Rubell then decided to start his own business and opened two Steak Lofts restaurants, one in Queens, New York, and the other in Mystic, Connecticut. That's it. En­ter­ing Syra­cuse Uni­ver­sity, Rubell had the in­ten­tion of be­com­ing a den­tist, but failed his courses and switched ma­jors, study­ing fi­nance and his­tory. Haring wanted his family to understand that he had made it, and what better way, he thought, than to show them his work in a Manhattan townhouse owned by art collectors? Rubell and his brother Donald grew up in a Jewish[1] family in Brooklyn, New York. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images And studio visits remain their priority. [6], After their release on April 17, 1981,[6] Rubell and Schrager opened the Executive Hotel on Madison Ave and renamed it Morgans. Born in 1943 in Tashkent, then part of the Soviet Union, to Polish Jews fleeing the Nazis, Mera lived in a refugee camp in Germany, and in Israel, before arriving in Brooklyn at age 12, speaking no English. “This is our thinking space,” she said. In those early days, Don and Mera bought Picasso and van Gogh posters on visits to MoMA, as well as pieces they discovered in storefront artist studios. “It feels compelling. Excellent collection and environment. Everything was sold by the time they arrived, but they pressed Shave to arrange a meeting with the 26-year-old Colombian artist. Tall and sporty, wearing a polo shirt, black pants, and sneakers with neon laces, he has a quipster’s wit and the air of someone who would prefer that you cut to the chase. “It’s likethey’re one organism speaking out of different mouths,” says former Art Basel director Sam Keller. Donald was a Doctor whose brother Steve Rubell was the co-founder and co-owner of … They are partnering with a developer to build apartments, a hotel, and a second Rubell museum. The lineup includes painter Lucy Dodd; sculptor and painter Will Boone; and mixed-media artist Kaari Upson, who is casting the couple’s mattress in silicone; as well as market darling David Ostrowski, a painter known for his minimal compositions. Born in New York, Rubell worked in the restaurant and office business before deciding to open the ultimate nightclub. It just feels right.”, “It feels more than right, Don,” Mera interjected. Wall Street wolves arrived to openings in limos and fell over themselves trying to acquire Schnabels and Salles. “And we thought, If we had one or two pieces by someone, we ‘had’ an artist.” Lacking vast resources, they were forced to make choices, “so we chose Haring, not Scharf; Clemente, not Chia; Kiefer, not Baselitz.” With the ’80s came escalating prices and dominating collectors of new art, like the ad magnate Charles Saatchi. Don and Mera play every day at dawn on the court behind their house; Don has won numerous amateur championships; Jason was the star of the Duke University tennis team; and Jason’s son, Sam, was ranked the No. Andy Warhol stood in a corner. [2] Rubell and Schrager were both brothers of the university's chapter of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.[3]. [4] A second raid occurred in December 1979. Andy Warhol’s Portrait of Steve Rubell, 1975. Police reports state that cash and receipts were in the building and were hidden in the ceiling sections of Rubell's office, where both he and Schrager worked. Understandably, the Rubells feel a familial attachment toward Murillo, whose rapid ascent has already spawned a backlash. His father worked for the U.S. Post Office and later became a tennis pro. Twenty percent of the 400 apartments will be designated for emerging artists. Inspired by Andy Warhol, she often wears a wig to openings. Young artists are eager for the Rubells’ imprimatur, which can put pressure on their gallerists to agree to the Rubells’ requests to buy in bulk or at steeply discounted rates. Courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection. Kaari Upson’s Rubells, 2014. When Steve Rubell, the mastermind behind the infamous disco plucks Shane from the sea of faces clamoring to get inside his club, Shane not only gets his foot in the door, but lands a coveted job behind the bar - and a front-row ticket to the most legendary party on the planet. 4.5 /5 90 Reviews "Art District" 392m away. No purchase is made unless Don, Mera, and Jason all agree. The Rubell Family Collection, along with its educational programs and library, is run by a not-for-profit foundation, though the majority of the artworks are owned by the Rubells. And Andy [Warhol] would defend us.” In 1980, Steve and his business partner, Ian Schrager, went to prison for tax evasion; when they got out, they moved the scene into hotels and made Jennifer the concierge at the Royalton. “We’ve been trying to figure out ‘How do we celebrate 50 years in a way that’s us?’” Mera said. Although he loved the game, he never wished to build a career in the sport. [2] His father worked as a postal worker and later became a tennis pro. Coronavirus update. Steve Rubell died from AIDS in 1989, at 45, leaving the family devastated. The Rubells, in fact, do seem happy to keep their own company. There he received bachelor's and master's degrees in finance. His parents were conservative Jews. In the early 1970s, Schrager with Steve Rubell and