The niece of one of America’s greatest female artists is accused by her own family of turning her foundation into a $10 million “pay for display” scheme to get her own “middlebrow” art displayed at the top.
The family of Clifford Ross, nephew of the late abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler, filed an extraordinary “crime map” detailing how he allegedly channeled a $1 billion foundation to prestigious institutions including Yale, the New York Public Library and New York University to enhance his own work, including poems submitted to subway strahangers.
The detailed lawsuit is the latest twist in a bitter family feud first revealed by The Post in November, with Frankenthaler family members accusing each other of “exploitative expressionism” in a case in New York Supreme Court.
In a new filing, Frederick Iseman, another of Frankenthaler’s nephews, claims that Ross “looted” his foundation, where he is president, along with the artist’s stepdaughter, Lise Motherwell, and Michael Hecht, the foundation’s director and accountant — all to boost his career. Ross himself is “unusual”.
Iseman accused them of making six-figure donations totaling $10 million to venues that then showed Ross’ work, had him speak, or raised his profile in other ways including publishing his book.
Graphics from the complaint explain where the grant money went and how Clifford Ross allegedly benefited. NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT Clifford Ross is accused of turning his aunt’s foundation into a “pay-for-view” scheme. Getty Images
Ross “beat the museum into showing his work as a condition for holding the Frankenthaler show,” the newspaper claimed.
There is no suggestion in the suit that the institutions he named engaged in a quid pro quo with Ross.
In a statement, the Foundation’s board of directors said the allegations were “meritless and malicious” and said: “Mr. Iseman’s latest complaint is as baseless as his first filing.
“It seems that simply filing a dishonorable and cruel lawsuit was not enough, and he is now resorting to further attacks on the three directors, the executive director of the foundation and his lawyer.”
Attorneys for the named plaintiffs and defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
Frederick Iseman claimed that his cousin, Clifford Ross, along with others, “looted” their aunt’s foundation. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
In a “pay-for-display” scheme outlined in court documents, Iseman claims Foundation grants go to institutions such as NYU, which received $675,000 between 2015 and 2022, and which later showed Ross’ work at the NYU Abu Dhabi Gallery in the United Arab Emirates in 2023.
“Ross secured an exhibition there from February to June 2023. The exhibition follows a major donation from the Foundation to NYU,” the paper claims.
Other examples cited included a $500,000 donation to the New York Public Library, from 2020 to 2021. Ross then hosted discussions there about his artwork, Iseman claimed.
He also “sponsored” an exhibit there, devoted to Lou Reed, “which contained Ross’ work,” Iseman claims.
Helen Frankenthaler launched her foundation while she was still alive. The artist hopes it will protect his legacy. Getty Images
Yale got $890,000 in grants, according to the suit, then Ross put his own work there — even though it wasn’t “solicited or wanted.”
Ross has also been accused of using “Foundation assets to buy recognition even outside the art world,” with a $150,000 grant to the independent cinema Film Forum in Greenwich Village between 2017 and 2022 accompanied by him being featured in a 2020 documentary.
And, Iseman alleges, Ross even engineered a $250,000 donation to an art publication called Brooklyn Rail, which handed out broadsheet art newspapers to passengers on the L train.
In return, Iseman claims, it published an interview with Ross, an article by him and one of his poems.
The lawsuit says “Brooklyn Rail is not what Frankenthaler had in mind” when he bequeathed his own art, a large collection of other artists and his personal investments into the Foundation trust, beginning in 1984.
Helen Frankenthaler with two of her precious paintings. Getty Images
The suit names a series of other institutions that allegedly received donations in the “pay for display” scheme, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; American Academics in Rome; Association Hall in East Hampton, New York; and the Parrish Museum of Art in Waterworks, New York, none of which were accused of wrongdoing.
He died in 2011, aged 83, with the Foundation directed to use his assets to keep his work “alive,” the suit alleges.
Frankenthaler was a groundbreaking artist in his own right, originally influenced by Jackson Pollock, whose work is displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
The Foundation’s collection of works is valued at $250 million, with the other $750 million comprised of other artists’ works and investments.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
