Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museums

The Museum That Gave Third Graders A Holiday Present

Ok, it happened last month–in mid-December–but you probably missed it too, and it’s too lovely a gesture, one with potential impact, to overlook. So….

The Cleveland Museum announced gifts of “Create It Kits” to all third graders in Cleveland public, charter and parochial school in Cuyahoga County. Technically, they weren’t holiday gifts–they were “one of the final celebrations of [the museum’s] centennial year,” according to Cleveland Scene. That’s 14,000 kits.

The kits include art supplies, a custom-made “Get Creative” sketchbook with art-making activities, a free children’s “Art Explorers” membership to the museum, five Collection Cards featuring objects from the museum’s permanent collection and a DIY paper glasses cutout inspired by the museum’s prized Portrait of Nathaniel Olds by Jeptha Homer Wade.

Splendid idea–read more about why here; kudos to the Cleveland Museum.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Cleveland Scene

New Year, New Format? Some News!

amoncarterFor some two years now, I’ve been finding it hard to find time to blog here. But I still hear of items of interest to the art world that go little remarked, and I notice other things, announced, that should be remarked on. It is at times like those that I wish there was a short form, like Twitter, but not Twitter. I’ve never tweeted and don’t follow anyone on Twitter either.

So in 2017 I’m going to try posting here more often, but with very short posts. More than 144 characters, but maybe no more than 144 words and, I hope, a picture. When I see something really important and have the time to weigh in in a longer way, I will. If I can break news here, as I did with leavings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year, I will still do that.

But mostly I’ll be telling readers about news or trends to applaud or developments in the art world to deplore.

We’ll start now with something to cheer: today the Amon Carter Museum (pictured) in Fort Worth announced an “unprecedented” endowment gift of $20 million, to be paid over five years, by the Walton Family Foundation. It is “the largest in the museum’s history and establishes an endowment to support future exhibition and education initiatives.” More details here.

Oh, I hear the complaints already–a drop in the bucket for the Waltons. Maybe. But it’s not a drop in the bucket for the endowments of most museums. Rejoice and be glad!

 

The Art Emerging In A New(ish) Museum

New 'Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art' in RabatCome along with me to see a new museum filled with contemporary art that, for the most part, hasn’t been overexposed.

My recent trip took me to Morocco, where I was pleased to find a museum of modern and contemporary art in Rabat, the capital. It’s just two years hold, named after King Mohammed VI, the current ruler. If you can read French, take a look at its website. The building, whose design reflects a modernized traditionalism, is quite handsome–spacious and airy, with nicely sized white-walled galleries on two floors. There’s a tea room and a bookstore, too.

The permanent collection resides on the second floor, and consists (I believe–I did not check every label) of works by Moroccan artists–many of whom have, btw, succeeded on the global markets. There’s a beautiful triptych called Converging Territories (2005) (below) by Lalla Essaydi , who lives in the U.S. now and is represented in New York by Edwynn Houk Gallery. The photo doesn’t do the piece justice, though–there’s writing throughout the background, for example, and I clipped the edges of the large-format work. She is one of the best-known artists on view here, I would guess.

I found many other works to be very appealing if not revelatory.

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The first floor, however, was more interesting to me. Its galleries housed a special exhibition of works by women (including two more by Essaydi). Here’s a look at one of the galleries with a variety of works.

img_6110One provocative artist is Fatima Mazmouz, who examines the female body, and in a couple of works here, the pregnant woman in the Arabic culture–these are, I’d guess, pretty transgressive for part of the audience.

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There were both figurative and abstract works among the others in the show, too. One I liked is by Najia Mehadji titled Sublimation No. 1.

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It was quite fun to see this budding museum; I hope it gets many, many visitors.

 

The National Gallery: Blazing More New Trails

Last year about this time, I praised the National Gallery in London for creating and publicizing an “Angel Trail” of artworks in its galleries that include portrayals of angels–for the Christmas season.

This year, I’m back to share the news that Christmas 2016 has prompted the creation of “The Star Trail.” The NG pitch:”Stargaze with us this Christmas.”

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The NG create videos that take visitors on the trail: so far, there are four for “The Star Trail,” posted on the National Gallery’s YouTube channel.

Join National Gallery curators and experts as they discuss different representations of stars throughout the history of Western European art. Journey from the Renaissance to the night skies of the Impressionists through this one element: the star. New episodes weekly.

duccio-virgin-child-saints-dominic-aurea-ng566-r-two-thirdsSo far a short trailer and three short videos have been posted, featuring curators and experts not only from the National Gallery but also from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. They discuss the stars in paintings, like Duccio’s Virgin Mary (at left) and Tintoretto’s Origin of the Milky Way (below). They explain the depiction of instruments in paintings like Holbein’s Ambassadors. They venture into the archives for a look at stars in books and manuscripts.

At the end of each video, they list the names of the artworks that were cited and the artists.

I think these trails are brilliant, and I don’t understand why other museums haven’t followed the NG here. Of course, I know that many museums have specialized tours, but these trails can offer the opportunity to expose the collection and make links among various portrayals of one subject in a very inviting way.

You can print out some NG trails from its website; they are useful even if you can’t visit the National Gallery.

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A Big Splash for A Little Museum

Winona, MN, is home to just 27,500 people, but it has an art museum worthy of a much bigger city. The Minnesota Marine Art Museum (below)–which is far more interesting that you may now be imagining–just celebrated its tenth anniversary. And an article that I wrote about it for The Wall Street Journal was published today.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe MMAM was the brainchild of a local collecting couple named Bob Kierlin and Mary Burritcher. They knew nothing about art when they started collecting, as I wrote:

Confronting a large blank wall in their living room, they mentioned their quandary to a neighbor, who soon handed them a stack of old art magazines. In a three-year-old ad, Mr. Kierlin found a marine painting he liked. He called the dealer and the painting was theirs, sight unseen. They bought other works like that, not looking in person and not even knowing that art prices can be negotiated.

But today they, with the help of others, have created something very worthy. For them, marine art includes any work with enough water to “float a boat.” And so the museum–which has beautiful, spacious galleries, is filled with works by many great artists. It has been expanded twice and most of it is filled with works on loan from the couple. They include Turner’s 1841 watercolor Heidelberg With a Rainbow, Gauguin’s Still Life with Onions, Heade’s The Great Florida Sunset and View From Fern-Tree Walk, Jamaica, Beckmann’s “Dutch Landscape with Bathers” plus paintings by Monet, van Gogh, Picasso, O’Keeffe, Hartley, Cole, Bierstadt and Homer. Plus many more.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe couple and the museum officials also did something else smart: They hired Annette Blaugrund, a former director of the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts, to edit a catalogue, Charting New Waters: Redefining Marine Painting. She was aided by dealer/art historian John Driscoll, who has been advising Kierlin and Burritcher, and she enlisted highly credentialed art historians to write the entries. They include Joseph Ketner, Barbara Novak and Leo Mazow.

By nature, traditional marine art (barring shipwrecks) tends to be romantic, and the MMAM leans toward unroiled waters, too. It’s not edgy. But it’s wonderful that it exposes so many people to art that might not otherwise get the chance–even in Minnesota.

Go visit!