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Collector Carl Thoma Has No Holy Grails and No Regrets

For Dallas’s newest mega-collector, philanthropy is a vocation, not a pastime: "Education sits at the center of everything we do. Building a collection is only part of it. The more lasting work is sharing it, and helping the next generation find their own way in."

Carl Thoma is 77 years old, a billionaire and one of Dallas’s most prominent art collectors. Together with his wife Marilynn, whom he met while studying at Oklahoma State University, he has assembled an art collection remarkable not only for its scale but also for its geographic, historic and stylistic breadth. The Thomas’ holdings encompass a wide range of disciplines, and include Japanese bamboo pieces, Spanish colonial portraiture, Native American art and an extensive collection of digital art. The latter is currently Carl’s favorite genre: “I’m drawn to where art is going. The experimental, digital, time-based work that’s redefining the medium’s boundaries,” he tells Observer.

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Most Dallas art aficionados have become familiar with the Thoma Foundation through the Dallas Art Fair—its latest exhibition, “Presence of Absence: Embodied Portraiture,” opened concurrently with the fair this past April. The building on Cedar Springs dates to 1921, the elevator that carries visitors to the foundation’s headquarters is from the 1950s, yet the installation art that greets guests when they enter the premises is ultra-contemporary. In the adjacent gallery, separated by a glass wall, 18th-century portraits gaze back at the viewer, creating a dialogue between past and present.

This is the third exhibition the foundation has presented in Dallas and it will remain on view until next year’s Dallas Art Fair. The show........

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