Archives for March 2011

Almost since the start of the uprisings in the Middle East, I’ve been wondering about the state of contemporary artists there. They were clearly involved with the revolution in Egypt. As the Los Angeles Times reported in mid-February in a short article, there’s a fledgling group called League of the Revolution’s Artists whose members had “churned out drawings and caricatures, poems and plays inspired by Hosni Mubarak’s 30 years of autocratic rule” aiding the cause.

Earlier, in late January, the New Museum had sent out a press release detailing its next “Museum as Hub” project, which involved simultaneous programming with partner institutions, including one in Cairo. An exhibition called “An accord is first and foremost only a proposition” was guest curated by Sarah Rifky, of the Townhouse Gallery in downtown Cairo, not far from the Egyptian Museum.

With the help of the New Museum, I connected with Rifky, from whom I’ve learned some things. But not nearly enough. The situation in Cairo remains sensitive. Still, I’ve decided that a little is better than nothing. 

First, Rifky pointed me to reports that a prominent Egyptian sound-and-media artist named Ahmed El Basiony was among the casualties of the revolt. He died in the Cairo fracas on Jan. 28, the fourth day of the uprising. He was 32. A website called Dangerous Minds has a picture of him plus a sampling of his work.

There’s also an account of his death on a site called 1000 Memories; it reported that he taught art at Helwan University and “he organized educational workshops for digital, live and sound art, enabling numerous young musicians to enter the field.” Basiony’s last Facebook entry said, “I have a lot of hope if we stay like this. Riot police beat me a lot. Nevertheless I will go down again tomorrow. If they want war, we want peace. I am just trying to regain some of my nation’s dignity.”

In early February, Rifky gave an interview to Masress (which appears to be an online newspaper — its “About” page is only in Arabic), which reported on her and others. … She was traveling outside Egypt when the revolution began, but said

she began acting as a focal point for the dissemination of information online through Twitter and Facebook as well as through international phone calls during the internet outage in Egypt. Information about safety points, curfews, utilities and helplines became a valuable and inaccessible asset, she explained. “I began spreading the word in Cairo and other governorates through friends about SpeakToTweet”–an international phone line service that allows people to call in and leave voice news feeds and listen to those made by others. Once she was back in Cairo, she began providing real-time services, giving directions to people and verifying helpline numbers that were spammed with incorrect ones. “It feels like being conscribed over the past two weeks. I’ve been masquerading as a citizen reporter, journalist, humanitarian, human rights activist. I’d also be happy when I can start working on the analytical side of things.”

Rifky and I made contact after that, but she could add no more information. But I’ve looked her up and found that she’s tweeting about her activities.

 

On Mar. 11, she wrote “Open meeting in Rawabet in 20 mins to discuss how to help actor Aly Sobhy who was detained recently.” The day before, she said he had been arrested and faced a military trial. You can follow her here, though there’s much more about Middle Eastern goings-on than just the arts.

 

I also visited the website called African Colours, where I learned that this week a contemporary gallery called Darb 1718 is collecting photos, banners, placards used at Liberation Square during the uprising for a contemporary art exhibit on the revolution.

 

Very early in this movement, on January 31, ArtInfo published this account by Ben Davis, citing activities of a few contemporary artists for the revolution.  

 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Associated Press via the Los Angeles Times (top); of ArtForum (bottom)

Louisville’s Speed Art Museum, which I visited a few years ago, is a gem. Nice collection, nice building.

And now it’s an example of how museums should be addressing their collections. In a Mar. 9 press release, the museum said it had embarked on a comprehensive analysis of its 14,000 piece collection. Now, halfway through the process, conducted by staff and outside experts, the Speed said that this scholarship:

…is shedding new light on the significance of key pieces, leading to the reattribution of works [including the picture at left], revealing collection strengths not previously fully recognized, and yielding new perspectives on the history and development of the Museum’s collection.

It’s doing this to “identify key areas for collection growth and refinement, with the goal of strengthening the Museum’s holdings and making the collection more relevant and meaningful for the community it serves.” (That last part makes me a tad nervous, but nevermind for now.)

As a result, the release said,

The Speed will be deaccessioning works that are in poor condition, of lesser quality, have been discovered to be modified, or are inappropriate for an art museum…

The museum will sell through Christie’s, and the funds will go into acquisitions. Further:

…the Museum will post information on deaccessioned objects on its website beginning this spring. The Museum is developing a searchable online database of its entire collection, which will include information on deaccessioned works.

Great! And gosh, I thought, since I’ve been arguing for what I call deaccessioning in public for a while now (AKA transparency), maybe I am having an impact — others, including Max Anderson, are of course trying to foster the same thing.

But I had Five Questions, and Charles L. Venable, the Speed’s director, agreed to answer them.

1) It’s not often that a museum undertakes a comprehensive review of its entire collection. Many would probably say they don’t have the staff, the time, etc. for this. Why are you willing to devote the resources to this?

One of the primary reasons I came to the Speed in 2007 was to advance the expansion and renovation planning that was already underway.  A key part of that process was to determine how much additional space we needed for improved public areas (galleries, education areas, performance space, etc.) vs. back of house space, including art storage.  We were considering the ramifications of building off-site storage and I asked the staff to think about how many of the works would be stored and probably never shown. While that question could obviously not be answered exactly, it was clear that the Speed, like most museums, had many objects that had not been on public view for decades due to their condition, attribution, etc.  Thus was born the idea of reviewing the entire collection over approximately three years to better understand the collection, and how to strengthen it and provide for its long-term care.

