Archives for September 2011

Tuesday’s New York Times contained a very interesting article headlined “History That’s Written in Beads as Well as Words” about “deep history.” 

You may very well be asking, so what, what’s that got to do with art and museums?

I cite it because it describes what some people have told me is a parallel problem, if you will, in art history. The Times article says that too many historians are focusing on the reccent past, with “Three out of four historians…specializ[ing] in the post-industrial era or the 20th century, the American Historical Association reports.” It quotes Daniel Lord Smail, a medieval historian at Harvard, saying that the prevalence of such “microhistory…has stunted the ambition to think big.”

Likewise, in art history the focus is on contemporary art, which by some estimates is drawing as many as 80% of art history students. (Here’s one post where I’ve mentioned this before).

The article was buoying, though, because it described a “rearguard” action to reverse course and “stage an intellectual coup.” Smail and his collaborators are publishing a manifesto, a book called Deep History: The Architecture of Past and Present (University of California Press), urging historians to take the long view and develop grand theses (for testing). 

Admittedly, art history is a bit different. But maybe it’s time for a parallel group to form with the intent of reversing the scholarly bias toward contemporary art (partly a product of that being where the jobs are) and narrow studies. 

And just for fun, let me end this with another excerpt from the Times article:

Some historians and other humanists treat the modern era as if it suddenly popped out of a chicken, “like an unfertilized egg,” Mr. Smail said. “Historians need to develop the habit of looking backward,” he said, ” to see how their own period is in a dialogue with what came before.”

Love the egg line. 

Over the last few years, it has become a required museum activity: they have to make and post videos, in the galleries and on their websites. Media experts say people — especially young people — want it (not just from museums, but also from newspapers, magazines, and so on). 

So the other day, when the Philadelphia Museum of Art emailed me with news that it had posted on its home page a time-lapse video showing the installation of its Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion exhibition — “a unique look at a gallery’s transformation from empty space to all-encompassing work of art” — I decided to watch. I found it amusing and even charming. Didactic, no — but what’s wrong with wasting a few minutes?

The Metropolitan Museum,* for its part, has loaded its new website with videos — 142 of them, some long lectures — plus 80 podcasts, and various other elements of “media,” interactive and not. And the Met, along with 31 other museums or arts institutions, is a member of ArtBabble, founded by the Indianapolis Museum of Art (which has posted 252 videos there).

I’m not sure all these videos, if made especially for the web, are worth the effort, but that’s one of the good things about video: It is easy for museums to see, over time, what’s in demand because the web keeps track of the number of times videos are viewed.

But posting videos made for exhibitions in the exhibitions — well, that’s another matter, I think, requiring more thought about what they’ll add or subtract from the items on view.

The other day, though, while at a exhibit that did have videos in the galleries, I was hoping I would find them later on line, and I didn’t.

I was at the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts to see the Hats: An Anthology By Stephen Jones exhibition (sample, by Schiaparelli, at left). Roberta Smith in the New York Times gave it pretty much of a rave, but I found myself wanting more context. (There is a catalogue, but I didn’t buy it.)

Several galleries offered small, mostly black-and-white, historical videos. But the galleries were full, the screens were tiny (smaller than my computer monitor), the sound was very low, and a handful of people crowded around each one.

I went home to watch. But while the situation cried out for the videos to be online, they weren’t. So either Bard missed the boat here — it’s a gallery for an educational institution, after all, not strictly a museum — or there’s another problem, possibly the inability to obtains the right to put historical footage online.

Professionals are always searching for “best practices.” Here’s one: I’d ask museums that have videos in their galleries to share them online, for people at home. They could create a virtuous circle, adding to the knowledge of people who’ve seen and exhibit and drawing more people from their computers to go see it.

Photo Credit: © V&A Images, Courtesy of the BCG 

Ever since Peter C. Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, died last December, I’ve been wondering what the museum would do to honor its longtime director. When Philippe de Montebello retired from the top job at the Metropolitan Museum in 2009, he was honored by an exhibition of works acquired during his tenure. When Anne d’Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died suddenly in 2008, works acquired during her tenure were given a special label as a tribute, among other things.

Marzio, having taken his post at MFAH in 1982, was the dean of museum directors when he died. He built that museum. As it is contemplating a new building, I actually thought for a while that trustees might be thinking about naming the building after him — assuming they can build it without a naming gift. But there is no news on that front.

But some individuals have paid their respects. The other day, MFAH announced that Frank Stella had donated a portion of his Palmito Ranch painting (1961) (at right), from his “Benjamin Moore” series that helped advance Minimalism in American art, in honor of Marzio (the museum purchased the rest with money from the Caroline Wiess Law Accession Endowment). Stella offered: “Peter Marzio was everything you would want from the director of a great museum. I got to know Peter when the MFAH invited me to create murals for the 1982 Stella by Starlight gala; from then on I counted him a friend.”

Which prompted me to again ask the MFAH about other gifts in Marzio’s memory. There have been, I learned, 37 works given, or purchased with funds given, in tribute to Marzio, according to Mary Haus, the director of marketing and communications. “With collection subcommittee meetings just starting back up, it’s anticipated that further works will be designated in his name by year’s end,” she added. Haus also said that the museum has received “more than $1 million in monetary contributions, designated for both programming and future acquisitions” in Marzio’s honor.

Among them:

• Annette Lemieux’s Sky Pile, from Karin and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
• Helen Torr’s Corrugated Building, from the Brown Foundation and Isabel B. Wilson
• Jules Olitsky’s Patutsky Embraced: Yellow, from Bradley and Lauren Olitsky Posner and Kristina Olitsky
• A Minoan octopus ornament, from Maria Doiranlis and Jasper Gaunt
• Carlos Cruz-Diez’s Transchromies Environment, from the artist  

 Here’s the full list: Peter C Marzio Memorial Gifts.pdf.

