It was a near-perfect Friday — in the 60s, sunny and breezy — at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, the home of the world’s foremost collection of Northern California art.
The quirky and dynamic collection, mostly curated by late owner Rene di Rosa, is spread out across 273 picturesque acres in Napa in an unusual style that features both indoor and outdoor exhibits. Sculptures like Mark di Suvero’s red geometric wonder, “For Veronica,” and Sam Yates’ 65-foot-tall filing cabinet recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records stand proudly amid the rolling hills.
Every part of the land is used artistically, with the landscape itself a beautiful work of art buzzing with creative energy, making it one of the region’s uniquely designed spaces.
And yet, on this particular Friday, hardly a soul could be found.
Two employees sat at the front desk to welcome only occasional visitors. A friendly tour guide prepared to show a stunning collection of paintings, sculptures and other artistic masterpieces to a group not big enough to field a softball team.
How is it possible that so few people know about this place?
“It’s such a good question,” di Rosa executive Kate Eilertsen said as she pondered the uncertain future on a recent spring day. “I’m trying to figure that out. Part of it is that not everybody loved Rene. He was a controversial figure. Some of the art he collected is not what you’d call beautiful landscapes. It’s controversial. It’s sometimes provocative. Sometimes it’s political. Sometimes it’s hideous. And sometimes it’s great.”
Mark di Suvero’s “For Veronica” sculpture sits on the lip of a reservoir at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, Calif., Friday, April 18, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Eilertsen has been around the Bay Area art world for more than 20 years, but she only took over the di Rosa — in all its glory and imperfection — in 2021.
Like anyone who inherits something that doesn’t belong to them, Eilertsen now finds herself balancing tradition against evolution.
On the one hand, she’d love to stick with tradition, keep the art collection in Napa and carry out Rene’s dream of continuing to support new artists that are local, progressive and challenging societal norms.
But she’s also facing the very troubling reality that many Bay Area art venues are struggling. Hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding to local institutions have disappeared.
And in Napa, the almost 1,700 pieces of art are not being appreciated the way so many folks think they should be.
Eilertsen has a plan.
William Wiley’s interactive “Harp” sculpture catches the fancy of a visitor to the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, Calif., Friday, April 18, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
‘My greatest pleasure’
To understand where the di Rosa Center goes next, one must first understand where it started.
Boston-born Rene di Rosa moved to Paris after World War II in hopes of writing the next great American novel. When that wasn’t happening, he moved to San Francisco to take a job as a reporter at the Chronicle, where he covered the Haight-Ashbury scene. When he came into a small inheritance in the 1960s, he used it to buy 450 acres of land in wine country and began to study viticulture at UC Davis.
But he found himself much more interested in befriending the school’s artists, several who became his lifelong friends.
And in 1982, he was able to sell about half of his property while making enough of a profit to help fund his new passion: collecting art.
After years of collecting with his wife, Veronica di Rosa, they opened the di Rosa Art Preserve to the public in 1997.
“I never regarded myself as having financial ability to do anything except buy art,” he said in the 2004 documentary “Smitten.” “Without it, I can’t imagine how to function. My greatest pleasure is finding a work of art by an artist who has never sold anything. They are pleased that somebody likes what they’ve done, and I am pleased I discovered an artist that grabs me.”
In particular, he was drawn to contemporary artists who were creating in the Bay Area.
“Bay Area artists are always doing the opposite of what the market wants to do,” said Twyla Ruby, the di Rosa Center curator.
Local painter Chester Arnold remembers what it was like selling a piece to di Rosa.
It was 1997, and Arnold had just painted one of his masterpieces, “Thy Kingdom Come II,” in which a giant ball of junk is rolling down a hill with smoke in the background, an intended metaphor for capitalist civilization in despair. Susan Cummins, who ran a popular gallery in Mill Valley and first discovered Arnold, was trying to convince di Rosa to buy it.
He didn’t want it until Cummins offered it to him for half-off. Sold!
“He was notorious for penny pinching, but he had a voracious appetite for art,” Arnold recalled.
With his painting in the di Rosa and some nice reviews by a local art critic, Arnold saw his career take off.
“In the last 25 years, more people have seen that painting than any other single painting I’ve made,” Arnold said. “This was one of the last pieces Rene bought before he slowed down.”
Rene and Veronica befriended most of the artists whose work they purchased and often held dinners at their house, which was covered wall-to-wall in art. And when Rene liked an artist, he was usually a repeat customer; he’s said to have purchased 150 works by the late William T. Wiley, whose sculptures can be found everywhere on the property.
“He was a deep collector,” Arnold said. “That sponsorship meant so much to many people. It’s hard to describe. You’re an artist working alone. Sometimes you have a show that does something and sometimes not. But you have a level of intense interest that makes you feel like you’re doing it for another cause. Rene’s interest was a huge boost to the North Bay artists.”
When one Bay Area artist thrived, all of them thrived, Arnold said. They taught each other, worked in conversation with one another and used each other for inspiration.
“We all knew each other,” Arnold said. “It was special, and there’s never been anything else quite like it.”
