Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museums

Magical Thinking And The DIA

For weeks now, no months, I’ve been struck by the magical thinking that surrounds the Detroit bankruptcy-Detroit Institute of Arts situation. People are asserting opinions and notions that they want to be, rather than looking at the circumstances that exist — on both “sides” of the issue, if I may characterize them as sides.

Detroit-Institute-ArtsThat thought was behind an article I’ve written that is published in today’s Wall Street Journal, headlined Delusions in Detroit (though, truth be told, I’d have said Delusions About Detroit, because they’re not confined to the Motor City). My rationale:

These and other delusions are influencing decision-making, and that is a dangerous game. Before any decisions are reached, these half-truths and untruths must be shown for what they are and discarded.

I won’t elaborate on those in the article here — please just click on that link — because, believe me, several other things I had to say, or other pieces of my arguments, never made it into my article or are on the cutting room floor. Here are a few other points I wish I had had the space to raise:

  • I don’t know enough about Michigan politics to understand why the governor rescued Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River that is home to the aquarium, a yacht club and other attractions, but the state leased it from Detroit for 30 years. But nor do I understand why the terms of the deal were acceptable. It saves $6 million in costs to the city each year, but the state provides no revenues to pay down debt. Imagine if that deal had been extended to the DIA. Problem solved..
  • Everyone seems to believe that the DIA can simply tour its collection to raise money, though proceeds would be pretty meager, as I write in the article, quoting two totals (one from the DIA’s own recent tours and one from the recent tour of masterpieces from Kenwood House). Need I remind people that such tours subject art works to inevitable wear-and-tear that might soon be intolerable? Any movement of paintings and sculptures involves risk to their integrity; too much movement is deadly. When I was at the DIA about 18 months ago, Graham Beal pointed out the toll on van Gogh’s Self-Portrait, the museum’s most-requested work. It just has to stay home for a while, and perhaps require conservation (unless that’s been done in the interim).
  • Another method of monetizing the collection involves proposed partnerships between cash-rich museums and the collection-rich DIA, but as I point out the one between the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Nagoya, Japan, achieves other purposes, but adds little to the MFA’s revenue stream. But here’s another reason to doubt the viability of this idea: Just last month, a deal between the Art Gallery of Western Ontario Australia and the Museum of Modern Art (details here) fell apart half-way through its three-year tenure — even though more than 230,000 people had visited the MoMA exhibitions since the series was launched last year. Citing high insurance costs and lower-than-expected ticket sales from the MoMA shows, the AGWA said the partnership was “no longer financially viable.” Here’s the letter from the museum’s director, Stephano Carboni, and here’s a report on it.
  • What about those for-profit groups that organize and tour money-making exhibitions, most notably the treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen show. Well, I couldn’t actual numbers for that show — which probably made profits as well as added revenues to the museums who showed it. Nonetheless, the stock of the company involved, Premier Exhibitions, Inc., sells for $1.14, close to its 52-week LOW of $1.03. Given that kind of loss in an up market, the outlook does  not look sound.
  • A variation on the philanthropists’ rescue scenario would have rich Michiganders buy the DIA’s works and retain ownership, placing the treasures on “permanent deposit” at the DIA. This has an upside: At some point, the owners might become donors and reap an increased tax benefit if the work appreciates. But legally, there’s no such thing legally as a “permanent loan,” lawyers tell me. In recent years, British galleries have struggled to pay for paintings long on deposit from families of the Dukes of Sutherland and Rutland, for example, but put in play when the lending family decided it needed cash.
  • A question for Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and the governor, as they consider ways to get value from the DIA and, inevitably, harm it: Will any of the creditors dissolve if they don’t get paid, as the museum would?
  • As I keep pointing out, yes, the passage of the millage rescued the DIA from financial jeopardy last year, but remember that the museum has no debt and operates in the black.

