The Historic Heartland Travel Association had its monthly meeting on December 5, convening in Covington, Georgia, for its last gathering of the year. Held on the first Wednesday of every month, the meetings are meant to highlight the tourism units of cities throughout the state.
Michael Lachowski explained why he sees the organization as a worthwhile use of his time as public relations coordinator for the museum. He said, “The Historic Heartland Travel Association is one way that the museum is able to keep its role as a tourism attraction in the minds of tourism professionals in our region — because in their capacities in their local tourism offices or welcome centers, attractions or lodgings, these people have opportunities to assist travelers with recommendations for other places. Monthly meetings feature speakers on a variety of tourism topics. State tourism staff assist with the association and provide updates on activities and opportunities at the state level. This is a low-cost way for the museum to reiterate its role as the official state museum of art.”
The Historic Heartland Region of Georgia consists of cities from Athens and Watkinsville to Perry and Augusta. The association aims to help visitors explore the state of Georgia through various trails and local guides.
Athens, one of the most exciting cities in the region, is well represented throughout this association. Among other stops, the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, Lyndon House Arts Center and Georgia Theatre all top the list of ways to spend your days in town. The most recent meeting of the association boasted new highlights for the area, including Maepole’s opening, Condor Chocolate factory tours and 600 new hotel rooms opening in the downtown area.
And, of course, the Georgia Museum of Art is a must-see stop on the Athens program. With a world-class permanent collection and rotating temporary and traveling exhibitions, our free museum is a valuable asset to local Athens residents and visitors alike.
To learn more about the Historic Heartland’s official Athens recommendations, you can view its guide here.
Our director is still traveling. Above, he's posing in front of a horse sculpture by Ed Mell in Scottsdale, Ariz., and below he sent us a photo of Mary Koon, in our department of publications, eating a whoopie pie in Phoenix. Mary joined Bill there to do research on fashion at the Phoenix Art Museum.
Our director's on the road at the moment, as he often is, and he sent us this iPhone photo of himself with artist Joyce Wellman. Click around her website to see her wide-ranging work.
Just recently back from New York City where I spent Wednesday visiting galleries, including Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (where I saw the abstract expressionism display), Hollis Taggart Galleries, and Kraushaar Galleries. Future exhibitions, possible acquisitions, and other projects should result. I also visited the Whitney Museum of American Art and especially enjoyed the Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Times exhibition. The Whitney had a "no photography at all" rule and a security guard in every single gallery, so my stealth picture-taking was more limited than normal. The display had plenty of well-known Hoppers, of course, but included Reginald Marsh, Charles Burchfield, Alfred Stieglitz, Ben Shahn, and many other artists that helped contextualize Hopper's career.
On Thursday, I spent all day in the West Village and in Newark, New Jersey meeting with board members from The Heliker-LaHotan Foundation and viewing the warehouse storage space where many John Heliker paintings and sketchbooks are kept. A future project or two might result from the meeting.
Last week I attended the 99th annual conference of the College Art Association (CAA) in New York. The main impetus for my attendance this year was an invitation to participate in a session on technologies used for teaching art and art history called “Digital to Analog: Changing Technologies.” My fellow presenters were Cherise Smith, from the art history faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, and Wendy Redstar, a studio art professor at Portland State University. My paper gave an overview and evaluation of the Georgia Museum of Art’s use of technology for education, as well as our presentation of new media art. Items I covered included our new website and some of its in-the-works additions; our forthcoming smart phone apps; the Second Life version of our museum; our Kress Project and its potential for new media submissions; our collections database and our plans to upgrade it; the digitization of our Pierre Daura finding aid; digital didactics I’m considering for our galleries; and our new media and time-based exhibition programming in our Alonzo and Vallye Dudley Gallery (currently featuring a video by Anthony Goicolea). The audience seemed duly impressed with our many initiatives, and I’m pleased to say that my paper was very well received.
More important, my solicitation for other ideas on how to use technology to further our mission was met with enthusiastic feedback after the session. Perhaps the most exciting idea I heard was from Matthew Lewis (London Metropolitan University), who told me about an iPhone app developed by the Learning Technologies Research Institute, London. This app offers a real-time/real-space digital overlay of what various historic building components looked like in the past and/or their interior construction. One way this might be applicable to us would be to use it for our Menabuoi altarpiece reconstruction in our Kress Gallery, where there is currently a wall drawing that suggests the original ensemble. Building on our wall drawing and incorporating the dismembered Menabuoi panels, such an application might begin by providing information about typical trecento iconographic programs (the placement of saints, for instance). It could then show you images of some of the elements of the altarpiece that have been identified and explain how their exact placements are uncertain (e.g., the three-quarter-length saints in the second register, or the roundel figures at the top). Then you could decide where you think these elements should go: You would hold your iPhone or similar device up, and, on your screen, you would see what the whole thing might have looked like as you move your phone around in front of you. How cool is that!?
This year’s conference offered many other useful sessions, and I was especially gratified to see that more museum-related topics were offered than in the past. Of particular interest to me was one entitled “Making Museums Matter: Integrating Collection and Exhibition Programs with College Curriculum.” Colette Crossman from the Blanton Museum of Art at UT Austin discussed ways to engage chemistry, studio art and art history majors in the galleries through conservation studies programs, which included unframing paintings in the gallery to allow students to further their understanding of technical and stylistic issues. Carin Jacobs (Graduate Theological Union) focused on faculty use of museums’ collections and ways to encourage repeated visits and sustained close looking. One of the best suggestions I heard was to solicit extended label text (the descriptions that sometimes follow the basic label information) from professors in multiple departments. That way, a single work of art might have two, three, or even more labels addressing connections to a wide range of different academic disciplines, all with the authors’ information given. According to Jacobs, this method helps break away from the single, authoritative, institutional voice common to this type of text.
