Gerhard and Marianne Pinkus emigrated from Germany to Los Angeles in the 1930s and were married in Santa Monica in 1943. After establishing themselves as local business owners (they owned a furniture store), Gerhard began to collect art. He established relationships with collectors and gallery owners in Los Angeles and, gradually, throughout North America and Europe. After accumulating a small collection of choice (and sometimes rare) finds, Gerhard and Marianne became a major force in the Los Angeles art world, especially in regard to their primary interest: Marc Chagall. Gerhard and Marianne Pinkus were largely responsible for bringing Chagall’s work to Los Angeles. In 1972, Gerhard collaborated with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to exhibit Chagall’s early sketches. Gerhard worked doggedly to assemble a comprehensive exhibition of Chagall’s drawings (up to 1930) from his own collection and through loans from private collections all over the world. Though they focused mainly on Chagall, the Pinkuses collected drawings, lithographs, and paintings by many other artists from various periods, with some emphasis on German Expressionism. In addition to Chagall’s drawings, the Pinkus collection included works by Ernst Kirchner, Rico Lebrun, Gasparo Lopez, Theodore Chasseriau, Edouard Manet, Eugene Delacroix, Conrad Felixmuller, Paul Klee, Gerald Brockhurst, Eugene Carriere, Franz Marc, Charles Meryon, Henry Fantin-Latour, Christian Anton Laely, and Henri Matisse.

[Adapted from Laurel Schmuck, "Student Workers Reflect: Pinkus Papers," August 16, 2016, https://libraries.usc.edu/article/student-workers-reflect-pinkus-papers]