To Park Avenue From Kenya

Monique Schoen and her late husband, Edward Schoen, spent many weekends strolling around New York City and visiting art galleries. Along the way, they built up an impressive collection of contemporary works, housed in a Park Avenue apartment that Ms. Schoen now shares with her second husband, Robert Warshaw.

On one November weekend in 1988, the Schoens came across a painting at Pace Gallery (now PaceWildenstein) that reminded them of the Masai people they had seen during a recent trip to Kenya. Struck by the coincidence, the Schoens bought the painting, "Tribal Dance," which was painted in 1985 by Malcolm Morley, a British artist living in New York.

"We had just gotten back from a safari in Kenya, and you would see these Masai men wearing pretty much what's in the painting — red sarongs and beads," Ms. Schoen, who has been on the conservation committee at the Museum of Modern Art for two years, said. "They have very, very dark skin and it's absolutely striking and beautiful when you see them against the Africa tundra."

The painting, heavily textured with oil paint, depicts eight Masai men standing in the African desert against an electric-blue sky. Across the top and down the right side, the names of men in the painting are written in their native language. Mr. Morley had visited the Masai and had the men write their names themselves in watercolor on the canvas.

"It's not a pretty painting," Ms. Schoen said. "But it's very alive. When I hung this painting up in the room, the room just shone and the whole atmosphere of it changed." While the painting's scene is somewhat sparse, heavily textured blue and red paint makes it pop.

"It looks like it's painted haphazardly, but it's not true," Ms. Schoen said. "It's actually very carefully planned." Untraditional composition is a hallmark of neo-expressionism, which Mr. Morley is known for. That's partly why Ms. Schoen likes this painting so much. "I just love the dynamic quality it has — not just because of the colors but because of the way the paint is applied. It's not just a smooth surface."

The painting is hung in the den of Ms. Schoen's home. "Tribal Dance" is just one piece of her collection of 20thcentury, contemporary, and primitive paintings. The first pieces the Schoens purchased were two colorful Picasso linoleum cuts that now hang in an open living room. That room also includes a lithograph of Miró's "Le Dandi," other Picasso linoleum prints, and Eskimo and Zimbabwean stone sculptures.

The most prominent piece in the front area of the living room is a large DuBuffet collage painting titled "Stenogramme d'un instant de la vie banale" ("One instant in pedestrian life") (1978) that the Schoens bought in the early 1980s from the Pace Gallery.

In the entryway hangs an untitled abstract painting by Fernando Maza, an Argentinean artist. Edward Schoen bought the painting in 1970 at an auction at Sotheby's. Another painting, a blue and gray abstract by Marcelo Bonevardi, hangs nearby. The Schoens bought it in the early 1970s through a friend who is an art consultant and dealer, Judith Selkowitz.

Ms. Schoen was born in Morocco and raised there and in Switzerland. She moved to New York in 1967, worked for UNICEF, and taught English as a second language to first- and second-graders in East Harlem. She now volunteers at Mount Sinai and for Fresh Start, a program that helps rehabilitate inmates at Rikers Island. She said she developed a passion for contemporary art because she is best able to relate to the artist and their vision. Her art collection was built upon how she responds to individual pieces of art, rather than a particular artist or certain period.

"I definitely have an affinity for contemporary art," Ms. Schoen said. "I think it's because contemporary art is more accessible because you live in that era when it was created and you can learn more about the artists."