Introduction
Thomas E. Ammann (1950–1993) was a leading Swiss art dealer in Impressionist and Twentieth Century Art and major collector of Post-war and Contemporary Art.
Life
Born 1950 in Ermatingen, Switzerland, as the youngest of four children (Eveline, Doris, Susan), Ammann became an art collector while still a teen-ager. Aged 18 he went to work at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich. It was during this time of apprenticeship that Ammann first metAndy Warhol who would become a close friend. In 1977 Ammann went into business for himself. His unique combination of knowledge, eye for quality, charm, humor, looksand absolute discretion catapulted him to the top of the art world by his mid 30's(Skis with Valentino, dines with Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor ... lives on the Concorde. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1988.
Thomas Ammann died 9 June 1993, aged 43 - a memorial service for friends and family was held in his honour at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, 18 November 1993 with speakers Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Thomas Krens, William H. Luers, Ernst Beyeler, Robert Wilson (director), Bob Colacello, Bianca Jagger and artists Ross Bleckner, Francesco Clemente and Eric Fischl.
Collection
Besides becoming the leading dealer of his generationby the end of the 1980s and playing in the first league of older dealers such as William Acquavella and Ernst Beyeler, Thomas Ammann was an equally keen supporter and friend of contemporary artists, whose works he exclusively purchased for his own collection. A small selection of his holdings were exhibited at the Kunsthalle Basel in 1985 with the title "From Twombly to Clemente - Selected works from a private collection", curated by the well known art critic and former museum director Jean-Christophe Ammann (no relation). The art world agreed on Thomas Ammann's collection of works of the second half of the twentieth century to be amongst the finest in existence, with unparalleledworkgroups of artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, Robert Ryman, Sigmar Polke, Eric Fischl, Francesco Clemente and Neil Jenney. The funding for the collection was provided by his childhood friend and fellow art enthusiast Alexander Schmidheiny, who shared with him the goal of establishing a first-rate collection of contemporary art. Living up to his maxim "You shall not collect what you want to sell", Ammann strictly divided his dealing in early twentieth-century art from his collecting postwar and contemporary works. Following the untimely deaths of Alexander Schmidheiny in 1992 and Thomas Ammann in 1993,the collection was inherited by their siblings. Doris Ammann exhibits some of the inherited works as private loans, while Stephan Schmidheiny transferred his share to the newly created Daros Collection.
Concerns
Ammann was an early supporter in the fight against AIDS, the illness many prominent figures from the artworld fell victim to. The evening of 2 May 1988, following the auction of the Andy Warhol Collection at Sotheby's in New York, Ammann orchestrated a benefit auction which raised nearly two million US dollars. Ammann convinced artist friends from Jasper Johns to Cy Twombly to donate works to the auction he co-hosted with Patricia Buckley, the proceeds of which went to the supportive care programme of St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center of New York.
In 1991 as chairman of the international programme, Thomas Ammann organized and hosted the Art Against Aids (AmFAR) gala dinner and 1.5 million dollar fund-raiser at the opening of the art fair Basel with Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn for some 500 guests, among them the biggest names from the art and entertainment worlds.
Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné
It was in 1977 that Thomas Ammann envisioned a Catalogue Raisonné of all of Andy Warhol's paintings, sculptures and drawings, and with the artists consent, started the vast undertaking of assembling the material needed for such a project to finally create a comprehensive, scholarly and authoritative publication. The initial volumes were eventually published in 2002 and 2004 by Phaidon Press in a joint effort of Thomas Ammann Fine Art and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc., New York.
Publications
- From Twombly to Clemente - Selected works from a Private Collection, Kunsthalle Basel, 1985
- Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Vol. I (1961-1963)
- Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Vol. II (1964-1969)
- Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Vol. III (1970-1974)