Confession: I have bouts of magical thinking, too: I wish that analyses like mine in the WSJ and this one would convince Orr to lower his sights regarding the “contribution” he expects from the DIA — or better yet drop the demand altogether. The creditors can take care of themselves, mostly, and alleviating pensioners’ distress depends on the long-term viability of Detroit, which is enhanced by the DIA, not on a fight now over a few dollars per person.

UPDATE: In my article, I refer to a panel at an event sponsored by the International Foundation for Art Research. It has now posted a video of the evening, here.

 

Overheard At The Museum: Dallas Edition

You know the book of that name in my headline, published in 2005, which gathered a bunch of conversational snippets the author, Judith Henry, heard in museums and galleries, and published them with pictures. It comes to my mind every now and then, when I hear a good quote — either funny, enlightening, sad or all-too-on-target, alas. I heard one in the last category the other day in the Dallas Museum of Art. I was in the contemporary galleries, looking at the wall I’ve pictured below, when two young men — probably college kids, freshmen or sophomores — came walking through.

DallasContempOne went up to the Rothko, and said to other:

“Just what I thought, Mark Rothko. You see this — it looks really simple. But it’s worth so much money now. We studied him in art history.”

How disappointing, that link immediately to the market. Not another word passed between the two; they just went on past the Diebenkorn and then the Francis. And soon they left the gallery.

It’s a great wall, though.

Photo Credit: © Judith H. Dobrzynski 

Three’s A Trend, They Always Say

The Baltimore Museum of Art just announced that it will become the third museum to reopen “historic” doors that had been shut in favor of newer entrances — it’s a trend I applaud.

BMA_rendering-Merrick_Entry-ZS CAP (2)BMA joins the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where several years ago Malcolm Rogers renovated and reopened both of the MFA’s grand entrances, Huntington Avenue on the Avenue of the Arts and the Fenway Entrance, and Matthias Waschek, who in 2012 reopened the history Salisbury doors, which had closed for the several years except for weekends and special events. In the later two cases, the motivation for closing was primarily cost-cutting, I’ve been told. When I asked the BMA why it had closed its Merrick Entrance 30 years ago, I got this reply:

Prior to the opening of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s East Wing in 1982, the Merrick Entrance was the main entrance. It is a historic space that at that time lacked climate control, wiring for additional electrical outlets, and other basic features. Like many museums at that time, the BMA added the East Wing with more modern amenities for visitors such as an expanded shop, auditorium, restaurant, and circular driveway. The lack of climate control in the Merrick Entrance was problematic for the artworks in the American Wing and the museum decided to focus its resources on the entrance that was more convenient for visitors.

BMA_rendering-Fox_Court-ZS CAP (2)Next year, the BMA is celebrating its 100th anniversary with, among other things, the reopening. As the director, Doreen Bolger, said in the press release:

The reopening of the BMA’s historic Merrick Entrance and the Dorothy McIlvain Scott American Wing will be an extraordinary moment in the museum’s distinguished history—bringing together museum-goers of all ages to experience John Russell Pope’s first vision of a great public art museum.

Though none of the three mentioned it, there’s another dynamic in the museum world that I’ve disagreed with in the past and which has relevance here — some people state that young people find Beaux Arts and other traditional museum architecture to be “intimidating” (see here, for example). There three museums obviously can see through that hoary excuse.

And as these renderings of the Merrick entrance at the BMA show, these old entrances are often stunning.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the BMA

 

 

A Quick Post About Worcester

Matthias Waschek, who became director of the sleepy Worcester Art Museum two years ago, has caught my eye a couple of times since — for reopening the museum’s historic doors, for merging with the Higgins Armory Museum, and so on.

_MG_2451In September, he revealed another initiative — a rehanging of the museum’s Old Master pictures in medallion style. So I went up to look and to talk with him about reinvigorating the museum. The first fruit of that trip was published in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Headlined Museum, Remodeled, it goes into the thinking that underlies the new hanging (at right) — and why it should prompt people to actually look at the pictures. Here is one key passage:

His most meaningful step so far is “[remastered],” which encourages museum-goers to linger in the galleries, looking for commonalities among the paintings in each assemblage. “I wanted it to be visceral, spiritual, inspiring,” Mr. Waschek said. “Not the traditional hanging of one painting in a line, then one label; one painting, one label, repeated endlessly”—which too often results in people reading the labels, glancing at the art, and moving on. “[remastered]” offers no labels, though visitors can find the artist, title and date on cards in the galleries. As they were in centuries past, the paintings are tilted away from the wall for better viewing from below. The deep red and green galleries now hold 66 paintings, versus 57 works before, hung on neutral walls.

