Okay, I’m lying a little bit. At the wine-and-song opening of her private collection at the AGO Art Rental and Sales Gallery, Jeanne Beker was in fact faaaabulously dressed: she wore a Mary Katrantzou dress (Katrantzou had, the night before, won the British Fashion Award for Emerging Talent; Beker’s taste is as shrewd as it is great) and murderous heels. It was a Tuesday night in a badly lit office-building lobby, but Beker, the unusurpable queen of Canada’s fashion scene, has never been contained by her surroundings. Her art collection, which usually bedecks the halls of her Sherbourne North house, and without which she says she feels naked (see, but not totally lying), exemplifies both her Canadian pride and the fruits of her international fame. Photos by Andre Rau (of Yves Saint Laurent, no less) and David LaChapelle appeared on her doorstep as thank-you gifts; ditto an illustration by Frederick Watson. Paintings by Toller Cranston and Marion Perlet–florid, multi-cultish ’80s stuff–are the ones she bought, to support the artists who would become her friends. Here, we’ve chosen three of Beker’s favourite works of art and let her tell you why she loves them. “So this one is by Marion Perlet, it’s called ‘The Birthday,’ and it’s from 1983, but I think we got this when we first moved into our house, my ex-husband and I, around 1985-1986. Just to give you a bit of a background about Marion Perlet: the first piece of art that I ever owned is this little one here, and that was given to me as a gift by Toller Cranston in about 1980. Toller to me was style personified, he was this grand figure, a little arrogant but very flamboyant and he always had a savoir-faire about style and art and what made great fashion. He sort of took me under his wing and mentored me in a funny kind of way. It was right around the time that I had left a relationship and moved into this groovy little apartment and he goes, ‘You don’t have any art, you have to have real art!’ I said I couldn’t really afford to start spending on art; I had just started working at Chum Radio at the time, and you know, I was a good news girl. And he goes, ‘A really good friend of mine is an excellent artist, her name is Marion Perlet. We share studio space together and I’m taking you to her show so you can get turned onto her art because it’s Canadian and it’s wonderful.’ I bought a fabulous huge canvas of hers with a woman on a rocking horse with red booties. That hangs over my bed. (Ed note: it’s called ‘The Night Rider,’ so of course it does.) This one, we hung it in our kitchen and the girls, as they were growing up, always thought that the cherry pie was a pepperoni pizza. I always thought that was great.” Shawn Downey’s portrait of Jeanne Beker for the Bravo TV show Star Portraits “This is a wonderful piece. You know that show Star Portraits on Bravo? They teamed me up with three portrait artists, they each painted my portrait and this one was from Shawn Downey. He’s a wonderful young Toronto artist. I fell in love with this painting although it was quite sad and really… I didn’t choose it at the end up the show, as you get to choose the portrait you want. The one I chose I have in my home as well is a huge one of my face. I almost thought it was too in-your-face to put in the gallery, it’s huge. I think it’s quite fabulous, it really shows the warts and all, like it’s not a pretty picture, but it’s very strong and I just love it. It looks like my late great dad; it’s very important to me. But this portrait is one I just thought was so beautiful I had to buy it, because I think the work is so fine, and I think Shawn’s going to be very famous artist one day. And I thought he captured a certain side of me when I wasn’t really… What did you say? On. Exactly.” Andre Rau’s photograph of Yves Saint Laurent “He gave this to me as a gift, not Yves Saint Laurent, I mean Andre Rau, the photographer. What a great portrait of one of the most important designers, if not the most important designer of the past century, really. There’s a pensive reflective thing; you’re wondering what’s going on behind the eyes. “I think it’s important to always get art in your life that really speaks to you and you’ll never get tired of the message. It may speak to you in different ways over the years, but if you have a personal connection with it… and then to see, you know, my daughters. If you’ve got kids, bringing them up with art is such a wonderful thing, the way it forms their view of the world.”
Jeanne Beker’s art collection is on view at the AGO Art Rental & Sales Gallery, 481 University Ave., until Friday, December 16.