Jon Addison bought 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston for a discotheque (the former The Ark, later Boston Tea Party). To install click the Add extension button. “Their model was a game changer,” says Tom Eccles, the executive director of Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies, noting that many major contemporary collectors followed suit. There are also discussions of Cohn’s clients which range from mob bosses to Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the owners of the famed nightclub, Studio 54, where Cohn often partied. His parents were noted New York Democrats Dora Marcus and Albert C. Cohn. Steve Rubell and Peter Gatien later opened the Palladium, a large dance club famous for displaying art by Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol, and considered central to the New York club scene in the 1980s. “But he died during a recession, so it’s not the amount people think.” In the early ’90s, Jason moved to Miami to begin what turned out to be a brief career as a gallerist; the family followed in 1993. Now that Miami is an essential stop on the global art go-round, the Rubells have also turned their attention to other cities. Lock & Load Museum "Museum" 377m away. “This is our museum.” Mera proposed they take a vote, and it was unanimous. It will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the WIKI 2 technology. Here's why it became so famous. Their only stipulation was that Johnson join them for breakfast. They expect to break ground in 2015. [6] He died there on July 25, 1989. “If something feels like it would be interesting, we take a shot at it. Richard Prince’s Untitled (Man’s Hand With Cigarette), 1980. Fittingly, a two-story library packed with artist monographs and catalogs connects Don and Mera’s modest, sparsely furnished home to the45,000-square-foot Rubell Family Collection. “Everyone thinks our inheritance from Steve accelerated the collecting,” Don said. Victim.” is lively when it presents Cohn’s questionable behavior. Haring became so close to the Rubell family that he even illustrated the invitation to Jason’s bar mitzvah—a drawing of two figures vaulting up stairs to a radiating number 13. Rubell at­tended Wingate High Schooland was also an avid ten­nis player, but de­cided against play­ing pro­fes­sion­ally. “You’d see artists who had the kinds of career you hoped to have,” Cindy Sherman says. Mera, 71, puts you in mind of a Jewish Yoko Ono, with her spiky black hair, pink-frame sunglasses, and fondness for Panama hats and black leggings. “There are battles,” attests the painter Rashid Johnson, whose first New York solo show, in 2008 at the Nicole Klagsbrun gallery, seemed to be a bust until the Rubells walked in and bought all the work. [2] While attending college, Rubell met Ian Schrager, who became a lifelong friend and business partner. We have created a browser extension. And yet, five decades on, the Rubells themselves still operate the way they always have: They work for a living, running Rubell Hotels, the family business they set up in the ’90s, with Jason; they relish being the first to discover artists and drive hard bargains with galleries. Rashid Johnson’s The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Thurgood), 2008. Courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection. Two weeks later, they asked to purchase it and learned that Ray was eager for cash to buy a sailboat. His fa­ther worked for the U.S. Post Of­fice and later be­came a ten­nis pro. Their opening-night party for the Whitney Museum’s Biennial, which they began hosting in 1977, drew most of the artists and curators in town, in part, because there were no competing events. Mera met Don in the library of Brooklyn College when she was 19 and he was 21, and the two married soon after. Keith Haring’s Marilyn Monroe, 1981. On April 17, 1981, Rubell and Schrager were released from prison after which they lived at a halfway house for two and a half months. “You have to go to the art.” When the Los Angeles–based artist Aaron Curry was away on a day the Rubells were in town in 2005, the couple was so eager to learn more about him that his gallerist, David Kordansky, got permission to break into his studio. 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Studio 54 Era 2.2 Hotels 3 Death 4 In popular culture 5 References 6 External links Rubell and his brother Don grew up in a Jewish1 family in Brooklyn, New York. Rubell also dealt with the club's celebrity patrons, ensuring that they were thrown lavish parties. “Young dealers are afraid to say no to them,” a veteran said. In June 1979, Rubell and Schrager were charged with tax evasion, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy for reportedly skimming nearly $2.5 million in unreported income from the club's receipts, in a system Rubell called "cash-in, cash-out and skim." “Steve never let us go into the basement,” said Mera of the disco’s drug den. Upstairs, in its own space, was one of the few pieces that is on permanent view: Charles Ray’s Oh! They were all eating pizza when she suggested that, since it was no longer being used, they should consider taking the name Miami Art Museum for themselves. Assorted works from the collection were being photographed for their