Published in Bloom, April/May 2014
Article by Malcolm Abrams
NYU President Has Excellent Taste in Art
Bloomington area abstract painter Tamar Kander has made us proud. One of her works was recently purchased by New York University for the conference room of University President John Sexton.
Tamar was first contacted by an architectural/design consultant back in February
2013. “I was suspicious,” she admits of the seemingly too-good-to-be-true email. “There are juried calls all the time and lots of art consultants sift through the work of thousands of artists continuously. But I was told I was the onlyartist being considered.”
Turns out the executive vice president ofoperations at NYU saw Tamar’s paintings at a gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., a few years ago and loved her work, vowing to someday purchase one.
Still, it took until December for the deal to be consummated and the painting installed. “It was a waiting game,” says Tamar, and there were times when it seemed interest had cooled. “I heard nothing and then in October, all of a sudden, a message came, ‘This is the painting we want. Is it still available?”
It was. The painting is a diptych — two same-sized panels totaling 60 inches by 60 inches. Says Tamar, “It’s called In A Mellow Tone (Duke Ellington) because I love that composition and feel that music and painting are very much intertwined.”
Not unlike Bloomington and New York.