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Floback loves the painting by Morris hanging in a guest room next to a funky bed, but it also will soon be gone. It’s based on the architecture of Rio de Janeiro but reminds Floback of the design of downtown Miami in the ’70s, with glass and metal facades.
“Its colorful, geometric painting speaks to me,” she said.
She also has purchased “eye candy,” such as the larger-than-life fiberglass sculpture of a funky woman in pumps by Chinese artist Wang Du.
“I haven’t had the guts to ask Tobias if he wants her,” Floback said. “The acquisition committee would have to vote on it. But I don’t care if you like it, she’s so Miami.”
The Flobacks’ art gifts have added up to more than $1 million over the years, Ostrander said.
Other patrons have given much more: Jorge Perez, who donated $35 million in cash and art in 2012 and will have the new museum named after him; Debra and Dennis Scholl, who gifted nearly 300 works in February; and just last week, an anonymous donor who gave $12 million in cash and more than $3 million in art.
But Floback said the reason she and Bud agreed to publicly talk about their gifts is to show that “others can step up to the plate. You don’t have to be Mr. & Mrs. Got Rocks. Every $12 admission or $200 gift makes a difference to help create a museum for all of Miami.”
She hates being called a collector, preferring to be known as an “art steward.” To Floback, art should be shared — especially with children, even if it means parting with favorites like the 1991 large red painting Abstraktes Bild by renowned German artist Gerhard Richter.
“It was a cornerstone work that we knew MAM must have,” Floback said.
She said the only two things she can’t part with are “Bud and Max.”
And while many art collectors pass down their works to the next generation, the Flobacks’ six children will not be inheriting art. Mimi, 68, and Bud, 84, say they hope it all finds a home at the new museum on Biscayne Bay.
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