Another particularly relevant session for me was entitled “Recurating,” in which one of the topics was the recreation of historical exhibitions. As I am currently preparing something of a re-creation of the 1930 exhibition of the group Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square), Reesa Greenberg’s discussion of similar projects involving El Lissitzky’s 1927 Cabinet of Abstraction offered valuable insights about the issues involved in such undertakings. Another noteworthy session (although there were many others of scholarly interest to me) was called “Beyond the Slideshow: Teaching the History of Art and Material Culture in the Age of New Media” and was a good complement to my session. David Jaffee discussed the Digital Media Lab at the Bard Graduate Center, which is a wonderful model for using technology for teaching. Its use of wikis for course materials was especially inspiring. Donald Beetham from Rutgers University presented art-historical uses for Second Life, where GMOA was used as an example of what museums are doing in the virtual world.
In other College Art Association news, Georgia Strange, director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, was elected to the CAA Board of Directors. Congratulations, Georgia! We're all glad you'll be helping lead this important organization. On a historical note, Lamar Dodd himself was the 1954-56 president of CAA.
Of course, being in New York City, it would have been criminal not to see some art too. I visited some galleries in Chelsea, where the most impressive show I saw was Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” at Paula Cooper Gallery. It’s a 24-hour montage of scenes from different Hollywood movies in which a clock appears. All of the times that appear in Marclay’s video correspond to the actual time the viewer is seeing them. The exhibition has been the rave of the New York art scene, and as Marclay is someone I’ve been following for years—I know him through his interest in music, sound, and visual art--it was great to see him get this kind of recognition.
I managed to make it to MOMA (or at least their second, fourth and fifth floors), the Met (albeit far too briefly), and the Guggenheim for its exhibition “Art in Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910–1918," which was also right up my alley. I do have to say that my past adoration of these venerable institutions was diminished somewhat now that I compare every museum to our own newly renovated and expanded facility. We really do have a world-class building and collection! I had hoped to visit the Frick Collection and the New Museum while I was there, but when in NYC, there never seems to be enough time. At least I’ve always got reasons to go back!
Laura Rhicard, who works in our Daura department, just got back from a trip to the 2010 Art Museum libraries symposium and wrote it up for us, as follows:
Your Museum Has a Library?
This question and more were some of the issues discussed at the 2010 Art Museum Libraries Symposium, held at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA September 23 and 24. The symposium was organized by Sidney Berger, director of the Phillips Library at the PEM, and his planning team, who secured a grant from the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) for the event. Funding was also provided by the Kress Foundation, to which I am grateful for providing a scholarship for my attendance at the symposium.
When I arrived in Salem on Wednesday, everyone was pleased to see that the warm weather had followed me from Georgia, and I was somewhat surprised to observe that Halloween prep was already in full swing in the small New England town dedicated to all things “witchy.” Apparently Halloween is very publicly celebrated throughout the month of October in Salem, and revelers flock from far and wide to participate. It’s like Mardi Gras, just with more fake blood and Victorian frock coats.
The PEM, however, was projecting more of an Imperial China theme, with its current special exhibition of “The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City.” On view to the public for the first time, the exhibition showcases items from the Qianlong Garden, a long-forgotten 18th-century compound hidden within the Forbidden City. You can learn more about it in this video. Another highlight, the Yin Yu Tang House, dismantled and transported from southeastern China and reconstructed piece-by-piece at the PEM, adds to the museum’s extensive collection of Asian art and provides the opportunity to study the artistic and cultural heritage of rural China. I very much enjoyed touring the house, which was built during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and is the ancestral home of the Huang family. You can explore the house yourself on the PEM’s award-winning, interactive micro-site.
But I digress! The symposium, which was held in the PEM’s auditorium, consisted of two keynote addresses and six sessions presented by 15 insightful and entertaining speakers from the art museum and museum library/archives fields. The main reoccurring theme across the sessions seemed to be “collaboration,” as in, how can art museum libraries better work together with their parent institutions to support the institutional mission? Other important points I came away with were:
• Today’s art libraries (and museums) must be flexible in serving audiences the way they want to be served, not the way we think they want to be served. • Art museum libraries must strive to find the right balance between serving internal and external museum audiences. • By making our collection info more accessible and searchable, we can inspire greater use of our holdings by a larger audience. • Contributions to museum exhibitions by the library and archives both broadens the audience and provides a powerful vehicle for developing closer relationships with other parts of the institution.
Two presentations I found particularly interesting were given by Michelle Elligott, museum archivist at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), and James Forrest, web creative director for the PEM. Elligott recounted the history of MoMA’s institutional archives and provided several examples of how these archives have been very successfully integrated into exhibitions, promotions and even retail opportunities at the museum. Forrest, speaking during a session on “Data Unity in the Institution,” stressed the importance of always keeping the end user in mind and of a positive user experience as both the library and institution’s main goal. As you can see from the links I’ve provided earlier, the PEM utilizes high-quality photos, video and what Forrest referred to as “focused data sets” on its website to deliver “curated” experiences to the user.
