Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

More On Christie’s Behavior

Mark Stryker, a staff writer at the Detroit Free Press, picks up today on my Tuesday post about Christie’s vulture behavior, and adds:

Some other art world insiders, who declined to speak on the record to the Free Press because of the sensitivity of the situation, privately characterized Christie’s actions as predatory. They noted the company was risking possibly alienating other museums, which buy and sell work through the major auction houses all the time.

Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s declined to comment to Stryker, but he found another auctioneer who would:

Joan Walker, a partner at the Detroit-based DuMouchelle, a respected regional auction house, was adamant that if DuMouchelle were asked to participate in a forced sale of DIA art, the company have nothing to do with it.

“We are completely against the sale of any works at the museum,” Walker said. “Our treasures should be kept at the museum for the enjoyment of the public, and I think the city should find a solution in other areas.”

Asked to comment directly on Christie’s sending appraisers to Detroit, Walker said curtly: “That’s up to them.”

Here’s the link to the Freep’s story.

 

Smithsonian’s Clough: Is This A Strategy I See Before Me?

The Smithsonian Institution was in the papers again in recent days and it wasn’t great news. But it might have been good strategy.

250px-Wayne_CloughA week ago, on July 17, the Washington Post published an article headlined Smithsonian Institution grapples with maintenance of its growing inventory, which didn’t get much notice except perhaps within the Beltway. The story recapped the Smithsonian’s difficulties caring for the 137 million objects in its collections, and was pegged to a hearing before the Committee on House Administration last week.

But, while the Smithsonian has not, to my mind, been handling its museums terribly well of late, there might be a little bit of politics in that hearing. If G. Wayne Clough, the Secretary, didn’t engineer it, perhaps he should have.

The hearing came just days before this week’s release of the Appropriations Committee budget bill for the Smithsonian and other agencies. But I’m a tad suspicious about that.

I say that because, according to the Post report, the committee was following up on a 2006 report by the Smithsonian’s Inspector General, which

showed that management facilities in Maryland were inadequate. The report also showed deficiencies in security and inventory controls, leaving collections open to theft or misplacement of objects. In an audit of the National Museum of American History, the museum could not locate 10 percent of items sampled, including historic gold watches and Roman coins. Audits of several other institutions also revealed incomplete collections.

Yes, a seven-year-old report.

Clough then testified that the Smithsonian had invested $462 million to improve its collections management systems and $390 million to fix storage facilities since then. But them Deputy undersecretary Scott Miller told the panel that “Our budget is stretched, and this could inadvertently impact the progress we have made.”

This week’s budget for the Smithsonian from the House Appropriations allocated $660 million for the Smithsonian, down $155 million versus last year’s enacted level. They must have known that something of this nature was coming — or should have.

If Clough did help engineer this, his strategy hasn’t quite worked — yet. It still might. Obviously the full House has to take up the budget, as does the Senate. It won’t be a bad thing to have last week’s hearing fresh in the minds of the rest of Congress.

And heaven knows the Smithsonian needs help with its collections. As the Post related:

Smithsonian Inspector General Scott Dahl testified that the Smithsonian is still using inadequate storage space in Suitland, a temporary facility built in the 1950s that was never intended for permanent storage of collection items. In 2010, one of the buildings collapsed in a snowstorm, and another succumbed to the 2011 earthquake. Hazardous materials, such as asbestos, were found in others.

 

The End Of Deitch Comes Tomorrow — UPDATED

I am surprised only by the length of time Jeffrey Deitch has managed to stay director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles..

JDeitchAs I wrote here almost exactly a year ago, on July 27, 2012, his days were numbered:

At the time, MOCA trustee Charles Young, the former chief executive of the Museum of Contemporary Art, urged Eli Broad — who recruited Deitch from his gallery in downtown Manhattan — to dump him.

The LATimes wrote:

[Young] questioned Broad’s “support for Jeffrey, when many about you are no longer willing to give him any credence as a Director of a world-class museum, indeed believe his tenure is likely to take MOCA into the abyss…”

Earlier today, Mike Boehm at the Times picked up on the rumor that I saw over the weekend on Facebook (possibly because of blog posts on LA Weekly, but also just gossip) and wrote:

…MOCAis expected to announce Deitch’s exit along with the news that the museum is nearing completion of a fundraising campaign it announced in March to boost its endowment from about $20 million to $100 million.

