Art On The Grass.(The Talk of the Town)(Peter Brant exhibit at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center)

On a brilliant spring day last week in backcountry Greenwich, the art collector Peter Brant strolled into his new museum--the Brant Foundation Art Study Center--with the slightly bowlegged gait of a man who has spent a lot of time on horseback. He passed through the hall leading to the main galleries, on one wall of which hung Christopher Wool's 1992 enamel-on-aluminum work "Fuckem," in which the slogan "Fuckem if they can't take a joke" is displayed in large letters. Brant, who is sixty-two, hopes that the slogan will represent the spirit of the foundation's inaugural exhibit--a selection, primarily from his collection, that spans the past thirty years--which opens on May 10th.

"This used to be my indoor tennis court," Brant said, gesturing at the high, barnlike rafters. "Ivan Lendl practiced here." Richard Gluckman, the architect, redesigned the space as a gallery, and installed the concrete floor.

In a rear gallery, Brant was greeted by a man whose pleasant face wore a large, wide-lipped grin. It was Jeff Koons. Brant, who has been collecting Koons's work since the mid-eighties, hugged him, then winced slightly, explaining that he had torn his right rotator cuff playing polo in Palm Beach recently. Koons allowed his sunny expression to show brief concern, then he beamed even more brightly.

Koons had been working on the placement of his 1988 sculpture "Pink Panther," in which the sad-eyed cartoon feline insinuates itself around the torso of a big-breasted St. Pauli Girl-esque blonde, who is naked to the waist. "I like placing the woman facing away," Koons said, "so people will walk this way, and then they'll see--'Urination'!" He gestured toward a large Warhol on the wall, part of a series that the Master created by directing male assistants and privileged Factory visitors to pee on a canvas primed with copper-based paint.

" 'Oxidation,' " Brant said, which is the correct name of the series.

The two men walked upstairs, where they were joined by Allison Brant, Brant's twenty-eight-year-old daughter from his first marriage (he is now married to Stephanie Seymour Brant, the model), who is the foundation's director and docent. "We've already had four hundred requests to visit," she said. "Including one from a Brownie troop!"

Brant and Koons stopped in front of Richard ...