Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Does Crowdfunding Work? Not So Far

Back on Nov. 6, the Phillips Collection sent me an email about a worthy effort: it had started a crowd-funding campaign for a micro-website about Jacob Lawrence. It would feature “unpublished interviews between the artist and museum curators in 1992 and 2000, including one conducted just prior to the artist’s death.” The point, obviously, was to engage people in learning about Lawrence, particularly because the Phillips plans to present the exhibition Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series (one image at left) in fall, 2016, following its presence at the Museum of Modern Art next spring.

JLMigrationThe site will have high-resolution images of the 60 panels in the series–which depicts the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North between World War I and World War II–with text explaining each work. It will also present archival photographs, sound clips and videos of musical and theatrical performances, plus historical events, illustrating “the life and times of Lawrence,”  and a lot about Lawrence’s life.

But the Phillips needed $125,000 for the sight, and decided to launch a month-long, grass-roots campaign for the $45,000 it had not raised privately. It started the campaign on Nov. 10 on the crowd-funding site Indiegogo.

It’s not going well. With 15 days left, it has raised only $1,675–or 4 percent of its goal. That came from 34 funders.

Now, it may true that crowd-funders wait till the last minute, the way auction bidders do. But the Phillips has a long way to go here. What went wrong? Perhaps the name is not “popular” enough.

The Phillips has a long tradition with Lawrence:

In 1942, museum founder Duncan Phillips expressed great enthusiasm for Lawrence’s Migration Series upon seeing it at the Downtown Gallery. That year, Phillips gave Lawrence his first solo museum exhibition, and soon after purchased the odd numbered panels. The Phillips has remained deeply committed to sharing and expanding Lawrence’s legacy and achievements with broad and diverse audiences.

  • In the 1990s, the Phillips organized an eight-city national tour of the complete Migrations Series. It also led a major study of Lawrence’s life through symposia, conferences, and interdisciplinary panels.

  • In 2000, Lawrence personally selected the Phillips to organize his retrospective. The highly-acclaimed exhibition premiered at the Phillips and traveled to five other major cities.

  • In 2007–08, the Phillips launched a five-venue NEA American Masterpieces touring exhibition featuring selections from the series. The tour brought Lawrence’s masterpiece to underserved communities throughout the US and was accompanied by a major educational outreach program.

I hope it does not end up with egg on its face with this campaign.

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve (Day)?

Many museums schedule plenty of holiday events in December, but probably not for New Year’s Eve. So the message from the Currier Museum (pictures) in Manchester, NH, caught my eye. It was for something called “Noon Year’s Eve” on Dec. 31, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. I think that’s a grand idea–the association between museums and holidays is a good one, in my mind.

Manchester, New Hampshire, Currier Museum of Art,Here is the description of the Currier event:

Northern New England’s biggest family-friendly New Year’s Eve event gets better every year. Ring in 2015 a few hours early at the Currier Museum of Art’s third annual Noon Year’s Eve party! Wrap up a day of celebrations with bubble-wrap fireworks and a huge balloon drop. Enjoy fun art-making activities, face painting and live entertainment. We’ll have a scavenger hunt around the galleries and you can take in the mind-bending blockbuster exhibition, M.C. Escher: Reality and Illusion. Enjoy all sorts of kid-friendly food, hot cocoa and more. Dress in your party best and celebrate the New Year at the Currier! Cheers!

A longer description is here. Tickets, which cost $19 in advance for adults and $22 at the door ($10 and $13, respectively for those 17 and younger), go on sale on Dec 1. The museum says it has drawn about 600 people in each of the two previous years.

Does your museum have a noteworthy New Year’s Eve event? Please leave a comment about it below if it does.

By the way, I still laud the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for remaining open 365 days a year, including for Thanksgiving dinner, which started in 2010. At this writing, Thanksgiving dinner this year is sold out. But there’s room for the Christmas dinner as of today.

Directorial Job News: Emily Neff Out, Benedict Leca In

1383588824466Emily Neff, who took the job as director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma just last January, left the job quietly last month. Neff, who was formerly curator of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, resigned–probably under pressure–in early October, according to local reports, and it was accepted by the university president, David Boren, and then in late October by the board of regents. .

I have not been able to reach Neff, so I will not be able to go into details. But my understanding from talking with art world sources is that it was a mismatch from the get-go. Her strategy and her approach did not mesh with those of the museum’s advisory board or staff.

Neff, also chief curator at the Fred Jones museum, was a fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership a few years ago and is president of the Association of Art Museum Curators.

