An Artful Life: A Tribute to Matthew C.
Strauss at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
March 20 – August 3, 2025
Mathew Strauss passed away in August 2024 at the age of 91,
but he left a legacy of art that will live well past our lifetimes. His wife
Iris was the art major, but Strauss got the bug in 1980 and together they built
a 300-piece collection based on their view of what were the best works of the best artists of our time starting
in the 1970’s.
Steven Strauss, their son who took his father’s place as
the board chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, said that his
father likes edgier work and his mother tended toward the beautiful. But no
work entered the collection without the approval of both.
On view in An Artful Life are just 22 works of art that
span the world. But they are large in
format and occupy fully 5 rooms including the Iris and Mathew Strauss Gallery. The show was curated by Kathryn Kanjo, CEO of MCASD. The works are
very representative of the entire collection of the museum, probably not a surprise
as Hugh Davies, past director of the Museum, was an advisor to the Strausses.
Iris Strauss was a participant in an Art Collectors round
table, held for the now defunct COVA organization more than 15 years ago. When asked
what a collector does when all the walls in their home are filled, she replied,
“Buy the house next door.” That is exactly what they did and formed a
foundation to house a part of their collection. That house will now be sold to finance The
Strauss, an alumni building in the new Triton Center on the campus of UCSD. The
Strauss will house the foundation collection and is planned to open in 2026 and
geared especially to the student population. Strauss felt that every major
university should have a major art museum. It was also Mathew Strauss who helped with the
expansion project of MCASD, which is now able to show its permanent collection.
Making art available to the public was so important to Strauss
family. This exhibition is small but mighty. That might be because Mathew
Strauss believed that a work of art was important if it “moved your molecules.”
It is the hope of the museum, that this exhibition encourages collectors to get
their molecules moving.
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