I grew up in Johannesburg in South Africa and, from an early age, travelled to Europe a lot as a child to spend holidays with my German and French grandmothers who loved arts and culture. I studied languages, psychology and classical civilisation at Wits. I was always interested in art and décor, always drawn to aesthetic expression, and soon after graduating began to develop my own interior design business.
I moved to Cape Town and found huge fulfilment as an interior designer and of course this naturally drew me towards art. I was married to Simon Susman for twenty years and have two beautiful children with him. During my marriage I collected art eclectically and the houses I lived in were always covered in artworks. But it wasn’t until 2014, when my best friend married Kim Stern, that I became exposed to the international art world.
The process was organic, through my friendship with Kim I began to explore more serious art collecting. In many ways when I look back at this moment, it feels both coincidental but also a little like destiny. I was going through a divorce and I found art expressed most what I was experiencing in myself. So I took the step to collaborate with Kim Stern in building a collection. The process has been immensely gratifying. I am very much someone who collects from the heart and so in many ways this collection is also a deep exploration of the evolution of my own identity.
https://privateedition.co.za/art-collectables/vedana-the-collection-of-veronique-susman-savigne/
