Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Curatorial Matters

Picturing Mary: It Could Have Gone Another Way

Madonna_of_the_BookIs there a woman who was painted more frequently in all of Western art than Mary? If so, I don’t know of her. So many great artists painted her, in many situations, poses, costumes and guises.

That was the rich territory the National Museum of Women in the Arts chose to explore in its current exhibition, Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea. And although it’s not the show I conjured in my mind when I heard the title–a Leonardo side-by-side with a Raphael, a Michelangelo, a Fra Angelico, a Bellini, a Titian, and so on–it’s a mind-stretching exhibition. As I write in my review, The Madonna’s Many Faces, which is published in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, the NMWA chose, in an attempt to demonstrate the pervasiveness of Mary’s image, to include Renaissance and Baroque works “made for wealthy patrons in sophisticated cities and for humble communities in provincial outposts.”

111Fair enough. But the stars are the crystalline Botticelli, Madonna of the Book (at right ), the mysterious Caravaggio, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Fra Filippo Lippi’s “Madonna and Child” (c. 1466-69), which was painted for the Medicis, plus works on paper by Durer and Rembrandt.
I also enjoyed “meeting” a couple of works I’d never seen before, such as Madonna and Child (c. 1450) by an unnamed artist known as the Master of the Winking Eyes (at left).

Of the four female artists whose work is here—Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, Orsola Maddalena Caccia and Elisabetta Sirani—I chose to highlight Anguissola’s Self-Portrait at the Easel, the best business card I’ve seen in a while. It’s on loan from the Muzeum-Zamek in ŁaÅ„cut, Poland, an institution that I’m pretty sure I will never get to.

In Washington, with so many people now unfamiliar with Mary, the NMWH has provided an introductory gallery, explaining a few symbols that artists employed–lambs for Christ, lillies for purity, and so on. It has has posted 14 videos, and interactive preview of the exhibit and online exhibition of more works featuring Mary.

For this museum, it’s an ambitious exhibit that I hope is drawing many visitors.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the NMWA

Did Worcester Museum’s “Rethinking” Work? A FollowUp

More than a year has passed since I visited the Worcester Art Museum and wrote Museum, Remodeled and Rethought for the Wall Street Journal, so I thought I would check in with the director, Matthias Waschek, to see what had happened since then. WAM in many ways might be a model for other art museums, especially those in cities that do not attract many tourists.

matthias-waschek-directorBrief recap: Waschek had rehung the Old Masters galleries there, medallion-style, to get people to visit the museum (a pitiful 31,435 people had visited the galleries in FY 2011, though total attendance was 78,012) and to look more carefully; had drawn new donors (including support for free admission in August); was attempting to increase his curatorial staff to six from two; and was integrating the Higgins Armory Museum into WAM. More details at that link above.

Waschek is aiming to get attendance to 200,000 by 2020, with help from the Higgins merger: In the last few years (except its final year, when people knew it was closing), the Higgins received about 32,000 to 33,000 visitors a year.

What has happened? In FY 2012 and FY 2013, WAM’s total attendance was 91,000-92,000.

Here’s what it looked like month by month in the galleries, 2014 over 2013–not including people who attend programs that take place outside the galleries, like studio classes.

2013 2014
March 5,498 6,201
April 2,826 6,025
May 2,858 4,688
June 3,345 3,960
July 5,558 3,879
August 6,530 11,198
September 3,094 2,922
October 2,326 2,943
November 3,812 4,649

 

April 2014 is big because that’s when Knights! (an installation of mostly armor that it acquired in the Higgins deal) opened; August is big because that is when the museum is free.  July 2013 was also free, but not July 2014.

So on the whole, I’d say that attendance is moving in the right direction, but that the 2020 goal remains a stretch.

Waschek has a plan, though. The museum has done a zip code analysis of visitors since Knights! opened and, he said, “the data show us the way forward.” It turns out that about 45% of visitors came from central Massachusetts, including Middlesex and Norfolk counties between Worcester and Boston, and now that area is his target audience–not just the city of Worcester. That means the museum will do more outreach to schools in those counties, find trustees from those counties, etc.

Overall membership is also up and Waschek says “We will be in a great place (and break out the champagne) when we reach 5,000 members.”

FY12   3,148 Active Members

FY13   3,235 Active Members

FY14   3,564 Active Members

Waschek adds: “We aim not only to grow the total membership, but also their geographic distribution – pulling from the broader region in addition to Worcester and the surrounding towns.”

On the curatorial front, WAM now has four curators: Jon Seydl is chief curator and in charge of European art, there’s an armor curator and a works on paper curator, and Waschek just hired Elizabeth Athens, who will arrive on March 16, as Assistant Curator of American Art. A PhD candidate at Yale, she has held positions at the Yale Center for British Art, the Williams College Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum. He is searching for an Asian art curator and the contemporary art curatorial position will soon be open.

On the excitement front, Waschek and his staff will be reinstalling other parts of the permanent collection, are keeping [reMastered] fresh with borrowed works and Knights! fresh with rotations and contemporary auxiliary shows (e.g. a show on child soldiers), are designing a museum guide for families, and are offering free nude drawing classes in the galleries, among other things.