How they are reaching out in this way ties in well with what PEM deputy director Joshua Basseches brought up in the Future Trends wrap-up session of the symposium: with the level of information accessibility today and the way in which many people are acting as their own curators (think about all the personalized iTunes libraries and playlists), museums will need to meet this demand for customization by patrons wishing to self-curate their museum experience. And this is where libraries and archives can step in to organize and provide the necessary content! The patron still may not know the museum has a library, but at least now the library is serving the museum’s mission in perhaps a more active way.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Art Museum Libraries Symposium, and I look forward to helping implement some of the ideas presented at the GMOA library when the building project is complete. As for Salem, I think a second trip is in order, seeing as I did not have time to visit the Witch Museum! (Or the New England Pirate Museum, or Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery, or Dracula’s Castle Haunted House, or my personal favorite, The 40 Whacks Museum: Lizzy Borden’s Story….)
Todd Rivers, head prep, just went on a trip on museum business and he wrote us up a little something about his journeys. The slideshow above is a selection of the photos he took.
Last week, I accompanied our director, Bill Eiland, on a trip to several cities in Virginia and both North and South Carolina to visit Jay Robinson (an artist whose work is represented in our collection), museum donors and the newly constructed additions to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Meeting Jay Robinson was an experience. He has an air of confidence and the work schedule of someone in his late teens or early 20s. He told us some days he sleeps until 1 p.m. and paints into the wee hours of the morning. He described his recent watercolors as abstractions of elements and particles on a molecular level. They have fluid movement and intense color. He treated us to a wonderful dinner, during which he told us stories about his experiences at Cranbrook, his trips to Africa and the Belgian Congo in the 1950s, his work for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C., and the tragedy of a studio fire that clamed the bulk of his early work. The evening was capped by a tour of his sketchbooks chronicling the indigenous people of Africa and Asia.
The tour of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts started with lunch in the museum’s café and a brief visit to a storage facility to see works in Morton Traylor’s “Miner Series.” The museum’s grand hall resembles old railroad terminals and boasts the two largest invisibly supported panes of glass in the United States. We discussed some of the challenges their new building poses and how taxing the additional load has been for its staff members.
Next, we traveled to Charlottesville, Va., and had a quick visit and dinner with author and art historian Paul Barolsky. Early the next morning, we drove to nearby Gordonsville to pick up a chest from the Daura family.
After loading the chest, we traveled to Raleigh, N.C., to the North Carolina Museum of Art. If you have not seen its new permanent collection addition, please make arrangements to do so. This addition, which is separate from the existing museum, sits on the rolling hills like a glass warehouse. The state-of-the-art facility is completely run by computers that automatically lower and raise the shades of the exterior window walls as the sun travels across the museum. Natural light floods the galleries through glass that triple filters for UV and minimizes lumens. We finished the day by having dinner with Anne Thomas.
On the final day, we picked up some prints by Howard Thomas and drove to Rock Hill, S.C., to view the exhibition “Edmund Lewandowski: Precisionism and Beyond” at Winthrop University Galleries so we could get a feel for the show, which will open at GMOA September 10, 2011.
Our patrons are back from their wonderful trip to the Hudson River Valley, where they enjoyed enviable weather, attended the races at Saratoga and toured numerous museums and collections. Friends membership coordinator Tim Brown took tons of photos, and the slideshow appears above. Ooh, aah and make a note to yourself that you want to go on the next trip like this!
Todd Rivers, head preparator, just got back from a trip to Texas with director Bill Eiland to work on an exhibition, and they hit up a ton of museums while there. Todd had this to say about what they say, and his slideshow of photographs follows:
On Wednesday, we visited with Charles Jones of LaNana Creek Press and viewed books that have been produced and books in progress. Overall, it is a nice collection, and it was nice as well to see the progression throughout the body of publications produced thus far.
That evening we visited with a private collector to see works of art from the Taller de Gráfica Popular. These were great works and contain very powerful and allegorical subject matter. This collector also has a phenomenal collection of hand-crafted rare books, including works by Leonard Baskin and the Gehenna Press, Michael Kuch and the Double Elephant Press, and many more fine presses and artists.
On Thursday we traveled to Fort Worth to visit some museums and see some art. We visited the Amon Carter Museum, which was designed by Philip Johnson, and viewed a wonderful collection of works by artists including William Harnett, William Hogarth, Stuart Davis, and Thomas Moran. We also viewed the exhibition “Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s–50s.” Next was the Kimble Art Museum, designed by Louis Kahn, which houses a collection of European masterworks by Jacques-Louis David, Diego Velázquez, El Greco, and Michelangelo. The Museum of Modern Art of Fort Worth, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, is an exquisite collection of modern art and has on view works by RichardSerra, Anselm Kiefer, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Martin Puryear, Felix Gonzales Torres, Donald Judd, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
On Friday we went into downtown Dallas to visit more museums. We visited the Dallas Museum of Art and viewed works by René Magritte, Alberto Giacometti, El Lissitzky, Odilon Redon, Franz von Stuck, Claude Monet, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Fredric Church, William Harnett, and Dale Chihuly. We also saw the exhibitions “José Guadalupe Posada: The Birth of Mexican Modernism” and “Coastlines: Images of Land and Sea.”Next was the Nasher, designed by Renzo Piano, which houses a great sculpture collection including works by Serra, Pablo Picasso, Gianlorenzo Bernini, and Giacometti and had an exhibition of Rachel Whiteread drawings. After lunch at the Nasher we headed to the Crow Collection, and saw a nice little collection of Asian art including crystal balls, jade statues, and wooden pagodas and pergolas. We also viewed the exhibitions “New Vision: Ballpoint Drawings by Il Lee” and “Modern Twist: Bamboo Works from the Clark Center and the Art of Motoko Maio.”
