The Jake and Ruth Bloom Collection 
10 October 2024
The Jake and Ruth Bloom Collection 
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Vito Acconci 1940–2017

Overstuffed Chair

1987
cement over leather-upholstered lounge chair, stools, steel 45 h × 36 w × 45 d in (114 × 91 × 114 cm)
estimate: $10,000–15,000
result: $630
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provenance: Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York | The Jake and Ruth Bloom Collection
exhibited: Vito Acconci: Domestic Trappings, 5 June - 2 August 1987, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA (traveling exhibition)
literature: Vito Acconci: Domestic Trappings, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition catalog, pg. 58 illustrates this work

This work will ship from Los Angeles, California.

print

To me, even in the years when I was showing things in galleries, it seemed to me that I didn't really have anything to do with art. The word itself sounded, and still sounds to me, like 'high art' and that was never what I saw myself doing.

Vito Acconci

Sharpening the Edge

The Contemporary Art Legacy of Jake and Ruth Bloom

Thomas Ruff Studio, Portrait of Jacob Bloom and Portrait of Ruth Bloom

Married in 1965, Ruth and Jacob “Jake” Bloom purchased their first piece of art together in 1966—a Renoir print given as a gift to their inlaws. Over the course of the decades that followed, the couple would emerge as leading collectors and supporters of contemporary art in Los Angeles, voracious art lovers and philanthropists whose generosity and genuine passion for avant-garde artists helped shape the cultural cutting edge. Reflecting their deep involvement in post-World War II creative movements, The Jake and Ruth Bloom Collection features major works from Robert Longo, Marilyn Minter, Gregory Crewdson, among many others, and showcases the Blooms’ savvy, intrepid, and influential approach to the field of contemporary art.

“We inhaled art,” Jake once said. “We ended up with some very, very significant pieces in our collection.” 

While the term “power couple” might get thrown around, it is an apt descriptor for the Blooms: Jake was a legendary entertainment lawyer, who counted Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Jerry Bruckheimer among his clients. Bloom was among the founding members of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Los Angeles, where Ruth would also serve on the board for more than a decade. Indeed, the pair would establish MoCA’s Ruth and Jake Bloom Young Artist Fund, which would help the institution acquire works from new emergent artists at pivotal moments in their careers. “We inhaled art,” Jake once said. “We ended up with some very, very significant pieces in our collection.” 

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