Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Exhibitions

Can A Web Initiative Rescue Churchill From The Dustbin Of History?

Harry Benson, well known photographer of both presidents and pop icons — he accompanied the Beatles on their first trip to the U.S. — was recalling his long career recently when he mentioned something that troubled him: When he mentions Winston Churchill, young people don’t know who he is.

He’s not the first to notice: A few years ago, a poll in Britain turned up the startling fact that a fifth of teenagers there thought Churchill was a fictional character — even while majorities believed that Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Robin Hood were real. Another study of Britons of all ages showed that while Churchill still tops the ranks of those considered to be most significant in history, Princess Diana, John Lennon and Michael Crawford are  not far behind.

Now imagine the results of a poll conducted outside of Britain.

This is relevant, in particular, to the Morgan Library & Museum — now showing Churchill: The Power of Words. The exhibit includes items ranging his childhood letters to his parents, to Cold War correspondence with President Eisenhower, to drafts and recordings of his famous wartime oratory. How to engage those young people?

To the web! The Morgan, along with the Churchill Archives Centre at the at the University of Cambridge, created a website called DiscoverChurchill.org and are using Twitter and Facebook.

The website begins with a trailer, a takeoff on the popular Dos Equis beer ad about the world’s most interesting man — a fictional character — and sequeing into the idea that Churchill is the actual guy.

“A REAL MAN…A man who… lacked ambition (according to his first headmaster)…but went on to lead his nation in a time of great crisis…a man who…won the Nobel Prize in Literature…” Etc.

Elsewhere there are links to video clips of Churchill’s most famous speeches, 24 rotating quotes (Sample: “We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glow worm.”), and lists of places to go, things to see and do, and other websites related to Churchill, including Bletchley Park, where the Enigma code was cracked. There are linkups to pop culture — e.g., that Angelina Jolie paid tribute to Churchill in tattoos she added for her role in “Wanted.”

“The site is intended to be a portal, open wide enough to draw people in from many different backgrounds, and then designed to channel them to the most interesting Churchill sites and to encourage them to visit the exhibition,” Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre at the at the University of Cambridge, told me. “We wanted to establish a clear beacon for anyone who might be interested and we wanted to experiment to see if an integrated social media strategy, with web resources, Facebook and Twitter, could be used to stimulate interest among new audiences.”

Admirable, but — I don’t think it’s working very well. As of this writing, the Facebook page they created page has only 1,222 likes — how many of them are Millennials? The site is asking trivia questions — those who post the right answer first win tickets to the exhibition — without much traffic. Its Twitter feed has 109 followers.

I’m no expert on what attracts Millennials, but I think the sites are too direct, too earnest. Marketers always say young people are skeptical of direct pitches. I wonder if, instead of tweeting “Discover Churchill ‏@DiscvrChurchill –#ChurchillNYC Don’t miss it. http://discoverchurchill.org Exhibition is limited (now till Sept. 23),” the tweets should be the man’s own quotes.

Churchill’s words—powerful, humorous, clever— still resonate nearly fifty years after his death. That’s the point of the exhibition. I am reminded of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which in 2009 began posting one-line-a-day from the diaries of John Quincy Adams on Twitter. It kept people coming back to see the next line. Just a thought.

The Churchill exhibition runs through September  23.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of DiscoverChurchill.org

A 1908 Sojourn Pays Off For The Clark

The Clark Art Institute’s biggest splashiest exhibitions always take place in the summer, when tourists visit the Berkshires looking for things to see and do. This year is a little special though, because the 1908 scientific expedition led by the museum’s founder, Robert Sterling Clark, is paying off all these years later.

In 2008, the 100th anniversary, the Clark forged a relationship with China’s Ministry of Culture – a cultural exchange program.  At the time,  the museum says on its website,

the Clark commemorated the 100th anniversary of the expedition by presenting in China an exhibition of historic images printed from the original photographs in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution Archives in Washington. Researchers believe that all of these photographs were taken during the Clark expedition of 1908-9, although little is known about some of the images.

…the Clark also presented rare original copies of Through Shên-kan to Chinese municipalities along the expedition route, and has translated the book into Mandarin… The book has also served as inspiration for three students from Oxford University, who during the summer of 2008 retraced the original route of the Clark expedition, recording on their own website the changes that have occurred during the past 100 years. In 2011 and 2012 the Clark will share masterpieces from its collection of French Impressionist paintings with leading museums in Beijing and Shanghai, furthering the relationship between the institution’s artistic legacy and the country Sterling Clark studied so carefully early in his life.

In return, the Chinese have lent antiquities from three recently excavated tombs in the territories Clark explored — the exhibition is called  Unearthed: Recent Archaeological Discoveries From Northern China and it opens tomorrow.

That’s not all: The Clark has three other related exhibitions on tap this summer, a critical mass that interested the Wall Street Journal — I have a short article on the Clark’s China summer in tomorrow’s paper. They’ll be worth the trip.

Photo Credit: Tang Dynasty figures (top); Woman with Headdress in Zhenyuan Xian, Gansu (bottom), Smithsonian Institution Archives, both Courtesy of the Clark

 

 

On Her Diamond Jubilee, The Queen Shares Some Of The Royal Collection

This week Britain is celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee, commemorating the 60th anniversary of her ascension to the throne. As RCA readers know, British royalty also owns one of the greatest art collections in the world. I thought I’d check in to see what she is sharing with us folks, especially as the U.K. will be hosting more than its usual number of tourists this year for the summer Olympics.