There’s more to his plan for the museum, which is a far better response to the challenge of attracting audiences than some other museums have tried.

There’s more to say on this subject, and I’ll be doing that soon.

Meanwhile, if the WSJ article is behind the paywall, you can read it on my website.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum

The Cleveland-Franklin Mess, Continued

It’s never the crime, it’s the cover-up. Watergate, among other scandals, proved that and the forced resignation, aka firing, of David Franklin (below left) as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art last month, is showing it once again.

david-franklinpng-760e7cb48d14aa36Three articles have more details. First, Cleveland Scene, which was the first (I believe) to go beyond the spoon-fed resignation story, has written Turmoil at the Museum: Inside the Affair, Suicide and Abrupt Resignation That Rocked the Cleveland Museum of Art . It says, among other things, that the board terminated Franklin because he had repeatedly lied about the affair he had with a former CMA staffer, who later committed suicide. It then points out that the board also lost credibility because it lied. Among the key passages:

[Board chairman Steve] Kestner’s (below right) comments had mutated materially every time a new story appeared, contradicting statements he made earlier and fudging timelines.

“We fucked up, okay? We fucked up,” the trustee admitted. “We tried to control the story and we couldn’t control the story.”

Then:

The trustee confirmed that information had been laundered for both the public and museum staff — “It was more leaving out information than trying to mislead” — in part because the details of the affair and Christina Gaston’s death seemed too personal, too voyeuristic.

Odd, then, that this trustee claimed he was “offended” people thought the affair itself led to the museum’s “parting of ways” with Franklin. After all, that was the museum and Kestner’s line, trumpeted repeatedly by the Plain Dealer. If not the affair itself, then…

“[Franklin] lied to us!” the trustee said. “He lied to us directly, with no lack of clarity, over a protracted period of time. He ruined any trust there was there.”

The irony, of course, is that lying — directly, with no lack of clarity — and ruining trust is precisely what Steve Kestner and the board leadership have been doing since long before the Franklin story broke.

kestnerScene’s story goes heavily into the details of the death, Franklin’s whereabouts when, her missing cell phone, etc., but we’re sticking with museum issues here. It then says:

Early last year the museum hired an attorney to investigate [the possible affair] but, “The inquiry yielded no credible evidence to substantiate an inappropriate relationship and the inquiry was closed at that time,” Kestner wrote in his statement to the Plain Dealer. “We believe that it would have been irresponsible to take action based solely on rumors.”

Swift action was taken, according to the chairman, once they saw the police report: “In early October, for the first time and based on new information, the Board confirmed that a dating relationship had existed with a former employee during and after her employment at the Museum. Once the relationship was confirmed in early October, the Board acted expeditiously.”

However, documents show an attorney for the Cleveland Museum of Art contacted Ron Flower in September asking who the detective in charge of the investigation was. Kestner amended his version of events again to say yes, the museum knew of the police report in September but did not obtain proof of the relationship until October.

Rightly, this story addresses board responsibilities.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has two relevant articles. Lying about affair led to David Franklin leaving top job at the Cleveland Museum of Art, board chairman says relies very heavily on official comment, mainly from Kestner. A bit too credulous, imho.

And it also published The Cleveland Museum of Art cancels a major show planned by David Franklin, who resigned as director in October. That exhibition, Exporting Florence: Donatello to Michelangelo, was to be a major international loan show, and would have been spectacular.  Instead, the CMA will enlarge its previously planned exhibition of Surrealist photographs. What a letdown.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer (top); Baker Hostetler (bottom)