Honoree's Artful Li

Gallery owner's TLC. fostered Detroit's young artists.

SHARON LUCKERMAN
Staff Writer

E

nter Lee Hoffman's Bloomfield Hills
condo, and a rush of warmth, color and
texture pull you in.
A mirror surrounded by rows of col-
orfully painted bottle caps reflects a nearby.13th-
century Khmer statue.
On the wall across the room, a 4- by 8-foot
photograph of Hoffman's favorite writer, Anton
Chekov, flanked by performers in the Moscow Art
Theater towers over a collection of books.
A personally signed letter to Hoffman from the
late French President Francois Mitterrand rests on
her marble desk — close are photos of her with
celebrated architect Frank Gehry and photos of
her grandchildren.
Here lives a woman who not only knows art —
but is alive with the art of living.
Hoffman, a patron of the arts, is one of six
awardees of the 2004 Jewish Women in the Arts
Award.
"Artists depend on a dedicated audience and Lee
is one of those extraordinary people with her
interest, enthusiasm and profound commitment to
see contemporary art move forward," says
Gerhardt Knodel, director of Cranbrook Academy
of Art in Bloomfield Hills. "One can always count
on her enthusiasm to that that is risky and innova-
tive. She goes where most people don't venture."
Hoffman began her art career 41 years ago at the
J.L. Hudson Gallery in downtown Detroit. She
answered an ad in the newspaper and was selected
over 220 applicants to be assistant director. "I was
never career oriented," she says. "But art was a pas-
sion."

"It was a glorious
decade at Hudson's.
We got the top
artists from all over
the world — De
Kooning, Stella,
Picasso, Matisse."
Ten years later,
she opened the Lee
Hoffman Art
Gallery in
Birmingham. "I
tremendously
enjoyed interacting
with the artists,"
she says. 'And
women are espe-
cially important in
this area. In 1960,
women dealers first
became prominent
because of this
sense of nurturing."
Artist Glen
Michaels of Troy
agrees. "Lee has no
Lee Hoffman with a bulletin board of interesting images in her Bloomfield Hills home.
idea how many cre-
ative people she's
Institute of Arts when they were going to be white-
sparked or encouraged by her enthusiasm." He
washed
off the walls," she says. "There was a big
encouraged his Wayne State University art students to
protest meeting [against their destruction]. I was a
visit her gallery. "It was like a wonderful museum, and
little girl, holding my father's hand, and I was daz-
she would take as much time with anyone who was
zled
by the murals." Some considered the 1932
interested."
murals communist propaganda and tried unsuccess-
fully to have them removed.
The arts also came through in an element of
Feeding The Soul
Jewishness in her home, the center of culture even
Her home has a similar quality with pieces from
during the depression, she says. Here's where she
all over the world. "I like to mix
heard
poetry and music and developed another
different cultures. All have an aes-
passion: reading.
thetic quality," Hoffman says,
When asked about what art she likes today,
enjoying and encouraging her vis-
Hoffman
replies, environmental art. "It's happening
itors' interest in her art.
in
subways,
where we shop and walk — because art's
She pulls out a quote from a
something
that's
a part of our everyday life, not just
cluster of papers on her bulletin
hung
on
the
wall,"
she says. "That's why we love
board about how people need "to
going
to
Europe
because
you're surrounded by art."
pamper the soul" — much more
Hoffman
is
still
active
advising
private art clients
important for health, she reads,
and
has
served
as
a
member
of
art
boards at the
than exercise or diet.
DIA,
Cranbrook
and
Beaumont
Hospital.
Her com-
Beneath her glass coffee tables
mitment
to
the
arts
led
Roy
Slade,
former
president
are piles of magazines and books,
of Cranbrook Academy of Art to call Hoffman,
like The Joy of Conversation, 1000
"The doyenne of art dealers in this area." II
Chairs (her plastic red one by

:

Lee Hoffman's condo overflows with evidence of her passion for art.

Verner Panton is on the cover)
and large art books on Viennese
Design and the Spanish architect
Antonio Gaudi.
"My first memory of art was
when my parents took me to the
Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit

The Jewish Women in the Arts Award will be
held 2:30 p.m., Sunday, May 2, at the JCC in
West Bloomfield followed by a dessert reception
with the artists. No charge, but reservations are
required: (248) 432-5448.

4/23
2004

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