THE JEWISH ART OF RECOGNIZING FUTUR IMPORTANT ARTISTS :EMILY FISHER LANDAU

She is known as a champion of contemporary American artists, something she picked up after hiring the art connoisseur Bill Katz to decorate her apartment and guide her around the studios, lofts, galleries of SoHo, the East Village and TriBeCa. She bought early works by such artists as Keith Haring, Matthew Barney. Luminaries of the art world gathered at the Whitney on Monday night for a gala honoring Mrs. Landau’s 90th birthday. Leonard A. Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Whitney (and a recent donor of $131 million to its endowment), credited Ms. Landau with having “a laser eye” for art and recalled her verdict — “Mine is better.” — on a Cy Twombly painting he was browsing. He credited her for championing new artists well before their acceptance by the public, her mantra being: “Whether you like it or not is beside the point.”

New York Times
(About Emily Fisher Landau
Sept 30 2010