Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

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Don’t Miss This Exhibition! (Installation Pictures Included)

_MG_5109In tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, I review an absolutely wonderful exhibition called Grandes Maestros: Great Masters of Iberoamerican Folk Art at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It’s a massive, mesmerizing show that I visited last week–but which I had seen once before, by accident, in Mexico City. I tell that story, very briefly, in my review, headlined A New Perspective on an Overlooked Art Form: A global journey ends in an exhibition that takes folk art seriously.

My review begins–like the exhibit–with the three clay jaguars at left. And like the big, beautiful creatures they portray, which are native to Latin America, it’s a killer (of a show).

All the credit goes to Cándida Fernández de Calderón, the director of Fomento Cultural Banamex, a non-profit arm of the large Mexican bank owned by Citigroup–which makes this show, for me, all the more fascinating. Fernández started this collection, which is massive, as a social initiative. More details in the review, but she has certainly changed lives.

I am going to let my review and the photos I’m posting below speak for the exhibit.  But I do have a couple other comments. Fernández built the collection to expose it–and she is taking it to museums in Spain, in Latin America and the U.S. It’s a big show, so it needs museums with a lot of exhibition space. Still, of the museums expressing interest–which I cannot disclose because that was the ground rule–only one is a general art museum. The rest are natural history or folk art or might be called ethnographic. That’s a shame; this is art.

And there’s one more thing, which I could not get into, for lack of space (and btw, many thanks to my WSJ editor Eric Gibson, who was willing to give my review received more than the usual space): the Natural History Museum of LA did a fine job; the art looks good. But they contemporized the display–more “modern” pedastals and platforms, white walls with swaths of colors like pink and ochre, and so on. In Mexico City, the walls were all brightly colored–light orange, deep orange, deep rose–with no white in sight, except for the labeling (which was also on placards, though not screens). To my eyes, that installation was better suited to the works. The NHM believes its audience would prefer the contemporary look, and maybe so.

Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed in the Mexico City show–but I’ve snapped a picture of that installation from the Spanish catalogue, which I’ve posted at the bottom of the LA installation shots.  Still, as one museum director used to tell me, that’s just the envelope–it’s what is inside that counts.

All photos, except that one, by Edgar Chamorro, Courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. 

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_MG_5182_MG_5187And finally, the Mexico City installation:

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Burgeoning Florida Arts Corridor Gets Another Museum

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is getting another art museum, courtesy of Tom James, chairman of the brokerage firm Raymond James, son of its founder and chairman of the nearby Dali Museum.

The other day, James, who is 72 and still active at the firm, said he would commit up to $75 million to build a museum that will house his collection–a number he calculated based on the new, $40 million Dali, which opened in 2011–plus $30 million to endow it.

RaymondJamesartJames reportedly owns about 2,500 works of art; he has been buying since he was a student at Harvard; his collection is described this way by the Tampa Bay Times:

Though his collection includes other genres, it’s best known for its Western and wildlife art and about 400 of the best examples in that genre would make up the permanent collection that he would give to the museum. Assessing the value of art is always a moving target, but James estimates that the group would probably be valued between $20 million and $25 million….

…He continues to collect art but with an eye toward a museum collection. Much of his Western and wildlife art is modern and contemporary so he is rounding it out with examples from the 19th century when the West became better known through artists who traveled there and created mythic, romantic images of it. No big names — Albert Bierstadt, for example — but he’s monitoring the auction houses and galleries for possible sales.

James is looking at sites in downtown St. Petersburg, near the Dali, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Morean Arts Center; says he’ll decide the location by next June 30.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal said the museum “would be about 35,000 to 40,000 square feet and house about 400 museum-quality works of art from the James collection.”  Some of it is now being shown at the Raymond James headquarters, as pictured.

We’ll see what the collection has, but this area is certainly strengthening its visual arts scene.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Raymond James via the Tampa Bay Business Journal

Hirshhorn: Ageism At It Worst

Some things in the museum world are truly shocking, and what happened this summer at the Hirshhorn Museum–which is now just coming to light–is truly a shame. The museum, it seems, decided it no longer needed its docents. Why? Because they’re generally older women, and they “are for the most part being replaced with younger volunteers who are interested in museum careers,” according to an article in the Oct. 30 Washington Post.

Hirshhorn MuseumThe article continued:

Hirshhorn officials say the change was needed to keep up with the times. Visitors don’t want formal tours anymore; they want casual interactions with staff who can talk about the work and ‘help them understand it better. And guides need to be in the gallery frequently to do this well.

Kristy Maruca, the museum’s manager of education, described the change as a merger of the docents and “interpretive guides,” a group of four younger volunteers who work 12 hours a week, some for college credit. She received 20 applications for the first four-month Gallery Guide cycle, which requires volunteers work 15 hours a week. Ten were accepted, including three students earning college credit. So far, three have dropped out.

“It’s the best thing for our visitors,” Maruca explained, adding that she no longer has the time to run both programs.

But here may be a rub:

“It was done in a very rude, very uncouth way,” said Florence Brodkey of Arlington, a docent for 12 years who said the volunteers were called to a meeting in August and told of the changes that would go into effect the next month. “It was disrespectful and insensitive.”

“There are women who are still there from the first class of docents, lots of old-timers who love the collection and love the museum,” said Laurie Nakamoto of Arlington, a docent for 35 years.

More details at that link. The volunteers don’t seem to be completely blameless here. Maruca said that they averages just a few hours of volunteering a month. That is too little. Most volunteer opportunities that I know of require a half-day a week, sometimes more.