Robert Hudson, Rene di Rosa, Robert Arneson, and William
T. Wiley (left to right) in front of Robert Arneson’s “Big Grape of Winery Lake” in 1980 (photo courtesy of di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art).
Emotional goodbye
In 2004, local filmmaker Nancy Kelly was asked to make a short film about the di Rosa for PBS.
“He was so present,” she said. “And you could feel that in the film. It was so great to be looking at that incredible art with him.”
When she submitted the film to PBS, she was shocked to learn how much they liked it; it was picked up on every PBS station in the country.
“And they extended the license three times,” she said. “I think because Rene was such a character. I think when you see the film, his love of that art was easy to feel.”
The film has a bittersweet ending while filming Rene during a pivotal moment in 2004.
A national museum in Washington, D.C., wanted to display some of his pieces. He reluctantly said yes. And for the first time in his life, he was breaking up part of his collection. Tears were in his eyes as he watched them get packed into a moving truck.
The cameras went with him to D.C. to see the opening of the exhibit. He said he couldn’t sleep the night before; he was too nervous. When he walked in and saw his pieces on display in another gallery, he was again emotional as he thanked the curators for doing such a wonderful job.
“This is a real treat,” he said.
Kelly said she’ll always remember how much he cared about his pieces.
“I’ve gotten fascinated with contemporary art now, and I always look for the museum of modern art or contemporary art,” she said. “So many of the artists he collected became so well known. You see their work everywhere. He had an eye for it.”
Rene di Rosa with Viola Frey’s “Reclining Nude #2” in 1987 (Photo by Stefan Kirkeby/courtesy of di Rosa Center for
Contemporary Art).
Saving the collection
Rene’s wife, Veronica, died in 1991 in a freak hiking accident, and he devoted his life to his collection until his health dwindled in 2008. He died in 2010 at the age of 91.
The bulk of his collection was left to the Rene and Veronica di Rosa Foundation.
It’s long been open to the public, often connecting new artists with old to keep the young Bay Area community in conversation with work of the past.
“I actually went to visit the di Rosa when I was a student getting my MFA at the SFAI in 2006,” said local artist Ana Teresa Fernández. “I remember going through the doors and coming out the other side, and you see the glass and the lake. Absolutely gorgeous. I was getting my bearings on conceptual art, and I was like, ‘what is this jewel, and why have I not heard more about it?’”
The di Rosa Center has continued to support contemporary artists like Fernandez by providing them educational opportunities, community connection and, in Fernandez’s case, the opportunity to host an exhibit.
It’s no wonder that so many artists rebelled against a 2019 decision by former executive director Robert Sain, who announced the di Rosa was going to sell off most of its collection due to funding problems.
The art world put its collective foot down, insisting that Sain was making a huge mistake and even drafting a petition.
“We all came to the same conclusion: You can’t sell this,” said Arnold, one of the last artists to sell a piece to Rene. “The collection has been characterized as being a picture of the Bay Area art of the post-war years, 1960-2000. That 40-year period is like a time capsule of Bay Area art. There’s nothing quite like it.”
When Eilertsen replaced Sain in 2021, she announced that she’d stop the sale of any more works after just 15 pieces were sold.
Mark di Suvero’s “For Veronica” sculpture sits on the distant horizon in a view through the porch of the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art gallery in Napa, Calif., Friday, April 18, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
New direction
To keep the di Rosa alive amid modern challenges, Eilertsen had to get creative. That’s when she got in touch with the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.
Co-founders Deborah and Andy Rappaport started the project nine years ago to offer financially efficient spaces for art galleries, artists and related nonprofits. It just so happened that 6,500 square feet of space was opening up in August, 2025. They offered it to the di Rosa at below-market value.
“The Rappaports, very similar to Rene di Rosa, are not in it for the fame or the glory,” said Minnesota Street Project executive director Aimee Le Duc. “They’re kindred spirits in the sense that they’re doing it for the love of the work. And their deep interest in seeing young artists continue and grow their practices.”
Starting Aug. 9, a three-month exhibit will showcase di Rosa’s best pieces from the permanent collection. Later exhibits expect to feature contemporary artists.
Up in Napa, Eilertsen and Ruby are a bit nervous to send so much of their collection to a new space in San Francisco, fearful of how it could make some locals feel and surely aware of the discomfort it once placed on Rene to break up his collection.
But the new arrangement will also allow the di Rosa Center a chance to host weddings and other big events in the space, providing a large – and necessary – stream of income.
Reconnecting the di Rosa art to a younger population is also an objective. All the new exhibits will be free to the public in another attempt to keep young artists involved.
It could be the next step in continuing di Rosa’s legacy and ensuring the Bay Area art scene is alive and weird.
“It’s a major change in the trajectory of the institution,” Ruby said. “But I think our move into SF will be part of the answer. We’re representing weirdo art. And hopefully bringing that to a new generation of artists.”
Details: Tickets are $25 general admission by reservation only at 5200 Sonoma Hwy. in Napa or, starting Aug. 9, free at 1150 25th St. in San Francisco; https://www.dirosaart.org.
Viola Frey’s “Reclining Nude” fronts the main lawn at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, Calif., Friday, April 18, 2025. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)