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Allen, who founded Microsoft Corp. with Bill Gates, caught the art bug after being captivated by J.M.W. Turner’s romantic seascapes and Lichtenstein’s Pop paintings on a visit to the Tate Britain in London.
He pursued his interest in visual art with the same passion he brought to music; in 2000, Allen founded the Experience Music Project — now the Museum of Pop Culture — where he displayed items such as guitars owned by Jimi Hendrix in a Seattle building designed by Frank Gehry.
Allen lent artworks to major museums and galleries, populating shows with his personal holdings. The exhibition “Seeing Nature,” organized by the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection in 2016, included pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper and Gustav Klimt. Among the highlights was Jan Brueghel the Younger’s 17th-century allegorical paintings of the five senses.
“To live with these pieces of art is truly amazing,” Allen told Bloomberg in 2015. “I feel that you should share some of the works to give the public a chance to see them.”
“Double Take: From Monet to Lichtenstein,” presented at his pop culture museum in 2006, paired Impressionist works with old masters, modern and contemporary pieces. Van Gogh’s 1888 “Orchard With Peach Trees in Blossom” was juxtaposed with Max Ernst’s 1940 “Landscape With Lake and Chimeras”; a Willem de Kooning 1975 untitled abstract was matched with Monet’s 1919 “Water Lilies.”
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