Real Clear Arts

Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

DIA Can Play Hardball Too

As the city of Detroit goes through U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking approval of its exit strategy — which includes the “grand bargain” that will save the Detroit Institute of Arts from having sell any works of art — some creditors have been obstructing the way. One, so far, bond insurer Syncora, has cut a deal with the city, agreeing to the plan in exchange for a $50 million payoff (to be raised in a bond issue), plus leases on the tunnel linking Detroit and Windsor, Canada, and a parking garage. Another billion-dollar creditor, insurer FGIC, is still holding out — it remains to be seen if this too can be settled with a side deal or if FGIC will press ahead — and how far.

AMEricksonFGIC is the firm that last summer hired Victor Weiner Associates to assess the value of the collection.   It came with a total of $8.5 billion.

But the DIA is also showing that it, too, can be difficult. This week, DIA’s chief operating officer Annmarie Erickson (at left) told the court that the DIA will sue to protect its collection from sale, according to published reports.

The museum has been preparing for legal challenges for a long time. Last October, the International Foundation for Art Research held a panel called “Art for Sale? Bankruptcy and the Detroit Institute of Arts.,” featuring (among others) Richard Levin, partner and head of the restructuring practice at law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moorem and lawyer for the DIA. Here’s the link to that.

If there is a suit, it could last for years — a strong deterrent to further disruptions from FGIC.

The outcome, for now, remains in the hands of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.

 

More Triumphs And Woes For Frank Gehry

BioMuseumHe’s called (by some) the most important architect working today, which is debatable, but there’s no question that Frank Gehry is one of the world’s most innovative and creative architects. In the U.S., he’s still having trouble with the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, despite a revision in his design delivered earlier this month. According to the Associated Press,

In the revised design, Gehry’s Los Angeles-based team eliminated two large, metal tapestries on the sides of the memorial park, along with some large columns. One long, stainless steel tapestry would remain as a backdrop, depicting the Kansas landscape of Ike’s boyhood home. The park would also include statues of Eisenhower as president and World War II general and inscriptions from some famous speeches.

But if he can’t get traction here, two other big Gehry buildings are opening this fall. Biomuseo, his only commission in Latin America, opens Oct. 2 month at the entrance to the Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean side, in Panama. This museum looks familiar — except for the wild and playful colors. Frankly, pun intended, it looks attractive and, if designed to attract families, inviting.

Biomuseo, btw, is a joint venture with the Smithsonian — specifically, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution. The other parters are “the non-profit Amador Foundation, established by private citizens of Panamá to raise awareness of the country’s natural and cultural history and encourage preservation of its extraordinary biodiversity, and the Government of Panamá, which contributed the site for the project and adjacent revenue-producing properties,” according to a press release.

BioMuseum-aerialThe museum is centered around an outdoor atrium, covered by the canopies, which refer to local buildings and Panamá’s neotropical habitat. Seems fitting to me.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton opens on Oct. 27. It’s definitely a Gehry building but a little different from the others too. It’s supposed to resemble a cloud, and it’s on the northern edge of the Bois de Boulogne.

A few words, but not much, about the exhibitions program are here.  It has 11 exhibition galleries, for permanent collection display and special exhibits–the first about the construction of the building.

Here’s a look at that.

fondationLV

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Biomuseo (top) and Fondation Louis Vuitton (bottom)

 

Here’s What Art Museums Need: A Selfie Ban

That’s not my idea, just in case you were rolling your eyes. It’s the brainstorm of U.K. Arts Council chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette; my only concern is the limit he placed on it — one hour a day.  Just kidding. 

LouvreBut Bazalgette has a point. Neither he nor I are against photography in museums; I take my own photos all the time in museums. Most of the time, what other people are doing doesn’t bother me a whit. But you see those photos of the Mona Lisa gallery at the Louvre (as at left), with some people riding piggyback on others to get a better view, it makes one wonder about how far people will go.

