When Wim Roefs, the longtime owner of if ART gallery in Columbia’s Vista and a founding board member for the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, passed away suddenly in the spring of 2022, it was an incalculable loss for the arts scene, both local and at-large.
In his three decades of work, Roefs was an ardent supporter and champion of visual and performing arts on a local, regional, national and international level, creating a vast network of artists and colleagues that spanned two continents and consistently pushed the boundaries and standards of what was possible in a place like Columbia.
“Eye to Eye: the Roefs-Waddell Collection Exhibit” is in some ways a tribute to that legacy, a private mirroring of the visual arts he promoted and made space for in the public community.
But that’s not exactly right, according to Eileen Waddell, his wife of nearly 30 years who built this private collection. It’s a personal tapestry of a life spent together, too, Waddell said of the collection.
By some estimates, theirs is among the largest private collections in the state. It was started in 1996, when they moved in together.
Wim Roefs. Provided/701 Center for Contemporary Art
“I can walk from piece to piece and kind of remember when I got it, maybe even how much I paid for it, but (definitely) the circumstances of the purchase and where it’s been in my house,” Waddell said of the art that will be on display from Oct. 24 through the end of the year.
For Waddell, the collection is as much an idiosyncratic story of arts collecting as it is a statement about Roefs’ public role as a volunteer and gallery owner.
Waddell recalled how they bought that first piece in 1996, but how another from the same collection kept haunting them. They contacted the artist, Mike Williams, saying, “‘Hey, do you still have that? Because we can’t get it out of our heads,'” Waddell recalled.
“That’s often how collecting starts, with a spark, something that sticks in your head.”
The couple ended up with a great many pieces by Williams, a Sumter native and University of South Carolina alum who has had a prolific, internationally renowned career. Waddell cites Williams — along with fellow South Carolina native and Batik artist Leo Twiggs and Dutch figurative artist Kees Salentijn — as a favorite among the collection.
Other familiar artists the two loved include local luminaries like Tyrone Geter, Laura Spong, Peter Lenzo, Mary Robinson, Anna Redwine, Michaela Pilar Brown and Virginia Scotchie.
While she recognizes the ways in which the collection speaks to Roefs’ public role in promoting the arts, her story of the exhibit is deeply personal, encompassing their shared love of art — “our taste overlapped by 80, 90 percent.”
Building the collection also gave the couple an experience of connecting with artists they loved personally and directly, as well as their evolution from budget-minded collectors to expanding it with three-dimensional works over the years.
The Roefs-Waddell Collection is exhibited at 701 Center for Contemporary Art until the year’s end.
Harriett Green, one of the founders of 701CCA alongside Roefs, helped curate the exhibition with Waddell. She said the late gallerist would always discuss opening his home for art tours, but the idea never came to fruition during his lifetime.
“Their collection is legendary in some art circles, and for them a source of pride and accomplishment,” said Green. “There are many different styles and equally many different media represented. I wouldn’t describe it as a particularly focused collection, but rather an encyclopedic one that provides a snapshot of many major contemporary art movements.”
This includes an unusual blend of artists from both Europe and the United States. Roefs was born and grew up in the Netherlands, so many Dutch artists, in particular, are featured in the collection.
“(Roefs) had an artistic sensibility that was different than most Americans, and there were different movements that happened in Europe that didn’t take as well here,” explains Waddell.
She also loves how their collection is idiosyncratic in other ways. The collection holds a bevy of less-prominent pieces by famous names, acquired by the couple visiting artist studios and scouring through archives.
“We have a lot of things in the collection that might sit in a gallery somewhere for decades and never sell, but they fit our taste,” Waddell pointed out.
The collection is, in many ways, the story of the life they shared with each other, complete with a set of rules and guidelines for how they acquired pieces and where they would go in their home.
“You don’t realize that you’re amassing a body of work because what you’re doing is just making your environment look better,” she said.
“You are what you collect, and you collect what you are, and it shows.”
“Eye to Eye: the Roefs-Waddell Collection Exhibit” is on display at 701 CCA until year’s end. Gallery hours and more information at 701cca.org
