotions. It is a gathering of objects that appealed to the actor’s sense of beauty and reason. When the parts and pieces are placed in the proper order, an image that is more than Anthony Quinn the actor and artist appears.”
Quinn began collecting African art at an early age. The exhibition features 18th century ancestor masks and works by South African artists involved in the anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
Religion played an important part in Quinn’s life and that, too, is reflected in his art as is his own Mexican ancestry.
Quinn also embraced the post-World War II and contemporary works of European artists such as Karel Appel, Jean Jansem, Henry Moore and Alexander Archipenko.
Collecting the Collection
Quinn and his wife Katherine moved to Rhode Island in 1995, and for the first time he was able to bring his vast art collection together in one place.
In 2003, Bergenholtz received a phone call from a former professor asking if he had any experience cataloging private collections.
“I told him I did and agreed to meet with Mrs. Quinn,” said Bergenholtz. “I expected maybe 30 to 60 works. But art was everywhere, in closets, under beds. After a two-hour tour of the estate, I was just blown away by the size and quality of the collection.”
It took Bergenholtz about five years to catalog all the art and artifacts, including researching each piece of art to determine the correct artist, and when and where the piece was purchased. The natural next step was to assemble a traveling exhibition.
“Anthony Quinn embraced life. He was interested in different cultures, different artistic movements and different religions,” said Bergenholtz. “That comes through in his art as well as in the art he collected. I think that comes through in this exhibit.”
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