Both Stones, who met almost three decades ago, are on the board of the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, named for Norman’s parents. Knowledgeable and very active collectors they are also members of the Tate International Council and the Whitney National Committee and serve on the Executive Committee of both groups. Recently they were invited to join the American Friends of the Pompidou Museum.
Norah is also a member of the Leadership Council of Pro Choice California. Their art activism and philanthropy are balanced and expressed in their colorful and fearless sense of style--think Yamamoto, Versace, Gaultier, Andrew Gn, Comme des Garcons.

In summer, when they throw art parties on Diamond Mountain, and in spring and fall, when they make the rounds of top art shows, the Stones are vivid company, whether the topic is growing grapes, travel, art funding or controversial or conceptual art.

Norah Sharpe was born in Golden Valley, Alberta, Canada. She earned a nursing degree from the University of Alberta and later a law degree from the San Francisco Law School. Norah supervised the initial volunteer nursing staff at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco in 1967. Since then, she has logged countless volunteer hours serving a range of non-profits in San Francisco. She’s a past president of the Child Abuse Prevention Center in San Francisco and a former vice president of the San Rafael Parks & Recreation Commission.

Since 1980, Norman has served as a staff psychologist at the mental health center for the government-funded Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement in San Francisco. Several days a week he counsels patients for an array of disorders from schizophrenia and crack addiction to depression. Norman was also a co-founder of the Nueva School in Hillsborough, California.
 

Among artists represented in the Napa Valley site are Gilbert & George, Larry Clark, Joseph Beuys, Cady Noland, Ryan Gander, Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Lucy McKenzie, Catherine Opie and Taryn Simon.

Since the 1990s, their superbly landscaped hillside property has produced critically acclaimed Merlot wines under the Azalea Springs label. The Stones replanted their vineyards in 2002 with  Cabernet Sauvignon vines and their terroir now produces premium grapes. The Stones are members of the Napa Valley Vintners, a non-profit trade association.

Norah and Norman also live with their dramatic art collection in San Francisco. Their red brick Beaux-Arts style residence was designed by architect Arthur Brown in 1927. In addition to large-scale paintings and conceptual pieces, the house includes graceful historic rooms decorated in the thirties and forties by the iconic California interior designer, Frances Elkins.

NSS We became interested in collecting art in the mid-eighties when we were visiting art fairs, galleries and museums in New York and Europe with a private art dealer from Germany who was an old friend of Norman’s family.  The first pieces we collected were sixties and seventies European Modern Art including Tapies, Soulage and Dubuffet.  In 1988 we became more involved with SFMOMA, particularly with John Caldwell, the brilliant and inspiring chief curator. We travelled with him on many inspiring museum-sponsored trips and thus began our passion and interest in contemporary art.  We then de-accessioned our earlier pieces and focused on collecting with the intent of ultimately donating our collection to one or two museums, primarily SFMOMA, to which we have already made a number of gifts.

NS John Caldwell introduced us to Thea Westreich, whom he recommended as an art advisor, since our interest was now becoming serious.  We needed to focus and to learn as much as possible about the field.  Thea helped us to define our interests. We have worked with her since 1990. She is based in New York and travels all over the world in search of interesting art particularly by emerging artists.  We do not have the time to do the kind of research her office performs. Our relationship with her is that of collaborator and partner and she has been invaluable in our pursuit of the art of our time.  She brings artists and particular works to our attention and a discussion ensues. We also discover pieces on our own which we find worth consideration.  Norah and I have similar taste and so generally speaking we agree quickly on acquisitions.

TNVR  Would you recall for us your approach and goals when you made your first contemporary acquisitions?

NSS Our aim has always been to collect museum quality works, to share them with others and to eventually donate our collection to a public institution or institutions.  We did not want to have a “sampler” collection nor did we want one filled with “names” rather than quality.  We wanted a cohesive collection that reflected our passion for contemporary art.

TNVR Who were the artists you zeroed in on at the beginning, and why? Your concepts and approach seem consistent over three decades. Your collection speaks to your curiosity, knowledge, awareness and openness to provocative concepts.

