Fred Olsen

Fredrich Olsen (1891–1986) was a British-born American chemist remembered as the inventor of ball propellant^[1] and as a donor or seller to the art antiquities collections of Yale University, the University of Illinois, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2]

Olsen was born on 28 February 1891, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Following education in Canada, he began his professional career in 1917 as chief chemist for the Aetna Explosives Company of Gary, Indiana.^[3] When Aetna went out of business following World War I,^[2] Olsen worked at Picatinny Arsenal from 1919 to 1929 devising a remanufacturing process to preserve deteriorating military inventories of smokeless powder in artillery ammunition manufactured during World War I. He was then employed by the Western Cartridge Company of East Alton, Illinois, where he patented the Ball Powder manufacturing process in 1933. Western Cartridge Company became an Olin Corporation subsidiary in 1944, and Olsen was appointed Olin's vice president for Research and Development in 1952.^[4]

Olsen and his wife, the former Florence Quittenton, were collectors of Coptic art, Pre-Columbian art, African Art, Modern Art and early Chinese art. He was also the original purchaser of Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles." Being friends with Pollock, Isamu Noguchi, Mark Rothko and other artists, Olsen bought many of their works.^[5] Following his retirement from Olin Corporation in 1956, Olsen and his wife purchased a winter home in Antigua from which they explored the ancient Arawak realm. They traveled the rivers of Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela in dugout canoes. They also found Arawak artifacts on 22 of 27 Caribbean islands they visited.

Encargó una casa diseñada por Tony Smith en Guilford, Connecticut , sobre un afloramiento de granito rosa sobre Long Island Sound , que se completó en 1953; las necesidades de Olsen eran una galería para exhibir su arte, alojamiento para artistas visitantes y sus aposentos. ^{[ 5 ] [ 6 ]} Olsen encontró la casa tal como Smith la había imaginado, en algunos aspectos inhabitable, pero le gustó lo suficiente como para convertirla en su residencia principal. Al cabo de un año, Olsen hizo modificaciones que devastaron a Smith, quien solo construyó una casa más en su vida. Smith posteriormente se dedicó a la escultura, su principal logro artístico. En 1998, la pareja de artistas Jeff Preiss y Rebecca Quaytman se toparon con la casa cuando estaba en venta. Amenazada con la demolición por un promotor inmobiliario, una campaña de Marjorie Olsen, nuera del coleccionista, permitió a Preiss y Quaytman comprar la casa. Terence Riley , curador jefe de arquitectura y diseño del Museo de Arte Moderno (MoMA), clasificó la casa "entre los mejores ejemplos de la arquitectura doméstica estadounidense de la posguerra". Se realizaron renovaciones para restaurar la claridad escultórica de la visión de Smith. ^{[ 5 ]} Se encuentra a menos de una milla de otra casa de Smith construida para Fred Olsen Jr. ^{[ 6 ]}

Olsen recibió un Doctorado Honoris Causa de la Universidad Heriot-Watt en 1985. ^{[ 7 ]}

Olsen murió en Guilford, Connecticut , el 2 de noviembre de 1986, dejando la mayor parte de su colección de arte y objetos a universidades estadounidenses. ^{[ 2 ]}