Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Curatorial Matters

Why The Morgan’s Roger Wieck Is A Surprising Proselytizer

R.WieckAnecdotally, we think we know that interest in “older art” is waning, and a smaller pool of those anecdotes suggest that it’s partly because of their subject matter. In this increasingly secular age, religious subjects — and some historical subjects — seem to be of less interest to some art-lovers and collectors. When a story or a symbol is involved — even as simple as a lily, representing purity, or a fish, for Christ — people miss the significance. In 2009, The Art Newspaper wrote about this problem, and how the Victoria and Albert Museum dealt with it when reopening its revamped Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. 

The subject has been on my mind since then.

Earlier this year, when I reported on the sale of the Rothschild prayer book, it was striking that a masterpiece that was fought over by five bidders in 1999, when it sold for $13.379 million, had only one bidder in January. It sold for $13.605 million. While some of the difference in interest has to do with the big-time money flowing increasingly into contemporary art; some — sources told me — probably had to do with the religious nature of a prayer book.

One expert I spoke with for that story was Roger S. Wieck (at left), curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum* — who is so steeped, so knowledgeable, about illuminated manuscripts, which are mostly devotional, and about the liturgy and about Biblical stories, that I was surprised when he told me he was a non-believer.

So I decided to use Wieck as a hook to talk about interest in religious art now, at least on a mini-scale. The result is half-profile, half-exposition of his exhibit now on view at the Morgan: Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France.

Published today by Al Jazeera America, the piece explains why Wieck grew interested in illuminated manuscripts as he was studying art history. And he also explains a couple of the attractions held by Medieval and Renaissance art, which is mostly religious in nature, that other categories don’t have:

“It’s the variations on a theme that’s so appealing,” he says, naming one: “It’s so interesting to see how many variations there are on the Annunciation. Is there a lily? Where does the artist put the lily? How is the Holy Spirit shown: a dove, a stream of light?” 

I’d never thought about that before, but he is absolutely correct. Then, later in the article:

…Wieck also notes that in an era when art appreciation frequently involves seeking out works by well-known artists, “One of the attractions of medieval art is that it’s not signed and is insecurely attributed, so it’s not about names. We don’t know who the Master of Claude de France is. We know by the eye that something is by him. That aspect I find challenging and very rewarding because all the judgments are about what you see.”

miraclesI agree with that, too.

You can see a digital facsimile of the Prayer Book of the Master of Claude de France, btw — right here. But I hope after reading my article, you’ll also want to go see the exhibit.

Photo credits: Courtesy of the Morgan Library and Museum

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Morgan.

VMFA Poached For Another Top Job — And More News From the Met

sylvia-yount-bioThe Metropolitan Museum of Art* just announced the appointment of  Sylvia L. Yount as head of the American Wing. Yount is currently Chief Curator and head of the American Art department at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which just last week lost Deputy Director for Art & Education Robin Nicholson. He’s taking over the Frick Art & Historical Center in Pittsburgh.

This is obviously not good news for the VMFA, or its director Alex Nyerges — whose name itself has been bruited for a couple of the open directorships around the country. He is generally perceived to have done a good job there.

Yount succeeds Morrison H. Heckscher, who’ll retire at the end of this month.

Yount’s bio includes stints as curator of American Art and department head at the High Museum in Atlanta, and curator of collections and chief curator at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has organized “landmark exhibitions on American modernism, Maxfield Parrish, and Cecilia Beaux” and “has strengthened and diversified VMFA’s American holdings through purchases and gifts. She has also presented exhibitions of work by the Anglo-American printmaker Clare Leighton and the celebrated African American modernist Jacob Lawrence. Currently, she is organizing a reappraisal of the Colonial Revival phenomenon, Making America: Myth, Memory, Identity.”

The Met’s director Tom Campbell also announced several promotions yesterday:

* Carrie Rebora Barratt as Deputy Director for Collections and Administration;
* Christine Coulson as Chief Advisor to the Director;
* Luke Syson as Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Chairman of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts;
* Lisa Pilosi as Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of the Department of Objects Conservation; and
* Jeffrey S. Spar as Vice President for Technology and Chief Technology Officer.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the VMFA

“Museums In A Changing World” — The Video

Earlier this year, I was invited to address the Seton Hall University students in museum studies and the Institute for Museum Ethics there, and I proposed a conversation instead of a speech. The title was “Money, Market, or Mission? Museums in a Changing World,” and here was the precis:

Ongoing economic challenges have caused museums to question accepted ways of doing business and to look for new models that involve entertainment as much as education. How can museums respond to current trends in the market and build their audiences without compromising their educational and scholarly purposes? Should the preservation and care of museum collections take a backseat to providing community programs that will attract visitors to the museum? Judith Dobrzynski and Sally Yerkovich lead the discussion around how museums are attracting visitors in this changing time.

