The Blomstrom Collection:
Using the Eye and the Heart

Bruce and Anne Blomstrom relaxing at their beach house under paintings by (top row) Kenn Backhaus, Jacobus Baas, (bottom row) Jean LeGassick, and Billyo O'Donnell

by Molly Siple


With the market for plein air painting becoming better established, plein air paintings are showing up in a variety of collections. A case in point is the art collection of Anne and Bruce Blomstrom. While their collection began with a predominance of Asian and African art more that thirty years ago, they later generated an interest in acquiring contemporary plein air works as well.
 
We recently interviewed the Blomstroms to learn more about how their collection grew and how they came to the decision to make a purchase. "Back in the 1960s," as Anne explains, "we were living in Uganda while Bruce was assistant secretary for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Uganda. It was then that we bought our first painting, Zanzibari Man, after attending a one-woman exhibition. But we didn't actually take the first step. We were 'chosen' by the artist who insisted on choosing her collectors, and not the other way around! After we made the purchase, she gave us one of her paintings, and so our collection days began."
 
The Blomstroms acquired more African work, including sculpture and handcrafted furniture through their travels on the continent and when they moved to South Africa. Then, when Bruce's work brought him to Japan, their collection took another turn. They began to buy Japanese paintings and woodblock prints by Hiroshige, Toshikata, Kasamatsu and the Japanese-born French artist Paul Jacoulet. They also began to learn about and eventually purchased Japanese screens. These works formed the basis of the Asian facet of their collection, to which they have added over the years. Much of their collection was acquired through Asian art expert, Michael Stevenson, owner of L.A. Art Box, and through the annual art auctions at the Festival of the Autumn Moon produced by the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. (Anne Blomstrom
provides docent tours of the museum's collection.)
 
This growing collection, and especially the sizeable screens, some as large as 59 3 89, led the Blomstroms to remodel their home. To literally fit all the art, they extended some rooms and even filled in one door space to create a larger wall for display. Rooms were further outfitted with custom made ledges on which the screens rest. In these rooms are also displayed statuary of all sorts, including beautifully executed sculptures of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Bodhisattvas. Above their mantle, Egyptian objects are on view. A painted tomb mask and ushepti sculpture - a slave figurine ready to serve his master in the afterlife -- both dating from 1000 bc. Display cases hold fine examples of Chinese jade carvings, and on antique Korean and Japanese chests rest bronze vessels designed to hold Ikebana floral arrangements. Ikebana is a special love of Anne's, and two months each year, she arranges Ikebana displays for the Huntington Library's Japanese House. The Blomstroms also enjoy collecting works by talented contemporary Asian artists. One of their favorites is Zhenhua Zhang from Nanjing where he is recognized as one of the "Literati," a member of a highly educated group of artists supported by the government. Today, Zhenhua lives in Irvine, California.
 
Anne and Bruce advise others who aspire to building a collection of quality art to first become educated by visiting art museums, galleries, and reading books. As they point out, "Collecting art becomes a much richer experience as you become more informed, not to mention that you will be more likely to spend your money wisely." Anne Blomstrom honed her tastes in courses at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and when she was a student at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.