New contemporary art museum, the Warehouse, to open in Atlanta in April

Credit: Photo courtesy of Roy Lichtenstein Estate

Credit: Photo courtesy of Roy Lichtenstein Estate

The artist list is stocked with familiar and respected names, most of whom are represented in major museums here and abroad. They range from Simone Leigh, who represented the United States in the 2022 Venice Biennale, to British star David Hockney, to Georgia visionary artist Howard Finster and performative photographer Cindy Sherman.

But, as visitors will quickly realize, this is no cookie-cutter collection. It is unique in that all the works reflect in some way the theme of the house. And this has turned out to be a remarkably elastic and resonant subject.

One of the pleasures of wandering around the 37,000-square-foot space is discovering the endless variety of ways that artists have made use of the house, its image and its multiple meanings.

When Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, for instance, makes “Marble Door” (2006), the cast of a door from one of the many hutongs, or traditional homes, that the government has destroyed to make way for progress, it represents memory, change, real estate, politics. Joel Sternberg’s 1983 photo “Domestic Workers Waiting for a Bus, Atlanta, Georgia,” suggests issues of race, socioeconomics, real estate.

Credit: Photo by The Wilbert Group

Credit: Photo by The Wilbert Group

This unusual collection evolved from rather pedestrian beginnings. In the early ‘80s his company constructed its first purpose-built headquarters in College Park. As he explains: “We needed to put something on the walls. We wanted something relevant to the staff. The house was the natural default.”

Wieland recalls selecting his first purchases from a truckload of art that Joe Perrin, the late artist and founding chairman of the Georgia State University School of Design, brought to the office and laid out around a conference room.

“It was essentially decorative,” he says, “and the parameters were literally that every piece had to have a house in it.”

But Wieland, who already had a serious interest in art and had begun his own collection with his late wife, Sue, soon started thinking differently about the art in the office. “We had a desire to do something meaningful within our financial and discerning capacity,” he says.

With guidance and help from two Atlanta dealers, Fay Gold and the late David Heath, Wieland started collecting in earnest. He considers his first serious piece to be “Bad Dream House II” by Vito Acconci.

Credit: (Photo courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery and Fraenkel Gallery.)

Credit: (Photo courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery and Fraenkel Gallery.)

Definitely serious, it is a surreal, 18-foot-long assemblage of three topsy-turvy houses. And it comes with a story.

“We bought it straight out of his show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1988,” he says. “Rhona Hoffman [Acconci’s Chicago dealer] called to ask if I was buying it. When I told her I was still thinking about it, she said, ‘Make up your mind. It is sitting in a truck by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. If it doesn’t come South, the truck is going to turn right and go to Chicago.’”

He laughs. “Artists create beauty. Dealers have a way of focusing your attention.”

Art became a way of life. He and Sue frequented galleries and auctions. He became involved in the museum world, notably as a board member at the High Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. The relationships and experiences gained through service deepened his knowledge.

It was soon clear that the growing scale of the collection required management. That was supplied first by then-art consultant Annette Cone-Skelton, who served as curator from 1978 to 1987. (Cone-Skelton later founded and still runs the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia [MOCA GA].) Curator Rebecca Dimling Cochran came aboard in 2003 and managed the collection and its installation and conceived its first catalog during her 15 years there.

It took the 2008 recession for Wieland to understand the magnitude of what he and Sue had achieved. As the company downsized its office space, Cochran gathered all the artworks in one place and organized them by medium. When he walked in and saw them all together, he was flabbergasted.

“Oh my gosh. We own all this,” he recalls thinking. “We have a collection!”

Credit: Mike Jensen

Credit: Mike Jensen

In 2010, he bought the warehouse and brought together the works not only from the offices but also his homes. That was the tipping point in terms of thinking holistically about the collection, Cochran says.

“We could see its strengths and weaknesses,” she says. “We could see we were heavy in photos and should diversify more. We could also see the conversations between the works.”

Wieland had a serious collector’s appetite for acquisition. Fortunately, there was never any shortage of choices. “We discovered that almost every artist had made use of the theme,” Cochran says. “It is embedded in our psyche.”

Along the way, the parameters have broadened. Themes such as fantasy, domesticity, what goes on in a home emerged. Now the imagery need only to be related to the house theme. As Wieland points out, the newest piece, “Dylan Mixing Slip” (2023) by Caroline Walker is a painting of a figure mixing a concrete concoction. The house she is building is not visible at all.

Wieland’s ambitions for the collection have grown, as have the requirements of art and building maintenance. In 2021, former High Museum COO Philip Verre became the museum’s director. Sara Tanner is the collection manager and Wieland’s son Jack is the curator.

The building underwent a renovation last year, including the addition of 2,000 square feet of exhibition space and a video theater, of which Wieland is especially proud. Jack spearheaded the expansion and re-installation of the collection and is working with his father to source future acquisitions.

The next big step is opening the museum to the public, which brings additional concerns, such as security, crowd management and docents. Nevertheless, Wieland, a Cleveland native who considers his school trips to the Cleveland Museum of Art a formative experience, is excited to share the collection with the public. “I hope our collection will introduce children comfortably to art. The theme is something anyone can relate to.”

At present the museum will be open the second Saturday of the month, by reservation only through thewarehouse.org.

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Catherine Fox, an award-winning art critic, co-founded ArtsATL and served as its executive director and executive editor for five years. Fox was the art critic for The Atlanta Journal Constitution from 1981 to 2009.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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