It’s no secret that the museums in major cities that grew up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries–New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelpia, etc.–generally have great collections, not all of which are ever on view. Â Then there are cities, large but newer and never rich, that lack a basic art museum of note. Fresno, whose Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science closed in 2010, is one of them–the 34th largest incorporated city in the U.S. This is a situation on which I’ve commented before.
So some news that is both heartening and disheartening at the same time: Reports say that a new exhibition at the Fresno Art Museum (not related to the closed institution), Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray, was jammed to the rafters, with an SRO crowd for a gallery talk and panel discussion. This made headlines in more than one news outlet.
The other day, the Fresno Bee carried this item:
The Dec. 20 article in The Bee, only a few paragraphs long, wasn’t breaking news – just a reminder of a coming attraction. The Fresno Art Museum already had announced months before it would be opening a January touring show featuring a collection of memorable photographs of Frida Kahlo.
But the brief story, which accompanied a longer piece about the museum’s annual woman artist of the year, exploded on fresnobee.com. In one day it racked up more than 600 Facebook shares and 15,000 hits online to become that Sunday’s best-read story of the day. In the following weeks it has continued to attract online attention that far exceeds most local arts stories….
…“People are actually calling in and asking if there are tickets to buy in advance for the show,†says museum director Michele Ellis Pracy. “That’s never happened for us before.â€
That’s heartening. But the Fresno museum, per its website, owns no actual works by Kahlo. None are in this show–just photographs of her.
The Bee credited the excitement about the exhibition to Kahlo. “an artistic sensation who continues to cross into pop-culture territory in a strong way.”
That’s no doubt true. Yet if people come out for photos of the artist, imagine the crowd that might show up to view her work.
Then, perhaps, the crowds would see for themselves why she is “an artistic sensation.” They might even start looking at more art, more paintings.
I realize that the Fresno museum probably didn’t ask to borrow any paintings–already this exhibition was costly for a small museum.
Long-term, though, it behooves the art world to spread enthusiasm about great art. Possibly that would mean partnerships between large and small museums, or creating “sister” museums, like sister cities, who could lend something that may be sitting, at times, in its storerooms.
Photo Credit: via the Fresno Bee