As promised last week, here is part two of “Notes from the Midwest:”
My last installment ended with Bill, Beau, and me in Milwaukee, having had an inspiring day at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM). We drove back to Chicago that evening just in time to pick up the indomitable Dr. Perri Lee Roberts from O’Hare. Perri Lee (most people call her “Perri,” but we like to be Southern about it) is Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at University of Miami, and authored our most recent publication, and one of our grandest efforts to date: the three-volume Corpus of Early Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections: The South. Never one to rest on her laurels, Perri Lee is now embarking on an exhibition for us. To quote from the prospectus: A prominent scholar, teach, curator, administrator, and collector, Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf (1901-1983) is a well-known figure in Renaissance art historical studies. Prompted by his belief that the so-called minor, decorative arts were essential to an understanding of the history of the material world, he assembled a unique collection of Italian medals, plaquettes, textiles, and wrapping paper.
Middeldorf was also a key researcher of the Kress Collection, part of which is now housed at GMOA. Middeldorf’s own collection of medals, plaquettes, and textiles resides at the Indiana University Art Museum. We were originally scheduled to meet up with Perri Lee in Bloomington to look at those objects, but fate was kind and gave us a couple extra days with her beforehand. More on the Middeldorf exhibition research and planning momentarily.
We started the next day with a trip to the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago. Although their space is limited—have I mentioned lately how lucky we are to be getting such a great building in only a few more months?—their collection is superb. I was especially interested in the way they organize their galleries thematically, rather than by period or region. This is a strategy I intend to use on a more limited scale in our Holder Gallery, in which we’ll display our European art from the 18th-20th centuries. I find that this approach encourages meaningful comparisons while allowing one to show a broad range of artistic styles in a relatively small space.
After our visit to the Smart, the three of us hit the road for Champaign/Urbana to visit Beau’s folks and their outstanding collection of American Post-War art. On the way, we made a stop at Governors State University in Middle-of-Nowhere, Illinois (Monee, IL, technically, but I never saw a town). In part one of this post, I said that we visited “one of the best, but least-known, outdoor contemporary sculpture collections in the country.” That may have been bordering on hyperbole, but for its renown—or lack thereof—it really is the best sculpture park I’ve seen. Twenty-six monumental public sculptures reside on a rugged 750 acres tract, where the only groundskeeping is a mown trail through the underbrush. It takes some hiking, but the interaction with the works this offers makes it well worth the sweat and bug-bites. Highlights for me included their sculptures by Mark di Suvero, For Lady Day, 1969 (54’ x 50’ x 35’), and Martin Puryear, Bodark Arc, 1982 (2.25 acres—I love the dimensions in acreage), as well as a temporary installation by Icelandic artist, Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir, Horizons, 2007-08, pictures of which are included in the slideshow above.
Continuing on the drive to Champaign, we brainstormed about possible titles for the Middeldorf exhibition. After some failed attempts at alliteration on my part and Perri Lee’s, Bill came up with the winner: “Materials of Culture.” Of course, this will be followed by the typical colon and more descriptive subtitle.
We made it to Champaign in time to see some of Randy and Shelia Ott’s collection and to freshen up before dinner. Meeting Beau’s parents, it was easy to see where he got both his unfailing charm and his impeccable taste. We had a thoroughly delightful evening at the Ott’s home, filled with conversations ranging from art (of course), to Portuguese Fado music (Bill and Randy are both fans), to cattle breeding (both Randy and my dad were large animal veterinarians), not to mention a meal that was as beautiful as it was delicious. They had us over for breakfast the next morning, and then we hit the road again, this time for Bloomington.
When we arrived in Bloomington, work on our project was already well underway. Christa Thurman, formerly Chair of Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago, is helping us evaluate Middeldorf’s fabric samples to determine which we will use for the exhibition, and she and Nan Brewer, IU Art Museum’s curator of works on paper, had already examined most of the hundreds of textiles in their collection. After some more looking and talking, we narrowed our selection further, choosing pieces made in Italy during the Renaissance that offer a range of styles and techniques. I’m really excited about the “wall power” these will bring to the show; they’re gorgeous.
That evening, Heidi Gealt, director of the IU Art Museum, took us out to dinner, where we were joined by her husband, Barry Gealt, and Bill Itter, both accomplished artists and studio professors at IU. Bill Itter actually has a show up at the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s Gallery 307 right now, which I highly recommend. I’m a big fan of both Barry’s and Bill’s work, and had a wonderful time hearing about their pedagogical approaches at IU as well as their student days at Yale (both were in the MFA program there at the same time as artists like Chuck Close, Richard Serra, Nancy Graves, etc.). To top off the evening, we were treated to a double rainbow as we left the restaurant.
The next morning, Bill Eiland went to see Bill Itter’s collection of African pottery while Perri Lee and I returned to the IU Art Museum to look at Middledorf’s medals and plaquettes. Here again, we were choosing objects created during the Italian Renaissance. These will be a perfect complement to the textiles, I think. Although they’re not particularly exciting from a distance, for me, they sustain close study much longer, and offer a range of fascinating subjects, from portraits to mythological narratives.
Our last stop on the trip was Dayton, OH. We reluctantly dropped Perri Lee off at the airport and checked in at our hotel. After a couple hours catching up on emails, we went to Carol and Jim Nathanson’s home for hors d'oeuvres, giving me a chance to see their collection, which is especially strong in works on paper. Carol is a recently retired professor of art history at Wright State University, and is writing our forthcoming collection-catalogue of works on paper, Tracing Vision. Jan Driesbach, director of the Dayton Art Institute (DAI), joined us at the Nathanson’s, and we all went to a German restaurant for dinner, where we “closed the place down.”
