Gil Waldman and Christy Vezolles in front of a LOVE sculpture near Miami in 2019.
Gil Waldman, prominent art collector and fierce advocate for Western art, died on June 6 surrounded by family in his Phoenix home. He was 88.
He began his career as a student teacher and then an urban planner in New York. Later, he finished his law degree in Oklahoma and began working for his father in the industrial uniform business. After establishing homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Waldman became interested in Western art and began to contribute to arts organizations in both cities. After the death of his first wife, Waldman married Phoenix art consultant Christy Vezolles in 2014, and his art collection continued to grow. Selections from the collection eventually formed a traveling exhibition that would be shown at the Gilcrease Museum and Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, where Waldman was a founding trustee. He also served on the national advisory councils of the Gilcrease and the Eiteljorg Museum. Waldman and Vezolles were regulars at many Western and Native American art events around the country.
“Gil was best known for his collection of Western art, but he admired and appreciated a wide range of artists, from Albert Bierstadt to Mark Rothko, and enjoyed our quest to get photos with as many Robert Indiana LOVE sculptures as possible,” Vezolles says. “His great collecting passion was two pronged—acquiring significant historical paintings of the American West, and supporting the work of living Native artists. It gave him tremendous joy to share the works with others through museum exhibitions.” —
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