Pay Attention·I Hope You Learned Your Lesson: Works from the Collection of Laila Twigg-Smith
November 2, 2001 ö January 6, 2002

Laila Twigg-Smith (1944-1998) was well-known, both in Hawaii and on the mainland, as an ardent supporter of artists and the arts. She was a dynamic personality who brought a strongly individual philosophy and taste to collecting that encompassed a remarkable range of styles and visions.

Born in Dresden, Germany near the end of World War II to Latvian refugee parents, she immigrated with her family to California after the war and grew up in the Bay Area. Trained as an artist, she graduated in 1967 with a BA from San Jose State University. She came to Hawaii in 1969 with her first husband, sculptor and University of Hawaii Professor Fred Roster, and taught art classes at the Academy of Arts Center. She served as the director of the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) from 1974 to 1983, organizing many exhibitions by artists of Hawaii and helping to develop The Honolulu Advertiser Collection.

The success and growth of CAC's programs led to the founding of The Contemporary Museum, which Laila Twigg-Smith spearheaded with her second husband, Thurston Twigg-Smith. TCM first opened to the public in Makiki Heights in October 1988. She was actively involved with TCM as a trustee and Chair of the Collections Committee. With a keen interest in building the museum's collection, she donated art from her personal collection, including works by Robert Graham, Enrique Chagoya, Larry Bell, and the powerful assemblage, The White Cup, by Ed Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz. She was also a member of the Painting and Sculpture Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art and a Trustee of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

This exhibition presents over fifty works from Laila Twigg-Smithās personal collection that have been placed at The Contemporary Museum as promised gifts from her son, Cade Roster. The paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and prints by such artists as Jennifer Bartlett, Elizabeth Murray, Nic Nicosia, Jim Dine, Hank Murta Adams, William Wegman, John Baldessari, Lorna Simpson and Roy Lichtenstein reveal the range of her interests and her distinctive taste, flair and sense of humor.

West Coast artists are well-represented in the exhibition, which includes works by Ed Ruscha, William Wiley, Charles Garabedian, George Herms, Alexis Smith, Robert Hudson, Richard Shaw, Mel Ramos, Billy Al Bengston, Roy DeForest and Wayne Thiebaud.

While Laila Twigg-Smith appreciated and collected the works of many conceptual and abstract artists, she also liked the very personal visions of several painters who work with figurative and representational imagery. Among those artists represented in the exhibition are Richard Baker, Holly Lane, John Wilde, William Beckman, Juan Gonzales, Donald McFayden and Robert Rasely.

She was also well-known for thematic groupings that she assembled, ranging from cast-iron door stops in the forms of dogs to ceramic ladiesā heads flower vases to hearts, both folk and fine art pieces in all kinds of materials. Perhaps the most extensive of these collections was one comprising depictions of hands, represented in the exhibition with works by John Buck, Susan Rothenberg, Tom Otterness and Richard Long.

Laila Twigg-Smith loved to share her collection with others. She frequently lent works and enjoyed opening her home to groups and individuals, delighting in giving lively tours in which she discussed the works and their personal significance to her.

This exhibition marks the first time many of the works are being exhibited publicly. As promised gifts to The Contemporary Museum, they will significantly enhance the museumās collection and serve as an ongoing resource for the community and a permanent tribute to her contributions to the arts in Hawaii and beyond.

Laila Twigg-Smith also established, as a bequest, a fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation, which has been organized as the Laila Art Fund. The fundās mission is to nurture and promote Hawaii as a center for the exchange of contemporary arts and artists, through programs and initiatives that offer opportunities for artists to immerse themselves in different environments, absorb various influences, and realize fresh visions. The fund also serves to bring artists, curators, educators and critics to Hawaii to interact with the community.

A number of initial grants from the Laila Art Fund have been awarded on an individual basis. Institutions and organizations that have received funds are The Contemporary Museum, the University of Hawaii Department of Art, The University of Hawaii Intersections Program, Holualoa Foundation for Culture and the Arts, Hawaii Craftsmen, and the Honolulu Printmakers. In 2002 the Laila Art Fund will issue requests for proposals in a larger, open grantmaking process.