Los Angeles Legend

Severad Toumaud

Severad Toumaud tracked an unusual course in the Los Angeles artworld. A bon vivant and world class gourmand, Toumaud began collecting art when he exhausted the possibilities of collecting antiques. In his 4000 square foot Silverlake townhouse he has famously hosted the most eclectic dinner parties of the L.A. beau monde. Actresses and poets, street prophets and politicians, real estate moguls and itinerant folk singers all break bread around Toumaud’s Louis Phillipe hardwood dining table.

I met my dealer, the devoted gallerist Anna D’Abbraccio at Severad’s annual Candlemas party. At Nowruz a few years back, I got so drunk on pear wine I ended up going home with Niki Pest of the Soundtracks and had an unflattering picture of the two of us on the cover of the LA Weekly. I sat next to Micah Carpentier at a Shabbat dinner just two months before he was run over by a truck.

Severad Toumaud is a Los Angeles landmark and when he asked me to draw his portrait I agreed immediately.

I ended up drawing 250 portraits of him over the course of two years and will exhibit them next month at the Musée de Palaeontologie in Charleroi.