Back in 2009, I heralded the work of volunteers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, some of whom seemed to exhibit an almost cult-like devotion. At the time, the Met very much appreciated its volunteers, and I can only hope it still does. They were required to work one day a week, however. The commitment was real on both sides.

Meanwhile, the Post offered this for comparison:

Many other Smithsonian museums continue to have docent programs… The National Air and Space Museum is recruiting for a docent class that will begin training in the fall of 2015. After completing 11 weeks of training, volunteers must agree to sign on for two years of at least eight hours a month in the galleries. The Freer and Sackler Galleries just recruited a new docent class that will train from September until next June. After passing a qualifying tour next summer, docents must commit to two years of at least 24 tours a year, as well as attending two-hour training sessions several times a month. The National Museum of African Art asks docents to give 60 hours a year; the National Postal Museum requires 20 hours a year and a two-year commitment. The National Museum of American History offers weekday and weekend docent programs that require a year commitment and one 90-minute shift each week or two weekend shifts a month.

Whatever went wrong at the Hirshhorn, it could, perhaps should, be fixed–though with more commitment from the volunteer docents.

 

It’s A Masterpiece!

Yes, I wrote another Masterpiece column for The Wall Street Journal, which published in Saturday’s paper, headlined Folding Culture and Politics Into Art. Can you guess what it is? I’ve already mentioned it here, in 2012.

Mexican Screen-battleI was enamored of the object, a folding screen made in Mexico at the turn of the 18th century, from the first I heard of it, when it was acquired by the Brooklyn Museum.* And when I saw it last year in Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898 there, I wasn’t disappointed. What’s more, the screen has a great backstory. So, Saturday’s piece.

Here’s an excerpt:

…Stretching some 18 feet in length and 7 1/2 feet tall, this biombo enconchado blended Asian, European and American influences: It borrowed the traditional Japanese folding-screen form known asbyobu; bore images inspired by Dutch news prints and French and Italian tapestries; and was inlaid with concha, which means shell in Spanish, using a technique invented in Mexico by local artists.

Very rare, possibly unique, in its day, this multicultural hybrid—now split in half, alas—is the only surviving specimen of the genre…

MexicanScreen-Hunt-detailThe backstory is very complicated, and I won’t attempt to summarize it here. It involves a splitting in two of the original screen, its “disappearance” for centuries, it resurfacing at auction years ago when only a Mexican dealer recognized it and got it for a steal, and the Brooklyn Museum’s digging to discover its true subject.

One comment on the WSJ website is on point.  John Beauregard wrote:

Lovely story, tx.

The next logical step would be to (temporarily) reunite the two halves either in Brooklyn or in Tepotzotlán, or have them displayed successive in each city.

Good idea.

Photo Credits: Battle scene (top); hunt scene detail (bottom), Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum

*I consult to a foundation that supports the Brooklyn Museum

Early Word On “Mr. Turner”–Movie, Good; Art, Bad

Not too long ago, I was in a movie theater when up came a preview for a film called “Mr. Turner,” which would be J.M.W. Tuner to RCA readers. I checked it out and discovered that it was set to open today (Oct. 31) in Britain (after being shown at at Cannes) and in the U.S. on Dec. 19. Early word: it’s good.

2014, MR. TURNERThe movie focuses on the last 25 years of Turner’s life, up until his death in 1851. Rated R, it’s described this way:

Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.

Turner is played by Timothy Spall; other art world luminaries in it include John Constable (James Fleet), John Ruskin (Joshua McGuire) and Sir John Soane (Nicholas Jones). Here’s the trailer.

I checked the British papers, and the Telegraph gives it 5 stars, saying:

…Leigh’s film is a supremely enjoyable biopic of the English artist known as “the painter of light”… Timothy Spall…gives the finest performance of his career to date… beyond the troughfuls of fun tics, Spall makes Turner tenderly and totally human, which has the effect of making his artistic talents seem even more God-given.

And here’s a teaser about the art:

The painting process, though, is very different: Leigh shoots it in a way that it sometimes resembles an occult ritual.

 The Guardian also gives it 5 stars.

…Timothy Spall is JMW Turner! He is the triumphant star of Mike Leigh’s richly and intensely enjoyable study of the great artist’s final years.

…Mr Turner is funny, humane and visually immaculate, hitting its confident stride straight away. It combines domestic intimacy with an epic sweep, and a lyrical gentleness pervades each scene, tragic or comic. Every line, every detail, every minor character, however casual or apparently superfluous, is absolutely necessary.

And he adds:

Since Mr Turner first appeared, the Late Turner exhibition at Tate Britain has established a new context for watching the film, encouraging us to see his later canvases as something other than proto-modernism, or a late Victorian variation on a Romantic theme. Their almost narcotic grandeur is Turner’s own: a transcendental refinement of the natural world, somehow existing in both the age of steam and the medieval world’s cloud of unknowing….

But Andrew Wilton, chairman of the Turner Society and a trustee of the Turner’s House Trust. has quibbles. As a movie, he thinks Mr. Turner is “a deeply moving and beautiful film… but it’s not quite the Turner I know.” He later says:

Spall went to great lengths to get his drawing and painting right, and sort of succeeds. He misses the crucial point, though: that Turner was a miniaturist by temperament. He made innumerable watercolours on a tiny scale, compressing astonishing amounts of topographical and atmospheric detail into them, and the sketchbooks he took with him on tours usually function in the same way. If you look closely at his oil paintings, you find them equally detailed.

Wilton may be right–we can all judge in December–but I do think that’s asking a lot of a movie made for general audiences.

Turner has never been a favorite of mine, but I still want to see this movie and I still hope it bring more people to art.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of AllStar via The Guardian