Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Museums

Glad to Leave 2012 Behind: The American Folk Art Museum

800px-The_American_Folk_Art_MuseumThe Wall Street Journal has a short story today suggesting why the American Folk Art Museum (now, at left) should be glad 2012 is over. In addition to having to sell its showcase building (at right, below) — erected at a time of hubris — move back into its smaller space, and take other remedial measures over the last two years, the museum apparently agreed yesterday to forfeit some 210 objects it had been promised by longtime benefactor Ralph Esmerian, “the former jewelry dealer who last year was sentenced to a six-year prison term on wire fraud and other charges.”

The works, not yet in the museum’s legal possession (though some seem to have been on view), would be lost as part of a deal to settle bankruptcy claims. The WSJ says that “the trustee for the case and the museum negotiated a settlement in which the museum would keep 53 of the 263 promised gifts. On Wednesday, the trustee filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to approve the settlement. A call to the trustee was not returned.”

The museum’s website does not yet have the announcement of this deal posted.

1281455643-american_folk_art_museumBut the WSJ says that museum officials chose the 53 items they were able to keep, with the rest likely going up for sale at auction.

“These 53 were the most important to the museum because they would enhance the collection,” said Ms. [Barbara] Livenstein, [the spokeswoman]. “We were eager to arrive at this compromise and get it behind us.”

If the settlement is approved, the museum will be able to keep items like the 1848 painting “Situation of America,” which is currently on view in the museum’s exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum. High-quality examples of folk art genres such as needlework, fraktur (handwritten manuscripts) and scrimshaw, as well as portraits and sculptures, will also be retained.

Earlier this month, the museum’s new director, Anne-Imelda Radice, posted a Letter from the Director that also focused on the future and highlight’s the museum’s traveling exhibitions and influences on the Venice Biennale and other activities.

Radice seems to have, at least, stablized the museum. But it still has a long way to go before becoming vibrant again. Let’s hope 2013 begins a real turnaround.

 

 

 

 

Bid Rejected: Leonardo Is Not Going To Dallas

Dallas has been a bit deflated. The Dallas Museum of Art’s bid to buy the newly discovered Leonardo, Salvator Mundi, has been rejected. The amount offered — which I have not been able to determine — was not high enough.

July11_leonardo200x289Since July (see my previous post), the painting has been in Dallas, and museum director Max Anderson has raised “tens of millions” of dollars to buy it. Anderson believed it would be a “destination painting,” driving attendance to the museum to see one of two Leonardo paintings in American public collections. One source said “Max worked tirelessly” to enlist museum donors and people who had not been donors in the past. Many were enthusiastic, but it’s unclear how many came through.

But the owners, still a mystery, were seeking some $200 million for it. And while the work is now almost universally accepted as being by the master, at least for the most part, some people did not see it as worth that much. Who knows? A painting is worth what someone will pay.

I have heard, too, that the owners did not hold out — that they wanted the picture to go to the Dallas museum, if possible. “Many accommodations were made,” a source says. In the end, there was a gap — how big, no one is telling me.

The museum has issued a statement saying, in part:

While the museum’s leadership was hopeful that the painting would be acquired for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, they are incredibly inspired by and grateful for the outpouring of community support for the campaign to acquire this work.

Anderson, according to the Dallas Morning News, said it “was a privilege to be responsible for the safekeeping of this masterwork as we assembled commitments towards its purchase. The fortunate few who saw it in person will not soon forget its beauty, power and majesty.”

The picture has left Dallas and is now back in New York, I’m told.

 

 

Russia’s Culture Minister Agrees (With Me): Ordering Evening Hours

Many times here, and elsewhere, I’ve harped on the need for museums to change their hours — to stay open later, especially during the summer months when it stays light later and is warm and people are out and about.

russian-museumMost recently, in mid-September, I noted progress toward this goal:

As for new regular evening hours, I’ll mention a few: the Walters Art Museum (Thursdays until 9 p.m.); the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston (to 7 p.m. three nights and to 9 p.m. on Thursdays); the Cincinnati Art Museum till 9 p.m. on Fridays; and the Laguna Art Museum (till 9 p.m. on Thursdays).

I know some of the forces working against this (school bus schedules, costs, labor resistance), and a director or two (Glenn Lowry, to name one) have taken potshots at the idea. Others have pointed out — and this true — that programming at night has to go hand-in-hand with later hours.

And I’ll add one more caveat: It’s not enough to announce evening hours once or twice and expect potential visitors to remember. People must be reminded. And even then, no one changes their habits overnight. Expect the benefits to accrue over time.

Recently, Russia’s Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, sent out an order on this subject. All federally funded museums (except those in rural areas) must remain open at least one evening a week starting Jan. 1, according to The Art Newspaper.  Thus, the Russian Museum (pictured) will remain open until 9.m. on Thursdays, according to its website. The Hermitage’s website has not yet indicated new hours. Etc.

It only makes sense.

UPDATE: I’ve researched the Lowry line to which I refer above. It came in an article announcing that MoMA would, beginning next May, open every day, and he said:

But “it was always a myth that everyone really wanted late hours,” Mr. Lowry said. “We tried being open later on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays,” he added, but the one really popular day turned out to be on Friday, when admission is free from 4 p.m. until closing at 8.

