Martin purchased his first painting, by Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha, in 1968, according to The New York Times. At the time, Martin was in his early 20s, and his career was just starting to take off.
Over the decades, his collection not only got bigger, it also started including more recognizable names: Seurat, Picasso, and Robert Crumb. Some of his pieces have come and gone from his collection over the years as well.
Martin has been clear, in conversations with journalists covering his exhibitions as well as with the general public in attendance, that he is by no means a serious art collector with a view toward curating a collection that would rival those of any other serious art collector. Rather, he says that his paintings are nothing more than ”some nice paintings to hang on my walls.”
When he finally revealed a glimpse into his collection, for an exhibition of fine art at Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel, he continued to insist that he was doing it not for credibility as a serious art collector but as just a guy who had collected some art that he liked; nothing more, nothing less.
"[It] sounded 'like fun,'" Martin said of his Bellagio exhibition at the time.
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