Museums collect Robert Irwin

More reminders that, notwithstanding what you may have read, museum collection-building is not "endangered..."

Smart museums highlight their commitment to individual artists by aligning their exhibition and collection programs. (Gotta love how the Guggenheim, whatever else it may do, smartly -- and adorably -- collects Cathy Opie, and is planning a major Opie survey.) So here's an example of one artist, two museums and their collecting and exhibiting strategies: Robert Irwin, MCASD and Chinati.

In October, MCASD will launch a major Irwin show at its downtown locations. The shows, which will cover nearly 50 years of Irwin's production, will include 50 works mostly pulled from the MCASD's collection. (Among them will be this 1960 untitled abstract painting, a gift from Ruth and Murray A. Gribin.) The museum has also received Irwins from other donors and purchased some with its own funds. It collects Irwin via any means necessary and possible. Not only is MCASD able to collect Irwin, it's obviously able to do so in depth. (Who could forget this crowd-pleaser?)

Out in far west Texas, the Chinati Foundation doesn't try to collect a career's worth of work by an artist. Instead it carefully selects individual artists, finds a place for them on its property, and then buys or commissions major installations for its collection. The next major Chinati commission is likely to be an Irwin: The foundation is working with the artist to develop an installation for an abandoned US Army medical building on Chinati's property. (The site is in the center of this satellite image.) When I was in Marfa a couple of weeks ago I toured the site and saw Irwin's most recent drawings for the project. Assuming various logistical issues are solved and that fundraising goes smoothly (and I can't imagine that Chinati and a 78-year old artist would spend this much energy on a project if they weren't pretty confident), the Marfa Irwin will be the finest permanently installed Irwin in the U.S., at least.