Dina and Jerry Wind made an agreement that their collecting of art would be a partnership. As a married couple, they not only respected each other’s different tastes and points of view, but also cherished the process of growing from each other’s unique perspectives on what makes a work of art worthy of being owned. 

Dina was a sculptor of welded metals, and her intellectual process in collecting was to explore and get under the skin of another artist’s working methods. It may be considered old-fashioned today, but she wanted an artist to be a virtuoso—to be the best at what they did—and she needed to understand the unique journey in their practice. She sometimes started by asking herself where the work of art, quite literally, began. I recall the experience of admiring together a multifaceted work in welded steel by Robinson Fredenthal and Dina’s determination to figure out which two planes out of about twenty he had put together first. How did he start? She herself was a welder, and there was an expressionism in the way she joined her metals; she was never haphazard, but there was an insistent honesty in the process of her constructions. She wanted her viewers to see evolution, process, and change, and she looked for this in the work of others.

Jerry is a business guru and an esteemed professor (now emeritus) of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. All of his students know his mantra: experiment! Marketing is not a rational science, so finding the right path or arriving at the golden solution almost always requires creative thinking, pushing boundaries, launching a test, or trying something “out of the box.” Ordinary thought, like a work of art that relies on convention, would not impress Jerry. Recently we admired together a work by Steve Donegan, an artist who electroplates objects and fiddles with the science. The unexpected appearance of the sculpture and the odd way it held the wall and cast shadows appealed to Jerry.

The Winds can be thought of as two distinct individuals who, under the safe umbrella of their partnership, collected together. Every work in the auction had to satisfy two sets of high standards, even while occupying common ground. Jerry and Dina were an outgoing couple with flair, and there are many works in the collection that reflect their elegance and panache. Louise Nevelson’s Mirror Shadow V (1985) is a tour-de-force wall relief that balances on a corner, a masterpiece of composition and equilibrium. In this, I think of Dina, who, as a sculptor who often made freestanding works, understood how hard it is to compose big and theatrical sculptures that balance and feel centered. For Jerry, Nevelson’s great work expresses the artist’s curiosity about unusual materials, and she seems to manage the strong diagonals of her silhouette by venturing someplace new. It took Nevelson years of practice to take these risks.

Another work in the auction by an artist who takes risks is Truth, Justice, and the Comics (1990) by Elizabeth Murray. Baroque in its consumption of space with tubular arms, it is a painting that barrels into the realm of sculpture. Dina would have known that only an artist at the height of her powers could fight it out like this. And for Jerry, it seems as much an experiment today as is must have been in 1990.

This is an auction of works brought together by a unique pairing of minds. Don’t miss the experience of seeing the exhibition when it is on view. Every successful bidder will enjoy years of pleasure in the responsiveness of this art to dynamic thought.

My parents always loved contemporary art and design, and began collecting very early in their marriage. In 1968, we flew as a young family from Israel to Copenhagen, where they purchased a home full of cutting-edge Danish contemporary furniture for our new lives in Philadelphia. In the early 1970s my mother received a master’s degree in Aesthetics from the University of Pennsylvania, attended the Barnes Foundation’s 2-year program in art appreciation, and began painting with Sam Feinstein, himself a student of Hans Hofmann  (two other important teachers my mother studied with were painter Tom Gaughan and sculptor Leon Sitarchuk). All of these experiences shaped her and my father’s tastes and an early passion for abstraction. By the 1980s she began welding, and with that 3-D works increasingly entered their collection as well. 

There were multiple layers to their collecting—first, Dina’s own work set the stage. Then, Philadelphia artists were added to the mix. Over the years, nationally and internationally recognized artists entered the collection, including many of Dina’s personal art heroes like Louise Nevelson, Anthony Caro and Mark di Suvero. Finally, art and objects from their extensive travels—African masks, Indonesian Batak wands, Japanese scrolls etc. were added to the mix. Dina was a good sport as over the years her works were removed from display one by one and replaced with their latest acquisitions. 

They had a few guidelines to making purchases: First, they both had to love it (which Jerry later said was a bad rule, as Dina’s taste was more adventurous, and they missed out on some great pieces). Second, they always balanced supporting Philadelphia artists with looking further afield. They loved the opportunity to meet the artists they collected and over the years visited the studios of Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mark di Suvero, Peter Voulkos, Bernar Venet and others. And while not dogmatic, they were often drawn to ceramics and glass art, sculpture in general, women and male artists equally, and once they moved to Gladwyne in the 1990s, to a black/white/grey color palette. Abstraction was always a given, with the artist’s hand often in evidence. 

In 2014, Dina passed away from ovarian cancer. The next year our family started the Dina Wind Art Foundation, to both continue sharing her art and maintain her and Jerry’s commitment to empower women artists, build community, and support arts education. As President of the foundation, I am honored that a portion of this sale will go towards our mission. And as a son of these passionate creators and collectors, my life has been fundamentally shaped by their artistic worldview.

John Wind
Artist
Founder, Designer John Wind Jewelry
President, Dina Wind Art Foundation