The magic of collecting: how film legend Ivan Reitman flipped the script of Legal Eagles to amass his own esteemed collection

Legendary director and producer Ivan Reitman was a master of the creative voice. Across his career in Hollywood, he was the guiding force behind cult classics like Animal House, Ghostbusters and Space Jam. He directed Bill Murray in his first leading role in Meatballs, produced the Academy Award-nominated film Up in the Air and served as an Executive Producer on comedic blockbusters like Euro Trip and Old School.

For Reitman, creativity in all forms was something to be celebrated, and this informed his love of art. Across 40 years, Reitman and his wife, Genevieve, amassed a diverse collection that reflected their creative values. This grouping of paintings, sculpture, works on paper and photographs revels in the magic of artistry and showcases Reitman’s own brand of humour and whimsy.

This November, Christie’s will offer the collection of Ivan and Genevieve Reitman in New York. Led by Pablo Picasso’s extraordinary 1934 portrait Femme endormie, the works included in the sale cross genres and movements, from Abstract Expressionism to the European avant-garde, contemporary classics and figuration. Highlights include sculptures by masters of the playful like Jean Dubuffet as well as triumphs from the titans of abstraction like Richard Diebenkorn, Agnes Martin and Brice Marden.

Taken together, these objects embody Reitman’s singular vision, one built on magic, ingenuity and the power of art.

The making of a collector

Reitman’s journey as a collector began while working on the 1986 comedy thriller Legal Eagles. Starring Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah, the film is set in the New York art world and follows the case of an art forgery and theft. In advance of filming, Reitman was introduced to the dealer and gallerist Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace Gallery, who advised on the art used in the movie and helped to spark Reitman’s passion for collecting.

As Reitman’s career continued to flourish in the 1980s and 90s, so too did his acquisitions. ‘My father purchased Rothko’s Untitled (Red, Orange on Pink) (1968) right when Kindergarten Cop came out,’ says Reitman’s daughter, Catherine. ‘You could just feel he was gaining confidence…He was putting what he wanted on his walls as opposed to what he was advised to.’

Untitled (Red, Orange on Pink) was completed in 1968, when health issues inhibited Rothko’s mobility. Looking to avoid physical strain, the artist worked on a more intimate scale. The resulting series distilled his mastery of colour and was included in his major 1998 retrospective at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The family’s acquisition of Picasso’s Femme endormie was similarly tied to Reitman’s own creative trajectory. The colourful portrait, painted by Picasso in July of 1934, displays an optimism and tenderness during what was otherwise a difficult time in the artist’s life. The painting was kept in Picasso’s personal collection before it was acquired by Reitman. The two other portraits of Walter from this period reside in Washington DC’s Hirshhorn Museum and the Portland Museum of Art.

‘I think it makes sense that my father bought the Picasso at the same time that he made Dave, his most important film,’ says Reitman’s son, Jason. ‘My father was signalling the optimism he had for this country and the version of America he wanted to see, and I think that’s what he saw in Femme endormie…You look at this painting and you see a man in love. When I look at my dad’s films from the early nineties, that’s what I see as well.’

Surrounded by these works of art in his Montecito, California home, a striking estate designed by the legendary architect Robert A.M. Stern, Reitman drew on them for daily inspiration. ‘Our home was absolutely designed around the art,’ says Catherine. ‘As kids, we ran amok in the house. We were allowed to live fully and loudly and flawed…He understood that this art was meant to complement our lives.’

An ensemble cast

As a filmmaker, Reitman was renowned for his ability to build ensemble casts that highlighted the talents of each actor in brilliant harmony. Within their collection, the Reitmans did the same, finding through-lines between masters of many styles and periods. ‘My father had exquisite taste, and that started with my mom,’ says Catherine. The collection brings together the contemporary voices of artists like Loie Hollowell and George Condo, the clever wit of Saul Steinberg and the colourful abstractions of Helen Frankenthaler.

Works like Willem de Kooning’s Untitled III (1984) speak to Reitman’s interest in synthesising different genres. Part of a grouping of paintings begun later in de Kooning’s life, these works meditate on colour and line. Inspired by his surroundings on eastern Long Island, de Kooning drew from the landscape while maintaining abstraction. This melding of genres finds parallels in Reitman’s own career, in which he pioneered a genre-bending style of filmmaking with comedy thrillers like Ghostbusters and live-action/animated sports comedies like Space Jam.

In the paintings of Martin, Reitman also found a personal connection. The artist’s Untitled #6 (1989) is a celebrated example of the aesthetic that became her signature from the mid-1980s onwards. Here, Martin is building on her earlier style, though changing her concerns. She retains the 6-foot-square canvas first seen in the 1960s, but instead focuses on variations of colour, using broad, horizontal bands of grey. Much like Martin, Reitman recalibrated his approach to film later in his career, expanding his role as a producer and executive producer and collaborating with his son on films like Up in the Air and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

In film, life and art, Reitman understood the value of hope and the broad appeal of magic. He knew how to listen to a creative voice and find its core meaning, a talent evident throughout his filmography and his art collection. ‘My father used to have a saying: At a certain point, a movie tells you who it is, and you better listen,’ says Jason. ‘I have to imagine the same goes for a painting…I hope the paintings from this home bring further magic into other people's lives.’