Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Archives for April 2013

Mellon And MoMA: A New Kind Of Research Team?

Museums conduct all kinds of research, if sometimes fitfully. Recently, I learned of a new effort, though, which might break some ground. It brings graduate students and faculty to a museum’s collection. It’s happening at the Museum of Modern Art and funded by the Mellon Foundation, though neither one of them has published a press release.

Keifer-WoodenRoomThe best information I found online was in the form of a job posting. It’s for the role of “museum research project coordinator,” and despite the low-end title and mostly administrative duties, it requires a master’s degree. Go figure.

From the posting, we can glean something about the project:

With the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art has embarked on a four-year (January 1, 2013–December 31, 2016), Museum-based pilot program for the study of objects in MoMA’s collection in partnership with graduate students and faculty from the art history programs at Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. This Museum Research Consortium is intended to facilitate the joint study of key works in MoMA’s collection by curators and conservators from the Museum and faculty and graduate students from participating universities.

This will be accomplished through semi-annual Consortium Study Sessions for the study and discussion of selected groups of objects.  In addition, the Museum will host five annual full-time Fellows in a one-year mentorship program to work with a MoMA curator in the execution of various scholarly curatorial projects and programs, including the organization of exhibitions, collection displays, and collection development and interpretation.

One good thing about this is that it puts graduate students in close contact with MoMA’s  great works of art — they won’t be studying just theory or depending on slides. Another: MoMA will dig more deeply on a sustained basis into its permanent collection. It will learn new things that might lead to public disclosures, new exhibitions, new connections, or something completely different.

I like it.

Now what should be the research priorities? I surely do not know. I selected this work, Wooden Room by Anselm Keifer, simply to show something from the collection that, while on view (according to the website) is not already known by everyone.

Photo Credit: © 2013 Anselm Kiefer, Courtesy of MoMA

 

How Do You Say Sic Transit Gloria In German?

In Frankfurt this summer, the Städel Museum is presenting “a major survey on the lifework of the famous painter and graphic artist.” Running from July 3 to Sept. 29, it will show an artist “once celebrated by the public and art critics alike as the ‘greatest German master’.”

o_Hans_Thoma_Der_KriegHis name is Hans Thoma.  Who? Yes, “Hans Thoma: ‘The German People’s Favourite Painter’ ” will be reveal the work of a man born in 1839, with a career that spanned decades until his death in 1924. The Städel says it is out to show that

Thoma was far more than just the painter of picturesque Black Forest landscapes with which he is commonly associated today. The Städel survey aims, on the contrary, to introduce an oeuvre that will doubtless prove unexpectedly multifaceted for many visitors – with regard to the motifs and themes as well as the artistic media employed. The spectrum of Thoma’s art encompasses not only paintings and prints but also wall decorations, calendars and postcard books as well as primers for children. … With a wide range of different pictorial genres and themes, he catered to a public that was hoping for an art that would provide it with values and contents suitable for establishing a national identity.

Well, have a look and decide for yourself. I pasted a few of Thoma’s works here.

o_Hans_Thoma_Zug_der_Goetter_nach_WalhallaBut whatever you think, I commend the Städel for going against the crowd, digging into its collection — it owns nearly ninety paintings and several hundred works on paper by Thoma — and showing an artist that seems so retro. Max Hollein, the museum’s director, said he was doing it because Thoma, “in his day, played a central role in German art and society.” And Felix Krämer, the head of the Department of Modern Art at the Städel and curator of the exhibition, added that “Thoma’s role as a key figure in ‘German art’ around 1900 – an exploitation which continued until well into the National Socialist era – renders him a phenomenon that demands reassessment.”

o_Hans_Thoma_Selbstbildnis_vor_BirkenwaldI can’t imagine that they expect overflow crowds, particularly not younger crowds – though I may be wrong. German interest in art may differ from American’s.

The conclusion may be that Thoma belongs in storage, but let’s see. In the meantime, museums elsewhere might consider if they have someone like Thoma in their storerooms. They, too, might merit a current look.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Stadel (top to bottom — “The War,” “Train of the Gods to Valhalla,” Self-Portrait)

 

Those Infamous Chinese Bronzes Are Headed Home

Two Chinese bronzes, a rat head and a rabbit head, allegedly looted from Beijing’s Summer Palace in the 19th century, owned for a while by Yves Saint Laurent, “purchased” at the auction of his art in 2009 for $37.7 million by a Chinese national who then refused to pay, are headed home.

ratheadAnd it’s all about business. Late last week, French billionaire François-Henri Pinault — son of Francois Pinault, the art-collecting titan who apparently bought them a while back — has now said that his family will give them back to China, “their rightful home.” They were sold by Christie’s, which Pinault’s firm Artemis owns. He also controls PPR, which is changing its name to Kering. PPR sells luxury goods with brand names like Gucci and Bottega Veneta and does close to 10% of its business in mainland China. Besides, as The Wall Street Journal reported:

The move also follows the Chinese government’s decision to grant a license to Christie’s, making it the first international fine art auction house to operate independently in mainland China, based in Shanghai. Previously, Christie’s was restricted to a licensing deal with a local Chinese auction house. Christie’s said it expects to hold its first sale this autumn.

Quid pro quo? We don’t know. But Sotheby’s has to sell art in China with a local partner.

