January 11, 2015 — Mana Contemporary is pleased to present The T’ang Horse: Anthony Quinn, an exhibition of Anthony Quinn’s own art, accompanied by a selection of pieces from his vast personal collection that he acquired throughout his life and travels.

Known primarily as an actor, Anthony Quinn was also an accomplished visual artist. Over the course of his long life he produced an extensive oeuvre of paintings, drawings and sculptures. At the same time, Quinn was a voracious and obsessive collector, amassing a personal collection of more than 3,000 objects that included art works, rare books, antiques, African masks, decorative eggs and an array of found objects such as rocks and fragments of coral.

The T’ang Horse: Anthony Quinn brings together a representative sampling of Quinn’s own art works, juxtaposing them with pieces from his collection. The exhibition is named after an antique Chinese ceramic horse sculpture, the first artwork Quinn purchased as a teenager.

Quinn’s art and his collecting were inextricably entwined, and both were nourished and influenced by his constant travels as an international film star. Taken together, the objects in the exhibition trace the intersection between Quinn’s life, art and film career, presenting a portrait of a prodigiously talented and endlessly driven man who, in the words of the scholar Jay Parini, was “an actor and artist who never ceased to create compelling work on whatever canvas he chose.”

Anthony Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (1915 – 2001) was born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles. He started making art while still in his teens and, hoping to become an architect, won a prestigious Taliesin award to study with Frank Lloyd Wright, whose personality was to exert a lifelong influence on Quinn. As an actor, Quinn made more than 200 films over the course of more than 60 years, winning two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor: among his best known films were “La Strada”, “Viva Zapata” and “Lust for Life”, as well as roles in acclaimed theater productions.

Quinn’s artwork has been exhibited internationally and today is managed by the Anthony Quinn Trust, which also administers a program of youth scholarships in the arts through the Anthony Quinn Foundation. With The T’ang Horse: The Passions of Anthony Quinn, Mana Contemporary continues its multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to the arts, producing exhibitions and events that range freely across a wide spectrum of creative mediums and artists.