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Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

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More Major Met Museum Departures–And More Woes

The exodus, and the troubles, continue at 1000 Fifth Avenue: announcement of the departure of Carrie Rebora Barratt (below), a deputy director of the Metropolitan Museum* and longtime close associate of director Tom Campbell, is imminent, I hear. In 2009, Campbell called her “the Director’s right hand.” It will probably come on Monday, my sources tell me–or leaked on Sunday night.

Carrie BarrattBarrett’s exit won’t be the only one, of course. In April, the museum announced that, as part of a cost-reduction plan, it would offer voluntary buyouts to staff member aged 55 and older with a certain amount of service. The deadline for applying–and hearing back–was this week.

I understand that 50 to 60 people are taking the offers, including many curators. Some feel that they were pushed to take the offers, as the museum’s president (for one), Daniel H. Weiss, has said that layoffs would likely be necessary if not enough people take the current offer. That is standard corporate behavior: take the buyout and get a financial reward or risk not taking it and getting fired with no financial package.

So who, among the curators, is leaving?  Naturally, I could not get official confirmation for any of this. But among the names I hear are Timothy Husband, Peter Barnet, Charles Little (all in the medieval department) and Kenneth Moore (head of the musical instruments department). I also hear that some people in object conservation and, possibly, public relations are going, perhaps Elyse Topalian, the vice president of communications.

Also, probably, Donna Williams, in multicultural audience development, and Linda Sylling, manager for special exhibitions, gallery installations and design.

Remember these are rumors, but these are big losses.

But the most “meaningful,” in one way, is Barrett’s departure. Campbell plucked her from the curatorial ranks in 2009, elevating her to the position of Associate Director for Collections and Administration. It was always a controversial promotion, but Campbell promoted her again in 2014 to Deputy Director for Collections and Administration, when he called her an “essential manager and spokesperson whose expertise lies in the areas of digital media, the collections, and the long-term feasibility of the institution.” She started at the museum in 1984.

You can bet that he did not want her to go. That means that Weiss is in control here, not the CEO. We’ve known that, but this confirms it.

The big question: did enough people volunteer? I understand that there was no “target” number, but also that no one who applied for the buyout was turned down.

But the Met is trying to save on the order of $20 million in expenses annually. This doesn’t seem to do that. How else can the museum save? Have fewer and longer exhibitions is one ploy. Skimp on design, delay maintenance, postpone as many expenses as possible. We’ll see if those things start to happen, too.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum 

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met.

Sree Sreenivasan is Out at the Met

SreeAnother big name is leaving the Met. An announcement this morning says:

We wanted to share the news that Sree Sreenivasan will be leaving his position at The Met after three years serving as the Museum’s first Chief Digital Officer. This decision has been made in the context of the recentering of the Museum’s work and our current financial restructuring.

In his time with us, Sree has introduced new audiences to the power and relevance of The Met and helped redefine what digital means to museums. He has overseen a number of important initiatives, including The Met App, #MetKids, The Artist Project and Facebook 360 immersive videos. Our website was refreshed and optimized for mobile; our social media following increased exponentially; the online collection has been expanded; and we developed new connections with technology companies and individuals worldwide. Sree also led our engagement with platforms like Facebook Live and China’s WeChat and Weibo and expanded our MediaLab’s pioneering work…

He leaves very quickly, on June 30, though he negotiated a consulting contract with the Met for six months.

We await news of a slimming of the tech department, which had ballooned to 70-80 people in histenure.

Let’s Change to The Positive At the Met–Something “Divine”

Rama-FootFlash back to 1984, and to this excerpt from an article–no, a brief, really, which in itself says something–in The New York Times:

Also of interest this week: ”The Flame and the Lotus: Indian and Southeast Asian Art From the Kronos Collections” (Metropolitan Museum, Fifth Avenue and 82d Street): Reflecting a rise in collector interest throughout the country, the more ”exotic” art outside the pale of Western civilization is beginning to get its due in American museums. And at the Met, Indian and Southeast Asian art, once neglected, is coming along nicely, thanks partly to its cultivation by Martin Lerner, curator. This, the museum’s first loan exhibition in the field, was borrowed from a collector, Stephen M. Kossak, who with his family has already given the Met significant objects.

The 86 works of painting and sculpture – from India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia – form a rambling miscellany, ranging from 1500 B.C. to the late 18th century. If there’s an overall rationale, it’s that the objects were chosen for their esthetic, rather than historical, interest, with an emphasis on spirituality and refinement of craftsmanship. And while not everything here is of equal quality, it is obvious that Mr. Kossak, aided by Mr. Lerner, has a very discriminating eye.

The first loan exhibition in the field! We have come a long way. Today the Met is again the beneficiary of that eye. On June 14, it will open Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts—the Kronos Collections, another exhibition made possible by Kossak. These works, nearly 100 of them, are a promised gift to the Met from Kossak and his family.

I tell the story of Kossak and his collecting ways in an article for The Wall Street Journal that was published in the May 31 edition, headlined A Personal Collection Goes Public: Rajput Paintings at the Met.

