For Paul Arnhold, the acts of creating and gathering go hand in hand. The New York-based glassblower can also be the fourth-generation inheritor to one of many world’s biggest collections of 18th-century Meissen porcelain collections, and observes how his approaches to each intently inform one another. “Glass calls for immediacy,” he says. “Working at temperatures above 2,000ºF leaves little room for overthinking, so the method turns into a sort of stay dialogue between materials, color and likelihood. That very same immediacy informs what I’m drawn to as a collector: works that carry a decisive gesture, a tactile presence, and the sensation that they may solely exist in a single type.”
Whereas lots of the porcelains have been gifted to the Frick Assortment by Arnhold’s late grandfather, he nonetheless lives with a portion of them close by in his Higher East Aspect house. There, they sit alongside a private assortment spanning centuries, from historical Etruscan stone works to Twentieth-century pictures by Bruce Nauman and Laurie Simmons, and work by Salman Toor made simply final yr. “The widespread thread isn’t provenance or a class; it’s what I discover stunning and what brings me pleasure—objects the place approach and sensibility are inseparable, and the place you possibly can really feel the maker’s choices.” Naturally, this feeds again into his studio observe. “Amassing throughout intervals is a reminder that what seems ‘modern’ is commonly a continuation of lengthy histories of approach, experimentation and style, one thing I’m aware of each time I return to my studio.”
Paul Arnhold’s spring/summer time 2026 assortment Picture: Jason Jamal Nakleh
The Artwork Newspaper: What was the newest work you got?
Paul Arnhold: An Etruscan bronze mirror from Kallos Gallery.
What do you remorse not shopping for whenever you had the possibility?
I attempt to not accumulate regrets.
If you happen to might have any work from any museum on the earth, what would it not be?
Alexander Calder’s Circus (1926-31), on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork.
Encompass your self with magnificence, and don’t let provenance be the one factor that guides you
What’s the finest recommendation you will have obtained on gathering?
Acquire what brings you pleasure. Encompass your self with magnificence, and don’t let provenance be the one factor that guides you.
What tip would you give to somebody visiting Maastricht for the primary time?
Take a stroll by means of the Stadspark earlier than or after the truthful.
Nice Bustard (1732) by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner, within the Frick Courtesy of the Frick Assortment
What are you wanting ahead to seeing at Tefaf Maastricht?
The primary particular person I hunt down is all the time my good friend and supplier, Laura Kugel. She brings essentially the most particular and surprising objects, items with actual persona, and we all the time find yourself in a vigorous dialog that sharpens my eye for what feels alive fairly than merely “vital”. I will even be visiting Michele Beiny, who was near my late grandfather, Henry H. Arnhold. He was a passionate collector of early 18th-century Meissen porcelain, and that love of objects actually formed me. His Meissen assortment started in Dresden along with his mom, my great-grandmother, Lisa Arnhold, and the highlights at the moment are at The Frick. I’m additionally lucky sufficient to stay with a couple of of these items at house, which makes that lineage really feel current every single day by means of their intimacy of scale, precision and the inventiveness of the makers. Tefaf’s nice power, for me, is that it mirrors the way in which I like to gather throughout intervals and classes, with actual historic depth and an emphasis on objects that spark pleasure and curiosity.
