One of my most magnificent and enjoyable experiences these past months, was our visit to see the Duncan House eclectic art collection.
The Duncan Family owns an aviation company that designs and constructs commercial airplanes for clients worldwide. They are avid art collectors who wanted their house to reflect a modern world view and for the art they collected to enhance that look.
The first thing noticed about this site is a very tall European castle-like house with very large sculptures spread throughout the yard, front and back.
Once we entered the house into the living room parlor, the art we saw was tremendous and a total shock to us because of its high quality. All of the art in this house was breath taking from the very large to the small figurative objects and the paintings alike.
Some of the art we saw was created by world renowned artists, as well as those not as renowned. It was the very best.
This visual experience was surreal because of the above reasons. I felt this was the impact and shock value the Duncan family wanted the viewer to experience.
The whole house was filled with an impressive collection of art. The Duncans invited artists, craftsmen, and designers to come to Lincoln to design and create environs for their art.
In the Living Room, there was a sculpture of a life size horse that looked like a Christmas tree. It was decorated with various artifacts. The horse was bronze, shiny, and heavy.
Sitting on the back patio porch was the shell of a rusted-out car with wheels and rims. The car was shipped from South America and looked like a Twenties or Thirties old gangster car. Next to it was a large group of strange distorted-looking clay figures consisting of thirty or forty people sitting together in a group. It’s amazing that one person did all this work. It’s readily apparent that the Duncans liked the artist, Fernando Botello. He is known for doing “fat” people figures of men, women, and children. also, there were three items near the fireplace and a five foot bronze figure lying down.
In one of the main rooms, there was a huge painting of a bouquet of red flowers. It was done in four modules–four very large sectional paintings grouped together to form a whole. This was the biggest floral painting I have ever seen.
On the opposite wall, there was an equally huge abstract painting that covered the entire wall. It was painted in a very unique way with spray paint. The colors were incredibly loud and vibrant. This painting reminded me of the painting I saw in the entrance to the Detroit Institute of Art Museum in Detroit, Michigan. It was very different but the same kind of attitude. If one passes by this painting, they could not help themselves but to notice it. It’s like POW!! It hits you in the face, metaphorically speaking anyway–very stunning and a great piece of art.
Inside the hallway was an amazing painting-like sculpture of a woman that looked real. It was huge, but so life like.
In another room, there was a pile of sandwiches on a baby grand piano. It made me hungry. But when I looked closer, my investigation revealed that a human would be unable to eat it. There were frogs and all kinds of other animals between the slices of bread–what did that mean!
In the bedroom, there was a painting I really liked. It was a picture of a runaway horse or horses, done on a very large piece of paper. It was sent to the Duncans rolled up, then later framed. It was very interesting!
One of the last things I want to describe is a small sculpture of a church that was presented upside down. This small scale figure or sculpture was duplicated in their backyard. It was now an actual sized building, a skeleton of a church sitting on its roof along a hill side. Maybe the artist was symbolically trying to get rid of all the evil elements or bad people in the church.
I truly believe the Duncan family has some of the best art in the world, and they know what they are doing. We as artists’ guild members were very fortunate to get a rare glimpse of their great art and home.
A little about one of our own LAG watercolor gurus: Howard Kaye has painted watercolors since the 1980’s. His paintings have been in several hundred national juried shows, where they have won an extremely modest number of awards. He is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, Transparent Watercolor Society of America, and some other organizations. He has won many awards in LAG and ANAC shows.