Steve Martin discovered Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri and a passion for Indigenous Australian art four years before his wife Anne Stringfield would join him in building one of America's most significant private collections of this art form. What began as a chance encounter with a painting in a New York Times article has evolved into something neither collector initially anticipated: a quiet crusade to change how the world sees Indigenous Australian art.
Martin was not alone in this endeavour. John and Barbara Wilkerson, known as prolific buyers of American Folk Art, joined Martin and his wife in assembling major collections of Indigenous Australian art. The Wilkersons got hooked on Aboriginal art when they visited Australia in 1994 to see their son who was studying at Sydney University. Yet where their collecting journeys diverged reveals something important about their shared mission.
Martin's taste is more contemporary, although he jokes this is only because the Wilkersons got all the early stuff, with his part of the display including major works by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Naata Nungurrayi, and George Tjungurrayi. The Wilkersons, by contrast, hold a selection of early boards created between 1971-74 by wellknown artists such as Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, and Mick Namarari Tjapatjarri.
Their shared strategy was deliberate. Rather than keep these collections private, Martin and the Wilkersons put them on public view. Martin and his wife lent works of Aboriginal art from their personal collection to a show at Gagosian's Upper East Side location. A forum at Frieze NYC brought together Martin, the Wilkersons, and other collectors and curators to discuss the art, drawing standing room only crowds. The National Arts Club in New York presented a striking exhibition of Indigenous Australian art from the actor's personal collection, featuring six works from among the 50 or so contemporary paintings by Indigenous Australian artists that Martin has purchased with his wife since 2015.
That these exhibitions worked deserves notice. 60 Over 50 was a museum quality exhibition held in a city long recognised as the centre of the global art market. Steve Martin is a well-respected and knowledgeable art collector, and his attention to Indigenous Australian art could help many people overcome their initial reservations and take a deeper look.
Yet the most telling detail lies in where both collectors now find themselves. Martin and Stringfield are winding down their active collecting, with Martin saying "our indigenous art collection is pretty dense—there's not much left to acquire. Right now, we are just having fun moving works around." The mission feels complete.
There is something quietly elegant about this story. Two separate collectors with different geographic focuses, different collecting histories, and different access to wealth, nevertheless converged on the same art form at roughly the same time. They then chose not to hoard their discoveries but to display them, promote them, and hand them over to curators and galleries with far greater reach than any private collector could claim. The art world may never know precisely how much credit belongs to Martin's celebrity or the Wilkersons' persistence, but their legacy will be measured by how many other collectors, museums, and auction houses now take Indigenous Australian art seriously. That legacy appears to be secure.