Here is a link to one of the local reports, in the Oklahoman,

BenedictFull11.20.14On a more pleasant note, Benedict Leca, who curated The World is An Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cezanne exhibition (answering five questions about it here) at the Barnes, and had been chief curator of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, in Ontario, and previously curator of European art at the Cincinnati Art Museum, has been named executive director of the Redwood Library & Athenæum in Newpost, RI.

The Redwood has a permanent collection of art, as well as space for changing exhibitions, I’m told. Currently, it is presenting a small show called Portraits of Interiors, including “interior landscapes of Newport houses by Walter Gay, David Mode Payne, and Mstislav Dobujinsky as well as contemporary artists working in and continuing the legacy of this genre.”

Leca’s vision for the Redwood includes “expansive art exhibitions,” I’m told. He starts Jan. 15.

You can read more about him and the Redwood here.

Photo Credits: University of Oklahoma (top); Redwood Library (bottom)

 

Oops: There’s Bigger News Today From Sotheby’s – UPDATED

RuprechtWilliam Ruprecht, the CEO, is stepping down, and the board has begun a search for a new chief executive. Obviously, while I was busy here writing about the Georgia O’Keeffe record sale today at Sotheby’s, a lot more was happening on York Avenue in NYC.

The announcement arrived a short time ago:

Ruprecht, who has served as CEO since 2000, will continue as Chairman, President and CEO until his successor is in place to ensure a smooth transition.

The Board has formed a Search Committee to oversee the recruiting of a new CEO and has retained Spencer Stuart, a leading executive search firm, to assist in the process.  The Committee is led by Domenico De Sole, Lead Independent Director.

Ruprecht joined the company in 1980 and became CEO in 2000. He’s been beleaguered by activist hedge fund manager Daniel S. Loeb for a long time now. Last May, Loeb joined the board, along with two colleagues, and he hasn’t let up the pressure to get better performance out of Sotheby’s. Ruprecht’s days were numbered.

Here’s a link to the Bloomberg story on the situation last May.

UPDATE, 11/21: The New York Times, which got this story out there first, has what I think is the most complete wrap-up of the situation, including yesterday’s 7% stock jump on the news in after-hours trading. At the moment, the stock maintaining most of the jump. But it will be interesting to watch who Loeb and his pals bring in. The NYT story reminds us that:

…Mr. Loeb took on Yahoo two years ago, unearthing evidence that the company’s chief executive at the time had overstated his academic credentials. He gained three board seats and then helped the company hire Marissa Mayer as its chief.

He later sold the majority of his stake back to Yahoo for $1.2 billion, earning a big profit.

Yahoo’s stock is certainly trading above where it was two years ago, but it’s still considered a company in search of a mission.

 

 

Sotheby’s Roars Back In American Art

Years ago, when I first started covering auctions, Sotheby’s always had the best American art sales. Lots of people didn’t even bother going to Christie’s to look, I recall.

GO'KJimson WeedBut that changed, and for the last several years, as in most categories, Christie’s has surpassed Sotheby’s in this category, getting the best art and posting the best sales totals.  Not this week. Thanks to three consignments by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Sotheby’s sale today reached $75.4 million, far exceeding it presale high estimate of $46 million–though that figure does not include the buyer’s premium and the grand total does.

Credit O’Keeffe, whose three works fetched a total of $50.4 million–which will go into the museum’s acquisitions fund. O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, brought $44.4 million, more than three times the previous world auction record for any female artist, and more than seven times the previous auction record for O’Keeffe. Sotheby’s reported:

Seven bidders competed for Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, but it was a prolonged battle between two determined bidders that drove the price to this record height – nearly tripling the work’s high estimate of $15 million. The work is a well-known example of O’Keeffe’s celebrated flower paintings, which in turn stand among the most recognizable images in both art history and popular culture.

The buyer wishes to remain anonymous.

The museum’s other tw0 works On the Old Santa Fe Road, fetched the second-highest price of the day, , nearly $5,1 million against an estimate of $2- to 3 million, and Untitled (Skunk Cabbage) sold for $941,000 against an estimate of $500,000 to $750,000.

Sotheby’s is naturally happy about this. Christie’s American art sale yesterday totaled $46.5 million. The top lot was Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis: Hometown News at nearly $4.2 million. But there’s a little catch: the connection to the O’Keeffe Museum is John Marion, Sotheby’s legendary auctioneer, who retired in 1995. His wife, the former Anne Burnett, founded the O’Keeffe museum. Whether Sotheby’s can keep this up without Marion is the key question. But it would be nice to see a return of some razzle dazzle to the American art market.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sotheby’sÂ