TRIBAL People Richard Scheller and the Arts of Africa Interview by Jonathan Fogel 140 For almost three decades, Richard Scheller has been building a world-class collection of African art that has become all but legendary for both its breadth and its quality. Working first as a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and now for thirteen years as the vice president in charge of research at the biotech giant Genentech, Richard and his wife, Sue, have maintained a relatively modest living situation in the San Francisco Bay Area, but their living room is a stunning treasure trove of African masterpieces. If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing them there, you’ll have a chance to see them in the upcoming exhibition Embodiments: Masterworks of African Figurative Sculpture at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, which will be on view from January 31 to July 5, 2015. We had the pleasure of chatting with Richard recently about his collecting and his interest in African art. Tribal Art Magazine: You’re both a research scientist and an avid art collector. Those of us who know less about the brain than you do generally think of these things as coming from virtually opposite sides of it. How do these two pursuits come together for you? Richard Scheller: I like to engage as much of my brain as possible. Just because you’re a scientist doesn’t mean that you can’t derive pleasure from other endeavors. I also like sports and love to play basketball. TAM: Your collection is focused almost exclusively on the arts of Africa. Why is that? RS: I visited Africa for the first time twenty-nine years ago to see the wildlife there. I felt an immediate affinity for the continent and bought some tourist carvings as souvenirs. Upon returning home, I read some books on African art and saw how really beautiful the sculpture could be. This set in motion both my interest in collecting and my good fortune to be able to actually
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