Archives for August 2009

Who are the greatest photographers of the 20th Century?  

When you hear a question like that, you know that David W. Galenson, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, is at it again.

Galenson is the guy who takes a statistical approach to such questions. His new list, just published as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, provides the answer, based on research that parallels his previous work. In July 2008, he ranked the greatest architects of the 20th Century; in February 2007, he ranked the greatest women artists of the 20th century, and in December 2005, he ranked the greatest artists of the 20th century. All were also published as working papers by NBER.

He has also created a list of the most important works of the 20th century, which — aside from putting Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” at the top of the list — elicited mostly guffaws. And he has studied what kinds of artists make their breakthroughs when they are young or when the are old. He has published three books on these subjects.

Galenson bases his “greatest” conclusions on the number of times the work of an artist — or a specific work itself — appears in textbooks. In this case, he took five leading textbooks about photography (named in his appendices), and counted the photographers whose work appeared four or more times in them. Twenty photographers made that list.

Then, he counted the total illustrations of the photographs of each of those twenty artists in “all available textbooks, published in 2000 or later, that surveyed the history of photography throughout the past century.” Sixteen textbooks qualified (also cited).

As it happened, those books reproduced the work of 16 photographers 11 or more times. 

[Read more…] about Quick, Think: Who Would You Rank As The Greatest Photographers?

This coming week, September but not yet Labor Day, could well be very low-key — the last gasp of summer. If you have extra time, you could do far, far worse than to spend some of it listening to several podcasts recently made available by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. 

That’s the Smithsonian’s non-profit recording label; it took it over from Folkways’ founder
Moses Asch, who for years after the label’s start in 1948 — I learned on the Introductory podcast — produced a record a week. He died in 1986, and the Smithsonian was given the reins only after promising never to remove any of the recordings from circulation. Folkways owns the catalogue and produces new recordings in the Folkways “spirit.”

On that first podcast of the original recordings — “Sounds to Grow On” — Woody Guthrie sings This Land is Your Land, Lead Belly sings Midnight Special, and Pete Seeger sings Wimoweh, aka, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. And that’s just the first ten or so minutes. It goes on to offer sounds from an office, sounds from around the world, and segments like Les Paul and Mary Ford singing Born to Lose, interspersed with a narrative of Folkways’ origins.

All told, Folkways has now posted links to eight of the 26-part series (here).

The podcasts are hosted by Asch’s son, Michael Asch, who makes a lot of the tale personal — maybe more so for some tastes than others. But I congratulate the Smithsonian for making these historical sounds available to everyone.

 

The White House, it seems, is about to replace James H. Billington as Librarian of Congress. Billington (left), a distinguished scholar appointed by President Reagan in 1987, turned 80 in June. He’ll mark his 22nd anniversary in the job on Sept. 14, and an announcement may come around that time. At least that’s what some knowledgeable people in Washington suggest.

The front-runner at the moment appears to be Carla D. Hayden, head of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore’s public library, since 1993. Raised in Chicago, she earned a PhD at the University of Chicago; was, early on, a children’s librarian; and eventually became Chief Librarian of the Chicago Public Library. She’s seen
here on a July visit to a branch library for the Pratt’s Preschool Storytime! program.

The White House declined to comment; and, I caution, this may change and there may be another contender whose name hasn’t surfaced.  

But whoever gets the nod, Billington will be a tough act to follow. He’s a Russian expert and the author of at least five books. A Rhodes scholar with a PhD from Oxford, he taught history at Harvard and Princeton, then directed the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

At the Library, Billington made his mark with programs like the World Digital Library, an international library connected to more than 30 national libraries and supported partly by UNESCO. He also founded Open World, a cultural exchange program approved by Congress in 1999 that has brought more than 14,000 Eurasian “current and future leaders” to the U.S. to get a first-hand experience with “American democracy, civil society and community life.” Here’s a link to Billington’s bio on the LOC website.

The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. If you haven’t taken a look lately, you may be surprised at what available online, let alone at the site. There’s plenty of there for arts-lovers, particularly in performing arts.

It all sounds so simple: The Cleveland Museum of Art has petitioned the court for permission to use money generated by four funds within its $558 million endowment that are currently restricted to art purchases to complete its expansion plans. The museum wants to take $75 million over ten years to finish construction of its $350 million building by 2013, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It quoted the museum’s lawyer, Stephen J. Knerly Jr., and other
officials as “expecting no controversy” over the request. They have previous experience:

The only precedent came in 1955, when the county probate court granted the museum permission to use income from art-purchase funds to build an expansion completed in 1958 (since demolished).

Why the request?

The museum needs access to the art funds because it’s in a financial squeeze. So far, it has raised $212 million for construction. To finish by 2013, it needs another $138 million. The museum is confident it will raise the amount, but not by 2013, because the poor economy has slowed donations.

But, the article explains, if construction doesn’t proceed on schedule, the whole effort will cost more. (You can read more details here.)

It’s true, the Cleveland Museum is one of the nation’s better-endowed art museums. But I still have worries.

[Read more…] about Should the Cleveland Museum Be Allowed To Raid Its Acquisition Endowment?

If I can make it down to Wilmington in the next few months, I’ll be stopping in at the Delaware Art Museum to see “Exposed! — Revealing Sources in Contemporary Art.” It’s a home-grown

exhibition that began on Aug. 15 and, as you may have guessed, explores the use of existing images, either in quotation or appropriation, in paintings, photographs and prints.

Drawing on the museum’s collection and loans from collectors, the exhibit juxtaposes 27 works alongside the works they borrowed from. Aside from poster-boy Richard Prince, whose Nurse paintings (inspired by book jackets) have had a stunning runup in prices over the last few years (and recent decline, no doubt), artists in the exhibit include Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Glenn
Ligon, Grace Hartigan, Ellen Gallagher, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Colescott.

Heather Campbell Coyle, curator of American art at the museum,
organized the show, which runs until Oct. 4. She also started an exhibition blog on Aug. 3, which she claims to be having fun doing. One entry: she spent a mere $163.48 on exhibition source materials, buying comics, pulp novels, a paper-doll book and other emphera mostly from eBay and Abebooks (and possibly crossing swords at one point with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, over a certain Vogue needed for its “Model As Muse” show).

Heather agreed to answer my Five Questions.

[Read more…] about Exposed! In Delaware: Five Questions About Appropriation