The next morning, Bill was up at the crack of dawn for a 7:30 meeting with the Dayton Art Institute’s board of trustees. I met up with Jan and Bill a little later and we went to the DAI to speak with their staff. Since this post is getting pretty long and my time is running short, I’ll restrain myself from waxing too poetically about their galleries and collection, but suffice it to say I was deeply impressed with both. I do have to note that theirs is the only Carl Andre sculpture whose label acknowledges that one may walk on the work (I usually have to confirm with the security guards that to do so is OK). Before closing, I also have to give a shout-out to Will South, DAI chief curator, who joined us for lunch and whom I very much enjoyed meeting. By one o’clock we were back in the car, on the long road back to Athens, GA.
Our fearless leader, Dr. William U. Eiland—hereafter referred to as Bill—and I have just returned from a marathon road trip around the Midwestern United States, visiting museums and private collections, and meeting with colleagues about various projects. On any trip with Bill, one can count on long hours made enjoyable with outstanding art and wonderful people. This trip was no exception.
Bill’s journey actually began in Indianapolis two weeks ago this Saturday. He was there for a meeting of the American Association of Museum Directors (AAMD), where, in his leadership role, he works to hold other institutions to the high ethical standards expected of accredited museums. I arrived four days later for a visit to the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), to study their works by Pierre Daura. The museum is rich in Daura’s Spanish Civil War images, and we are currently organizing a traveling exhibition on this period of his work. A standout was Daura’s pastel, My Brothers in Arms, 1939, which you can see here. The works on view at the IMA are also well worth the trip. Visitors to their permanent collection are first met with a monumental mural by Sol LeWitt, whose deductive paintings, drawings, and sculptures I’ve always adored. They’ve got a good video about it here. The IMA also has a remarkable collection of Neo-Impressionists/Pointillists, as well as this country’s best collection of works from the Nabis (followers of Gauguin) working at Pont-Aven, France around the turn of the twentieth century. One other note about Indianapolis: if you are a state or federal employee and traveling there for business, use www.FedRooms.Com for a discount at The Conrad, to get a luxury hotel room for the price of a dive motel. It may have been the first room I’ve stayed in with real clothes hangers!
The next morning, I met up with Bill and we headed up to Chicago. The people of Chicago are remarkably welcoming; the whole city seemed to greet our arrival by donning red and black and holding a tickertape parade…although I guess it could’ve had something to do with the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup. Our first order of business was to meet with the Terra Foundation. For those in the know, the name Terra is synonymous with the highest level of excellence in all projects. Working largely behind the scenes, they bring “American art to the world and the world to American art,” to quote their apt tagline. We had a pleasant and productive meeting, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to partner with them on future projects.
We followed our meeting with a trip to the venerable Art Institute of Chicago. When I was last there in February for the College Art Association’s annual meeting, I spent hours in their new modern wing, which was designed by Renzo Piano and houses almost a quarter of what I teach in my Modern European survey course. This time, we explored other areas of the museum -- a good thing since there’s always more to see than time allows. I had never visited the galleries housing the Thorne Miniature Rooms, and was thoroughly taken with the little windows into domestic settings of days past. Before we left, I insisted that we visit the Impressionism/Post-Impressionism galleries so that I could pay homage to Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884, which I make a point of doing anytime I’m in Chicago. The first time I had the opportunity to see this painting was the summer after an elementary art teacher had explained Pointillism to my first grade class, and to this day I credit that enlivened, enlightening experience as a major factor in the development of my own desire to interpret art.
That evening we met up with Beau Ott, a private collector of mid-century American art who is helping us put together an exhibition of DeWain Valentine’s work, about which I’m particularly excited. I first heard about Beau when my advisor at the University of Texas at Austin, Linda Henderson, borrowed Ed Ruda’s Redball, 1965, from him for her exhibition Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York, so I was anxious to meet him. Aside from an incredible collection, Beau is as nice a person as one is ever likely to meet, and studies American art from the 1950s-70s with a passion that is infectious.
On Friday, Bill and I started our day at the Chicago History Museum to see their outstanding textile and fashion collection. We also met their curator of costumes, Timothy Long, whose fashion sense—he looks like a model—is only surpassed by his scholarly acumen. We hope to borrow from them for an exhibition we’ve got in the works. From there, we went to the Thomas McCormick Gallery to acquire a Picasso etching, The Dream and Lie of Franco, 1937, which I’ve had my eye on since February for my aforementioned Spanish Civil War exhibition. Now that it’s a “done deal,” I can say that it was a great deal for this work. After that, Beau got us into a phenomenal private collection of Chicago Imagists (comprising groups like The Hairy Who, The Monster Roster, and other important, representational artists of late 1960-70s Chicago, whose wildly wonderful work I like to think of as "Surrealism for the '70s"). After that we visited the Block Museum at Northwestern University, where we saw their MFA show and an exhibition of European prints, The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650.
The next day, the three of us headed north. Our first stop was the Racine Art Museum (RAM). We had planned to just “pop in,” but as luck would have it, RAM curatorial assistant Dave Zaleski had also popped in, and treated us to a tour of the galleries, library, and administrative offices. Their current exhibitions are all about insects, and some of the work was unsettling, to say the least, but it was nonetheless exquisite in its execution and installation. Given RAM’s focus on design and crafts, it should have been no surprise that we all also left their shop with much lighter wallets.