The event took place in early March (when I was still in my arm cast) and a while back Seton Hall posted the video of the session on YouTube. It’s here.

SetonHallWe get into a number of issues about which I have written here several times — whether it’s ethical to stage dance parties and other events purely to raise money in a museum instead of trying to get people interested in art; a conservation about [reMastered] at the Worcester Art Museum; how museums “train” audiences; and other things. And there are some issues I haven’t (yet) explored here. One good point I made, when discussing communities and museums, was the difference between art centers, like the Walker, and art museums, like, say, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which should be more about its collections. They can and probably should have different strategies. But, whatever each does, “make it about the art” in some way.

And another thought, which came up in the conversation about deaccessioning and specifically about Detroit: the more we turn museums into entertainment centers, as opposed to art cathedrals/repositories/education centers, the harder time we will have convincing people — including the courts — that museum collections are inviolate and cannot be treated as assets.

You might enjoy the video — skip to the 5 minute mark to avoid the introductions.

 

It’s A Deal: St. Louis And Basel

Richter-St_Louis_Museum_Four Richters for four Rothkos — that’s the bargain.

As anyone who has visited the St. Louis Art Museum can tell you, the works it owns by Gerhard Richter are, along with its Beckmanns, among the stars of its collection. They rarely travel — people go specifically to see them. (I wish we in New York City had as good a trove in a museum.) But the museum has made an exception for pretty good reasons: the Richters, including Betty (at right) will go to Basel to the F0undation Beyeler’s Richter retrospective, which will be on view May 18 through Sept. 7. That means they’ll be on view during Art Basel. As SLAM spokeman Matthew Hathaway put it:

These are among the most important examples of Richter’s oeuvre, and it’s important to us and, presumably, the artist, that they be included in a major retrospective. The Beyeler is a world-class institution, and their exhibition will overlap with Art Basel, which will give our paintings considerable visibility.

Rothko-Beyeler-1948And in return, the Beyerler is sending four Rothkos. They’ll be on view in St. Louis from May 24 through Sept. 14, in place of the Richters. They include Untitled from 1948 (at left), which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describes as “one of Rothko’s multiform works, with small patches of color, mostly tawny yellow, blue-gray and red on a salmon-pink background. Five feet by a little over four feet, it’s the last painting that Rothko signed on the front of the painting, said Kelly, before switching to backs.”

The swap also means that Rothko’s Blue and Grey and Untitled (Red-Brown, Black, Green, Red) from 1962 and his Untitled (Plum and Dark Brown), from 1964, will be in St. Louis. The museum has four of its own Rothkos to put in the show, including Red, Orange, Orange on Red from 1962, two acrylic Untitled works 1969, and another Untitled in watercolor and graphite, from 1944.

I’m telling this story not only because I think it’s a pretty good deal for both parties, but also because I want to commend the Post-Dispatch for writing a story about it. I think it’s important for people to know how museums work.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of SLAM

Why MFA Boston Makes Me Queasy

Yesterday, the Museum of Fine Arts – Boston announced that it was putting on view “a special loan of the beloved Norman Rockwell painting, The Rookie (The Red Sox Locker Room)” from 1957. MFA made it a celebration of  the “third World Series Championship in a decade” for the Red Sox, and said the painting will be in the galleries for just six days, through May 4.

NRockwellWhy? Because it is “being offered at auction at Christie’s (New York) on May 22” in the American art auction. The MFA didn’t day, but the estimate is $20- to 30 million. It did say:

The MFA is the only place where the public will be able to see the celebrated painting in Boston––which depicts the Red Sox locker room in 1957 during spring training in Sarasota, Florida––before it goes on the auction block. Rockwell’s classic work, portraying a group of seasoned veterans giving the once-over to the team’s newest player, will be on view in the MFA’s Sharf Visitor Center. The painting was also on display at the MFA in 2005 and 2008, following World Series wins.

Well, not quite. Won’t it be in the sale exhibition? But that’s minor — the painting is already highly valued, and may not need the endorsement of the MFA. After all, it has already been on view there before. It was acquired by the current owner in 1986.

Six days on view may not mean much, but it nevertheless raises the painting’s profile. Aside from the MFA, the only other museum to have shown the work, which was the March 2, 1957 cover of the Saturday Evening Post, is the Norman Rockwell Museum. Small as this is, I still think that museums shouldn’t be used to enhance value right before a sale.

On the other hand, I do give the MFA credit for disclosing the auction right upfront.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the MFA