French president Francois Hollande is in China with a group of business executives, including Pinault, trying to get more business for French companies from China. Pinault made his announcement at a state dinner in Beijing Thursday night.

The New York Times also covered the move by Pinault, adding reaction from the Chinese government: “The Chinese side offers its high praise for this action and considers that it conforms with the spirit of relevant international cultural heritage protection treaties.” It also supplied trade and diplomacy information:

France has a significant trade deficit with China and wants more Chinese investment. But the French president is under some pressure to raise human rights issues with the new Communist Party leadership. Mr. Hollande doled out his criticisms more freely when he was simply the leader of the Socialist Party.

rabbit headMr. Hollande wants to reassure the Chinese that his government will protect the security of Chinese tourists in France and intends to discuss making it easier for Chinese to obtain visas.

The heads are to go home to China by year-end. And what happened to the other heads in the zodiac that these two are part of? According to GB Times, a company based in Finland that covers Chinese news for the rest of the world:

By the end of 2012, the heads of ox, tiger, monkey, pig and horse had been brought back to China and are being kept by The China Poly Group. The dragon head is reportedly in Taiwan, while the heads of snake, sheep, rooster, and dog still remain missing.

To refresh your memory, yes, these are the animal heads — two from a zodiac — that Ai Weiwei made new sculptures of (all 12) and which have been on display in various venues for the last few years.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of GB Times

 

 

 

In Art, A Male-Female Difference

As long as I can remember, I’ve been troubled by what I have here called “the male gap,” the fact that art seems to be much more appreciated by women than men. At least it’s women who go to museums more frequently. I don’t think that’s because of museum hours anymore — though it used to be. Most women now work, and museums have more night hours. But women still outnumber men at art museums — museum directors tell me that, and even government statistics, weak as they are on arts numbers, bear that out.

ManatMoMAI think it’s partly because viewing art isn’t seen as a manly activity. Art-making is, but not art-looking.

A long time ago, I wanted to write a piece called Real Men Do Love Art — a takeoff, for those don’t remember, on the 1982 book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. I never did, but part of my argument was going to be about collecting — the competitive aspect of collecting. Men like to compete more than women do.

My idea had been ignored (by me) for a long time, but I thought of it several days ago when I was talking with an editor at The New York Times. I mentioned the big gift by Leonard Lauder to the Met and added that most of the big collectors, both of the past and the present, were men. I told her why I thought it was so. That’s how The Art of the Hunt, which was published in the Sunday Review section today, came about. Of course, I did reporting in between the thought and the writing to back up my thoughts.

There are exceptions, of course. I say that. The question now is how to make more men, who can’t compete in buying art for lack of money, go to museums. Art appreciation shouldn’t be considered a feminine activity. Here’s a thought for corroboration: In French, “art” is a masculine noun.

 

Perez Collection Disappoints Some: Buyers Remorse?

The controversy over the Miami Art Museum, which traded its name for $35 million to Jorge Perez in 2011, had died down. Trustees who quit over the decision and outside opponents (including me) had no choice but to grin and bear it: the $220 million project proceeded despite complaints that the Perez gift was not large enough in the whole context of the building. Nor were questions about the quality of the art he was giving as part of the gift ever answered.

roberto-matta-315pxNow they are coming back. Since March 14, the museum has been showing a selection of the works Perez donated — the first look by the public. Frames of Reference, on view through June 2, includes some 45 works by the likes of “José Bedia, Beatriz González, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta Echaurren, Diego Rivera, and Joaquín Torres-Garcia, among others,” according to the press release (which, by the way, pegs his gift now at $40 million). It’s the last show in the museum’s current space; it moves to the new Herzog & de Meuron building in December.

The exhibit has sparked two responses. In the Miami Herald, Anne Tschida put the show in context:

…this is not a complete survey of Latin American art, and it should not be viewed as such. These are framed references to the origins of certain genres of modern and contemporary Latin painting, mostly figurative, from lands below our border; they are also specifically references to the world of the man who collected them.

…What jumps out next is that this doesn’t look like a typical Miami show. Our emphasis and strength has been contemporary art — often art made in the decade of this century. Because of the newness of our institutions and even our art scene, we rarely see big, sprawling shows focused on earlier eras.

Tschida likes some of the works, particularly Matta’s Crucificción (above), but notes that others, specifically the early works by Lam and Rivera, are not top-rate. But she’s willing to wait to see the remaining 65 paintings in the gift before making a judgement.
Over at the Miami New Times, however, art critic Carlos Suarez De Jesus is not happy. He calls the show a “thorough sampling” of the 110, and says “it also raises worrying questions about whether the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s permanent collection will match its world-class facility…the collection lacks the cutting-edge punch the museum will need to equal the excitement surrounding the new building on Biscayne Bay designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron.”
He too singles out the Lam and Rivera as second-rate, says the exhibit “doesn’t inspire great hope for MAM’s new permanent collection” and adds “Inside MAM’s old home on Flagler, viewers are left with the impression of a collection checked off a wish list by someone with a picky taste for the traditional rather than the adventurous.”
I would think that the museum would have put out the best from the 110-painting gift in this exhibit, considering the questions the public had. For now, that gives the edge to the view of Suarez De Jesus.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Miami Art MuseumÂ