2) In examining the first half, can you give me an example of how research shed “new light on the significance of key pieces”?

A result of the research we’ve been conducting has been to reaffirm the importance of works we believed were significant to our collection.  Walter Liedtke of the Met examined Anthony van Dyck’s Portrait of a Woman and confirmed it was likely painted entirely by the master, an important distinction since many of his monumental canvases were largely executed by workshop assistants.
 
One of the great aspects of looking at the collection as a whole is that you see how the pieces fit together.  Charles Traub, from the School of Visual Arts in New York, reviewed our photographic works and helped us better understand what remarkable holdings we have of 1970s street and topographic photography.

3) Among the reattributed works, were any significantly upgraded? May I have the names of the works with previous and new attribution?

[Read more…] about Speed Museum Gets Up To Speed: Five Questions For Director Charles Venable

There is sad news in the antiquities world this morning: Donny George, former director general for the Iraqi Museums (2003-2005) and former Chairman of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (2005-2006), died yesterday, apparently of a stroke.

He was in Toronto to give a lecture.

George has been a visiting professor of archeaology at SUNY-Stonybrook since being forced to leave Iraq. He was known for saving much of Iraq’s cultural heritage, helping to recover hundreds of artifacts stolen from the Baghdad museum in the Iraq war.

His bio is here.

When there is an obit, I will post. In the meantime, here are two reports covering two speeches he gave on the Iraq situation (here and here).

UPDATED: Here’s the link to his obit in The New York Times.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of SUNY-Stonybrook.

“This remarkable work is made up of five hundred dazzling green, red, blue, and white quetzal feathers, with three-foot-long iridescent green tail feathers radiating from a multicolored semicircular band.” So wrote the inimitable Tom Hoving in his book Greatest Works of Art of Western Civilization.

He was describing Montezuma’s headdress, the only surviving pre-Columbian headdress of its type. It was given to Hernan Cortes, the conquistador, in 1519. Cortes later gave it to the Hapsburg emperor Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. It has been in Europe ever since, but now — perhaps — it may go home to Mexico on a three-year loan.

Martin Bailey has the story in the March Art Newspaper, just published online this morning. Like Bailey, I agree this could be a model for other disputes pieces of cultural property. In return for the loan, Mexico would send an artifact to Vienna: “This could be the golden coach of Mexico’s Emperor Maximilian in the Museo Nacional de Historia,” The Art Newspaper says.

Bailey reports:

Last year the two countries agreed to co-operate over this part of their shared cultural heritage with Mexico’s National Institute for Anthropology and History and Austria’s Museum of Ethnology forming a bi-national commission.

…Two issues need to be resolved before a loan can be arranged. The first hurdle is legal, since there is a long-standing Mexican law that forbids the re-export of any archaeological material from the country. Initially it was hoped that the headdress would not be regarded as archaeological, but the Vienna museum needs assurance that its return would not be blocked. A special presidential decree on the headdress was discussed, but this might not be legally binding on future presidents….

Austrian and Mexican conservators also need to agree to the loan. The headdress was remounted on a display board in 1992 and cannot be easily detached. Conservators are reluctant to do so until a decision has been made on a new backing. This will depend on whether it has to be fit to travel.

Resolution of both issues are likely this year.

I hope it happens. It would help move forward the debate on cultural property and establish a model that other countries might follow to resolve disputes.

 

 

Among museum world developments this year, high on the list of big events is next fall’s opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (below) in Bentonville, Ark. Everyone wants to see what Alice Walton has produced.

This week, director Don Bacigalupi spilled some of the beans when he addressed about 500 tourism executives at the Arkansas Governor’s Conference in Little Rock. Come Nov. 11, opening day, the museum will apparently be organized around four themes that emerged during the last few years as Walton made her purchases for the collection — which are ongoing.

According to a community paper called The Citywire of the Fort Smith Region, the museum’s treasures — works that range from the colonial era to contemporary works will be arranged — to illustrate four themes.

This will not be, it seems, a traditional chronological installation. Crystal Bridges will cover these themes:

• The Artist and Nature: Asher B. Durand’s Kindred Spirits will go here, and — let’s admit it — this is a natural for American art.
• The Artist Innovator: true enough, sometimes — artists are sometimes at the forefront of change. Bacigalupi said that Thomas Eakins’s Professor Benjamin Howard Rand and Devorah Sperber’s After the Last Supper fit in here.
• Women in Art: Fascinating. Walton seems to want to acknowledge that art by women has been underappreciated, and that women are often the subject of art. Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter will be here, plus glass clothing art by Karen LaMonte.
• American Artist on the Global Stage: This section can be robust, and will include Benjamin West’s Cupid and Psyche (above).

Some people, I imagine, will be upset by this organizational structure. Walton has already been the butt of criticism for spending too freely — undeserved, in my opinion. I think it’s great that she is bring great art to an underserved region of the country. With this installation, she’ll seem to be going outside the lines again.

I am reserving judgment on it. Most of the time, when I have seen themed installations, they haven’t worked well. But, in fairness, it’s sometimes the conception of the themes or the less-than-robust collection of works supporting the themes that are at fault. With her resources, Walton shouldn’t have to contend with the latter issue, at least.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Museum