Like so many other directors, Waschek is trying a lot of new things, and so far, it seems from here, he has mostly avoided the gimmicks that are aimed at getting people in the door but have little to do with art. I like his emphasis on attendance in the galleries, not just in the museum.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of WAM 

 

This Art Map Will Startle You

Which artists would you guess are searched for most often in the U.S.? What if that data were broken down by state, so we could see which artist Georgians are looking for versus which one by New Yorkers? It might be enlightening–nowadays, museums might even use it to choose their exhibitions, given all the emphasis on listening to their communities.

Maybe this map which change their minds. Granted, it has one big flaw–it’s an infographic of searches on eBay by its customers, who may not be representative of a museum’s “community.” On the other hand, I doubt that museums are taking statistically sound surveys when they say they want to listen to their communities. Certainly, crowdsourced exhibitions are not representational from a statistically sound point of view.

In any case, this map tells a cautionary tale.

eBayMap

Maybe the Newark Museum will now want to present a Picasso show, but will the Portland Art Museum start mounting exhibits that feature the likes of Emek?It’s nice to see interest in Mary Cassatt in Kentucky, but I find it disappointing that with all the wonderful art owned by museums in Massachusetts Norman Rockwell is what residents want to see. And I had to look several names on the map, being unfamiliar with them.

Yes, there are many holes in what I just wrote–just as there are many, many holes in the argument for asking residents of a community what they want to see. Curators should do most of the deciding, imho.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of eBay 

NPG Effort Raises Good Question Re: Crowdsourcing

About six weeks ago–and I missed it–the National Portrait Gallery started a crowd-sourcing initiative called Recognize that pitted three works in the collection against one another and asked the public to choose one. The other day, the Washington Post raised questions about it–appropriately, I think. The whole exercise seemed, my words not the Post’s, like a stunt in search of a mission.

Let’s  begin with the NPG’s description:

This November, the National Portrait Gallery will unveil a special crowdsourced wall in our galleries, called “Recognize,” as a place to highlight an important person in our collection. Every few months we will announce a new lineup of candidates for consideration and invite the public to vote on which one will be featured on the “Recognize” wall.

The first three choices:

James Meredith became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi. His admission to “Ole Miss” in 1962 was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement.

Georgia O’Keeffe became one of the most dynamic and compelling artists of the twentieth century, known for both her large-scale paintings of detailed, magnified flowers and her kinetic cityscapes.

Bette Midler has earned many accolades for her various musical, theatrical, film, and television performances, including three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Emmy Awards, a special Tony Award, and two Academy Award nominations.

npg-collage-update.jpg__800x600_q85_cropOn what criteria were people to be voting? “Who will be recognized at the National Portrait Gallery for his or her contributions to American culture?’ And mention about the merits of the twp photographs and one poster in contention? Nope.

And, asked the Post, “Why these three seemingly disparate images?”

Interestingly, the blog post announcing the “contest” did not evoke a single comment. Two weeks later, in another blog post, the NPG announced the “winner.”

Of these three outstanding contenders, Georgia O’Keeffe received 43 percent of the votes, and so Arnold Newman’s portrait of her will appear on the Recognizewall in early November! The installation will be announced here.

The NPG did not say how many voted, but nevertheless declared the experiment a success (the Post said 3,829 votes were cast). As to the Post’s question about why these three images were chosen, the NPG offered “connective tissue” that was “Kleenex thin”:

Each had an anniversary during the time of the project, although none is a milestone. O’Keeffe’s 127th birthday would have been Nov. 15 (she was born in 1887) and Midler turns 69 on Dec. 1. Meredith became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi — a significant event in the civil rights movement — on Oct. 1, 1962, 52 years ago.

There’s no real harm in doing this kind of thing (except for the opportunity costs), but it just seems like a real stretch, a cheap stunt to “engage” more people. But the NPG’s answers to the these questions make it look rather desperate for “engagement.” Nothing drives people away more than desperation.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Zurbarán In The News!

St.SerapionSince 2012, when TEFAF celebrated its 25th anniversary, the Maastricht art fair has been awarding grants toward the conservation of objects held by museums that have attended the fair in that year. The other day, TEFAF announced the 2104 grants: the €50,000 annual amount from the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund will be split between two early paintings by Francisco de Zurbaran.

One, St. Serapion (1628) [at right], is owned by the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Ct.; the other, Saint Francis of Assisi in Meditation (c. 1630-1635) [below], is in the collection of the Museum Kunstpalast, in Düsseldorf. According to the statement from the Fund,

The current condition of both paintings is severely compromised, both structurally and aesthetically. Although the paintings need specific individual treatment, both require extensive conservation and restoration; this includes the removal of previous poor restoration, old varnish and flaking areas as well as infilling paint losses and old abrasions to restore their former glory.

St.FrancisThe Atheneum plans to make St. Serapion, which it acquired in 1951, a centerpiece picture of its new European paintings galleries; they are being reinstalled and are set to open in September, 2015. The Museum Kunstpalast, meanwhile, is organizing a comprehensive exhibition of Zurbaran’s work in fall, 2015.

Announcing the grant, the Atheneum said:

Ulrich Birkmaier, Chief Conservator, will be performing conservation treatment on the painting, including the removal of previous restorations and old varnish, to restore the work’s former integrity. The restoration of St. Serapion will be a crucial stabilization, placing the work in a new light by allowing the viewer to fully appreciate the artist’s original intent.

In keeping with the trend to share conservation projects with the public, both museums are making videos of the process; they’ll be on view at Maastricht as well as on the web.

I’ve nothing but good to say about this TEFAF program and these two awards, which look very worthy.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of TEFAF