Hirshhorn curator Anne Ellegood, part two

Continued from this morning with Hirshhorn curator Anne Ellegood...

MAN: Do you think about the museo-commercial dichotomy? Tell me about what you do to try to not merely present commercial-style show.

Anne Ellegood: I want to address the question from two perspectives: One, more broadly, I think that this issue of distinctions between institutions and organizations -- and even curatorial methodologies -- in the contemporary art world is important. I think we're all seeing those distinctions getting blurred in particular ways. We're always hearing that art fairs look like biennials and biennials look like gallery shows. It's an interesting moment. Those of us who work in various types of institutions need to articulate and put forward what it is that we do that is distinct. Often it is, in fact, inaccurate to describe these things as the same. A biennial is very different from an art fair and that difference is important.

The distinction between a museum and a [commercial] gallery is crucial. I think there are a lot of things about a museum that are different from a gallery, and, of course, the most obvious is that museums are not in the business of selling works of art. It's easy to look at a painting show and see it as commercial because we see paintings as commodities more readily than other types of media. I think your comment about Amy Sillman's show looking like a gallery show is partly related to the fact that she's a painter. [Above: Sillman's T, 2007] But a lot of the difference between museums and galleries has to do with the working process. The curatorial process for the presentation of contemporary art in a museum -- the interaction between the artist and the curator, the artist and the institution -- is different from that of the gallery.

Specifically, I think there are a couple points that are important: Amy is an artist who has had a lot of commercial success in the last 10 years. She has three galleries [around the world] and she's an artist for whom the only thing her career is lacking is museum acknowledgment and support in terms of exhibitions (not collections). For her, the opportunity to work in a museum was, in fact, very distinct from doing a gallery show, and one she was excited about. She repeatedly acknowledged [to the curators] how the working process was really different--that is, the on-going dialogue between her and the curators, both Ian [Berry of the Tang] and I, throughout the process of putting the show together.

One reason we wanted to present new work by Amy was that when I approached her about doing a Directions show at the Hirshhorn, she was working toward a show at the Blaffer [2005's Shecky Green, right, was in that show] that would include her work over a period of time. I didn't want to duplicate the curatorial approach for our show, but moreover, Amy had begun working on this project about couples and coupling, and both she and I were really excited about what was happening in this work. It seemed ideal for Amy to be able to plan for a substantial presentation of this work in a museum, rather than one of her galleries, which would offer a different context and would have a different audience.

Having this museum show allowed Amy to put off a gallery show for a period of time and to focus on making this new body of work without commercial pressure. It gave her the freedom to say, 'None of this work is available for a gallery show or for sale because I want to make it available for the museum show, and Ian and Anne have first dibs on what to include in the exhibition.' She was able to keep the work in the studio, so one painting could respond to another painting and she could work simultaneously on the paintings and drawings, and that was really important for her.

Next, the fact that we were able to do the catalogue was really crucial. Our Directions shows don't often have accompanying catalogues, but we were able to offer it because the Tang had funding. I think with Amy in particular, as a painter who has been working for many years and nonetheless has had very few catalogues, being able to produce a catalogue was something that we felt really excited about. This is another thing that I think we were able to do that is distinctive from the gallery -- to offer a platform in which Amy's thinking about her work [the interview] and a curatorial and critical analysis of the project could take place. We also have other platforms--such as public programs and podcasts--where the voice of the curator, the artist, and other thinkers about the work can come forward.

Continued: Part three.