Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

When Ruth established her eponymous gallery in 1988, it was with the goal of shedding light on under-exhibited artists whom she found remarkable. Among these were Gregory Crewdson, to whom Ruth offered his first post-graduate solo exhibition in 1991. Crewdson is today recognized as an innovative, genre-bending artist of the photographic medium whose America-centric images are neither documentary nor pure fabrication. Ruth was early to recognize Crewdson as exceptional: ''Gregory comes across as more normal than most,” she told the New York Times in 2000, “But even in normalcy there's always that undercurrent, that little bit of darkness. His work allows him to einhxplore what we're normally uncomfortable with.”

The depth with which the Blooms engaged with Crewdson—as serial collectors of his work, but also as friends and career champions—is exemplary of their serious, and seriously committed, approach to art. In addition to collecting, they also commissioned bold new works from artists including Alfredo Jaar, Thomas Ruff, Salomón Huerta, and many others. As the pair’s prodigious collection grew in size, they expanded to house their works not only in their Los Angeles home but at their complex in Sun Valley, Idaho. Bloom Ranch, as it became known, was designed and built in 1998 by architect Frederick Fisher & Partners Architects, whose catalog also includes the L.A. Louver Gallery and the Broad Art Foundation headquarters, and MoMA PS1 in New York.

Providing a momentous opportunity to reflect on the Blooms’ lasting legacy as true art lovers, Los Angeles Modern Auctions is honored to present this important collection at auction.