Our main destination of the day was the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM). I hadn’t heard much about MAM, which is surprising given the quality of their collection and their building, which was designed by Santiago Calatrava and features massive, cantilevered wings which open and close twice daily, serving as a sunscreen. Their collection of Minimalist sculpture located on their first floor is world class, but their real treasure is the Mrs. Harry L. Bradley Collection of twentieth-century European and American art, which occupies their fourth floor. I could go on about it for pages, but will instead direct you to their site. So entranced with the collection were we that we chose the quickest lunch we could find, a hot dog cart just outside the museum. There I committed the culinary sin of putting ketchup on my dog, and had to promise Beau that I would never do that back in Chicago, lest I get us all beaten up or run out of town (for the record, mustard, relish, and sauerkraut are all acceptable in any combination . . . just no ketchup). We wound down our day in Milwaukee with a stop at a lovely fin de siècle-themed bistro. Beau and I tried absinthe (sans wormwood) for the first time, which I considered art historical research, given the preponderance of early twentieth-century European artists featuring the beverage in their art (Degas and Picasso, most famously). At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it (but in case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t put in for reimbursement on that one).
The second half of our road trip was every bit as exciting, so tune in next week for the second installment of this post, where I’ll recount our visits to one of the best, but least-known, outdoor contemporary sculpture collections in the country, along with more museums and astounding private collections.
Carissa DiCindio, associate curator of education, was kind enough to write us a couple of paragraphs about her experience last weekend at the Georgia Art Educators Association fall conference:
Last weekend, Cece Hinton, curator of education, and I went to Young Harris for the Georgia Art Education Association fall conference. I always enjoy going to this conference because it is a wonderful opportunity to meet art educators from around the state. This year, I had the opportunity to present at three sessions. The first one was called “Making Connections: Educational Materials and Programs at Museums” in which I talked about the resources GMOA has to offer teachers, listened to what teachers would like to see from us and asked other museums to share their programs and materials. For the second session, I co-presented “Exploring Divergent Thinking: Synthesis in Clay” with NaJuana Lee. NaJuana and I are students in the doctoral program in art education in the Lamar Dodd School of Art together, and we presented a lesson on creating something new out of existing parts using clay. As an award winner last year, I also was invited to talk about GMOA and my position at the museum at a session called “Create.”
During this conference, I attended some informative sessions on museum education, including one on interdisciplinary collaborations by Shannon Morris, curator at the Georgia College and State University Museum, and another on how teachers can use cultural resources with their classes. There was also an interesting session by Cindy Bowden, director of the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, on the World Crafts Council. This conference gave me the opportunity to learn more about the successes and challenges educators are experiencing in Georgia and to make sure everyone knows about the Georgia Museum of Art and all of our resources for teachers. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference!
Thanks, Carissa. We appreciate all the work our wonderful department of education does. GMOA wouldn't be GMOA without their incredible outreach and commitment to reaching everyone through art.
We had a few staff members go to the Southeastern Museums Conference annual meeting recently, and Christy Sinksen responded to our query about what they learned very informatively:
I went to a session on collections database issues and much of what was said relates directly to our goals for funding and installing a new collections database. The speaker's own challenging experience as she attempted to convert data from an existing database platform to a new one has directly influenced the way we are looking at implementing our eventual database upgrade, potentially saving us very significant amounts of time and money.
This past week, Paul Manoguerra attended the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) annual conference, where the museum received yet another award for the exhibition and catalogue The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection, the certificate for which appears below. Let us reiterate how tremendously proud we are of the exhibition (mark your calendars for 2011, when you'll be able to see it at GMOA) and the publication, which put forward important research on many lesser-known artists, and we are pleased as punch to see them both being recognized by others.
Bill Guffey, an artist from Kentucky, doesn’t have the time to physically travel the world; yet he has found his own method of travel. Guffey uses Google Street View to visit various locations all over the world. The Daily Mail, a British daily newspaper, covered the story. Guffey states that family commitments and career have made him realize that “his traveling days are numbered.” He has traveled virtually to England, France, Italy, and every state in the United States (except Hawaii), to name a few locations. After some virtual exploration of the world, Guffey then paints pictures based on Google’s images. What’s interesting about his paintings is that he doesn’t focus on popular world landmarks but paints pictures of houses, fields, streets and landscapes. Guffey told The Daily Mail that “Google Street View has really changed everything for [him] because it means [he] can go to all of those places [he] is in love with, sit and paint them as if [he] is really there.” Guffey traveled regularly when he was younger, to Europe and other countries—he thoroughly enjoys traveling and hopes to one day visit the places he has seen virtually. So far, Guffey has painted more than 100 pieces. Check out his Web site and his blog to see them.
We've already brought you some details of what new Pierre Daura Curator of European Art Lynn Boland was doing on his couple of weeks in Europe, but he now has a whole photo slideshow up, embedded below.
Lest you think he was gallivanting around the Continent, here are some excerpts from his report on his research trip:
I embarked on my recent research trip with a number of related objectives. Foremost among them, I sought to familiarize myself with Pierre Daura’s oeuvre through careful study of his work in person, so that I might develop an expertise in his styles and methods. Along with my survey of Daura’s artistic production, I also undertook research specifically geared toward our upcoming exhibition, Cercle and Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art, and with an eye toward developing future exhibitions that would include Daura. Another goal of my trip was to make connections with staff at other institutions with significant collections of Daura’s work in order to foster future collaborations. The trip was also something of a scouting mission to help plan a Daura-related group trip for museum patrons. I am happy to report that the trip was a success on all fronts. A brief summary of each of my visits to these institutions is below, with reflections on each of these objective following.