NSS We initially focused on the most provocative and intellectually challenging  emerging artists, particularly those from the “Pictures” generation including Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and Sheri Levine.  We also acquired works by Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley, Robert Gober, Christopher Wool, Martin Kippenberger and Cady Noland.

Our collection interests then expanded to include minimal and conceptual works by Donald Judd, John Baldessari, Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Robert Smithson.

During the 1990’s we added works by Andy Warhol, Sigmar Polke Matthew Barney, Jason Rhodes, Larry Clark and Doug Aitken.

At that point we realized that many of the younger artists were influenced by Joseph Beuys, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Bellmer and Bruce Conner, so pieces by these artists were acquired to give the collection resonance, balance and richer understanding.

Our collection is personal and reflects our interests in conceptualism, current cultural issues and various forms of expression including sculpture, media and photography in addition to painting.

TNVR  How have your relationships with these artists evolved?

NSS Many of the artists in the collection have become our friends and we love to see them in New York, Europe, Los Angeles, London or Paris, or at art events.  We prefer to meet them after we have been introduced to their work so as not to be unduly swayed by personalities. Several of the artists in our collection spent generous amounts of time with us while installing large pieces.  For instance, Cady Noland spent two or three weeks with us in Calistoga in 1992 when we were installing the outdoor sculpture ‘Log Cabin Blank with Screw Eyes and Café Door/Memorial to John Caldwell,’ which remains permanently installed. Cady’s piece is the façade of a log cabin in line with her interest in American icons.  While constructing the piece I had to drive Cady to Santa Rosa on several occasions in order to choose wood stain.  Each time she would look at me as we began the drive over windy roads and in a plaintive voice say, “I always get car sick.”

Jason Rhoades installed ‘Jason Rhoades and Jackie Rhoades – 13 Booth Cologne County Fair’, 1993 a large installation piece which included a BBQ, and items used by his mother to decorate state fair booths, as well as 4H memorabilia,  his early paintings and sausages which he cooked on site.  He then had to reinstall it when we decided to move it from the lower gallery to the top floor of our San Francisco home.

Michel Majerus, a young artist working in Berlin, spent time with us installing a group of large sculptures in our lower gallery.  We became friends as we did with Cady and Jason and were very saddened when he was killed in an airplane crash in 2002 at age 34.  Shortly after learning of his death we donated the installation to MOCA in Los Angeles.  A show of work from his estate recently opened in Berlin.

TNVR The early nineties was a great time for art discovery and expression.

NSS In 1992 we bought works from Matthew Barney’s first gallery exhibitions.  One was a handmade tackling sled normally used by football players, which Matthew used in college. It included a large sugar cube representing energy. While installing it in our Lower Gallery he realized that he needed to make a new one as the original was damaged in shipping.  Late one evening he sent Norman to the Marina Safeway in San Francisco  to buy ten pounds of sugar and six tubes of Super Glue.  I cannot imagine what the grocery clerk was thinking when he rang up the sale!

Other works in our current exhibition “Politics is Personal” are site-specific and include 'Police the Police,’ 2011 by Rirkrit Tiravanija which is graphite drawings on a 26’ x 26’- foot wall.  The drawings were executed by students from the San Francisco Art Institute and depict various political engagements.  We have invited the students back on several occasions to continue to add to the work, which will eventually render the original figures almost illegible.

An installation by Walid Raad relates to the history of art in the Arab world and required us to hire an actor from Germany to reenact the piece at the opening.

We also have a work by Matias Faldenbakken,'Cultural Department’, 2006/2011 which refers to the vandalizing of the Palestinian Cultural Department offices by a group of Israeli soldiers.  The artist flew in from Oslo to recreate the piece using spray paint from condiment bottles.

Another artist with whom we have established a close relationship is Theaster Gates, whose work we first saw at MOCA in LA two years ago.  Since that time we have travelled to Seattle, Chicago, London, Miami and Kassel Germany to see his work and to watch his musical and art related performances.  During the process we have spent time getting to know him and his work, which relates in part to the Dorchester community of Chicago’s South side, where he has renovated several buildings which now serve the community as a whole. We are one of the sponsors of his upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.  He is an urban planner by training.

TNVR You started at the top, really. But you’ve always added the new upstarts and the innovators into the mix.

