David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller
David Rockefelleris an American banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He is the oldest living member of the Rockefeller family and family patriarch since July 2004. Rockefeller is also the only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth12 June 1915
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Mother's interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.
I realize how fortunate I have been; mine has been a wonderful life.
The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.
I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.
MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.
You know, gentlemen, that I do not owe any personal income tax. But nevertheless, I send a small check, now and then, to the Internal Revenue Service out of the kindness of my heart.
I owe much to mother. She had an expert's understanding, but also approached art emotionally.
My own interest in art was because of my mother. My father didn't like contemporary art, so he didn't give her large sums to spend. So, she began buying prints and drawings. During my school days, I remember sitting in on many of the early meetings.
Mother's taste was eclectic and ranged from the ancient world to the contemporary from Europe to the U.S.
Eventually, most people felt MoMA had filled a very important gap.
Mother liked beauty wherever she found it, and she found it in many different places, both in nature and in contemporary art. And that's where they pretty much parted company. Father... anything that was abstract would to him automatically be not very good.
For more than 40 years, I have advocated the creation of a 'round the clock' community. This would mean, at the least, housing, schools and shops of various kinds alongside the commercial buildings. That kind of community had appeared in lower Manhattan in nascent form before Sept. 11, 2001.
The Japanese have a wonderful sense of design and a refinement in their art. They try to produce beautiful paintings with the minimum number of strokes.
They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.