Oral history interview with Jon Shirley
name: label: Interviewee
content: Shirley, Jon, 1938-
label: Interviewer
content: Riedel, Mija, 1958-
label: Names
content: Art Collectors: A Project in Partnership with the Center for the History of Collecting in America at The Frick Collection
label: Names
content: Microsoft Corporation
label: Names
content: Pilchuck Glass Center (Stanwood, Wash.)
label: Names
content: Seattle Art Museum
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Close, Chuck, 1940-
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Shirley, Jon, 1938-
label: Interviewer
content: Riedel, Mija, 1958-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Jon Shirley (1938- ) is a retired president, chief operating officer, and director of the Microsoft corporation, and a collector of Modern art, in Medina, Washington. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a writer and editor in San Francisco, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 6 Items (sound files (4 hr., 35 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 75 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R000329.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2018 August 7-8
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.shirle18
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Jon Shirley conducted 2018 August 7-8, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, at Shirley's home in Medina, Washington.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Mr. Shirley recalls hiring architect George Suyama to design a 23,000-square-foot home to house the art collection Shirley was assembling with his wife, Mary; growing up in Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Puerto Rico as his father was in the military; an influential humanities class at the Hill School; discovering Alexander Calder while still in high school; studying at MIT; his 25-year tenure with Radio Shack and Tandy International Electronics stores; a five-year period in Brussels that expanded his knowledge of art; his and Mary's move to Seattle and subsequent engagement with art glass and Pilchuck; becoming president of Microsoft and taking the company public; the evolution of his Alexander Calder collection to 40+ works (what has been called the best privately held Calder collection in the U.S.); his 30+ year friendship with Chuck Close, collecting more than 30 of his works, and financing "The Portrait Speaks;" his long-term engagement with the Seattle Art Museum and in particular the founding and endowing of the Olympic Sculpture Park; Mary's death in 2013 and Shirley's subsequent remarriage to Kim Richter; and endeavoring to restore Calder's only posthumously made work, "Mountain and Clouds," in the Hart Senate Office Building. Shirley also recalls working with Robert Mnuchin, Anthony Grant, Sandy Rower, Tobias Meyer, Robert Storr, Patterson Sims, Arne Glimcher, Jinny Wright, Barney Ebsworth and the Pace Gallery; acquiring works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jesús Moroles, Marino Marini, Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, Mark di Suvero, Claes Oldenburg, David Smith, Joan Mitchell, Korean Dansaekhwa artists, Constantin Brancusi ("Bird in Space") and Alberto Giacometti ("Dog"); and building a collection of 350+ works of sculpture and post-WWI paintings.