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<\/p>\nPortrait of Marc and Livia Straus in their Chappaqua home, with works by Anish Kapoor, Daniel Buren, and Jeffrey Gibson, 2025. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus.<\/p>\n
In 1990, Marc and Livia Straus spent several days with Anselm Kiefer<\/a> in the Black Forest in southwestern Germany, where the artist maintained a studio. One work, titled Sefirot (1990), stopped the Strauses cold. The artist apparently liked it too\u2014he was planning to keep it for himself. <\/p>\n Livia, a theologian, slipped into an intense back-and-forth with Kiefer about the Kabbalistic ladder embedded in the painting. Marc remembered thinking, \u201cI just have to have this piece.\u201d Moved by the interaction, Kiefer decided to part with the work. That towering piece now lives in the Strauses\u2019 house in Chappaqua, New York, which they built in 1978. The episode is emblematic of how the Strauses collect: by instinct and by sustained engagement with living artists.<\/p>\n Today, Marc and Livia are among New York\u2019s most respected champions of contemporary art. They\u2019ve shaped their collection via decades of conversations in studios around the world. The couple lives between Manhattan and their Chappaqua home, filling their walls with mementos of these intimate experiences. Livia\u2019s fascination with color and spirituality shaped their early taste. Marc is a retired oncologist and poet who gravitates toward difficult work he feels compelled to live with. In 2011, he founded the New York gallery Marc Straus<\/a>. Together, the pair built Hudson Valley MOCA in Peekskill, New York, in 2004. Many of the works in their deeply personal collection wouldn\u2019t exist without their patronage.<\/p>\n Installation view of Marc and Livia Straus\u2019s home in Chappaqua, New York, with works by Jeffrey Gibson, Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra, Georg Baselitz, among others. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus.<\/p>\n The story of the Strauses\u2019 partnership began long before the Kiefer. Marc and Livia met on the first day of ninth grade in Long Island. They were friends before they started to date in their senior year. \u201cI just knew I was going to marry this girl,\u201d Marc recently told me. I was visiting their Chappaqua home, and he was sitting across the table from Livia. The pair wed in 1964 in their very early twenties. Marc entered medical school, and the pair moved into student housing in Brooklyn. There was barely enough room for the two of them, let alone an art collection.<\/p>\n The Strauses\u2019 first acquisition was Kenneth Noland<\/a>\u2019s color-field painting<\/a> Shift (1966), which now hangs in their son\u2019s house. Their taste developed as they lived closely with every piece they bought, especially while they were surviving on modest salaries. Buying just one artwork a year taught them patience and precision. \u201cOne piece a year would be a lot for us,\u201d Marc said. \u201cIt created a lot of discipline.\u201d He still advocates a slow, thoughtful, and immersive approach to collecting.<\/p>\n Installation view of Marc and Livia Straus\u2019s home in Chappaqua, New York, with works by Susan Rothenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Bruce Nauman, and Antonio Santin. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus.<\/p>\n While the couple made significant early purchases, they trace the true beginning of their collecting life to 1972. That year, they saw Ellsworth Kelly<\/a>\u2019s \u201cChatham\u201d series, which features 14 paintings composed of two panels of solid color joined in upside-down \u201cL\u201d shapes. At the time, they were living in a small apartment in Maryland with two kids and a dog. They spent three months choosing the right \u201cChatham\u201d work, then another six trying to secure a loan. Their ultimate purchase, Chatham VIII (1971), cost an entire year of Marc\u2019s fellowship salary and took three years to pay off. That thrilling leap, Marc said, solidified their appetite for art.<\/p>\n The Kelly now lives in Marc\u2019s office to the left of his desk. Another wall features Antonio Sant\u00edn<\/a>\u2019s Trampoli\u0301n (2025), a photorealistic painting of a crumpled, intricately patterned carpet. On the opposing wall is Susan Rothenberg<\/a>\u2019s Accident #3 (1993), part of the artist\u2019s horse crash series. The second iteration of the series lives in the dining area downstairs. Nearly every artwork in the Strauses\u2019 home has a personal anecdote attached. Marc recalls \u201cmany thousands\u201d of studio visits around the world and a simple rule: \u201cWe never bought something we didn\u2019t install,\u201d he tells me. Living with the work was essential; it was how they learned from it.<\/p>\n Installation view of Marc and Livia Straus\u2019s home in Chappaqua, New York, with works by Anish Kapoor, Daniel Buren, and Jeffrey Gibson, among others. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus.<\/p>\n Even contentious artist-collector relationships have proven fruitful. Soon after the Strauses moved to Chappaqua, they invited sculptor Richard Serra<\/a> to make an indoor sculpture for the large gallery room. Serra instead walked the home\u2019s perimeter, came back inside, and announced he knew exactly what he wanted to do: install a massive steel wall that would block their view of the lake. Marc told him he wasn\u2019t legally allowed to build that close to the water. \u201cThen you can\u2019t get a piece,\u201d Serra replied, and left it at that for two years. Eventually, he relented and created a much smaller steel work that sits next to the Kiefer in the main room. <\/p>\n Other acquisitions were more spontaneous. In 2012, Livia brought Marc to visit Jeffrey Gibson<\/a>\u2019s Brooklyn studio. \u201cIf Livia had told me we were going to visit an artist who makes punching bags, I might have skipped it,\u201d Marc jokes. Instead, he walked in, saw a beaded Everlast bag and was dazzled by Gibson\u2019s craftsmanship. According to Marc, Gibson didn\u2019t have the means to complete the work, but they bought Deep Blue Day (2014) as it was. It hangs from the ceiling of their house, only half covered in beads, recalling a moment of collectorly love at first sight.<\/p>\n Installation view of Marc and Livia Straus\u2019s home in Chappaqua, New York, with works by Marie Watt and Louise Bourgeois, among others. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus.<\/p>\n The Strauses\u2019 passion for emerging art extends internationally as well. On a 2008 research trip through Eastern Europe\u2014one of more than 200 studio visits that year alone\u2014they met Adrian Ghenie<\/a>, a young Romanian painter who was unknown in the U.S. Marc found himself trying to convince fellow collectors to buy one of the painter\u2019s 8-foot canvases for $10,000. Few did. Today, Ghenie is represented by Pace Gallery<\/a> and Thaddaeus Ropac<\/a>.<\/p>\n The deeper the Strauses went into artists\u2019 studios, the more urgent it became to create spaces for the work beyond their own walls. By 2000, their collection was large enough that they needed storage. As Marc recalled, \u201cLivia said, \u2018We can\u2019t just put it away. We have to use the art to teach.\u2019\u201d They decided to open Hudson Valley MOCA, a space where their art collection helps engage the community. <\/p>\n Portrait of Marc and Livia Straus in their Chappaqua home, with works by Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra, and Georg Baselitz. Courtesy of Marc and Livia Straus.<\/p>\n Similarly, Marc felt driven to open his gallery after retiring from oncology. His program champions living artists and features unconventional, sometimes bizarre solo shows that include pieces ranging from salvaged-material sculptures to a 43-foot painting. \u201cYou\u2019ve always loved helping artists develop their careers,\u201d Livia said to her husband. \u201cIt makes perfect sense that\u2026you want to start with young, emerging talents.\u201d For example, Straus has supported Yael Medrez Pier<\/a> and Anne Samat<\/a>, who just staged a major installation at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766561897_514_d7hftxdivxxvm.cloudfront.net\")
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