anniversary exhibition catalog, and open crates lay everywhere. The walls were bare. Born and raised in New York, Rubell and his business partner Ian Schrager operated a number of restaurants and offices before deciding to create the ultimate nightclub. Rubell Museum 1100 NW 23 ST Miami, FL 33127 (305) 573-6090 info@rubellmuseum.org . “What do you mean?” Olivia had replied. Still, they took the rest, and soon Haring was introducing the couple to friends like Jean-Michel Basquiat. He resigned from Senator McCarthy's service and entered private practice, where he represented major public figures like Donald Trump, Steve Rubell, and Ian Schrager. The businessman purchased the 8,000 square feet and 11-bedroom estate in 2014. [10] He is buried at Beth Moses Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York. He sent an inflatable plastic flower he’d made to thank them, the first of several Koons pieces they acquired until his prices spiraled beyond their reach. Other key visitors included the Art Basel director Lorenzo Rudolf, who was considering a winter location for the prestigious art fair. He began a racket-stringing business to pay off the rest. Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #304, 1994. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were routinely comp'd, but the rest of the Rolling Stones had to pay. Steve Rubell came to pick her up in a limousine, with his mother and father in the backseat. The Miami artist Mark Handforth, the Rubell collection’s first director, recalls his astonishment at seeing trucks deliver provocative art to one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in town, and the impact of spending time with heavy hitters like Paul McCarthy and the reclusive Cady Noland, who came to install their works. Contemporary art is a glamorous commodity, the places to find it are proliferating around the globe, and the Rubells have become major players, with their own museum. Courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection. You’d think he would call us up and say, ‘Who is Oscar?’ We know him so well.”. But a few months later, he invited them to his first solo show, at Club 57. They bought the lot and invited Murillo to spend the summer in Miami, using the Rubell Collection’s largest gallery as a studio. Rubell and his brother Donald grew up in a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. Rubell's official cause of death is listed as hepatitis and septic shock complicated by AIDS.[4][8][9]. For me, collecting art gives me an insight into the culture and how to live my life.” Her father was a Sunday painter in Central Park, and both parents worked in the hairdressing salon that he opened in Brooklyn after being fired from a tony Manhattan salon for referring, in his Yiddish-accented English, to a customer’s “hor.”. He is best known as being the owner of the world famous 1970s New York 'super' club, Studio 54. Rubell attended Wingate High School and was also an avid tennis player, but decided against playing professionally. Like his father, who was a skilled tennis player, Steve, too, played tennis while growing up. Mr. Rubell was a native of Brooklyn, where he attended public schools before going on to Syracuse. “Art doesn’t come to you,” Mera says. Entering Syracuse University, Rubell completed bachelor's and master's degrees in finance. Businessman. Paul McCarthy’s Cultural Gothic, 1992–1993. At the time, Don, an obstetrician, and Mera, a teacher, lived on the Upper East Side with their two kids, Jason andJennifer. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, owners of the nightclub Studio 54, stand arm-in-arm around the time of the club's opening, New York City. In Miami at that time, contemporary art was far from the center of the conversation. Jason abandoned his plans for a tennis career, a move it took him years to admit that he had regretted. Charley, Charley, Charley…, a depiction of an orgy made up of eight life-size mannequins, all in the artist’s likeness.Don, Mera, and Jason had seen the sculpture in 1992 at the internationalexhibition “Documenta XI,” in Kassel, Germany, and couldn’t get it out of their heads. The couple supported Haring until his death from AIDS in 1990 and even hosted the artist and his parents for dinner one night. And in Washington, D.C., in 2010, they bought an abandoned historic school from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, across the street from the Capital Skyline Hotel, which they also own. “We were thought of as this crazy couple who bought this crazy art,” Mera recalled. This article is about the nightclub entrepreneur. [7], In 1985, Rubell, who was closeted for most of his life, discovered he had contracted HIV, which later progressed to AIDS. The clan at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, on chairs by the Chinese artist He Xiangyu, from left: Michelle, Jason, Samuel, Ella, Jennifer, Max Wyss Rubell (on lap), Mera, Stevie Kim-Rubell, Don, and Olivia. Rubell was re­port­edly not a good stu­dent but man­aged to com­plete his stud­ies, even­tu­ally com­plet­ing … Selldorf is the architect of the Rubell Family Collection’s new 100,000-square-foot museum, which is due to open in December 2018 in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami. Since