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Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

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In Philadelphia: Revolutionary Art

In today’s New York Times, I wrote about the conservation and erection of George Washington’s surviving field headquarters tent. a fragile thing, as you may well imagine. It was published in the print edition under the clever headline Washington Plotted Here. Online, the headline is Where George Washington Slept (Perhaps Not Well).

That in itself says a little something about the world we live in–but it’s the topic I want to mention.

The new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, which owns the tent, will use it as the centerpiece. Visitors will enter a dedicated theater, watch a 10-12 minute film about Washington’s leadership, and then see the tent revealed, dramatically: After the screen, a scrim and another layer rise, the tent comes into view behind shatter-resistant glass. Leaving their seats, people can press their noses up against the glass to see this national treasure.

In my article, I mentioned some of the other artifacts that will be on view:  Aside from those I mention in my article, they include personal items, letters and diaries from the revolutionary era, including a soldier’s wooden canteen “branded with “UStates” at a time when the phrase was merely an aspiration.”

There will also be some paintings. Perhaps the most interesting one, though, will be an exact replica of Louis Charles-Auguste Couder’s Siege of Yorktown (1781), showing Washington and Rochambeau. The original is in Versailles.

Details about the work will be announced this coming Friday, and you’ll be able to see it in person when the new museum opens on Apr. 19, the 242nd anniversary of “the shot heard ’round the world.”

Click on the link above for my article to see what the tent will look like at the museum. The one I’ve posted here gives a look at the tent outside in the snow.

The opening of this museum is particularly timely, as Carol Cadou, Mount Vernon’s Senior Vice President for Historic Preservation and Collections wrote to me in an email exchange:

At a time when we see conflicts across the globe, and when we see division in our country and others, it seems particularly relevant for a museum to address the principles and mission George Washington, the Continental Army, and their allies fought for so bravely, so admirably, and with unity.  The Museum of the American Revolution offers a great opportunity to make our nation’s early struggles relevant and meaningful to today’s audiences at a time when Americans need perspective and inspiration.

 

 

 

What Goes With Gouthiere?

Why Marivaux, n’est ce pas? A year ago, many of us had never heard of, or heard much about, Pierre Gouthiere, the master gilder many of whose works are now on display at the Frick Collection. But now we know him, at least a little. The exhibition, on view for another few weeks, presents clocks, vases, firedogs, wall lights, and mounts for Chinese porcelain and hardstone vases that he gilded–at the French court, for Louis XV and Louis XVI.

Roberta Smith, in The New York Times, called it a “rare and sumptuous” exhibition, and added:

This show is a study in ultra-refinement in which art, craft and invention collude in a burnished glow. It introduces a man who took a minor art to new heights in the last decadent decades of the ancien régime.

And now the Frick will make a new introduction–to a little-known (here) French eighteenth-century playwright named Pierre de Marivaux. His one-act play, The Constant Players, will be performed in the galleries.

This, to me, is totally appropriate for the Frick’s galleries–a situation in which the visual art will add to the theatrical art.

I sometimes find that museums, seeking broader audiences by putting entertainment in galleries, go too far astray from the art in the galleries. This is the opposite, I think–so good for the Frick.

From the release:

The most esteemed successor to the seventeenth-century playwright Molière, Marivaux’s innovative language reveals the close relationship between refined artistry and raw emotion.  The play is adapted and directed by Mériam Korichi with actors Joan Juliet Buck, Catherine Eaton, Adam Green, and Sophie Orloff; opera singers Clarissa Lyons (soprano), Ashley Kerr (soprano), Nicholas Martorano (baritone), and Alexander Swan (tenor); and pianist Gerald Martin Moore.

…The galleries of the museum will come to life as a period setting, with the actors moving between the Fragonard Room [above], the Dining Room, and Music Room—making for a completely unique experience. Additionally, Marivaux’s work is rarely translated or preformed in New York, allowing American audiences the opportunity to discover one of the most important French dramatists of the eighteenth century.

It’s the first time an entire play will be performed in the Frick’s galleries and it will happen twice, on Feb. 2 and Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Frick

A New One on Me: What To Call Art

Branding is important, and language matters. Let’s start from that point.

Last fall, I was privileged to speak to the Private Art Dealers Association, which used to be made up largely of Old Master dealers, about getting more people interested in the art they sell. And language came up.

Apparently, some people today don’t want to buy “Old” Masters. Have you noticed that Christie’s, while still labeling its department “Old Masters,” has created a week called “Masters” week, dropping the old. And, when it existed, the spring fair at the Park Avenue Armory was called “Sping Masters,” no reference to the dreaded “old” word.

In the fall, some people suggested “historical art” or “traditional art.” Others proposed “classic art.”

But I was truly surprised by the word last week from the Worcester Art Museum: it received an $825,000 grant from the Luce Foundation “in support of pre-contemporary American art.” Huh? Are we now dating art of the past by referencing today’s art?

The grant has an excellent purpose–here’s ArtForum:

“Since its earliest days, the museum has prioritized the acquisition of American art and, as a result, we have an exemplary collection of paintings, prints, drawings, and decorative arts from the 1600s to the present day,” said Jon L. Seydl, director of curatorial affairs and curator of European Art at WAM, in a statement. “However, many of these works have received less attention for research and exhibition in the last twenty years as the museum focused on presenting its colonial and 20th Century holdings. This crucial support from the Luce Foundation makes it possible for the museum, led by our curator of American art, Elizabeth Athens, to re-engage vigorously with many of these compelling works and explore new ways to present them to the public.”

But I am still shocked by the terminology. I think we have a branding problem.

Photo Credit: Audubon Print Courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum

Brace For More Bad News From The Metropolitan Museum

It’s coming–possibly Wednesday or Thursday of this week, though I doubt there will be any “announcement.” Rather, employees will learn of the museum’s financial outlook at a town hall meeting in the museum.

I don’t have any numbers, but the gist of the message coming from management–Director Tom Campbell and President Dan Weiss–will be that the museum’s financial difficulties have not been resolved, are unlikely to be in the near future. The original plan announced last spring, for a two-year financial restructuring, created hopes that staff cutbacks, pay freezes, a “soft” hiring freeze and other trims would make up for the revenue lost to lower admissions, poor retail sales, the rebranding campaign, the cost of the Breuer building and other items.

Now, more measures seem likely and the restructuring will last five years, not two.

Morale among the museum’s staff is also very low, I’m told by several sources, and recently got worse.

In December–I have not seen this news anywhere else–the Met cut employee benefits. Specifically, it lowered the contributions it has been making to employees’ 403(b) retirement funds. In the past, the Met had been known for its generosity in matching employee contributions and, I’ve been told, full vesting took only two years. (The museum have also have changed medical benefits; I’m not sure on that one.)

Consequently, an internal group known as the Forum of Curators, Conservators and Scientists, has complained. Currently headed by Soyoung Lee, the curator of Korean Art, the group voted on and then sent a protest letter to Campbell, Weiss and Daniel Brodsky, the board chair. I could not obtain a copy of the letter, however. It was not circulated widely, presumably so that it did not fall into the hands of the press.

For all these woes, though, the exhibits continue to be stellar. Jerusalem, Beckmann, Valentin, Kerry James Marshall are just a few of the best right now. How long this can continue, with staff leaving and going unreplaced, is a big worry.

 

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!