The person who spoke with Deitch, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the fundraising success would enable Deitch to exit with a parting accomplishment. Deitch had a five-year contract to lead MOCA and has served slightly more than three years.

I always thought he was a poor choice for director.

What’s next? An interim director and a search — for someone with executive and fundraising capabilities, as well as a vision to lead MOCA out of the fix it’s in, financially and programmatically.

UPDATE, 7/24: Deitch’s resignation is now official.

Appalled By Christie’s “Vulture” Behavior

When a company goes bankrupt, a certain kind of investor comes out of the woodwork trying to make a killing: if they buy assets at distressed prices, really cheap, they can often wait a few years and resell at a very big profit. They are called vulture investors.

detroit-institute-ofI’ve been thinking about the term ever since I read the article headlined Detroit’s Creditors Eye Its Art Collection in the July 20 New York Times, which of course is about the people who would like to sell the art collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts so they can collect on money owed to them by the city. I’ve been thinking about it, not just because of Detroit’s creditors, but rather because of Christie’s, the auction house. The article had this passage:

About a month ago, the institute’s officials were contacted by Christie’s auction house, which asked for an inventory of works and asked if appraisers could visit to assess the collection. It is unclear whether such a visit took place and whether it was creditors or someone else who enlisted Christie’s to begin an appraisal. (Mr. Nowling said that the emergency manager’s office did not do so, and Christie’s declined to comment.)

All I can think of is, shame on Christie’s. Sure, business is business, but let’s remember here that it is NOT the Detroit Institute of Arts that has mismanaged the city and led to the bankruptcy. As far as I can tell, the DIA has husbanded it resources very well and acted responsibly over the last several years.

Is Christie’s so hard up that it will take any business, no matter how reprehensible? That’s sad. Of course Christie’s is positioning itself for the sale, should it be ordered. But if I were a collector wanting to sell, I would not patronize Christie’s because of this. If wanting to buy, yes, I know collectors go with whoever has the “material.”

BTW, I applaud the behavior of the Detroit Institute during this crisis. It just keeps going about its business, trying not to get distracted, and head down. Yesterday, I received this in a press release:

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) will examine and digitally photograph 13 full-scale drawings, known as cartoons, created by Diego Rivera in his preparation for painting the DIA’s internationally renowned Detroit Industry murals. The drawings have not been looked at in more than 30 years, and have never been digitally photographed. The project will take place from July 22 to Aug. 2 and is made possible by a grant from Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project. The grant will also fund any necessary conservation work on the delicate drawings.

ETC. Some of us are “liking’ the DIA on Facebook in a show of support. As of  now, it has 231,851 fans — versus 223,00 in mid-June.

BTW, tomorrow’s New York Times has an article about the closing of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, which over-expanded and had to close in 2010 — offering it as a template for, or lessons relevant to, the situation at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I don’t think so. They are just not comparable.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the DIA

 

 

Winslow Homer Shines At The Clark

And, really, everywhere, doesn’t he?

CLK339895American art historians sometimes self-divide into those who think that Winslow Homer was the greatest American artist of the 19th century and those who think Thomas Eakins was. I have always come down on the Homer side. So it was a real pleasure for me to travel to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute a few weeks ago to see its summer exhibition, Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History.

Sterling Clark also came down on the Homer side. He called Homer one of the greatest artists of the 19th century — “with no qualifying “American” in that accolade,” as I write in my review, published in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal. It’s headlined, Winslow Homer at the Clark Art Institute: The Makings of A Master. He bought more than 200 works by Homer — many were etchings, of course — and owned more works by Homer than any other artist. After his death, the Clark added more.

And, I believe, it has its eye on even more. Making Art, Making History is not a theme show; it’s an exhibition of the Clark’s collection. But the Clark has borrowed four watercolors and one painting from an unnamed private New York collector to fill in some gaps. And don’t they look great with all these others? Ah, the tried-and-true way to woo a donation!

I wish the Clark luck on that.

Here I’ve posted Homer’s marvelous West Point, Prout’s Neck — a painting critics panned when it was first shown – but if you like you can see his famous Undertow at that WSJ link. and four additional works — two paintings, two etchings — on my website.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Clark