The Devi, in the Form of Bhadrakali, Adored by the Gods’I have seen many of the works at Kossak’s home and I am eager to see them in an exhibition setting. These works are, as I wrote, “…playful paintings, which were made in the small kingdoms of northern India from the 16th to 19th centuries. Inspired by Hindu myths and poetry, the imaginative, detailed scenes of love and life among the gods are painted on paper in opaque watercolors and ink.” They are not Mughal paintings, which the Met owns many of. These works have more of an indigenous feel, higher coloration–they complement the Met’s holdings of Mughal works.

Regarding the Rajput works, I wrote:

Their vibrant hues—reds, yellows, blues, golds, whites raised to simulate pearls and greens made with beetle-wing casings to sparkle like emeralds—are matched by their colorful titles. They include “Krishna and the Gopas [Cowherds] Huddle in the Rain,” “Krishna Swallows the Forest Fire” and “Rama and Sita in the Forest: A Thorn is Removed From Rama’s Foot” (above right).

Each one, [Kossak] said, was bought because it evoked a visceral emotional response. “It’s lightning-bolt recognition across the board,” he said.

As the former head of the Asia Society Vishakha Desai told me, “The quality is at a very high level and there are only one or two Indian paintings collections like this that have been formed in the last 20 years, formed with the idea of getting absolutely the best.”

I think it will be a treat!

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the WSJ and the Met

I consult to a Foundation that supports the Met.

The Ax Falls At The Met, Again…More to Come

Today the Metropolitan Museum announced a significant layoff: Cynthia Round (below), the senior vice president of Marketing and External Relation–who was hired by Thomas Campbell, the director, only in 2014. Her department, remember, was in charge of the rebranding and the dreadful new logo. She also oversaw press and, apparently, was responsible for the regrettable profile of Sheena Wagstaff in The New York Times last fall.

028d6a9Round’s defenestration is no surprise in some ways therefore, but the fact that she was a Campbell hire, the person brought in to replace Harold Holzer, does not look good for him (to several people close the Met and/or former employees of the Met that I interviewed).

Round was preceded out the door recently by Olena M. Paslawsky, the chief financial officer, senior vice president and treasurer–who is taking some blame for the museum’s huge deficit, and Joanna Prosser, vice president and general manager, merchandise and retail. The Met’s stores are considered to be a bit of a disaster. Prosser was hired in 2013, also by Campbell

Christine Coulson, who was promoted to Chief Advisor to the Director in June 2014, is also leaving, though apparently of her own volition, and possibly for only a year.

Previously, several people who had been hired by Campbell’s predecessor Philippe de Montebello and were long-time employees, left or were encouraged to leave. They include Nina Diefenbach, the deputy vice president for external affairs and chief development officer, who left to be deputy director for advancement at the Barnes Foundation. You  might also include Holzer and Emily Rafferty, the former president in the this category. These people were thought by many to be “employees for life.” Perhaps wrongly. Meanwhile, Associate Director Jennifer Russell, hired long ago by de Montebello and again by Campbell (after other posts in between), also retired this spring.

Rebecca Rabinow, on the curatorial side, also recently resigned to be director of the Menil Collection. She was a huge loss, not only for her smart exhibitions and scholarship (like the 2012-13 Matisse show) but also because she was head of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the Met, and close to him and his curator, Emily Braun.

Who’s next to go? Rumors suggest there will be many layoffs before July 1. Among the names being bandied about is Susan Sellers, named head of design by Campbell in 2013–she’s targeted in part because she also had a lot of say in the rebranding/logo initiative. Sellers oversees exhibition design, and while some recent shows have been praised, others have been disappointing.

And many hope that people will be let go from the huge tech department. It has ballooned out of proportion, my sources say.

 

George Goldner: Nothing If Not Opinionated–And Entertaining

It’s not quite The Car Guys, but an exchange at a recent symposium at the Frick’s Center for the History of Collecting* has tickled a couple of people I know, who mentioned it to me. It’s called Philippe de Montebello Interviews George Goldner and it’s about Golder’s career buying drawings at the Getty and, ahem, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.* (The two have an exchange about “The Met” and, later, “The Met-82nd St.” which may be inside baseball to some but not to others.)

PdM-GGThere are a number of gems, including, in no particular order and very briefly:

  • The difference between acquiring a painting and a drawing at the Met: trustees think they know something about paintings but most confess they know less about drawings. “So it’s easier to step off in a corner and do what you want,” Goldner said. “You can overwhelm them with fear of their own ignorance.”
  • And another difference: some trustees do not understand why they should buy drawings by some artist whose name they do not recognize. “But a great drawings collection should have great things and others that illuminate the great things” and more. Goldner says a museum should want a mix.
  • Personal taste shouldn’t rule. Goldner says he bought German baroque drawings even though he didn’t like them. And he doesn’t think Courbet, for one, can draw, but he still bought a piece of his. “I’ve never looked at it since we bought it, and if someone gave it to me I wouldn’t hang it,” he said.
  • He  bought about 8,000 drawings for the Met. Over his 35-year career, “I’ve never gone more than a month without finding a drawing I wanted to buy.”
  • There’s no real dearth of great works out there–what there is is a decline in interest in buying drawings.

And can you guess his answers:

  • What is “the plague …that has overwhelmed art museums?” (About 21 minutes in…)
  • Whether he made mistakes in his purchases? (Yes, but what?)
  • What he most regrets not buying–and more important why?

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Met and the Frick