Ulay, S’he, 1973. Courtesy the artist and MB Art Agency, Amsterdam.
Leigh loved Ulay as a friend and an artist.
Leigh Markopoulos, Furkablick Hotel, Furkapass, Shutters by Daniel Buren, c.1987, 2015. Courtesy Jessica Silverman.
Leigh adored this quirky museum. She took her curatorial practice MA students on pilgrimages to meet its curator Janis Osolin.
Bridget Riley, Untitled (towards ‘Fleeting Moment’), 1986. Courtesy Karsten Schubert, London, UK.
If Leigh could have owned a room full of Bridget Riley pieces, she would have.
Franz Erhard Walther Work Drawing:10 x Place Distance Place, 1975. Courtesy the artist and Artists Rights Society, NY/VG Bild-Kunst, Germany. Photo credit, Richard S. Zeisler Bequest (by exchange).
Leigh was going to curate a group show including Walther’s work in my back room.
Ana Roldán, Pyramid (yellow), 2011. Courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Leigh saw this Roldan piece as a neon Fred Sandback. When she stood under it, she joked that it was her kind of halo.
René Daniëls, Zachte strepen (Soft stripes), 1986 Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, NY.
Daniëls balanced complexity with affected naiveté. We talked about how his paintings referenced drawing and had a fun sense of perspective.
Suzanne Blank Redstone, Portal 1, 1967. Courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Last year, Leigh wrote a terrific essay about Blank Redstone’s work. This 1967 composition was a particular favorite.
Ron Veasey, Untitled, 2010. Courtesy the artist and Creative Growth, Oakland, CA.
In 2010, Leigh curated “Love is a Stranger” at Creative Growth in Oakland, CA. She was a Creative Growth board member.
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen Notebook Page: Strawberry, on Stock Pages, 1987. Copyright Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, NY.
Leigh had an acerbic wit and a strong sense of the absurd. She loved to cook.
Elisheva Biernoff, Selections from the Reading Room, 2013. Photo: Artists & Editions, RITE Editions, San Francisco, CA.
Steven Leiber, Leigh’s late husband, had this sign in his bathroom. Artist Elisheva Biernoff created a drawing of the sign as part of a memorial edition curated by Robin Wright. Leigh hung this Biernoff work in her own bathroom.
Richard Artschwager, Question Mark, 2001. Courtesy Jessica Silverman.
Inquisitive and ever thoughtful, Leigh acquired this edition when she worked at the Serpentine.
Giovanni Anselmo, Entrare nell’opera (Entering the work), 1971. Courtesy Archivio Anselmo and Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea, Italy.
This Giovanni Anselmo photograph hung next to Leigh’s dining table.
Curator, art writer, and professor Leigh Markopoulos had expansive but erudite interests in art. She loved rigorously conceptual work but also whimsical ephemera. She was drawn to both the poignant and the funny. Some of the works in the slideshow above come from her personal collection; others are things she much admired.
Jessica Silverman is the owner and director of Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco.