NSS We have always pursued art being made by emerging artists who are addressing issues of the moment.

TNVR Quite soon you realized that collecting at that level is complex and volatile, so you decided to work closely with an art consultant and forged your closed relationship with Thea Westreich. Your collections are diverse, dynamic and global. She and her Art Advisory Services have worked closely with you since 1990, helping to build a collection of contemporary art as well as furniture and design objects.

NSS We have had a long and rewarding partnership with Thea and her partners who have helped us form our collection and to commission site-specific and other works.

TNVR Some of the most complex and ‘difficult’ pieces are in your house in San Francisco, overlooking San Francisco Bay. Your San Francisco residence presents the essence of your most significant pieces of contemporary art, among them Jeff Koons’ 'Balloon Dog' [1996]' Marcel Duchamp’s goateed Mona Lisa, 'L.H.O.O.Q.”'(1940), and Hans Bellmer’s 'La Poupée'(1938). From the start, you’ve wanted to live with large-scale and sometimes dramatic pieces in your living room and entry, throughout the house, even in your bedroom.

NCS We did not necessarily set out to collect difficult, large pieces. Many artists, particularly these working today, are making art that is of a scale or material that challenges even museums, no less private collectors.

An earlier work by Vito Acconci consists of a brassiere seven-feet high and weighing at least a ton and which has to be suspended from the ceiling. We had it installed four years ago in the cave.

TNVR Recently, you built the spectacular Stonescape art cave on your property in the Napa Valley and added several major outdoor installations to your growing roster of one thousand major pieces. Tell us about the art cave concept, please.

NCS The primary reason we built the Stonescape art cave was so that we could show larger pieces that were difficult or impossible to install in a domestic setting.  We wanted to do thematic exhibitions featuring some of these pieces as well as others that may have been in storage due to lack of space to show them.

The idea of building the cave evolved from our being unable to find suitable space in San Francisco and realizing that we had a location for a cave to be dug into the hillside on our property in the Napa Valley.  We were at that time (2003) constructing our James Turrell pavilion, swimming pool and Skyspace in the pool.  We consulted with engineers, soil specialists and architects and decided to begin excavating the cave.  There were some challenges with numerous boulders and clay soil.  However we were able to overcome these obstacles through engineering and devoted drill workers.

In late December of 2005 the worst storm in Napa history hit the Valley as we were nearing completion of the main walls.  We received a call from the drilling foreman letting us know that we might lose the cave as water coming down from Diamond Mountain was shooting into the cave through the shotcrete material.  Fortunately a wonderful man named Mike saved the cave by working through all of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

We are soon to launch our fourth exhibition in the cave.  All of the works we show are from our collection and in some cases are site-specific, like those mentioned earlier:  Rirkrit Tiravanija’s 'Police the Police', 2011 and Mathias Faldbakken’s 'Cultural Department', 2006/2011.

TNVR As significant and influential art collectors—and bold and avant-garde and daring ones, at that—you are also involved over many years with the greatest art museums in the contemporary art world. For example, you’re trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is currently undergoing a major expansion.

NCS We are both trustees of SFMOMA and are actively involved in other activities. For example, Norah is the past president of Collector’s Forum, and for ten years was co-chair of Director’s Circle. We are longtime members of the Accessions Committee and Committee on Trustees. Also I am former Chair of the Whitney Main Accessions Committee.

TNVR You are very involved in the broader world of art and you often are invited to view major new art before anyone else. You attend art exhibits and fairs. Which artists and art concepts are you excited about now?

NCS During the past 12 months we have attended the Basel Art Fair, Miami Basel, Armory Show New York, Frieze Art Fair London and New York, Dubai Art Fair and Documenta (Kassel Germany). We have recently purchased pieces by Keith Tyson, Ryan Gander, Philippe Parreno, Ai Wei Wei and Leigh Ledare amongst others.

TNVR You were recently at a major art show in Doha. Any flashes of lightening or discoveries in that region? New directions?  Favorite art fairs?

