Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/386731
58 WYNN ART SPOTLIGHT S teve Wynn first shared his private art collection with the public via a gallery in Bellagio when he opened the hotel in 1998, spotlighting an impressive collection of Picassos and modern masters. He often strolled around the space with his friend Bill Acquavella, one of the top art dealers in the world. "Steve was like a rock star," the gallerist recalls. "People would stop him and thank him for bringing art to the casino." Hardly surprising, but few collectors would then offer to take appreciative strangers around the gallery. "He would give them a personal tour, and he knew something about every painting," Acquavella marvels. For Wynn, that art collection wasn't just a personal pleasure—he wanted to share his passion with everyone in Las Vegas. Wynn's first public gallery wasn't initially a passion project, says Acquavella. "He was always interested in bringing a new attraction to his hotel, and in the beginning it was very much a business proposition. But then he got totally involved in the art." Over the last two decades, Wynn has continued to deepen and broaden the art on show at his hotels, whether by Vegas-based contemporary artist Tim Bavington, who translates music into vibrant color and composition, or the recently acquired Popeye statue by Jeff Koons, both on display inside the Wynn casino. A commitment to art stretches beyond the public areas, though: Rooms have top-quality reproductions of masterworks from around the world, as Wynn's right-hand man and design czar Roger Thomas explains. "I would much rather look at a great Picasso in reproduction than some third-generation lithograph. Steve and I have always agreed—we don't like 'hotel art,' something selected for budget and generic décor." Such focus on quality has been the defining impetus of Wynn's collecting. Acquavella recalls his first phone call with Wynn, who was mulling assem- bling a collection for what would eventually become the Bellagio gallery. "I said to him, 'Well, look, Las Vegas is not known for its culture or its art, so unless you really want to put top-quality things in there, it might backfire for you,' and he said 'Let's put the best we can'—and we've never looked back." Wynn hasn't focused on box-checking a list of boldfaced names. HIGH IMPACT Steve Wynn has a passion for sharing incredible art with the people who visit his hotels. At Wynn and Encore, the art and the experience are inextricable. BY MARK ELLWOOD Adjacent to the Terrace Pointe Cafe at Wynn, Vegas artist Tim Bavington's Full Fathom Five is based on the 1989 song "Elephant Stone" by the Stone Roses and the Sylvia Plath poem of the same name.