Hence Bazalgette’s comparison of a one-hour ban to the quiet car of a train. It’s not perfect analogy, obviously. I may not be able to go to a museum during the one-hour ban, but there’s a quite car on most trains nowadays. But it’s worth thinking about. Here’s what else he said, as reported by The Telegraph:

Clarifying it would rely on members of staff policing the galleries and reminding people, he added: “But at least people would understand there’s a rule. On the whole, I’m in favour of sharing it as widely as possible.”

Speaking on LBC radio, to presenter James O’Brien, he said galleries and museums had adapted to the ubiquity of technology.

“Their poor curators and people standing there in uniform have had this rule and they tell people not to take photos and they’re fighting a losing battle and they’ve just given in,” Sir Peter said.

“There are some issues, I believe, about flashes and the quality of prints and things, but that’s a relatively minor issue. Do you know something? I’m completely in favour.”

 

 

Matisse Cut-Outs, Records, And Making Art Seem Scarce

103698Back in late June, the Museum of Modern Art bought a quarter-page ad on page 2 of the Weekend section of The New York Times; it ran the full length of the left edge. It caught my eye because it announced that timed tickets were on sale as of that day for Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, which opens on Oct. 12.

The ad did not, btw, list prices for the tickets — just the web address for purchases — but MoMA simply charges general admission for exhibitions, with no added tab. General adult admission is $25.

At the time, I thought it was a bit premature to be selling these tickets. MoMA was probably trying to create scarcity, which drives up prices — not relevant in this case — and to cause that crazy phenomenon called FOMO — fear of missing out. (It worked incredibly well for MoMA last year with Rain Room.)

This instance, so far, it hasn’t. Today, when I sampled the website for tickets, I was able to access tickets for every date I tried and for virtually all times.

But I doubt it will matter. MoMA will undoubtedly have a hit on its hands: these works are, of course, gorgeous. Matisse is a brand name.

Besides, this show has a track record. This week, the Tate announced that it was its best draw ever:

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs received 562,622 visitors making it the most popular exhibition ever held at Tate and the first to receive over half a million people.

Matisse Picasso at Tate Modern previously held the record as Tate’s most visited exhibition with 467,166 visitors in 2002. This is followed by the Damien Hirst exhibition with 463,087 visitors in 2012. Open for five months from 17 April to 7 September this year, Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs was seen by 3,907 visitors each day.

It will be interesting to see if New York beats London.

Even if early buying didn’t work, MoMA will likely pick up new members once this exhibit receives its due. Members don’t need timed tickets and may enter the show whenever they choose.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of MoMA

Answer to the Ever-Present False Dichotomy About Museums

It’s very trendy these days to insist that museums should be visitor-centered, not art-centered. Most recently, I was called on the carpet yet again for suggesting that art comes first, but not just that; in fact, someone I do not know accused me a restarting the culture wars when I wrote here about the Portland Art Museum’s Parklandia. The blog post was called “The Value of Museum Selfies.”

WGriswoldI’m not going to provide the link, partly because the writer misconstrues and mixes up ideas illogically and uses as justification for selfies that they are “pretty awesome” (not to mention badly misspelling my surname and assuming a familiarity that we do not have). It doesn’t get better, and it’s not worth your time. (You can easily find it if you search for it.)

Whether a museum pays attention to art or visitors is a false dichotomy.  They must do both, and the questions are always: which is the driver and what is the balance. Some museums manage to do it well; others go astray.

But as I was reading the most recent publication sent to me from the Cleveland Museum of Art, I was taken by the way its new director, William Griswold (at left), framed the “issue.” Here is what he wrote:

Cleveland is simultaneously the quintessential connoisseur’s collection and one of the most community-focused museums in the country. At first, this might seem a contradiction; however, it is not if one embraces the premise that the greatest art is great, in part, because it embodies the most eloquent communication of the most universal human experiences. Cleveland has always demonstrated its faith in art to communicate and in audiences to “get it,” and the museum has seen its role as facilitating that connection through beautifully designed galleries, thoughtful interpretive materials, and–in recent years especially–the innovative and intelligent use of technology.

That is exactly right. If curators and museum administrators do their job well, art will do the rest of the job. We need to repeat this, or something like it, again and again.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Cleveland Art Museum