The answer, it seems, is less than I would have hoped. The big exhibition that celebrates the Queen’s 60 years on the throne is called Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration and it’s part of “the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace (30 June – 8 July & 31 July – 7 October),” which admittedly is nice. The diamond exhibit simply displays how diamonds have been used and worn by British monarchs over the last two centuries.  It includes some of the Queen’s personal jewels inherited or acquired during her reign. The most famous piece, the Diamond Diadem, at left, has been worn by the Queen on her journey to and from the State Opening of Parliament since the first year of her reign.

In the Queen’s Gallery, there’s  Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist, which is said to be the largest-ever exhibition of his anatomical work.  It includes 87 pages from Leonardo’s notebooks, including 24 sides of previously unexhibited material.  One of them shows a “to do” list, in which “Leonardo reminds himself to obtain a skull, to get his books on anatomy bound, to observe the holes in the substance of the brain, to describe the tongue of the woodpecker and the jaw of a crocodile, and to give the measurement of a dead man using his finger as a unit.”

And there’s The Northern Renaissance: Durer to Holbein, which displays about 100 works – prints and drawings by Dürer, mythological paintings by Cranach the Elder, and preparatory drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger as well as finished oil portraits.

 At Windsor Castle, visitors can see The Queen: 60 Photographs for 60 Years, which is exactly as billed, and Treasures from the Royal Library, likewise. 

But art-lovers may want to make the trip to Scotland, where the royals’ Holyroodhouse Palace is showing Treasures from the Queen’s Palaces, about 100 works reflecting the tastes of several monarchs and other members of the royal family over the centuries. It includes paintings by Rembrandt, Hogarth, Hals, van Dyke and Lotto, among others.

The entire exhibition program is listed here.

And if you’re not going, you can still learn more — the BBC has produced an eight-part series, 30 minutes each, about objects in the Royal Collection. It’s called The Art of Monarchy. You can hear it all and see images here. Transcripts, for those who’d rather read than listen, are there as well. If it’s hafl as good as the Beeb’s A History of the World In 100 Objects, I’d be happy.

Roy Lichtenstein Exhibition Opening Delayed — Due To Popular Demand

Is this a first? We are quite used to having museums add evening hours for a popular exhibition, staying open all night in the final days, and even extending the run by a few days.

But the Art Institute of Chicago has done the opposite — delayed the opening of its Roy Lichtenstein exhibition, which was supposed to be tomorrow, thanks to popular demand of its members. Now the opening of Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is slated for May 22. (The museum is closed May 19-21 because of the NATO summit in Chicago.)

As is usual practice, the Art Institute opened the exhibit of about 160 drawings, paintings and sculptures first to members. But more than 3,000 signed up for the preview opportunities, and lectures, which can accommodate up to 1,000 people, also filled up fast. The three planned days for members had to be stretched.

Could it be that Lichtenstein is that popular? Or did the recent record price at auction, $44.9 million for Sleeping Girl (left), which isn’t in the show, add to the attraction?

One-year memberships cost $80, and offer other opportunities to view the show, like pre-opening hours on weekends.

If you can’t get there, you might try the “explore the exhibition” website the Art Institute has created. Some aspects, like the slider feature showing the relationship between his drawings and paintings, are pretty cool.

 

Back Your Bags For Manet in Toledo — Next Fall

The Toledo Museum of Art will be the place to be — ok, a place to be — next fall: it just announced a major exhibition for Manet, which it’s calling “Manet: Portraying Life.” Co-organized by Lawrence W. Nichols, senior curator for European and American painting before 1900, the exhibit will move from Toledo to the Royal Academy in London next January. It will include some 40 paintings, plus photographs, from around the world.

The anchor — or catalyst, if you prefer — is Toledo’s own marvelous Manet, Antonin Proust, at left, from 1880.  Here’s what Nichols had to say when I asked about the show’s origins:

Manet as a portraitist has never been isolated as an exhibition topic, and with our collection having one of his finer examples, I determined some six years ago to make this show come to pass – here.  Our partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts came about when I learned that my colleague, MaryAnne Stevens, was giving thought to preparing a Manet exhibition for London, which has never had a retrospective of the artist.  I was able to direct them to this aspect of his career.  Our aim: to explore the twofold character of Manet’s work in the genre of portraiture – posed portraits like our own canvas, as well as portraits of individuals engaged in the activities of everyday life.

Manet has never had a retrospective in London? How did that happen?

But I digress. Nichols says the show will include many of Manet’s best-known and loved works, including The Railway from the National Gallery of Art, Washington; Emile Zola from the  Orsay, Paris, and the “rarely lent gem” from RISD in Providence, Le Repos (Berthe Morisot), at right, to name a few, plus “a number of less well known works including Mme Brunet, which was just acquired by the Getty Museum, and The Bicycle (Leon Koella Leenhoff) from a private collection in Paris (which must be rarely seen, because I couldn’t find an image of it online). Here’s the press release.

I thought it was great, and possibly unusual, that Toledo is collaborating with the RA, and asked about it. “The TMA has generously lent to the RA, London, for decades, but to the best of my knowledge we have never collaborated with them on an exhibition,” wrote Nichols. My feeling is that, too often, museums collaborate with the same old partners and they need to mix it up a bit more.

This is an expensive exhibition for Toledo, but the museum has lined up sponsors and is obviously hoping for a popular success — which it should get. 

The Museum points out that 2012 is its hundredth year in its current building, and is kind of celebrating with the Manet show and three other portrait shows — one of paintings by Toledoan Leslie Adams; another called Made in Hollywood, portraits from the studios’ glory days from the 1920s to the 1960s, and a third featuring “more than 700 [!] photographs soon to be shot of citizens of this city,” Nichols said. It’s all called “Portrait Season at the Museum,” a way of focusing on people.

The Toledo museum has an avid local fan base, and this show, which opens on Oct. 7,  should only make them more appreciative.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Toledo Museum of Art (top)