Arts Professional Story: Matt and Roxy Goebel

Roxy and Matt Goebel and their daughter.

Collecting art has more unwritten rules than baseball. And we’ve broken most of them. There’s absolutely nothing cohesive about our collection or systemic in our approach to acquiring work (which, perhaps, doesn’t make us incredibly different than others who take the time to collect—or maybe it does).

We’ve bought art at auction, off the Internet, from galleries, and directly from artists. We’ve bought from vendors off the street and from some of the most prestigious art institutions in the world. We’ve bargained for better prices and we’ve paid what’s on the wall label—and we’ve done both many times when we had no business spending a dime. We own vintage photography, contemporary photography, paintings, sculpture, and mixed media pieces. Our kids’ works hang next to pieces by names recognized from London to Beijing. We don’t have sophisticated temperature controls or special windows to protect the works (although a few strategically placed towels shield sensitive photographs from direct sunlight). As you can tell, there isn’t much structure or discipline to how we collect.

And that’s just fine with us. If you saw our house on any given day—with kids’ sports equipment, instruments, laundry, the dog’s chew toys, textbooks, backpacks, toys (etc.) strewn every which way—you’d notice that our collection mirrors our everyday life.

We have created relationships with several artists, including Wesley Kimler, Brian Ulrich, and Greg Stimac. Most have remained lasting friends and all of their pieces hold a special place on our walls (and some in a storage facility due to a lack of space in our house!). We’ve seen the creative process up close and personal and have also spent casual evenings with artists in restaurants, galleries, or even in front of the television watching the Super Bowl, talking about art, culture, and everything else under the sun.

Matt has been lucky enough to curate a couple of shows at the Zolla Lieberman Gallery (the first got some good reviews; the second, well, didn’t!), which has given us insight into just how hard it is to be an artist. We can only imagine how much harder it is now than when we were more actively involved in the art world several years ago. It’s incredible to see how vulnerable the commercial side of the art world makes artists, but we’re also inspired by dealers, curators, collectors, and others who truly support artists, as well as the artists themselves.

Art has given us lasting memories as a couple and as a family. We’ll never forget the time we purchased a diptych painting by Irish artist Eamon O’Kane (with each panel 9' x 9') at Sotheby’s in the late ‘90s. Rather than spend the money to have it delivered, we decided to carry it the mile or so to our apartment. Most Chicagoans have had the misfortune to battle tourists on Michigan Avenue on a midsummer day. Try doing so carrying a massive painting as it’s buffeted by the usual Chicago wind. Folks in Iowa and Wisconsin are still talking about us. It was almost a piece of performance art in and of itself.

Unavoidably, our own tastes are being “inflicted” on our kids, and it’s still too early to tell whether they’ll embrace the images that surround them or rebel against them. But for now, the works have become part of the rhythm of our lives. Keys, eyeglasses, and the day’s mail invariably wind up on a table underneath the screaming man, a large painting of a face with the mouth spread open either in agony or ecstasy, by Spaniard Santiago Ydanez. Sexually charged images by Amy Honchell and Young Sun Han overlook the dining room table where homework gets done every night. And everyone’s walk upstairs to bed includes a confrontation with a shotgun-wielding gun enthusiast bravely photographed by Greg Stimac.

As one of several couples to have met and married while working at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in the mid-1990s, the art world holds a special place in our relationship. We can’t imagine life without art— and without our art. We continue to add to our collection when we can, but it’s become harder these days, certainly because of the economy but also because of time. Weekend kids’ activities and games have replaced leisurely afternoons visiting museums, galleries, and studios. We’ll be back, though.

Matt and Roxy Goebel started their careers in the art world at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, at the time the fifth largest fine art auction house in the country. Matt also helped found and run eppraisals.com, an online fine art and antique appraisal service. Both have since left the art world professionally but are still active in various institutions in Chicago. Roxy is the immediate past president of the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Matt is the founder and current president of the Museum Council at the Museum of Contemporary Photography.