The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 31

2003:02:04:21:26:52 OBITUARIES B13 LOSANGELESTIMES By Mary Rourke Times Staff Writer Bernard Lewin, a leading collector and dealer of Latin American art, died Jan. 30 at his home in Rancho Mirage. He was 96 and had suffered from heart problems for several months. Together with his late wife, Edith, he amassed a trove of close to 2,000 works, many of them by the best- known names in Mexican Modernist painting. In 1997, the couple donated their holdings to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a gift that made Latin American collection among the top in the country.

The Lewins retained possession of two works they said they could not bear to part with a portrait of Frida Kahlo by her husband, Diego Rivera, and a work by Kahlo titled Those two paintings now revert to the museum. Lewin fell in love with an Andrea Rich, president of LACMA, told The Times this week. She referred to his gift as sort of donation that a publicly funded museum like LACMA hopes for. Great works that stand the test of time are often beyond the financial capabilities of a public museum to acquire. Patrons like the Lewins become extremely important.

Donor-collectors have helped build the core collections of great Born in Weisbaden, Germany, in 1906, Lewin married in 1933. The couple fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and set- tled in the San Fernando Valley, where Bernard moved furniture for a living. He soon began to buy and sell family estates and occasionally came across works by Latin American artists among the furniture. This was his introduction to the art he soon came to love, Rich said. Lewin opened his first B.

Lewin Furniture store in Van Nuys in 1956 and displayed paintings from his private art collection on the walls. He expanded his business to include stores in Glendale and North Hollywood before he closed the business in 1972. By then he had opened a gallery for Latin American art in Beverly Hills and wanted to devote all of his time to it. Lewin made his first trip to Mexico City in 1958, curious to meet the artists whose work he had come to admire. Eventually he acquired drawings, watercolors and paint- ings by the biggest names in the field, including Rivera, Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, David Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco.

When he turned his collection over to LACMA, it included 27 works by Tamayo and 23 by Rivera. The estimated value of the collection was $25 million. Lewins were trend said Ilona Katzew, curator of Latin American art. started collecting at an early During that first trip to Mexico, Lewin bought three paintings from the estate of Diego Rivera, who had died in 1957. On later visits, he met Tamayo, his favorite artist, and muralist Siqueiros.

He formed lasting friendships with both men. One memorable trip Lewin made to Mexico City in 1964 was to celebrate the official pardon and release from prison of Siqueiros, who had spent four years in jail. An outspoken Communist and political activist, Siqueiros was arrested in 1960 during street demonstrations by striking railway workers and teachers. To celebrate his return to freedom, Lewin bought 10 of drawings, which helped the artist finance a mural for Mexico Chapultepec Castle museum. When the Lewins opened their B.

Lewin Galleries in 1968, they introduced their clients to a number of the Latin American artists they had discovered on their own. In 1984, they moved their gallery to Palm Springs and finally closed it in 1997 when they retired. Two years later, Edith Lewin died of cancer. At LACMA, a permanent gallery space was established in the name three years ago to house the collection. More recently a study center for scholarly research in Latin American art was also opened.

The Lewins also donated a small collection of art to the Palm Springs Desert Mu- seumnear their home in Rancho Mirage. It consisted primarily of pre-Columbian works. Lewin is survived by a son, asister, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Memorial donationscan be made to the Inge Pauli Institute, P.O. Box 30133, Santa Barbara, CA 93130, orto the American Heart Western States Affiliates, Gift Processing Center, 1710 Gil- brethRoad, Burlingame, CA 94010.

Bernard Lewin, 96; Art Dealer, Donor Gina Ferazzi Los Angeles Times BERNARD LEWIN He and his wife, Edith, held onto a Rivera portrait of Frida Kahlo when they donated nearly 2,000 Latin American artworks to LACMA. Peter Shaw, 84; TV Producer, Husband of Angela Lansbury Peter Shaw, 84, a producer and former agent who was the longtime husband of actress Angela Lansbury, died Jan. 29 at his Brentwood home of congestive heart failure. Born in Reading, England, Shaw served in the British army during World War II. After his discharge, Shaw was signed to a contract by MGM Studios, where he met Lansbury.

The couple were married in London in 1949. He worked as an agent for William Morris, representing Robert Mitchum, Katharine Hepburn and Anna Magnani. He worked at MGM again in the 1960s as assistant head of production before returning to William Morris. In 1987, he and his two sons launched Corymore Productions at Universal Studios, where he co-produced the long-running hit series which starred Lansbury. Walter J.

Clore, 91; Helped Wine Industry Grow Walter J. Clore, 91, a viticulturist whose grape-growing research earned him the title of Wine died Jan. 28 of cancer in Yakima, Wash. decades-long work helped make Washington the largest producer of premium wines behind California. Born in Oklahoma, Clore earned a horticulture degree at Oklahoma College but left the state for more fertile growing regions of the Pacific Northwest.

In 1936, he was appointed assistant horticulturist at what is now Washington State Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, where he began trial plantings of tree fruits, berries and grapes. Convinced that Washington could produce world-class wines, Clore conducted experiments to learn the best places and irrigation techniques for growing vinif- era east of the Cascades without losing vines in the freezes that occur roughly every six years. Today, Washington has more than 330 grape growers with 28,000 acres and 200 wineries that produce 11 million gallons of premium wine a year, an industry with a impact on the state. Betty Barry, 79 Betty Barry, who appeared on Broadway with Ethel Barrymore in Grass Is and was the longtime wife of actor Gene Barry, died Friday at Midway Hospital in Los Angeles. She was 79.

From Staff and Wire Reports PASSINGS Peter Shaw Obituaries from the last seven days are available on The Web site www. latimes.com/obits. Obituaries on the Web.