AMA Venezia

The artist Jordan Wolfson, in his car on the way from his Los Angeles studio to pick up some particularly healthy food for his dogs, has pulled over on the side of one of those Southern California highways. Wolfson has agreed to spend a moment on the phone discussing the Franco/Belgian collector Laurent Asscher and his new art space, AMA Venezia, which opened this spring in a historic red-brick building in Venice, Italy. (The inaugural exhibition began April 9 and runs through June 29.) “He’s not afraid of challenging works,” Wolfson says of Asscher. “He’s not afraid of challenging content, or of work that’s technically challenging. He’s a very brave collector—I think he’s the best collector in Europe right now.”

In just the past decade, Asscher has assembled an astounding collection of paintings and sculpture, some two hundred works by such masters as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, David Hammons, Brice Marden, Pablo Picasso, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, and Cy Twombly as well as bold contemporary artists including Lauren Halsey, Elizabeth Peyton, Charles Ray, Jenny Saville, Rudolf Stingel, and Christopher Wool. “The art community, in general, is enormously enthusiastic about Laurent,” Wolfson continues. “And it’s not just because he’s buying art: he’s someone who really has a vision, who has taste, who’s got integrity. He’s not a trophy collector—this isn’t a speculative collection. He’s responding to works that move him. His collection is authentic, highly personal to him and his experience, and you can feel that. He’s very much the author of his collection.”

Asscher owns four of Wolfson’s pieces, including Female Figure (2014), displayed in the inaugural show in Venice. This mixed-media animatronic sculpture has to be one of the most startling works of art of recent decades: a figure with long blond hair, a stainless-steel rod piercing her torso, it stands in a sterile, brightly lit white room in front of a mirror. A horrific mask covering much of her face, she gyrates to bursts of music and spits out cryptic dialogue: “My mother’s dead. My father’s dead. I’m gay. I’d like to be a poet. This is my house!” Female Figure uses facial-recognition software to make eye contact with the viewer, forcing a confrontation with such issues as misogyny, objectification, consent, hypersexualization, and the “society of the spectacle.” To present the work in Venice, Asscher built a special soundproof room for it. “As an artist, you become used to work that often trades hands,” Wolfson points out. “On this occasion, I could not be happier—he’s definitely the right person to have this piece.”

A distinctive element of Asscher’s collecting is that he makes a serious effort to build personal relationships with artists. He visits studios around the world, invites artists to his home in Monte Carlo or his apartment in Venice, and travels with them. Asked about Asscher’s interest in getting to know artists, Wolfson feigns outrage. “He does?” Wolfson demands. “Who else does he talk to? I thought I was the only one!”

The Paris design dealer Patrick Seguin, who has worked with some of the leading collectors in the world, has been a firsthand witness to Asscher’s approach to art. Seguin met the collector in 2012, just as he was beginning to buy. “In just over ten years, his commitment has been quite incredible,” Seguin observes. “He has made solid choices, unconventional, and shown real courage. Laurent listens and he lets things settle. He learns quickly but doesn’t let himself be influenced—the final decision is his. You don’t often meet such enthusiastic, passionate people. I’ve seen him have long conversations, real exchanges, with great artists like Jenny Saville, Christopher Wool, Brice Marden, Wade Guyton.”

Asscher’s collection contains several paintings by Saville and he has established a warm reciprocal relationship with her. “Laurent is one of the world’s most important collectors and the opening of his foundation in Venice is an important cultural moment internationally,” Saville explains. “His deep interest in art matches the friendships he’s developed with artists, their lives and concerns. Laurent is one of those precious collectors with a great eye combined with the energy and willingness to support the artistic visions of our time.”

Asscher also owns works by the Los Angeles–based Halsey, including friends feeding friends (2024), a large mixed-media piece on foil-insulated foam and wood, that will be in the first installation at AMA Venezia. “The foil work pays homage to community-based organizations and leaders who have worked tirelessly to foster tangible change for black and brown communities in south central Los Angeles, Compton, and Watts,” Halsey writes in an e-mail from her LA studio. “Their perseverance, resilience, and legacy deserve to be recognized, and I’m thrilled that audiences in Venice will have the opportunity to experience the unsung heroes of my neighborhood.” Halsey is another artist whom Asscher knows personally. “Laurent is a cool and mellow guy,” she continues. “I admire that he places value on developing long-term relationships with artists, which allows for a deeper, more nuanced understanding of one’s vision, holistically. It’s unique that he finds it important to get to know me both in and outside of my practice. On top of that, he’s also a great host! His dinner parties are the best!”

Larry Gagosian, who has made Asscher a member of the board of trustees of Gagosian gallery, is enthusiastic about the collector’s new engagement with the city of Venice. “With the opening of the AMA Venezia, Laurent Asscher adds his own unique verse to centuries of patronage in one the world’s most relevant cities for art,” Gagosian states. “At a time when the role of collectors is evolving, Laurent has become a partner for artists, supporting their vision, fostering meaningful exchanges, investing in their careers, and dedicating his time and resources to promoting and sharing their work with us all.”

