Polly Apfelbaum has been around for decades, with exhibitions in venues from coast to coast and overseas. Her art is found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Henry Art Gallery, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, etc. etc. etc. When you mount an Apfelbaum exhibition, you would seemingly know what you are getting.
Which makes a current case, where a curator was reportedly fired over an exhibition of Apfelbaum’s work, very curious. As her New York Gallery, D’Amelio Terras, says:
Polly Apfelbaum is currently featured in a solo show at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Montana. The artist has created a new installation specifically for the museum, titled “Mini Hollywood,” which will be on display through September 19, 2010 [above].
The Billings, MT museum’s website lists the show, which opened on Apr. 1:
Created specifically for Billings, this floor installation – “fallen paintings” – plays with the theme of glitz and glamor. Visitors move through and within her works, interacting with them and perceiving shifting iridescent colors.
Last week, a brief item by the Associated Press in the Great Falls, MT Tribune said that the show’s curator had been fired. It continued:
Robert Manchester held the position since 2006. He said he was fired in April because of a dispute over an exhibit….Manchester said he was asked by the museum’s executive director, Robyn Peterson, to have Apfelbaum change her installation. He said he was fired after he refused.
Peterson said she cannot comment because it is a personnel issue.
Now that is odd.
The Billings Gazette published a longer story Friday, noting that the Apfelbaum show “raised questions about what art is.” In it, Manchester says:
You don’t tell an international artist to make something else. I just said I wouldn’t do it. Because I defied Robyn, I had to go. I hadn’t abdicated my curatorial responsibilities.
There’s something funny about all this. Apfelbaum’s work, to my knowledge, has never been problematic — or controversial. Either the whole story isn’t out, or Manchester, who says he may sue, has a grievance. Peterson, which is to say the Yellowstone museum, is not a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors. But maybe the Association of Art Museum Curators — or more noisy reporters — should investigate.
Meantime, Peterson told the Gazette that she “expects to hire another curator after the new fiscal year begins in July.” Who’s going to take that job?
Photo Credits: Courtesy of D’Amelio Terras Gallery (top); By Casey Riffe/Courtesy of the Billings Gazette (bottom)