Page 296 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

The Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Family Collection represents the United States, Bob began working at his uncle Maurice
a remarkable moment in the history of twentieth-century art. Rothschild’s Chicago clothing store, where he was tasked with
Acquired with unstinting zeal across a quarter century, the sweeping the foors. Ambitious and with a natural gift for sales,
Collection is renowned not only for its quality and breadth he was soon appointed to the men’s haberdashery department.
(encompassing important Impressionist paintings, Chinese In the years that followed, Bob swiftly rose through the ranks of
ceramics and Asian art, alongside postwar and contemporary Maurice L. Rothschild & Co., and was eventually named president
masterpieces), but also for the mastery with which it was of the frm in 1957.
realized—a pioneering pursuit of the new that positioned Bob
Mayer and his wife, Buddy Mayer, as watershed fgures in the Buddy was the daughter of the pioneering food entrepreneur
evolution of Contemporary art. “I collect because I believe that I am Nathan Cummings, who transformed a small bankrupt grocery
building for posterity….” Bob declared. “I collect because I believe frm into the highly successful Consolidated Foods Corporation—
it adds dimension and perspective to my way of life…. I collect for later known as the Sara Lee Corporation. Educated in chemistry
the thrill of discovery”. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Buddy was a
practical, straightforward woman with a sharp wit and a dedication
Born in Chicago in 1910, Bob was an energetic, larger-than-life to family. During the Second World War, she volunteered with the
fgure whose very personality seemed well-suited for the bold Red Cross Home Service Program and tended to the families of
experimentations and fearlessness of twentieth-century American service members in some of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods.
art. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1931, Bob “I told them, ‘I didn’t come here to roll bandages,’” Mrs. Mayer
embarked on a fve-month cruise around the world, where he recalled, “‘I want to work with people in need.’” Throughout her
visited more than twenty-fve countries and made his frst art life, Buddy’s spirited drive would earn her a reputation as a woman
acquisition: a pair of quartz and jadeite panels, found in Beijing, committed to empowerment, and became a lifelong proponent for
depicting butterfies and blossoming trees. Upon returning to equal opportunity.
The Mayers made their frst mutual purchase in 1949, when Bob
sought out the painter, Diego Rivera, in Mexico. The couple was
told with little explanation that the artist was painting “in a tree
somewhere in San Miguel”. They eventually discovered Rivera,
as described, sitting in a tree. “He let down a ladder so we could
climb up,” Mr. Mayer said. “We found him working on a watercolor
of a little boy”. Having just celebrated the birth of their son Rob,
the Mayers asked to buy that picture, and to commission a similar
portrait of a girl in the hope that they would also have a daughter.
Ruth was born three years later, and the Rivera watercolors
assumed even greater poignancy for the family.
By the late 1950s, Bob and Buddy Mayer had assembled an
outstanding selection of European painting and sculpture, Chinese
ceramics, and African and Oceanic fgures. Yet, as Buddy later
noted, “By the early 1960s, Impressionism had outpaced our
pocketbooks.” As a result, the couple began exploring more
contemporary art movements and looking toward the work of
artists of the present day. “The art world today is changing,” Bob
wrote in his journal at the time, “and I have come to the realization
that our interest can no longer be mostly confned to French
artists”.

After retiring from Maurice L. Rothschild & Co. in 1961, Bob
devoted himself wholeheartedly to collecting and connoisseurship.
At the time, he and his wife’s approach to collecting—focusing on
the newest works and artistic movements—was a truly novel one,
and allowed the couple to fll their home with pieces that, decades
on, achieved masterpiece status. “I collect many new young
artists, particularly Americans,” Bob noted, “because I feel that
they deserve early recognition, and because I feel this country is
foremost in the contemporary world of art today….”.
Buddy and Bob Mayer in their home, Chicago, 1963.
Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Beatrice Cummings Mayer Archives, Chicago.
Artwork: © 2019 Estate of James Rosenquist / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York; © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.