Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Fundraising On American Shores: Tate Finds A Way

I am not a huge fan of foreign museums that expect to raise a lot of money from Americans: it seems to me, as I’ve written here before, that the money mainly flows in one direction — from the U.S. overseas. Not too many Europeans and Asians are giving a lot of money to American museums, though there are exceptions. The Guggenheim, for one, has a couple of foreign trustees, and I would hope that they are providing strong support, as all trustees are supposed to do.  One of them, Victor Potanin, has made a few headlines here for giving. I mention that and more in that previous post.

MatthewBrannonAmerican taxpayers therefore subsidize foreign museums; most other countries do not allow deductions for philanthropic contributions, or limit them, so they don’t have that problems.

So I was set to be mildly annoyed when an email arrived the other day about a benefit here in New York for the Tate Americas Foundation this coming Wednesday. Aside from playing up the celebrity culture by naming the expected guests — “fashion luminaries,” artists (including Matthew Brannon, one of whose works is shown here), collectors, curators, gallerists and museum directors — I was expected to see a number for the expected haul from Americans. You can read more here, though that news item does not contain the list of expected luminaries.

Among its sentences: “Since 1999, the charity has raised over $100 million in cash and art donations,” the charity being the foundation, which was formerly known as American Patrons of Tate.

But I softened on another line: “Money raised from the Artists Dinner will be used to acquire art for Tate from the Americas.” Later, we learn that the funds go into a restricted endowment for that purpose.

That’s better. If American taxpayers are to subsidize foreign institutions, let them all fashion a way that the money helps American artists, although — thinking about it — how “American artist” is defined needs further explanation.

 

 

What Color Is That Gallery? The Spring Show As Trailblazer

blackThe Spring Show at the Park Avenue Armory, which started today, is a new event in the art calendar. This is its third edition, as fair organizers like to term their annual events. It is a mixed offering — mixed in the goods on offer (paintings, furniture, silver, jewelry, flags, artifacts, etc. etc.), mixed in quality, mixed in the geographical home of the dealers, and so on. At the opening preview reception last night, I found plenty of things to enjoy and admire, as well as some that were easy to bypass.

redArt snobs who pass it up are missing something, and so are museum people. True, they won’t find many museum-quality items on offer. But they will find something else: Spring Show galleries provide a laboratory for the color of their walls. Not since Thelma Golden hung Bob Thompson’s paintings on bright yellow walls at the Whitney in 1998 have I seen such an eye-opening display. (OK, there was the Brooklyn Museum’s experiment with neon colors for its American art galleries, but I didn’t and don’t like those. But the beige walls in the Metropolitan Museum’s American paintings galleries are just as awful.)

greenSince then, we’ve seen museums expand their use of colored walls — as I mentioned in my last post, the Brooklyn very successfully used melon walls for its current Sargent exhibition, and I’ve noticed marvelous shades of blue, olive, deep purple, gold, etc. etc. in many museums. Even in contemporary art exhibitions, white walls are not the required uniform anymore.

What did I see last night? Black. Turquoise. Deep Green. Bright red.

I took pictures, some posted here, but they don’t do the job as well as I’d have liked. Exposure was difficult because the dealers put spotlights on their offerings.

multi2But you will get the drift.

Turquoise
Ain’t it grand? And worth experimenting with?

 

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Photo Credits:  © Judith H. Dobrzynski

Teaching Technique In The Galleries

SargentGalleryHaving written about the exhibition of John Singer Sargent’s watercolors at the Brooklyn Museum before it opened, I was curious to see it in the flesh. I went over the weekend, and am happy to say that it lives up to expectations. One surprise — the color of the walls behind the artworks, which was melon, verging on orange. But not the neon orange the Brooklyn Museum has used in its American art galleries. Rather, it’s a soft orange that you might find in a posh apartment on Park Ave. You can get a sense of it in my picture, at left.

SargentTech2You can also see that the exhibition was quite crowded, which I was also pleased to see. Interestingly, it was more crowded than the El Anatsui exhibition, which also got rave reviews, including one from me on this blog. I was surprised, but the only conclusion I can draw is that Sargent has bigger name recognition. (In case you missed the news last week, the Brooklyn has acquired Black Block — which I show on the link above along with Red Block, which is owned by Eli Broad).

In my March piece on Sargent, I wrote:

In Brooklyn, the museum engaged a watercolorist to demonstrate six of Sargent’s watercolor techniques, including wax resist and scraping, in videos that will be shown on small monitors in the galleries.

Those videos were another item on my list of things to check in on. Were they obtrusive? Were people watching?

