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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Loewy had been to see him that very morning and suggested that he start out, by redecorating in a hurry and inexpensively, the executive office wing of the White House which, God knows, desperately needs paint, for one thing. It's extremely shabby.

Which shall we talk about? The Kennedy Center or the artists I have known? This is another section. I think I want to think about what I say about the Kennedy Center. I don't have an outline for it yet. I can talk about the artists.

Q:

Tell me about Dufy, and your relationship with him.

LASKER:

Well, when I was just out of collage I went to Paris. I had taken a course in the history of fine arts and liked paintings that I had seen only in slides and reproductions, by Matisse and Picasso. I was overwhelmed by excitement to see their paintings at dealers. I remember asking, in 1923, the price of a Matisse flower picture at BernheimJeune. It was so beautiful in color I was rapturous. The price was $600. If I had bought this picture, I would not have been able to come home to the United States. The same picture would now be worth about $140,000.

Well, as I went to work in New York and later married Paul Reinhart and was associated with him, especially in arranging exhibits, we went to Europe every summer. I started to urge him to buy some then contemporary young modern painters.





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