Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museums

Aftermath Of Rick Mather’s Death: Delay For the Peabody Essex — UPDATED

When architect Rick Mather died earlier this month from mesothelioma, a disease caused by exposure to asbestos, Dan Monroe, director of the Peabody Essex Museum — which had chosen him as architect of its expansion – issued a statement mourning his passing and saying that it would continue its expansion without his firm, Rick Mather Architects. He was the firm, the museum said, and the board concluded, “we have determined the best way forward to complete our expansion project is to engage the services of another firm for the next phase of design.”

EastIndiaHall-PEMPEM had planned a radical reshaping that would add 175,000-square-foot to its footprint, with an estimated cost of $200 million. The plan would have given PEM another 75,000 square feet of new galleries, plus a new restaurant and roof garden, new public program and education spaces, and essential improvements to collections storage, exhibition processing and conservation functions — e.g., a loading dock. The grand total — 550,000 sq. ft. — would make PEM one of the largest art museums in the country.

Now Monroe has told Geoff Edgers of the Boston Globe (in an article behind the pay wall) that, although the museum will select  a new architect this summer, the project will be delayed by three years. The scheduled opening will be 2019, not 2016, as originally conceived.

UPDATE: Dan Monroe writes me that there will be “an 18-24 month delay as a result of Rick Mather’s
passing” and that the museum had “not been working with a 2016 completion estimate
for more than a year.” The end result, though, is the same, he wrote: “We do plan to complete the expansion in 2019.”

Mather was chosen in 2011, not that long ago — so the museum will probably return to the other architects on its shortlist from that time. I have searched for the names, but have been unable to find it — so the competitors, perhaps, were not disclosed.

PEMstaircaseThe museum planned to gut a large part of the current museum, including some spaces that I have thought were were not only beautiful but unique. They contributed character, and history, to PEM. Monroe and other museum officials have said those galleries were simply not viable today. East India Hall, at left, will remain, of course, but the lovely stair case at right, was to go, as was a lovely two-level gallery

Maybe the new architect will figure out a way to keep some of them. I hope, but can’t quite imagine, that the cost of the delay will not be too high. PEM, as I wrote earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal, was on good financial footing.

A 2011 article in the Salem News provides more history and context about the expansion.

 

So What Are The 50 Best “Galleries” In the World?

Thanks to Yale’s Center for British Art, which is trumpeting its position, we all get to see which art museums around the world the Times of London thinks outshine all the others.

British-ArtOn May 4, it published the world’s greatest 50 galleries (by which it means art museums) and on May 11 the world’s 50 best museums (by which it means those not about art exclusively). Both lists are behind the Times’s pay wall. But the Yale Center (at right), which won the No. 15 slot on the first roster — incredulously beating out the Tate Modern, the Vatican Museums, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Pompidou Centre, among others — wants people to know. So it has posted the list here.

These lists are meant to be provocative: Is the Prado really better than the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum? Is MoMA better than the Met (please!)? But I have little problem with the top  14. They’re the best, if not necessarily in the order I would place them. How YCBA managed to beat out those listed above, and many more high-quality museums, was surely meant to start arguments.

The list is supposed to be global, but it’s quite Euro-centric, and the U.S. gets short shrift. No Art Institute of Chicago, no MFA, no Philadelphia Art Museum. Yet there is — get this — the Museum of Bad Art in Boston, there at No. 50. And the Whitney is there, too — I like the Whitney, but over these others, not.

I use these lists for another purpose. I made sure I get to as many as possible. As of now, I have seen just 35 of the 50. I’d better get a move on.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Yale University

 

Is This A Way To Run A Museum? What We Can Learn From Cincinnati

Yesterday I attended the American Federation of Arts’s panel titled “Art Museum Blockbusters: Myths, Facts, and Their Future.” But I don’t want to talk about blockbusters here, at least not today. I’m going to zero in on some comments made by one of the panelists, Aaron Betsky, director (for now) of the Cincinnati Art Museum (none of them are related to blockbusters, as the session wandered away from its original purpose at various times).

GWood-DaughtersI”m singling out Betsky not because of the recent news, or because of what he has done in the past, which I’ve both praised and panned here, but because he said a lot of interesting things yesterday that I’d like to share, comment on, and agree or disagree (with my thumb).

 

  • The Cincinnati Museum used to be free, except for special exhibitions — a not uncommon practice. But, Betsky said, no one went to the special exhibitions — in contrast with most museum patterns. So he made everything inside the museum free, and began to charge for parking ($4). Seems like a fine idea to me, without repercussions for the museum or art-viewing. Can other museums that charge for special exhibitions learn something? Thumbs up.
  • During lean times, Betsky slashed the exhibition budget by 50%, and asked curators to do shows costing about $200,000 or occasionally $300,000. He reasoned that “how you get people in the door” is by programming and social activity and so “that’s where you spend your money, not on the shows.” Take a look yourself at the results. Then notice that the list does not include “The Amazing American Circus Poster,” Feb. 26-July 10, 2011, or Wedded Perfection: Two Centuries of Wedding Gowns in 2010. I wonder why not. Thumbs down.
  • The Cincinnati Museum has what Betsky called Grant Wood’s second most important painting, Daughters of the Revolution (shown here). He recently called Douglas Druick, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, which owns Wood’s best painting, American Gothic, to propose a share. The two-painting exhibition (there may be additional, related material, I’m not sure) will go on view in both museums. How many times have I written here, and elsewhere, praising these small, focused shows? Thumbs up.
  • Betsky said the wall labels for an exhibition should not say “this is the most important artist” or “one of the most important artists” or usue whatever workings — he criticized MoMA, where the panel took place, and said the Cincinnati museum did it too. Why not? It’s not a museum’s place to make a judgment like that. He says museums can use words like “most influential,” which can be demonstrated. Glenn Lowry, MoMA’s director, strenuously objected, saying that museum should not have to remain neutral on an artist, and I agree, strongly. Betsky himself said that meta-studies show that the first reason people visit museums is to learn something. A museum can assert whatever it wants, and those who want to agree can agree, and those not, not. Either way, they are learning. They may even learn more if they disagree than if they agree. Thumbs down.