NSS We attended the Dubai Art Fair and the Sharjah Biennale recently.  For this biennale, ‘Re:emerge, Towards a New Cultural Cartography,’ the  curator Yuko Hasegawa proposed a Biennial that reassess the ‘Westerncentrism’ of knowledge in modern times and reconsiders the relationship between the Arab world, Asia, the Far East, through North Africa and Latin America. Visiting the area was a real eye opener for us in many ways including the fast- emerging art scene.

TNVR In your many roles with the Pompidou, the Whitney and the Tate Modern, how do you interact with these museums?

NCS We are actively involved with the Tate International Council.  I am on their Executive Committee. For many years we have been members of the Whitney National Committee of which I am a past President and we both currently serve on the Executive Committee of that group. Our involvement with the American Friends of the Pompidou is more recent.  We have recently returned from our wonderful visit to the Middle East with them.

TNVR In addition, you’re involved in the equally arcane art of winegrowing and winemaking. Now you’re cultivating Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in the hills above the Napa Valley, in the Diamond Mountain appellation. 

NSS We have been growing grapes and making wine in the Napa Valley since 1991 when we acquired our property.  Currently we cultivate Cabernet Sauvignon and sell the grapes from our Sunrise block to a vintner. We will shortly be replanting the Turrell block with a new Cabernet clone.  

TNVR Perched up on a hill near Calistoga, the seventeen-acre property in 1991 originally included an active vineyard. There’s the original farmhouse built in 1887, a towering grove of redwoods and the flowing Azalea Springs. Over the years, you have transformed the property as a dramatic and inspirational site for art. What is your next installation?

NSS Our next installation in the cave is entitled “Revealed” and includes pieces by Ai Weiwei, Theaster Gates, Philipe Parreno, Keith Tyson, Martin Kippenberger and Danh Vo.

TNVR It’s a private gallery, but you open it, by appointment, to museum curators, artists and scholars?

NSS Stonescape is not open to the public but we are delighted to arrange visits for museum groups.

TNVR Your art-world friends are often surprised to learn that you are a clinical psychologist, Norman.

NCS For the last three decades, I have been deeply involved in a community health clinic in a neighborhood in San Francisco. Since 1980, I’ve served as a staff psychologist at the mental health center for the government-funded Bayview-Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement in San Francisco. I counsel a broad range of patients for everything from addictions, PTSD, schizophrenia and depression.

TNVR You’ve said that your work is very fulfilling. It’s a long way from the art world, and yet you see similarities and resonances. You’ve said that some of your art is disturbing and that your collection expresses and mirrors unpleasant truths, the darker world and a deeper view of the creative mind.

NCS Theaster Gates takes salvaged objects from abandoned houses in the Afro-American community of Dorchester in Chicago.  These communities have suffered because of social injustice like racism, inferior schools, a weakened social safety net, higher rates of unemployment and unusually high rates of incarceration.  Theaster is building community spaces and bringing renewal there.

TNVR On the other hand, the site-specific works you show in the country seem exuberant, joyful, light?

NSS The site-specific works include the Cady Noland cabin, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Matias Faldbakken and a wide range of topics.

TNVR You have a vibrant schedule of art events around the world, including Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach. What’s on your immediate art agenda?

NSS  We recently attended the Venice Biennale with the Tate International Council during the opening week.  We visited private collections in Basel and on to Stockholm and Oslo with the SFMOMA Director’s Circle. Attending art fairs allows us to see art from all over the world in one place rather than travelling to various cities which would take a great deal of time.  We also see trends in art making and thinking.

TNVR You have an exuberant, generous and joyful approach to life, to art collecting, to your personal style, to travel. What’s the secret of your bravado and sense of fun and your pure pleasure in life?

NCS: Love for each other and a spiritual connection based on pristine mind meditation. This is a Tibetan Buddhist teaching that Norah and I learned from Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche, a Bay Area lama. His way of approaching the spiritual path is not as an intellectual exercise, but rather as a direct personal experience meant to bring mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

NSS The secret of balance and happiness is not taking ourselves too seriously.

TNVR Norah and Norman, it has been a great pleasure to chat.  Your art collection is educational, spirited and uplifting. I wish you a glorious summer in the Canadian Rockies.

Thank you for your perspective, your insight and inspiration.

www.stonescape.us