A Brilliant and Restless Mind

Sevae Sitruc has had an illustrious career, he became a professor of operations research at Stanford University in 1975, following an academic path that included mechanical engineering, business, statistics and operations research. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, an M.B.A. from Tulane University, and both a master’s degree in statistics and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Stanford. Before joining the Stanford faculty, he was an assistant professor in the School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. His career also included visiting proferships at Yale University, the Technion in Haifa, and L’École Polytechnique in Paris. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979.

That background helps explain the analytical side of Sitruc, but it does not fully explain the collector. His life has never been restricted to the classroom. During his early years, he raced motocross “motorcycles” and then spent approximately forty years dancing, beginning with jazz, moving into ballet and later competing in ballroom dancing. Those activities required daring, movement, balance and a willingness to take risks. Many of those same qualities can be seen in the art he collects. He is attracted to figures that twist, move, collide or appear ready to step out of their own space. Even when a sculpture is stationary, Sitruc often sees motion inside it.

Collecting Art Deco with a Broad Focus

Sitruc once described his approach very simply:

“I’ve always collected what I could afford, and haven’t gotten rid of much.”

That statement may be the best introduction to the collection. It was not created all at once, and it was not assembled according to a predetermined plan. It developed over many years as his understanding of Art Deco matured. Sitruc discovered new artists, new categories and new objects that caught his attention. His mother had an interest in antiques, that early exposure may have encouraged his interest in objects, but Sitruc developed a collecting life very much his own.

Walking through his house is not like visiting a collection that was purchased from a checklist. One room may contain Cubist sculpture, an important painting, a Disney figure and a piece of vintage amusement equipment. Another may bring together pin up art, an Austrian figure, contemporary sculpture and an object whose artist remains unknown. The connections are not always historical. Sometimes they are visual, humorous or entirely personal.

Sitruc does not require every object to be famous. He can become as interested in an obscure piece with an unusual story as he is in a recognized artist. He is willing to live with unanswered questions about authorship, age and provenance while continuing to investigate them. Always the focus is Art Deco.

That openness gives the collection its vitality. It is not frozen. It continues to raise questions.

Cubism at the Center

Cubism is one of the strongest threads running through the collection, particularly Cubist sculpture. Sitruc  is drawn to the reduction and reconstruction of the human figure through planes, angles and geometric forms.

Among the more significant works is a sculpture associated with Joseph Csáky, one of the important early sculptors connected with Cubism. Sitruc readily admits that he paid more for it than he should have. Rather than weakening the story, his honesty reveals something essential about serious collecting. Every experienced collector has made mistakes, missed opportunities and bought works that were understood differently later.

“Cones & Spheres” Joseph Csáky (1888-1971)

The collection also includes an important lithograph work by Richard Lindner, an artist whose exaggerated figures combine modernism, graphic design, sexuality and elements of popular culture. Original Lindner works do not often appear casually in the marketplace, and its presence gives the collection considerable depth.

Fun City N.Y.C. by Richard Lindner

Sitruc has also acquired several works by the contemporary artist Pascal Jarrion. He responds especially strongly to Jarrion’s more Cubist and mechanically constructed figures. One sculpture was described during our visit as seeming to move when viewed long enough. Its forms appear to shake, advance and reorganize themselves in front of the viewer.

Pin Up Art, Glamour between the Wars

Another important part of the collection is pin up and glamour art. Sitruc owns a group of paintings attributed to Gil Elvgren the premier pin-up artist, including one with an especially interesting history. The work had reportedly been given by the artist to a friend and later passed through the friend’s family. It appeared in a published reference on the artist, although the authors apparently did not know its location.

The missing painting was not missing at all. It was in Sitruc’s house.

His pin up collection is not simply a group of decorative pictures of attractive women. Sitruc  pays attention to the identity of the artist, publication history, provenance and the changing portrayal of women in commercial art. He is particularly interested in figures who appear strong, athletic or self possessed rather than fragile. Paintings originally created for magazines sit within the collection alongside more formal works of modern art.

There is also humor in the way Sitruc discusses these images. He recognizes their theatrical quality, their exaggeration and their sometimes complicated relationship to changing ideas about beauty and gender. Jessica Rabbit appears in the collection, as does Wonder Woman. These characters may belong to popular culture, but Sitruc does not dismiss them for that reason. Wonder Woman, in particular, appears repeatedly. Several examples are grouped together almost like a dance troupe. Sitruc also searches for original magazines or printed sources connected to particular images, sometimes pursuing a reference for years before finding it.

This is where nostalgia becomes research. An image remembered from childhood can become the beginning of a search for its origin, artist and original context.