The 301 faces of Joan Quinn on display at the Laguna Art Museum
By MARRIE STONE
Joan Agajanian Quinn is one of the most painted, sculpted and photographed women alive. Since the 1960s, she’s been the subject of more than 300 works of art by such notables as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Frank Gehry, Shepard Fairey and Ed Moses. Some artists, like photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, captured Quinn in classic portraiture. Others took unconventional approaches, interpreting Quinn through their own lens. Peter Alexander sculpted her as a clump of Jell-o. Charles Arnoldi assembled Quinn out of a stack of sticks. She’s been rendered as a Madonna, a bust (with an exposed bust) and an array of appendages. She’s been depicted in prints, abstracts, graffiti, as a pair of playing cards, a pie chart and everything in between.
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
A portrait of Joan Agajanian Quinn by Robert Mapplethorpe (1986)
But perhaps one of the more meaningful portraits of Quinn was recently made by her 12-year-old granddaughter, Georgia Quinn Gowey. I met Quinn Gowey by coincidence last fall when I delivered a guest lecture on journalism to her sixth-grade class in Encino. In response to a writing prompt I gave, she wrote an essay about her grandmother (whom she calls Noni because Quinn preferred Joannie over grandma, and the name evolved). Quinn Gowey recounted her grandmother’s beginnings in the art world, tracing Quinn’s life-altering introduction to Billy Al Bengston in the mid-1950s, a close friendship with Andy Warhol in the ‘70s and David Hockney’s sage advice – get yourself a nice camera.
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
Joan Quinn with granddaughter, Georgia Quinn Gowey (12), holding Georgia’s portrait
Now through September 2, a selection of Quinn’s portraiture, as well as numerous other works from her private collection, are on display at the Laguna Art Museum. On the Edge not only tells the story of the West Coast art movement from the 1960s through the 1990s, but also paints its own multidimensional portrait of the deep connections and friendships forged between artists and their admirers.
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
(L-R) Woods Davy, Joan Quinn and Charles Arnoldi appear together at LAM’s “Sticks and Stones” lecture on June 29
Quinn arrived on the art scene somewhat accidentally. Her parents were wealthy (her father a race car promoter), but not major patrons of the arts. In the mid-1950s, while still in high school, Quinn took a job at Desmond’s department store. There she met and befriended Billy Al Bengston, an up-and-coming California pop artist. That friendship foreshadowed what would become a prominent theme in Quinn’s private life and career – a series of profoundly personal friendships with major California artists across every medium. At USC, while studying education, Quinn sought out students in the art department and purchased some of their pieces. There she also met her husband Jack, a lawyer, with whom she remained until his death in 2017.
A self-described connector, Quinn took an early interest in the West Coast art scene, discovering and promoting young up-and-comers. Quinn Gowey wrote of her grandparents: “When Joan and her late husband Jack Quinn first started collecting art, they were continually on the lookout for articles, reviews and press relating to the artists they were collecting or should collect. Joan and Jack also realized the art they bought would be more important if they had lots of press, so Joan helped with the press. She wrote articles about her artist friends and submitted them to art magazines, and she got their names into the social pages of the local newspapers. At the same time, Jack, who was an attorney, hosted cocktail parties at his office and invited clients and other lawyers to meet the artists while displaying their artwork, sometimes to help the artist sell their work.”
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
Greg Colson’s “Joan Agajanian Quinn Pie Chart Port” (2013) sums up the many qualities of Joan that led to her lasting legacy in the art world
When Quinn met Warhol in the late 1970s, he soon brought her on as the West Coast editor of Interview magazine, which laid the foundation for the rest of her career. She’d go on to write for several notable magazines, host her own television shows and scout out new talent.
“Noni’s support of the arts and artists is what makes our family a village – a village filled with love and so many creative people,” Quinn Gowey said. “She is dedicated to helping others and accepting of all different kinds of people. Nobody is better than anyone else.”
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
A selection of Joan Quinn’s vast portraiture on display at the Laguna Art Museum through September 2
Quinn’s portrait project began feeding on itself. By the mid-‘80s, she’d been rendered by dozens of notable artists. In 1984, Warhol called with another offer Quinn couldn’t refuse – show up at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with some weed, and Jean-Michel Basquiat would do her portrait. Quinn found a few joints in her living room left behind by drag queen Divine. She took those, along with some pink mimeograph paper, to the hotel and Basquiat drew three witchy looking portraits of her. Two years later, he drew her again, this time showing only her bejeweled hands.
“That was so Jean-Michel,” Quinn told Giselle Fernandez on LA Stories in 2022. “He said, ‘You’re not going to take this now because it’s not finished.’ He was [down on the ground, doing this portrait,] eating Coco Pops and stepping on it. While he was drawing me, the doorbell rings. The drug guy comes and Jean-Michel’s very distracted. I said, ‘No, if I leave this here, I’ll never see it again.’ So, he signed it, rolled it up and then he went to Hawaii. We never saw him again.” Basquiat would die two years later, at age 27, of a heroin overdose.
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“Joan’s Hands” by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1986)
“Why your face?” an interviewer once asked Quinn. “I have no idea,” she said. “But I think it’s very difficult to get my face. Maybe it was just because I was a challenge.”
Quinn is quick to point out these portraits were never about her. They’re about the artists, and how each artist interpreted the same subject in their style. Quinn was simply their “bowl of fruit.”
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
Abstract painter and sculptor Charles Arnoldi poses with his portrait of Joan Quinn
Armenian poet and artist Aram Saroyan, son of the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright and Academy-Award winning writer William Saroyan, met Quinn in the 1990s when he was also writing plays. Quinn invited Saroyan on her television series Joan Quinn Profiles, which has aired since 1993.
“Joan and her husband were prescient about what is now known as the ‘Cool School’ – Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston and other A-list artists,” said Saroyan, who was recently profiled (to read, click here) by Stu News Newport. “When they first appeared at the Francis Gallery and other galleries, they were not particularly known. The Quinns became patrons of that scene early on and made a terrific collection of work.”
In 2022, Saroyan painted his own portrait of Quinn, which was shown at the Armenian Museum of America in Massachusetts and used as their catalog cover.
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Courtesy of Aram Saroyan
Poet, playwright and artist Aram Saroyan posing with his portrait, “Joan,” with Joan Quinn in 2022
“Joan learned to know the artists because that speaks to each work, and she only bought art that she liked,” Quinn Gowey wrote of her grandmother. “Joan offered some advice: ‘Don’t buy as an investment to make money as so many people do today. They want to turn over the work and to make a profit. This problem, in my opinion, has ruined the feeling of true art collecting.’ Joan and Jack never made a monetary investment in art. Her belief is: ‘… always have what you love on your walls and, if possible, like the person who made it.’”
There’s no doubt the Quinns have built a lasting legacy in the art world. But perhaps the more important legacy is the one Quinn leaves to her daughters and granddaughters – one that can’t be bought or sold, only modeled. She taught them to appreciate art and beauty. To love the people behind the work. To be kind and curious, open to new experiences and new ways of looking at the world.
“My Noni opens doors,” Quinn Gowey said. “She gives hope to many and supports their dreams because she believes in them. The power of believing in someone makes them believe in themselves. Thank you, Noni, for believing in me.”
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Photo by Jeff Rovner
Joan with her granddaughters – (L-R): Paloma (15) and Georgia (12)
On the Edge: Los Angeles Art from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection will be on display at the Laguna Art Museum through September 2. For more information, visit their website here.
Aram Saroyan’s exhibition, Writing with Colors, is on display at the Francis Gallery in Los Angeles through August 31. For more information, visit their website here.
