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
I believe that government is the servant of the people and not their master.
Populists believe in conspiracies, and one of the most enduring is that a secret group of international bankers and capitalists, and their minions, control the world's economy. Because of my name and prominence as the head of the Chase for many years, I have earned the distinction of the "conspirator in chief" from these people.
The role of a museum of modern art is to make a good selection and identify what we believe to be the coming movements, and that requires taste.
Some even believe we (the Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.
Little by little, though, people recognized that it was very important to give contemporary artists a permanent place where their work would be kept.
Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility.
Mother also loved Asian art, but she preferred the ceramics and sculpture of earlier Chinese and Korean dynasties, as well as Buddhist art.
I never kept a diary, but I wrote detailed notes of my travels.
I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years.
I think of art as the highest level of creativity. I was exposed to it since I was very small.
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.