Interestingly, Betsky — I believe, from my notes, but will await the video from AFA — used the words “second most important” for that Grant Wood painting!

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Cincinnati Art Museum

 

 

 

To Boston, With Love — From Tom Campbell

NortheasterGestures are important, and here’s one that deserves notice. Within hours of the bombing at the Boston Marathon last month, Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum,* reached out to Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, offering his support and backing that up with the suggestion that the Met lend a few paintings to the MFA as a special show. As a result, the MFA will put the three — chosen by Campbell and Met curators — on display during its “community weekend” over the three-day Memorial Day celebration. They’ll remain on view there until July 7, nicely taking in the July 4th celebration as well.

LachrymaeIn a press release from the MFA, Campbell said:

The Met wanted to show support for its sister institution during this challenging moment for the people of Boston. Great museums are places of solace and inspiration, particularly when tragedy strikes a community. I hope the works of art we have lent will help the city’s recovery in some small way.

That’s class (and I appreciate the reference to solace and inspiration).

The works are Northeaster (1895) by Winslow Homer (above); Lachrymae (ca. 1894–95; completed by 1901) by Frederic, Lord Leighton (at right); and The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil (1874) by Edouard Manet. They got the nod, according to the MFA, because

The works reflect the range of sentiments experienced by Bostonians in recent weeks—from the turmoil brought on by the raging storm of events that began on April 15, to the sorrow felt by residents, to the promise of joy and better days to come. Messages to Boston from both Campbell and Rogers will accompany the paintings, which will be on view in the MFA’s Art of the Americas Wing in the Barbara and Theodore Alfond Gallery (2nd floor). The gallery also features works by Winslow Homer, including the MFA’s beloved painting, Boys in a Pasture (1874), as well as works by Thomas Eakins.

The MFA decided to be free from Saturday, May 25, through Monday, May 27, because of the tragedy. It is calling the event-filled weekend “Boston I Love,” and it also involves contributions — in the form of a quilt — from around the globe. Again, from the release:

In response to the tragedy in Boston, quilters from around the world have created hundreds of hand-sewn squares in tribute to the city, which will be presented in To Boston With Love. Each mini quilt delivers a message of peace and hope and is signed on the back by the artist, with his or her country. They were created by quilters in the US and around the world, including Canada, England, Ireland, France, Holland, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and Africa. The squares have ties at each end, enabling them to be linked together to form a chain of quilts that will be displayed in the MFA’s glass-enclosed Shapiro Family Courtyard. The project was a grass-roots effort conceived by Berene Campbell of Vancouver, Canada, and organized locally by Amy Friend of Newton. It was activated through social media using Flickr…

More in the press release, linked above.

MonetFamilyMFA is also planning to let visitors make their own pictures and add them to “an ever-expanding community collage at the MFA. Visitors will be able to contribute to The One Fund Boston at donation boxes located throughout the Museum.”

Certainly after 9/11, the Met was a place of solace, so it is wonderful that MFA is doing this. Kudos to all involved. It literally has brought tears to my eyes.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Met

* I consult to a foundation that support the Met

In Art, A Male-Female Difference

As long as I can remember, I’ve been troubled by what I have here called “the male gap,” the fact that art seems to be much more appreciated by women than men. At least it’s women who go to museums more frequently. I don’t think that’s because of museum hours anymore — though it used to be. Most women now work, and museums have more night hours. But women still outnumber men at art museums — museum directors tell me that, and even government statistics, weak as they are on arts numbers, bear that out.

ManatMoMAI think it’s partly because viewing art isn’t seen as a manly activity. Art-making is, but not art-looking.

A long time ago, I wanted to write a piece called Real Men Do Love Art — a takeoff, for those don’t remember, on the 1982 book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. I never did, but part of my argument was going to be about collecting — the competitive aspect of collecting. Men like to compete more than women do.

My idea had been ignored (by me) for a long time, but I thought of it several days ago when I was talking with an editor at The New York Times. I mentioned the big gift by Leonard Lauder to the Met and added that most of the big collectors, both of the past and the present, were men. I told her why I thought it was so. That’s how The Art of the Hunt, which was published in the Sunday Review section today, came about. Of course, I did reporting in between the thought and the writing to back up my thoughts.

There are exceptions, of course. I say that. The question now is how to make more men, who can’t compete in buying art for lack of money, go to museums. Art appreciation shouldn’t be considered a feminine activity. Here’s a thought for corroboration: In French, “art” is a masculine noun.