the Rubells rarely sell works, they are not the immediate beneficiaries of artists’ increasing values, but the family is sometimes criticized for the kind of bartering it does. In Baltimore, they recently renovated the once grand Lord Baltimore Hotel, where they hope to enlist the filmmaker and artist John Waters to program its speakeasy. It will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the WIKI 2 technology. Hot Hollywood stars Mike Myers (Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Wayne's World), Neve Campbell (Wild Things; Scream 1,2 and 3), and Salma Hayek (Wild, Wild West; Dogma) give must-see performances in this provocative look behind the bright lights of the hottest nightclub ever! In the early days of Studio 54, she and Jason would watch rehearsals for the extravaganzas planned for that night in the club before heading home to do their schoolwork. I use WIKI 2 every day and almost forgot how the original Wikipedia looks like. At 14, he used savings from his bar mitzvah to make a deposit on a painting he saw at Pat Hearn’s gallery by the then emerging George Condo. That she presides over such a vast collection still mystifies Mera, who insists she lacks the acquisitive gene so pronounced in her husband and son. No need to register, buy now! Courtesy of the Rubell Family Collection. Steve Rubell's Family during Steve Rubell Funeral Service - July 27, 1989 at Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York, New York, United States. Because it’s risky, you know?”, “It’s not risky,” Don demurred. (Tyrnauer also made a great doc on the nightclub). Steve Rubell was an American entrepreneur, co-owner of the legendary New York disco Studio 54, and co-founder of the original boutique hotel. They collect with the idea that the artists already in the collection are going to be affected by the artists they acquire—that it’s a shared home.” In fact, in the lead-up to “30 Americans,” their 2008 intergenerational survey of works by African-American artists, which looked at diverse perspectives on race, identity, and artistic legacy, the Rubells, Johnson recalls, engaged in soul-searching sessions with several artists to ensure they were behind the project’s premise. Family Life. Best known for her food-based installations—such as the one for the Brooklyn Museum that involved a giant piñata of Warhol’s head and a baseball bat—she unveiled a series of oil paintings at the New York gallery Sargent’s Daughters in October. Steve Rubell. The wellbeing and safety of our customers is always our top priority therefore, we’re continuing to follow all guidelines and updates suggested by the CDC, and local departments of public health including: He began taking AZT, but his illness was furthered by his continued drug use and drinking, which affected his compromised immune system. Coward. 772 Attractions. Don, 74, is her opposite. In the open-plan living area, Mera was cooking gluten-free pasta and marinara sauce with clams and Don was setting the table. In the 50 years since the Rubells started acquiring the very latest art, much has changed. During Art Basel that December, they gave him his first U.S. solo exhibition, and, in due course, he was snapped up by the mega-gallerist David Zwirner. 0. When Steve Rubell (Myers), the mastermind behind New York's infamous Studio 54 disco, plucks young Shane … 2 under-12 player in Florida. He told her, ‘Betsy, this is the most exciting night of my life since my Bar Mitzvah.’” Steve Rubell, Self: Dracula Bites the Big Apple. Jason and Jennifer’s formativeyears were spent under the spell of Steve Rubell. The Rubells led the wayin opening their private collection to the public back in 1994. 4.6 /5 22 Reviews "Featured Neighborhood" 234m away. Rubell attended Wingate High School and was also an avid tennis player, but decided against playing professionally. Steve Rubell was known as the co-founder and co-owner of the world famous New York nightclub Studio 54. “It was his first purchase!” When I met up with them again in Miami in August, it was Don and Mera’s 50th wedding anniversary. “The defining characteristic of their collecting is how much they look and how much they’ve seen,” says Jennifer, recalling that she hated being dragged to galleries as a kid. Rubell joined the National Guard, returning to New York after a tour of duty in a military intelligence unit. Under the name Brad Jones (to suggest a male painting phenom), Jennifer collaborated with the artist Brandi Twilley, who painted her nude three afternoons a week for more than a year. Rubell and his brother Don grew up in a Jew­ish fam­ily in Brook­lyn, New York. The Rubells readily loan works to museum exhibitions and send their shows on tour, but they are sometimes criticized for not serving on boards or donating key pieces to institutions, as many high-profile collectors do. View the profiles of people named Steve Rubell. Franz West’s Goeschl, 2007, and Untitled (Note With Table), 2005 (from left), sit atop the Rubells’ dining table. The Rubells had begun buying art in 1964, the year they married, putting aside money each week to pay for it. “By a lot,” Don added. Steve Rubell (December 2, 1943 – July 25, 1989) was an American entrepreneur and co-owner of the New York disco Studio 54.