Archives for July 2010

Naturally, I went downtown to the Museum of Jewish Heritage yesterday for the ceremony inaugurating the display there of Portrait of Wally, the Schiele painting that has been locked in a warehouse, its ownership the subject of dispute since 1998. (As I’ve mentioned here and here, it was my 1997 article in The New York Times, which chonicled Rudolph Leopold’s “zealous” collecting and how he came to own it, that essentially launched the cases that the heirs of Lea Bondi Jaray (photo, below) won last week.)

A lot of people spoke yesterday, giving credit to some of the many people who played a part in this drama, and talking about justice being done, finally. 

Some also talked about the impact of this case, which is true — the furor it sparked in Austria, where Wally was stolen, led to many more investigations and pressured the government there and in other European countries to change their laws and to return many stolen art works to their rightful owners.

But Andre Bondi, who talked on behalf of the family, spoke most eloquently, making those points and more. As I’ve noted, his father Henry, Lea Bondi’s nephew and one of my early sources (but not for the first story), died some years ago.

After noting that this case had revived many awful memories, Andre told a story about his father. The initial subpoena by the Manhattan D.A. keeping the painting here had been thrown out, and the family thought the cause was lost — only to learn that a seizure warrant had been issued, hours before it was shipped. 

Henry received the news sitting in a wheelchair in his driveway, and he marveled at what the U.S. government — in many manifestations — was doing to get the painting back. No Austrian agency had ever done anything, Henry Bondi had said. “He shook his head in wonderment and disbelief that justice was finally being done,” Andre recounted.  

Andre cried when he said those words, and so did many of us in the audience. This case does indeed say something good about America.

When I went upstairs to look at Wally, the first time I’d seen her since she hung on the walls at MoMA in 1997, she was smaller than I remembered: she had, of course, grown in my mind because she has come to loom so large in the annals of justice. And also, perhaps because, as another speaker had said earlier, she “has seen so much.”

But she looked beautiful. (You may see her at either of the links above.)  

Before leaving, I spoke with Andre, who had been kind enough to cite my contribution in this case in his speech, and I gave him a hug. 

Wally remains on view at MJH through Aug. 18. Here is a link to the label, with the wording about the case that, I gather, will also be posted at the Leopold Museum when she returns to Vienna, to be near Schiele’s matching self-portrait.

Photo Credit: Museum of Jewish Heritage

 

Eight years ago, about the same time that Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy was showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in Rome and at the Saint Louis Art Museum, two filmmakers were inspired to take on Artemisia in a documentary.

A Woman Like That, made by Ellen Weissbrod and Melissa Powell, is now complete, and being marketed. Let me say right here that I haven’t seen it, partly because it has had only one showing, at the Berkshire International Film Festival on June 5th and 6th. But I have viewed the trailer they’ve now posted on the website in an effort aimed at getting the 93-minute film shown, in the near term, at museums, universities, festivals and other institutions. Consumer DVDs are a year-plus away.

Artemisia’s merits as a painter are sometimes debated (that’s a self-portrait, as a lute player, at right), but I am among the many who think she was at least as good as many other male painters of her era (who, in contrast, don’t seem to be doubted). Her name is known in part because of her steamy life story, which includes a rape by a friend of her father’s and a resulting public trial.  

The film, judging by the website, seems to take on that notion, noting that her achievements as a painter are greater for the difficulty she had being an artist. I’m not so sympathetic to that argument — either she is great or she isn’t.

Artemesia has been the subject of films and novels, but A Woman Like That asserts that it’s different because Weissbrod

merges her own coming of middle-age story with her pursuit of the truths behind the legends of 17th century female painter’s…dramatic art and life. This unconventional but heartfelt hunt upends typical artist biographies and delivers instead a funny, engaging and all together different kind of documentary…a freewheeling tribute to an artist whose own bold life and inspiring message leaps across centuries to speak to us all.

Hmmm. I’m not sure what to make of that without seeing it. But I found the website for the film intriguing — certainly enough to help get the word out. If museums and other art centers want to include film programs among their offerings — and many do — A Woman Like That would seem to fit the bill. 

Sarah Cole, Susie M. Barstow, Eliza Greatorex, Harriet Cany Peale, Jane Stuart, Evelina Mount. Recognize any of those names?

I thought not.

They and a half-dozen or so additional artists are the subject of an exhibit at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site called “Remember the Ladies: Women of the Hudson River School,” which sets as its goal the rewriting of that period of American art history.

I wrote the story for Smithsonian, so I won’t repeat it all here. But here are some key passages:

…These women ventured…into the wilderness, painting the glorious scenery that inspired America’s first art movement.

