Notification to Sabina Ott, Professor of Painting

Initiation, a painting completed by Sabina Ott in 1986 is about to experience a change in provenance (Written 6/30/06)

Dear Sabina Ott;

I work on the 37th floor of the Cityplace Tower in midtown Dallas, Texas. Your painting "Initiation" has been on display on this floor for a number of years. It enjoys a prime location on a long rectangular wall before a bridge walkway across a five story atrium. If you follow the Cityplace link, you'll see what a grand location has given shelter and display to your work. I see your work many times a day, the oil on canvas triptych with a staircase suggesting an upward walk, a watercourse of downward rushing water and a coiled king snake or coral snake in the north most panel. I have found myself fascinated by this triptych every day, and after seven weeks of viewing it, I find I haven't exhausted its mystery.

http://www.chgcityplace.com/

It's a great neighborhood, too. The Cityplace anchors a district of gentrified shops, live-work condos, restaurants and nightclubs. It is not far from the old money mansions of Turtle Creek Parkway.

2711 North Haskell Avenue, Dallas, Texas
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=2711+N+Haskell+Street,+Dallas,+TX

This is the headquarters of the concern that operates 7-11 stores worldwide; it was once the headquarters of the Southland Corporation, which began as a company that delivered ice and transformed that into a company of convenience stores. It is my understanding that the concern that now owns or rents this building and the 7-11 operation is building a headquarters south of here, and the art collection gathered by the Southland Corporation is slowly being deaccessioned, removed from the walls and sold off. Paintings vanish overnight, and only the bracket that held identification information remains in the morning. This might be the fate of your painting, "Initiation" [#1747526]. So that's why I am writing to you, to say that I took notice of it before the painting vanished from the walls and moved on to its next home.

I took a few moments to investigate your career on the web, finding your website. It is interesting to know you painted it around 28 years of age, just as you were being offered featured shows at reputable dealers in New York and Los Angeles. It is very different from your current work in ways I cannot describe. I noticed that your vita doesn't record collection in the Southland Corporate collection, and the collection is an amazing one, even as it dwindles.

Here's another effect of time and corporate change. You mention collection by the Dayton Hudson Foundation. The stores of Dayton and Hudson were combined with the stores of Marshall Fields, and all of them soon will appear under the name of Macy's of New York. Thus, the Dayton Hudson Foundation is now called the Target Foundation. Hopefully, the foundation hasn't unloaded its art collection en mass.

Again, thank you for the response that this 20 year painting invokes in my imagination.

Best wishes,

Will Juntunen




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