The search for Marzio’s successor, btw, continues. Haus declined to comment, but the gossip mill says the search committee is still in the interviewing stage.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of MFAH

 

The sneaky big Metropolitan Museum* changed its website over the weekend, as I just discovered by accident. (No press release was sent and none has been posted.) There is now a press release — not yet posted online. But I’ve posted the guts at the end of my initial post. Now it is posted here.

I went looking for information about an exhibit, and found a gigantic, beautiful picture of the Met’s exterior, at night (below), at the URL, which rotates with four exhibition photos. In the right corner, on the bottom, was “Welcome to Our Newly Redesigned Website,” a note from director Thomas P. Campbell, dated yesterday. He wrote:

Since becoming Director, I have stressed two priorities: scholarship and accessibility. Our new website, which launched today, certainly embodies both of these aims, featuring complete listings of the Museum’s catalogued collections, an interactive map–with descriptions of every gallery in the Main Building and at The Cloisters–suggested itineraries to help you plan your visit, special content for Members, and much more. Of course, favorite sections still remain, like the constantly evolving Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History and Connections, which takes us on personal journeys through the collection. 

On first glance, it looks good — not least because the pictures are much bigger.

The tabs are pretty much the same as before and/or most museums: Visit, Exhibitions, Collections, Events, Learn, Research, Give and Join, About the Museum and Shop. Hours are posted on the main page (yeah!), and there are links to events in the next seven days. “Now at the Met” is right there on the right. And there’s a video link on the bottom, along with links to Kid’s stuff and the store.

It’s going to take me, and others, a while to explore all the changes — right now, it’s the presentation that seems to have changed, rather than the content, though there may be much more of that.

UPDATED: Yes, indeed, there is far more content, good content, although some old pages seem to have disappeared (e.g, where’s the “American Stories” exhibition page?).  

From the press release–

New general features of www.metmuseum.org include:

* Overviews of nearly 400 galleries at the Museum with a description and photograph of each, highlighted works of art within the gallery, and links to related content.
* The complete holdings of many collections within the Met are now accessible online, totaling more than 340,000 works of art and including all works from the Museum’s collection currently on view. Additional object records will be posted on an ongoing basis, with the goal of establishing records online for the remainder of the collection as expeditiously as possible. These records include links to the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, an exceptional resource providing chronological, geographical, and thematic explorations of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated by the Museum’s collections.
* A new design–elegant, clean, and simple–that brings the Met’s vast online resources into a unified website with a consistent look-and-feel, simplified navigation, and improved layout.
* A new and powerful search interface for the collections that accommodates complex searches, browsing, and simple ways to narrow results, as well as recommendations of related objects.
* High-resolution images of many of the works of art, with zooming functionality allowing for detailed exploration and analysis.
* A Media Gallery that centralizes an extensive range of videos, interactive features, and other interpretive media for visitors to enjoy.
* A Give & Join section with special content for Museum Members and information on ways to support the Museum.

New features to enhance or assist in planning visits to the Museum are:

* An interactive floor plan that can be used to locate galleries and special exhibitions, as well as facilities across the Museum. Each gallery links to an overview page featuring a description and photograph of the gallery, highlighted works of art, and links to related content.
* Suggested itineraries to help navigate the Met’s extensive collections, including maps, estimated durations, and insights and stories to enhance the journeys. One of the itineraries currently available is a tour of works selected and with commentary by the Museum’s Director Thomas P. Campbell.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Met

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met

Watching a museum die is painful. This case, while small, raises a side question, too — about a museum’s place in an award-winning city with aspirations for attracting business.

When we last left the Fayetteville, NC, Museum of Art, it had closed and was seeking advice from proven community leaders on a reorganization. The museum had already torn up plans for a $15 million expansion, drafted in 2007, when times were different.

The reorganization has now, it seems, been dismissed, and the museum is selling its permanent collection.

According to the Charlotte Observer, about 300 people were invited to a private sale of about 50 works held last Thursday at Methodist University. Per the article:

“We’re doing what we can to move forward with the predicament we have, and I think this is a good opportunity for these pictures to stay in Fayetteville,” said Mac Healy, president of the museum’s board of trustees. “The board has made the commitment from Day One to retire our debt, and this is a step toward that.”

That sale was tepid. Of 22 works offered in a live auction, just six sold — bringing a total of $13,000, according to Auction Central News. The art on offer included paintings, prints and drawings by North Carolina artists Maud Gatewood (that’s a silkscreen by her in the photo, held by Silvana Foti, a professor at Methodist U), Herb Jackson, Claude Howell and Joe Cox, plus several local artists. The other 28 works were offered in a silent auction, but I haven’t found any reports of what they fetched. Several hundred other, lesser works will be sold by a “fine arts company in Charlotte,” according to ACN. With all the money going to pay off debt, there’s little hope for a new museum there in the future.

When I looked up the population of Fayetteville — not small, 200,000 — I was surprised to find out that, according to Wikipedia, it has won the “prestigious All-American City Award from the National Civic League three times,” in 1985, 2001 and 2011. The award, given to just 10 cities a year, helps them attract and retain employers.

It might be a little harsh to say the Fayetteville, given the art museum fiasco, doesn’t deserve an award. But I don’t think it’s too harsh to suggest that the NCL might want to consider the health of the arts sector in their award judgments. Aren’t we all convinced that art enhances creativity?

How to get the NCL to agree? Perhaps the American Association of Museums or Americans for the Arts might add that to their already admittedly long lists of advocacy items.

Photo Credit: Cindy Burnham, Courtesy of the Charlotte Observer