The object of all of this praise, Laurent Asscher, fifty-five years old, is sitting in a chic Japanese restaurant on the Right Bank. Soft Paris light streams down into the soaring space, all white walls and natural woods. Asscher is warm, charming, and quick with a laugh. There is an easygoing humility about him, qualities not always associated with important art collectors. In order to explain what he wants to do in Venice, he pulls out his phone to scroll through his installation photos. His enthusiasm is palpable and this mission is clearly personal for him. AMA Venezia is named after his three children, Andrea, Matteo, and Alessandro, while he notes that the word “ama” also means “he loves” in Italian. The collector personally curated the first exhibition in his new space.

Asscher has worked in venture capital and private equity for three decades, primarily in high tech, and he sees connections between his professional life and his collecting. One link is the importance of specializing. “Even if I do now have a lot, I try not to collect too many artists,” he explains. “Instead, I like to concentrate and go deeper into each artist. For example, I have four Twombly paintings, from 1961, 1967, 2001, and 2008. This allows you to see the range of his work, which I think is very interesting.”

Asscher’s career and his collecting also share a focus on inventiveness. “The parallel that I see between technology and art is innovation,” Asscher says. “In business, you cannot survive if you are not innovative. If you look at all the companies today that are successful, like NVIDIA or Apple, it’s all about innovation. What do they do that the others don’t? And I think it’s the same with art. If you have an artist who is redoing what others did in the past, it’s not so good.” Asscher suggests that he is often encouraged to make a purchase because of that sense that an artist is breaking new ground. “What obsesses me the most, although it is very difficult to describe, is when you are seeing something that you have not seen anywhere else. For the opening exhibition in Venice, a good example is Jordan Wolfson’s Female Figure. It is not the art of painting; it is the art of robotics. But if you have a chance to come to Venice, you will see Female Figure. It’s amazing. You are obsessed with it. Are you obsessed with the technology or are you obsessed with the message it gives? I think it’s the message and the way the message is communicated. So it’s always about innovation and what the artist is doing that no one else has done.”

Asscher was born in France but moved with his family to Belgium when he was thirty-four years old. His artistic awareness began at home, with paintings owned by his parents. “They were important collectors but not addicted, like I am,” Asscher says with a laugh. “There was a Basquiat, a Sam Francis, a Joan Mitchell—those kinds of paintings. So that helped me learn about American artists. But they would buy one painting every four or five years. My grandfather also had some Pissarros, so I grew up around a good collection, with artists that I started to know and to love.”

In the summer of 2012, Asscher had a significant financial windfall and, remembering his parents’ collection, decided that he wanted to buy a work by Basquiat. “I knew nothing about how to do it but I knew someone who worked at Christie’s and she said, ‘Oh you should buy this Basquiat painting.’ I was the only bidder and I bought it. The next day I saw at Phillips that they were selling Irony of Negro Policeman [1981]. The estimate was low but it ended up going for more than double the estimate, far beyond any price I thought I would pay. That ended up being one of the best acquisitions of my collection because it is one of the most important Basquiats.”

Asscher’s third purchase, marking the official birth of a new collector, was a Twombly painting, and he set off to educate himself. “You can learn a lot about art on the Internet,” he says. “There’s a lot of documentation and I started to be obsessed. I started to go a lot to museums, which are, of course, the best place to see art. I went to classic institutions, MoMA and the Beaubourg, and also to private museums. The Menil Collection, where I went because of Twombly, is a very good example, and the Broad, in another style, and Glenstone. In Venice, I think what [François] Pinault does at La Dogana and Palazzo Grassi is very inspiring.”

Asscher has also informed himself through his personal exchanges with artists. “At one point, when you start collecting living artists, you have the possibility of visiting artists’ studios. And then, when you collect them in depth, you create a relationship with the artist. It may not always be a deep relationship but it is a relationship. And you can understand where they come from, where they’re going, why they do what they do, which is always super interesting. I think you’re never disappointed when you meet artists.”

Another advantage of Asscher’s relationships with artists is gaining a better sense of artistic intention. “Lauren Halsey’s studio in LA is huge,” he points out, “Maybe 5,000 square meters, or 50,000 square feet. It’s fascinating to see how she conceives of the work, how she builds it, how she takes bits from everywhere. Remember, she’s not a painter—it’s assembly. So you can begin to see how she creates her own world.”

