David Sussman started his art collection 45 years ago. He was a student at Boston University and picked up a Miro print for $15. He’s come a long way from the east coast to San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood, where his home — inside and out — has become a gallery of local art. And with the help of a noted painter who challenged him along the way, he developed a more daring collection.

The house itself is a handsome, two-story Georgian built in the 1930s, with gray stucco and a red front door — a house that some might say lends itself to a traditional approach. But step inside, and you realize there is nothing predictable about it. Walk into the living room and a great white skull emanating spokes of graffiti stops you cold. An L.A. city street scene over the mantel pulls you into an edgy neighborhood. And filling the dining room wall hangs a figure of a contemplative, graying woman named Theta — a work that marked a turning point for him.

“Buying art is like buying ties,” said Sussman, a family lawyer. “If you buy just what you like right now, all the ties in your collection will look the same.”

Sussman began appreciating more challenging works when he met Katherine Levin Lau at an open studio event more than a decade ago. He was drawn to the large painting of Theta. He had favored abstract works before, but found himself drawn to this figure.

“He said it was unlike anything he owned,” said Levin Lau, a former San Jose State lecturer who shows her work internationally. Still, he bargained with her.

“I’ll give you 20 percent off,” she conceded.

“Let this be your lesson,” Sussman told her. “I would have paid full price.”

And so began a long friendship, from which both have learned and benefitted.

And they started together at the De Anza Flea Market in Cupertino, where more than 800 vendors show their wares the first Saturday of every month.

“The joy of going with her — you get to see how she saw everything,” he said. “Her eyes moved in ways yours didn’t. You realize you weren’t challenging your own eye.”

They started by collecting balls. That’s right. Just balls. Bocce balls, pool balls, ceramic balls.

“How about this one?” he would ask.

“No,” she would say. “You have to get balls that have integrity, David. They can’t be brand new, out of a decorator’s showcase. They have to be something real.”

Levin Lau made him a rubber band ball. He built a rectangular, plexiglass box for them and hangs it over a doorway.

As much as Levin Lau showed him how to look at things in new ways, Sussman always had his own strong sense of style.

“I love lines,” he said. “I love an Armani suit — not a lot of ruffles.”

And the artwork he was drawn to had a similar sensibility. Sussman became a regular at the annual auctions of the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art — for 25 years running he bought at least one piece a year. And he also enjoyed the art sales of San Jose State University art students. He commissioned a whole set of ceramic plates from student Una Mjurka.

At one such art sale, he met art professor David Middlebrook and commissioned from him a double sculpture of bronze and stone for Sussman’s backyard, a piece that represents the organic versus the intellectual. It incorporates Sussman’s own thumb print.

Even his kitchen has a strong, artistic flair. With the help of Neal Bunce from Coyote Valley Cabinets –”whose attention to detail and quest for perfection made the project a success” — the space incorporates angled glass on the bar counter, with roughly textured granite counters.

“The point is,” Sussman said, “everything looks old quickly if you don’t press yourself to try something out of your range.”

It’s an attitude Levin Lau is thrilled to hear.

“He’s just a wonderful, enthusiastic, curious collector,” she said. “He loves to learn and explore. He truly loves his art.”

Update:
Katherine Levin Lau is showing her work at a mid-April exhibit at the San Jose architecture firm of Bill Gould. She may be contacted through him at www.bgdesign.com.
Coyote Valley Cabinets can be reached at (408) 561-0989.

Update 2:

This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

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