The answer to the first question is no, definitely not. The videos are quite small — maybe 6 by 4 inches, but I didn’t measure –and they are embedded in the wall, next to the painting they are illuminating. The mounting stand out from the wall by just an inch or so. They are also interesting, though they do take a little patience — the artist paints in real time, without being speeded up in post-production. I think they work.

I’ve posted a couple of examples here — the first, at top right, is drybrush painting. I did not see the wax-resist video, but one was out-of-order while I was there. Or maybe I just missed it. Those below show how the videos look in the galleries.

SargentTech1

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Photo Credits:  © Judith H. Dobrzynski

 

Mellon And MoMA: A New Kind Of Research Team?

Museums conduct all kinds of research, if sometimes fitfully. Recently, I learned of a new effort, though, which might break some ground. It brings graduate students and faculty to a museum’s collection. It’s happening at the Museum of Modern Art and funded by the Mellon Foundation, though neither one of them has published a press release.

Keifer-WoodenRoomThe best information I found online was in the form of a job posting. It’s for the role of “museum research project coordinator,” and despite the low-end title and mostly administrative duties, it requires a master’s degree. Go figure.

From the posting, we can glean something about the project:

With the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art has embarked on a four-year (January 1, 2013–December 31, 2016), Museum-based pilot program for the study of objects in MoMA’s collection in partnership with graduate students and faculty from the art history programs at Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. This Museum Research Consortium is intended to facilitate the joint study of key works in MoMA’s collection by curators and conservators from the Museum and faculty and graduate students from participating universities.

This will be accomplished through semi-annual Consortium Study Sessions for the study and discussion of selected groups of objects.  In addition, the Museum will host five annual full-time Fellows in a one-year mentorship program to work with a MoMA curator in the execution of various scholarly curatorial projects and programs, including the organization of exhibitions, collection displays, and collection development and interpretation.

One good thing about this is that it puts graduate students in close contact with MoMA’s  great works of art — they won’t be studying just theory or depending on slides. Another: MoMA will dig more deeply on a sustained basis into its permanent collection. It will learn new things that might lead to public disclosures, new exhibitions, new connections, or something completely different.

I like it.

Now what should be the research priorities? I surely do not know. I selected this work, Wooden Room by Anselm Keifer, simply to show something from the collection that, while on view (according to the website) is not already known by everyone.

Photo Credit: © 2013 Anselm Kiefer, Courtesy of MoMA

 

How Do You Say Sic Transit Gloria In German?

In Frankfurt this summer, the Städel Museum is presenting “a major survey on the lifework of the famous painter and graphic artist.” Running from July 3 to Sept. 29, it will show an artist “once celebrated by the public and art critics alike as the ‘greatest German master’.”

o_Hans_Thoma_Der_KriegHis name is Hans Thoma.  Who? Yes, “Hans Thoma: ‘The German People’s Favourite Painter’ ” will be reveal the work of a man born in 1839, with a career that spanned decades until his death in 1924. The Städel says it is out to show that

Thoma was far more than just the painter of picturesque Black Forest landscapes with which he is commonly associated today. The Städel survey aims, on the contrary, to introduce an oeuvre that will doubtless prove unexpectedly multifaceted for many visitors – with regard to the motifs and themes as well as the artistic media employed. The spectrum of Thoma’s art encompasses not only paintings and prints but also wall decorations, calendars and postcard books as well as primers for children. … With a wide range of different pictorial genres and themes, he catered to a public that was hoping for an art that would provide it with values and contents suitable for establishing a national identity.

Well, have a look and decide for yourself. I pasted a few of Thoma’s works here.

o_Hans_Thoma_Zug_der_Goetter_nach_WalhallaBut whatever you think, I commend the Städel for going against the crowd, digging into its collection — it owns nearly ninety paintings and several hundred works on paper by Thoma — and showing an artist that seems so retro. Max Hollein, the museum’s director, said he was doing it because Thoma, “in his day, played a central role in German art and society.” And Felix Krämer, the head of the Department of Modern Art at the Städel and curator of the exhibition, added that “Thoma’s role as a key figure in ‘German art’ around 1900 – an exploitation which continued until well into the National Socialist era – renders him a phenomenon that demands reassessment.”

o_Hans_Thoma_Selbstbildnis_vor_BirkenwaldI can’t imagine that they expect overflow crowds, particularly not younger crowds – though I may be wrong. German interest in art may differ from American’s.

The conclusion may be that Thoma belongs in storage, but let’s see. In the meantime, museums elsewhere might consider if they have someone like Thoma in their storerooms. They, too, might merit a current look.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Stadel (top to bottom — “The War,” “Train of the Gods to Valhalla,” Self-Portrait)