Personal contact also gives the collector a better perspective on the artist. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that I have a relationship with Christopher Wool but we’ve met three or four times,” says Asscher, who owns a dozen paintings by Wool. “He has come to my house and I’m a big fan of his work. I think he’s the next great American abstract painter. The last living one was Brice Marden and the next one is Wool.” Asscher also takes the time to learn details about the works he acquires. “I have a color painting by Wool, Untitled [1993], that reads ‘FUCKEM IF THEY CANT TAKE A JOKE.’ The story is that Wool was at a Titian exhibition in Paris and he bumped into Martin Kippenberger, who said, ‘Why are you here? You understand nothing about color—you’re a black and white guy.’ Kippenberger challenged him to make a color painting. Wool made two and Kippenberger chose one. In exchange, Kippenberger gave him a painting, which I’ve heard that Wool still has in his living room. But Kippenberger kept the Wool painting all his life, and that’s the one that I have.”

When considering opening his own art space, Asscher knew that it would have to be in Venice. Real estate in Monte Carlo is far too expensive and he feels that there is no great need for more art venues in Paris. “I see Venice as an art hub, the capital of all foundations for private collection,” Asscher says. “When you think that you have the Guggenheim, Pinault, Prada, Patrizia Sandretto, Berggruen. . . . In a few years you’ll have ten or twenty private foundations in Venice. So that attracts more of a public for art, and creates pressure on you to do high-quality things, which is good for you and good for the public.” Asscher also believes that the dreamy setting of Venice, with its centuries of great art and architecture, is uniquely suited to the role of art destination. “I think it’s magic,” he explains. “When you buy a place in Venice, it’s already like buying a piece of art. When you’re in Venice, there are no cars, so people have time. In Paris you go to the Bourse de Commerce between lunch and another meeting. In Venice there isn’t that pressure—you say, ‘Tomorrow I’ll do three or four foundations.’ People take their time and that makes a big difference.”

Asscher selected a onetime industrial building that dates from before 1500. Offering about 10,000 square feet, or 1,000 square meters, of exhibition space, it lies in a central location near the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Cannaregio, just across the Grand Canal from the Fondazione Prada. Asscher worked closely with a Venetian architecture firm—Torsello Architettura, specialists in historical renovation—to completely restore the building and convert it into a singular art space, with polished dark floors, weathered walls of red brick, and ceilings with big rough beams in dark woods. “The building was long used as a soap factory and the idea with the architects was to change and remove only what was necessary. We want people to feel that this is a building that’s five hundred years old. It’s a new place in a very old building.”

The inaugural exhibition comprises twenty-one works, including paintings, works on paper, and sculptures. “The goal was to show living artists, which all are, except for Brice Marden, whom I had chosen before he passed away,” Asscher explains. “In every gallery I wanted to put only one or two works. You don’t have to show a lot to be very good—you just have to show the good ones.”

A massive sculpture by Jeff Koons, Hulk Elvis (Rock) (2004–13), depicts the green superhero in purple shorts, lifting a boulder and flexing. It stands in front of a monumental grouping of four bright panels by Guyton, Four Fires (2021). Just on the other side of a wall is an imposing piece by Hammons, Untitled (2009), in which two tall graphite-on-paper panels are stacked perilously on a pile of broken concrete boulders. Peyton’s The Age of Innocence (2007), a modest-sized painting of a couple about to kiss, hangs in an intimate space on a rough old wall, glowing above the dark floors. “The idea of this exhibition is going from super-handmade painting like [the work of] Florian Krewer, a young German artist who I think is very talented; Mohammed Sami, an artist I love who paints from his memories of Iraq; Avery Singer, a young female painter who is very innovative; and Elizabeth Peyton, a painter I love, and [hers is] one of the only figurative works that I own. You go from there to work where the hand of the artist barely touches the piece: Jeff Koons, Lauren Halsey, who assembles but makes only some light retouches, and Wade Guyton, who prints his works. So it goes from the gesture of painting to its opposite, like Jordan Wolfson, who is very conceptual. I don’t think one is better than the other—they are simply two different ways.”

Although Asscher curated and installed this exhibition himself, he does not intend to do that with every show. “At the beginning, I wanted to have only works from my collection,” he explains. “But in the next stage it will be whatever is needed to have the best show. If I have to take loans, take a curator, I will do whatever is best for each exhibit. When you start to make a deep study on a single subject, or have paintings that are not in your collection, you need an outside curator. I think I’ll do something at some point with Christopher Wool, with Jenny Saville, with Twombly, and with young artists. I hope that this will become a space mostly for young artists, living artists, to show what they do.”

Wolfson was the only artist able to visit AMA Venezia before it opened. “It is very beautiful because it has a combination of very large spaces and more intimate spaces,” Wolfson points out. “It’s a very flexible space, so that you can show small paintings by someone like Elizabeth Peyton or larger paintings by Wade Guyton or sculptures by me or Jeff Koons. It’s very beautiful, but it’s not overdone—it’s just a very appropriate space.”

Wolfson, still sitting in his car on the side of the highway, underscores the personal relationship that he enjoys with Asscher. “I love Laurent. He’s like my pal. He’s actually a friend of mine, like I could go on vacation with him and not feel like I’m singing for my supper, if you understand what I mean. He’s hilarious. He’s got a good heart and a good eye and he’s motivated. I love this guy—he’s cool.”