MACBA, Barcelona: I met with Ainhoa González (registrar), who showed me the four paintings by Daura in their collection from the Cercle and Carré period. While they have not shown them recently and have no immediate plans to do so, they are enthusiastic about GMOA using them for our exhibition, and about the exhibition in general.
Artur Ramon Art, Barcelona: I met with Mònica Ramon and Artur Ramon, who showed me most of the paintings by Daura in their gallery. Although there have not been any recent sales of Daura’s paintings, Artur recently purchased a seascape by Daura from a Parisian gallery. In addition to Daura’s paintings, they also showed me a very nice port-scene by Daura’s friend Bosch Roger. There were also some other notable works on display in the gallery, including a gorgeous pastel portrait by Ramon Casas, and a series of paintings by César Paternosto (b. 1931), a contemporary Argentine artist (living and working in NYC since 1967) who I’ve been following for some time. Paternosto came out of Torres-Garcia’s constructivist School of the South, and is represented in the United States by Cecilia de Torres.
MNAC, Barcelona: I met with Teresa Guasch (paintings) and Mercè Saura (works on paper). The opportunity to study MNAC’s Daura’s paintings and their extensive collection of Daura’s works on paper was essential to me as I move forward with our various Daura projects, especially since I’m currently lacking access to our own collection. For instance, by examining prints alongside their preparatory sketches, I was able to get a much greater sense of his studio practice. This visit was also especially helpful for me to start thinking about works to include in a future Catalan landscape exhibition, and even more so for a possible Spanish Civil War exhibition—they have a large number of very powerful prints and drawings from this period. I had little time to visit the MNAC galleries, but it was enough to bring me fully on board in support of a future Ramon Casas/Santiago Rusiñol exhibition (or even just Casas).
Museu de Montserrat: Eva Buch (curator) showed me the paintings by Daura in storage and Father Laplana gave me a tour of the galleries. I had hoped also to obtain more information about the St. Ceclia prize Daura won for his Path to St. Michael’s of 1931, but I was not able to make any tangible headway there. I do think that I’ve “planted the seed” for future findings.
Museu Diocesà de Menorca, Ciutadella: I met with Gabriel Julià (director) and Rafael Portella (General Vicar) who showed me and Teresa the Daura gallery and the works by Daura in storage. While their collection of works by Daura did not offer any surprising new discoveries, since I had gotten such a good sense of his work at MNAC, this visit proved just as important for other reasons. As you know, they have the largest permanently displayed collection of Daura’s oeuvre, but lack any art professional on staff. They are interested in changing out some of the paintings and prints on display, to offer returning visitors some new works to enjoy, so Teresa and I made some suggestions for a possible reinstallation.
Musée Paul Dupuy, Toulouse: Mireille Serniguet (registrar) spent most of the day showing me Daura’s drawings, prints, and paintings on paper in their collection. As at MNAC, the size and scope of their collection helped provide me with significant insight into Daura’s work. There are a number of images that could be included in a “Catalan Landscape” exhibition. After most of the day in the print room, I also met with Jean Penent (director and head curator) and had a very nice chat. He is enthusiastic about our Daura-related projects, and asked to be kept apprised of any Daura publications we produce. He also gave me some catalogues to add to our library.
Augustins, Toulouse: Axel Hémery (director), who is very personable, showed me the works by Daura in storage. He is enthusiastic about our upcoming Daura projects and about any potential loan of the works in their collection, but there are currently no plans at the Augustins to show them. He was apologetic about not having any works by Daura on display, but pointed out their limited exhibition space for paintings.
Musée Henri Martin, Cahors: Laurent Guillaut (director) showed me the works of art and Daura artifacts in their collection, which reveal much about the artist's life in nearby St. Cirq-Lapopie.
Maison Daura, Saint Cirq-Lapopie: Martine Michard (director) gave me a tour of the building. While much changed since the family’s residency, it was useful to acquire a sense of the place, and it was a delight to view the stairwell murals. I’m not sure if the logistical considerations would be too great to overcome, but I do like the thought of some sort of artistic exchange or collaboration with Maison Daura at some point, a possibility that also interested Martine.
The full extent of the usefulness of this trip will be revealed as we move ahead with the various planned and proposed projects—as they say, “the proof is in the pudding.” I believe that the trip was absolutely essential as we plan for the reopening of the Pierre Daura Center, to include developing the finding aid that will serve to help re-announce the archive’s availability and promote its use, and developing exhibitions that will prominently feature Daura’s work. This undertaking has already served me well, as I’ve been able to offer suggestions for Heidi Gealt‘s exhibition that I would have been unable to make otherwise. In short, it allowed me to begin embracing my role as a Daura expert. The main “take-away” for me at this point involves not only the works of art themselves, but also their relationship to their subjects. I returned with a feeling of having confirmed one of my initial theses: one of the common threads among Daura’s works in diverse styles is a sense of being true to the underlying sentiment of the subject. This is never truer than in his landscapes. Clearly, this knowledge was only possible having actually visited these places.
The most important working relationship fostered by this trip was undoubtedly between Teresa Macià and me. She was a huge help in every aspect of the Spanish portion, and Menorca would have been impossible without her assistance. It was also wonderful to compare notes on Daura and Cercle et Carré. As noted above, everyone I met with was enthusiastic about our upcoming projects, and I have no doubt that they will all continue to accommodate any reasonable requests we may have. Teresa and I also talked about how nice it would be to have the Cercle et Carré exhibition tour in Europe. Given the reactions I got, this seems possible to me in terms of securing venues.