…Often they were the sisters, daughters and wives of better-known male artists. Harriet Cany Peale, at first a student of Rembrandt Peale, became his second wife. Sarah Cole was Thomas Cole’s sister; her daughter Emily Cole is also in the exhibit. Jane Stuart called Gilbert Stuart “father.” Evelina Mount was niece to William Sidney Mount, while Julia Hart Beers was the sister of two artists, William Hart and James Hart. Others–Barstow, Eliza Greatorex and Josephine Walters, among them–had no relatives in the art world.

…[their] work…reflects the same romantic sensibility, respect for balance, luminosity and love of picturesque landscapes as those of artists like Cole, Asher B. Durand and Frederic Church.

The exhibition’s curators, Nancy J. Siegel and Jennifer C. Krieger, are looking for additional works — and additional female artists — of the period, in hopes of researching and organizing a much larger show for larger museums down the road. Already, a few new names have come to light: Emma Roseloe Sparks Prentice, Margaretta Angelica Peale and Rachel Ramsey Wiles (mother of Irving Wiles).

Photo Credits: Kaaterskill Clove, by Harriet Cany Peale, 1858 (top), Summer Landscape, by Julie Hart Beers, (bottom), 1869; Both from private collections, courtesy of Hawthorne Fine Art  

I have an article in today’s New York Times (front page in the national edition; A10 in the NYC edition) headlined “Botanical Gardens Look For New Lures” and, alternately, “Botanical Gardens Are Turning Away From Flowers.” The first is more accurate, actually, because gardens are mainly adding attractions, not subtracting their focus on flowers and other plants — as far as I can tell. (Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to travel the country for the story.)

One key quote comes from Mary Pat Matheson, executive director of the Atlanta Botanical Garden: “We’re not just looking for gardeners anymore; We’re looking for people who go to art museums and zoos.”

To that end, gardens are appealing to visitors’ interests in nature, sustainability, cooking, health, family, the arts, and social goals, both noble (teaching farming to urban teens) and less so (building cocktail lounges for mix-and-minglers). Edible gardens, often with cooking classes, are really hot. (See more examples in the article.)

Nowadays, as Sharilyn Ingram, of Brock University in Canada, says in the kicker: “Most gardens would feel that displaying flowers is necessary, but not sufficient.”

Which brings me to museums: I didn’t comment in the article about my feelings toward this redefinition of gardens’ missions — but I don’t mind it, either.

But let’s substitute, and suppose someone said, “Most museums would feel that displaying art is necessary, but not sufficient.” I begin to have troubles.

I love flowers and plants and nature, but art is different. There’s an apt quote or two about art around here (where I work) somewhere, but I doubt I need to dig them out for readers of Real Clear Arts. You know how art makes you feel; good, let alone great, art creates a visceral, inner emotion.

I’m not disparaging here the many things that accompany the display of art at museums — educational programs, lectures, concerts related to what’s on display, etc. I’m talking about mission creep — adding movies, music, sleepovers, yoga classes, etc. that have tenuous, if any, relation to visual art.

Much as I like food, I don’t want cooking classes in the galleries — even if there are Wayne Thiebaud paintings nearby.

An article on the Chronicle of Philanthropy website the other day piqued my interest: Why Fund Raisers Should Pay Attention to a Donor’s Art Collection.

It was worse than I imagined.

The article reported on a session at the conference of the Association of Prospect Researchers for Advancement, which is took place in Anaheim last week. The session, given by a research analyst at the Alumni Relations and Development Department at the University of Chicago named Linlin Chen, was called “The Art of Valuing Art.” Her bio says she also interned in the Contemporary Art Department and the Development Department of the Art Institute of Chicago and, among other credentials, received an M.A. in Arts Administration & Policy from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Chen, according to the Chronicle article, included this anecdote in her talk:

…she noticed a prospective donor lending a piece of his Asian art collection to a small exhibit in a South Carolina museum. The University of Chicago had tried to interest him to be a donor previously but was unsuccessful. But once she informed fund raisers of his interest in ancient Chinese art, the donor was informed of a potential exhibit that would feature his collection. His interest was piqued.

I am shocked, shocked…

One knows such things go on, in private conversation — though many in the museum world deny it. But for a fundraising professional to be baldly holding up such as transaction as an example to be emulated is appalling.

APRA has a code of ethics: it consists of one-page, and while it deals with personal conflicts of interest, there is no mention of such conflicts for the institution.

There should be.  

Chen also schooled fundraisers in how to tell how much someone is worth via their collection. Acknowleding that the market is not transparent, she directed her colleagues to “auction databases, art catalogs, news coverage, anecdotal evidence–even court documents,” the article said. It added: “Sales-price databases such as Sotheby’s online, Christie’s online, ArtNet, ArtPrice, Findartinfo, and ArtValue can help, as well as the Mei Moses Fine Art Index.”