About 18 months earlier, when MoMA was extending hours to 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Lowry told the NYTimes:

“This is about choice,” said Glenn D. Lowry, director of MoMA. “Our data suggests people want to go out on Saturday nights. They also say they are interested in coming to the museum later on Thursdays. That night is the big experiment. It’s really all about trying to be as flexible as possible.”

But this post is not about Glenn Lowry — it’s about how people spend their time and when they have free time. People may not come to evening hours at first — these things take time and reminders. But it’s no accident that sports events, concerts, theater, etc., etc., etc., regularly take place at night — and not just one night a week, either.

 

 

Does “Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master” Need Help?

In the past few weeks, a couple of people have contacted me about Federico Barocci: Renaissance Master, an exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum — asking me to shine a light on it. I usually have to ignore such pleas — there are simply too many.

But the other day, one of the people who’d written changed my mind about this one. When she first wrote, saying that  it was “sad that this show only has two venues — the Saint Louis Art Museum and the National Gallery in London,” I replied with the opposite view: “Isn’t it great that people in and around St. Louis get to see great art and don’t have to travel to do that? And the art-spoiled coasts do, if they want to see it. We need more geographical balance to these big exhibitions.”

Then came her reply:

Yes, you are right. St. Louis is fortunate to have this kind of show. [But] I am concerned that in order to do these labor intensive shows, museums need a bigger visitorship than a St. Louis can offer. People might travel to Chicago or New York to see a show– St. Louis? Someday museums may not lend these large, impressive works of art ( insurance, damage possibilities etc,) [unless there’s a bigger audience]. I guess I hate to see a show like this not viewed by a larger audience.

Well, yes. I’d like it to be viewed by as many people as possible. The exhibition took nine years of work — with curator Judith Mann reviewing Barocci paintings and drawings around the world. She was able to obtain 16 paintings and 111 drawings, and the show is organized to demonstrate how Barocci used his drawings to make the paintings. Viewers are supposed to envision his thought process and the revisions he made to complete each of the painted works.

The St. Louis museum tells me that the exhibit is doing well. It has had “a tremendous reception from our members, visitors, and the local/regional press. And, we have many weeks to go, including what we expect to be a busy holiday season – which is when we projected our highest attendance,” write Jennifer Stoffel, director of marketing. She said, in response to another question about special marketing, that the museum supported this with the same effort it does for all its major exhibitions.

Which is pretty substantial. Take a look here and you will see the gallery talks, lecture, symposium, performances, adult drawing classes, family workshops and programs, member previews and parties, and online videos.

SLAM is a free museum, but special exhibitions like this one carry a charge — $10 for general admission at a timed, 15-minute intervals. That’s not prohibitive.

Museum directors and curators tend to make lending decisions on the scholarly content of the exhibition, of course, but variables like whether the museum is on par with the lender and has proper climate controls and security are part of the equation. Friendships among curators and directors enter into the decision, too.

But what if my reader is right? What if museums start factoring in attendance? That would unfortunately increase the tendency toward blockbusters in the largest cities, and less great art for the rest of the nation.

So take a look at the SLAM offering — both the contents of the exhibition and the programs accompanying it. What else could it do to turn this wonderful, scholarly show about a too-little-known artist into an even bigger draw?

Photo Credit: Portrait of Francesco Maria II della Rovere, c.1571–72, Courtesy of SLAM

The Getty Lands Another Masterpiece, Plus Potts Is Replaced In Cambridge

We can quarrel with MoMA’s video game escapade, but everyone’s got to agree that the illuminated manuscript acquired by the Getty museum today is a masterpiece and a beauty. And it makes perfect sense for the Getty’s collection.

The Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies, by Lieven van Lathem (1430–1493), was purchased at Sotheby’s today for nearly $6.2 million. Van Lathem is considered to be the most accomplished painter of secular scenes in the golden era of Flemish manuscript illumination, the museum said.

The manuscript consists of “eight brilliantly painted half-page miniatures and forty-four historiated initials” and, as the book was rarely copied. this “romance appears in only three other manuscripts.” The work had been lent to the Getty Museum for its beautiful 2003 exhibition titled Illuminating the Renaissance. 

According to the Getty’s press release:

The only documented manuscript by Lieven van Lathem, the Prayer Book of Charles the Bold, is already in the Getty Museum’s permanent collection, having been acquired in 1989. This primary work provides the basis for all other Van Lathem attributions. The Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies is regarded as the artist’s preeminent secular work, and this acquisition represents an unrivalled opportunity to unite masterpieces of both secular and devotional illumination by Van Lathem in a single collection.

While this announcement was being made by Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, late of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, his replacement was being announced there: it’s Timothy Knox (right), currently the director of Sir John Soane’s Museum* in London. I was just there, and Knox has done a wonderful job of restoring that gem — and I’m far from alone in thinking that.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Getty (top) and the Soane Museum (bottom)

*I consult to a Foundation that supports the Soane