Cercle et Carré research at Bibliothèque Nationale, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, and Centre Pompidou Public Reference Library was less fruitful than I had hoped, but I was able to confirm some facts that will be necessary parts of my catalogue essay, especially concerning the public and critical response to the 1930 exhibition. The research I undertook in the Michel Seuphor archive at the Letterenhuis in Antwerp was even more useful. Largely untouched, as yet, there is a wealth of Cercle et Carré material there (correspondence, related exhibition announcements, press clippings, etc.), which will be critical for the catalogue. There are some objects (some postcards, especially) that I would like to reproduce in the catalogue, and possibly even include in the exhibition.
We try to write most posts on this blog in first-person plural, as a lot of different people contribute to it, but our wonderful interns do quite a bit of the writing. Lauren Kelley, who's been helping out in the PR department this summer, wrote the following for us about her recent trip to New York:
Last weekend I ventured to NYC (via Airtran U--if you’re between ages 18 and 22 you can fly standby for $69 each way--I recommend you use it while you can) to visit one of my best friends. She's studying art and art history at UGA and was probably the best hostess to have in the city. Not a minute was wasted. Reflecting on my jaunt, I realized that we experienced three very distinct and specific art encounters, one each day.
On Friday amongst our walking, window-shopping and catching up we meandered to a gallery she had on her list to visit. In the SoHo area, The Spencer Brownstone Gallery is hosting a special exhibition presented by VICE magazine. On view are photographs coinciding with the VICE Photo Issue 2009, taken by Terry Richardson, Ryan McGinley, Jerry Hsu, Keiichi Nitta, amongst others. The small, contemporary gallery was the perfect blank canvas for VICE's youthful, raw and intimate exhibit.
The art encounter of day two began after an L train ride south to Brooklyn. That night one of my friend's classmates from UGA was performing at Monkeytown, a dining and video performance space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I saw, or experienced rather, Brian's performance at the Lamar Dodd School of Art exit show last May, and was ecstatic to see him perform again. He uses his interactive new media skill set to trigger and manipulate sounds, which interact with visuals projected onto a screen. This performance space bordered with overly comfortable couches and four wall-to-wall projection screens was the perfect frame for Brian's interactive art and music. It's difficult to describe this work, so check out his website for detailed descriptions, videos and updates, and if you ever have the chance to see him perform live, don't pass it up.
My friend and I took the more traditional route on day three and visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art. With not nearly enough time to even begin a thorough visit, we did manage to view the entire Model as Muse exhibition, which showcases 20th-century photographs, videos and couture and serenades you with corresponding tunes. The overwhelming amount of beauty really makes you appreciate the art of fashion.
As promised in an earlier blog post, I’ve begun my “highlights reel” with photos from my recent research trip to Europe posted on Flickr. So far, it’s days 1-3 in Barcelona. Pics from Montserrat will be up tomorrow, and from Menorca on Thursday. France will be next week, so keep checking back for more.
In addition to the wonderfully accommodating museum professionals I thank in the photo captions, I would like to acknowledge two funding sources that made this trip possible: the Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Spanish Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, administered by the University of Minnesota, and the Pierre Daura Center here at the Georgia Museum of Art. The GMOA staff and I are immensely grateful to both for their support of this important project, which allowed me to undertake essential research for our upcoming exhibition Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art and to carefully study much of Pierre Daura’s oeuvre in person in preparation for a number of other projects. This work will be subjects of blog posts to come, but this series allows me to share one of the perks of the trip, the picturesque backdrops for it all: http://bit.ly/SoZza
[Top: Burchfield Penny Art Center, University at Buffalo; Bottom (added by popular demand, left to right): Susana Tejada, Albright-Knox; Lynn Boland, GMOA; Laura Anderson, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; Monument of Rick James.]
Today’s speakers at the IMLS’s Connecting to Collections Forum in Buffalo, NY really got to the heart of the topic at hand, discussing ways in which conservation serves communities.The buzz words today were “win-win,” and examples abounded of mutually beneficial partnerships and networks, such as the Regional Alliance for Preservation (geared towards museum professionals), and the Nebraska PBS station’s “Saving Your Treasures” program and website, which has a wealth of good, general information.
Following the talks, we went to the Burchfield Penney Art Center and participants had an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the forum’s presenters.I’m happy to report that I got some great advice on strategies to address some of our own conservation needs.I also left the forum with a stack of useful handouts—and a snazzy tote bag in which to carry them—along with a much larger rolodex than I had last week.
After the planned activities, I tagged along with some of my new friends for a trip to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin House Complex.With a major renovation project underway, and having just come from a forum on conservation, preservation, and restoration, I felt well primed to appreciate not only Wright’s design achievements, but also the tremendous yet rewarding efforts of the Martin House.After that, we toured a bit of the city and I was fortunate to have two of the best tour guides possible: Susana Tejada, Head of Research Resources at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and Lorna Peterson, Associate Professor in the Department of Library and Information Studies at Buffalo State College.Lorna, a Buffalo native as well as an astute historian, spoke about the city’s history with an ease that would make you think she’d lived here since its founding.
In addition to seeing some other architectural treasure like Louis Sullivan’s Guaranty Building, we made a brief trip to the Forest Lawn Cemetery.Millard Fillmore’s grave was impressive, but the highlight of the cemetery was definitely the tombstone of Rick James, Mr. Superfreak himself.There is an extremely goofy picture of me next to it striking a Rick James pose, but I can’t bring myself to post it.Maybe with a little prodding I could be persuaded to share.
