A visit to Blake Byrne’s home was always a learning experience, as Blake would proudly point out not just works by well-known artists such as Alexander Calder, Mark Bradford and Marlene Dumas, but would also point to work by artists who were not well known, or whom he had just discovered at a gallery or art fair. Blake’s influence was not only felt by those who visited his home, but also by the people who visit MOCA in L.A., seeing some of the 123 works he donated to the museum in 2005, and by the many visitors to the Nasher Museum at Duke University where he donated 283 works representing 57 artists and was also instrumental in raising the funds for the museum’s construction.

Blake was a larger than life presence in the Los Angeles art world, and for those of us learning about the community in L.A., Blake was someone to listen to, to learn from, and look to as an example of how to give back to the city, to the community and to the world at large. His love for the art, for the artists, and for the mission of art to speak to people was always clear in the art that he chose to live with, and in the joy he expressed when speaking about art. We are honored to have this small group of works that Blake decided to sell a few months before his unexpected passing in March. The selection shows Blake’s long-standing interest in young artists and in artists whose significance had not yet been recognized by the wider art world.

Blake Koh
Director, Phillips Los Angeles