Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

At The Met, Textiles And Technology = Bad Match

TextilesLet me say from the outset that the Metropolitan Museum’s* Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800 — billed as “the first major exhibition to explore the international transmittal of design from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century through the medium of textiles” — is a wonderful exhibition. The items — costumes, bedcovers, hangings, vestments, fragments — number 134 and, to me at least, they seem beautifully chosen. And the gallery design, with rich wall colors and varied displays, is suitably theatrical, roomy and well-paced. That’s one gallery, at left. that provides a peek at what I’m talking about.

There’s just one problem — it’s a small but it’s symptomatic.

FrenchMApInside the first gallery, there’s a large display screen that shows the trade routes of Portugal, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain, 1500-1800. Trouble is, the routes are animated, so they pop up as little dots emanating from each country, one at a time. Never does the viewer see all five countries’ routes on the same screen. Equally poor, visitors have to wait for each country, sequentially — spending more time than it’s worth, given the tiny amount of information they receive.

Have a look at this photo, at right (apologies for the angle), which shows the French routes.

BookMapNow take a look at the photo below it — it’s the inside cover of the exhibition catalogue.

Which gives you more information, faster? The book map, of course.

I am not against all technology in the galleries. I’ve praised some uses of it, such as here. But the addition of technology for technology’s sake strikes me as inane.

If the target of this map — and there was one of similarly low value in the museum’s Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom show — if those elusive young people brought up on technology, surely these are inadequate. Could the Met really think that young people would be excited by such simple, low-value animation?

By contrast, here’s a good use of technology — not in the galleries, but on the web. Click on this link, and you will be able to see 134 objects in the textiles exhibition. Now’s that wonderful technology.

Let’s nip the other kind in the bud, before it gets too common.

 

Obama Administration Lets Down The Arts — Again

Ordinarily, I would agree that President Obama has too many other important things on his desk right now to spend time finding someone to head the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. True, Rocco Landesman exited the NEA late last year, and Jim Leach left the NEH months ago, but there is the little matter of health care, not to mention Syria, Iran, etc. that the President has to deal with.

downloadHowever, I sat up and took notice in late September, when the White House sent me notice of these “key administration posts”:

  • Frank F. Islam – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  • Amalia Perea Mahoney  – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  • Shonda L. Rhimes – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  • David M. Rubenstein – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  • Alexandra C. Stanton – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  • Walter F. Ulloa – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

And it happened again today, when I receive more news of “key administration posts”:

  • Stephanie Cutter – Member, President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
  • Caroline “Kim” Taylor – Member, President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
  • Margaret Russell – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

The Kennedy Center is worthy of attention but, you know, it already has a heck of a lot of trustees. These are simply political appointments – rewards of some political sort.

Meanwhile, the Endowments are being lead by Joan Shigekawa, Senior Deputy Chairman of the NEA, and Carole M. Watson, Acting Chairman of the NEH. No “acting,” “senior deputy” or “interim” has real clout with Congress.

For a man who was supposed to be an arts backer, President Obama has been disappointing from the outset — and it only continues.

On Kids, Curators And Art Detectives

Hmmm. Last week, the Speed Art Museum announced “Art Detectives” quoting Henry David Thoreau: “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” No one can argue with that in the art context.

art-detective-2Art Detectives is an educational program for elementary, middle and high school students. With the kits the Speed provides,

Art Detectives mirrors the actual practices used by curatorial professionals when handling delicate pieces. This includes a favorite of the students: wearing white curator gloves while they learn the importance of preservation in a museum. Students discover the history and culture of the objects, as well as the valued aspects in an object. They gain a heightened awareness that allows them to look at art and museums from a more analytical perspective.

The museum has designed 12 different crates, each filled with eight objects, “real artworks and art objects from the education collection.”  People from the museum, I believe, visit the schools — “up to 4 classes in a day in a consecutive order.”

For example, one crate — marked “CREATE” — for 4th and 5th graders has these contents, which include a couple of prints.  Other crates focus on “criticize,” “design,” and so on, for different ages.

Once a schools picks and registers, the “adventure” begins:

Two facilitators roll an interesting looking crate into the classroom and begin unpacking on the provided tables. Inside are eight works of art, numerous tools, and other items worth investigating. The art works are placed on numbered and annotated mats with tools set to the side. It’s a mystery game come to life in the classroom.

As you can imagine, they help identify the contents, discuss them and then the students write about them — with descriptions, I hope. More answers to FAQ here.

I doubt this program is unique, though I can’t cite you others. But it’s worth sharing because it does make looking at art an adventure, kind of a game, without distorting the purpose — which is to truly observe.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Speed

 

 

What’s The Best Public Sculpture I Know? Easy

CG4Public sculpture is certainly having a moment in the sun – maybe years in the sun.

Just in the last few weeks, the Nasher Sculpture Center has opened Nasher Xchange, the Seattle Art Museum announced that it had received the 46-foot-tall “Echo,” by Jaume Plensa as a gift from American art collector Barney A. Ebsworth, the Public Art Fund in New York said it would erect “a playful new commission by Olaf Breuning entitled Clouds,” which will be installed at the southeast entrance to Central Park this spring, and the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. Sq. Art announced a new sculptural installation for late winter 2014 called This Land Is Your Land by Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Iván Navarro.

CG2But last weekend I finally saw, in person, what may be the best public sculpture in the U.S. of the 2001-2010 decade, and maybe of the 21st century so far. I am referring to Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, AKA the Bean, in Chicago’s Millennium Park. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t praise this  33 by 66 by 42 feet piece, which and weighs 110 tons, and was dedicated in 2006.

Cloud Gate, supposedly inspired by liquid mercury, reflects the city’s skyline, sometimes in a distorted way — but it’s always gorgeous and it clearly beguiles people.

Take a look at these pictures, which I took — at the way children, teenagers and adults love this piece.

CG1It is fascinating to look at and to watch others look at it.

 

 

 

 

 

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I’d be happy to learn of anything better.

Photo Credits:  © Judith H. Dobrzynski 

A Quick Post About Worcester

Matthias Waschek, who became director of the sleepy Worcester Art Museum two years ago, has caught my eye a couple of times since — for reopening the museum’s historic doors, for merging with the Higgins Armory Museum, and so on.

_MG_2451In September, he revealed another initiative — a rehanging of the museum’s Old Master pictures in medallion style. So I went up to look and to talk with him about reinvigorating the museum. The first fruit of that trip was published in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Headlined Museum, Remodeled, it goes into the thinking that underlies the new hanging (at right) — and why it should prompt people to actually look at the pictures. Here is one key passage:

His most meaningful step so far is “[remastered],” which encourages museum-goers to linger in the galleries, looking for commonalities among the paintings in each assemblage. “I wanted it to be visceral, spiritual, inspiring,” Mr. Waschek said. “Not the traditional hanging of one painting in a line, then one label; one painting, one label, repeated endlessly”—which too often results in people reading the labels, glancing at the art, and moving on. “[remastered]” offers no labels, though visitors can find the artist, title and date on cards in the galleries. As they were in centuries past, the paintings are tilted away from the wall for better viewing from below. The deep red and green galleries now hold 66 paintings, versus 57 works before, hung on neutral walls.

There’s more to his plan for the museum, which is a far better response to the challenge of attracting audiences than some other museums have tried.

There’s more to say on this subject, and I’ll be doing that soon.

Meanwhile, if the WSJ article is behind the paywall, you can read it on my website.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum