Double Down – Curators Play Cards To Get Art

To convince collectors of important Picasso and Matisse art to loan their work for a show, curators started playing cards with them. “The object of the game? To create sparks for a three-city show in which the two artists would face off on the gallery walls. Collectors got to shuffle the deck, juxtaposing the cards in various ways. But the game always ended the same way: the collectors were asked to part with their card, their art, for a year. It worked.”