Audrey Irmas

Audrey Irmas was born in Los Angeles, California.[1] She was educated at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, and attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).[1]

Irmas co-founded the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation in 1983.[1] In 1997, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation donated US$1.5 million to endow the Sydney M. Irmas Chair in Public Interest Law and Legal Ethics at the University of Southern California.[1] It is held by Professor Erwin Chemerinsky.[1] It also endowed the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple,[2] a Reform synagogue in Los Angeles, was dedicated in 1998.[3][4] It is located on the corner of Olympic and Barrington Boulevards in West Los Angeles.[3]

Irmas served on the board of trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) from 1992 to 2006.[4][5] She has served as a life trustee since 2006.[5] She served as Chairperson of the Los Angeles Family Housing Corporation, a non-profit organization which tackles homelessness in Los Angeles.[1]

In September 2015, Irmas auctioned a painting entitled "Untitled, 1968" by Cy Twombly that she owned at Sotheby's and donated half the proceeds (an estimated US$30 million) for the construction of the Audrey Irmas Pavilion, a "55,000-square-foot new events center in Koreatown, just east of the synagogue’s historic 1929 Byzantine-Revival sanctuary."[6][7] The new addition to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple is designed by Shohei Shigematsu of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture's New York office.[8]

Irmas has made political contributions to many Democratic politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Michelle Nunn, Tammy Duckworth, Karen Bass, Kay Hagan, Jeanne Shaheen and Henry Waxman.[9] Additionally, she has donated to EMILY's List,[9] an organization that helps elect pro-choice female Democrats.

Irmas started collecting photographic self-portraits with her husband in the 1970s.[10] In 1992, they donated their collection to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.[10]

The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection made its debut at San Jose Museum of Art. Many exhibitions have been held with their daughter- Debora Irmas- as guest curator[11]

Irmas collects paintings and sculptures.[10] She owns Emeralds (1961) by Roy Lichtenstein.[10] She also owns paintings by Cy Twombly.[10] She owned a triptych by Sigmar Polke and two sculptures by Robert Gover, which she donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.[10] She owns additional artwork by sculptor Tony Smith, painters Francis Bacon and Ed Ruscha as well as Mes Voeux by Annette Messager.[10]

Irmas was named one of the largest American art collectors in 2003.[12]

The Audrey Irmas Pavilion- named after the lead donor Audrey Irmas- is located in Los Angeles[13] and serves as a place to hold multiple cultural and religious events.[14]

Irmas is the widow of Sydney M. Irmas, a philanthropist and art collector.[1] They had two sons, Robert and Matthew, and a daughter, Deborah. They resided in a house designed by architect Timothy Morgan Steele in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, across the street from The Manor and Holmby Park.[10][15]

Additionally, Irmas owns an apartment in The Mayfair, a historic luxury building on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, New York City.[15]