“Superb Baroque” Debacle: A Blow-by-Blow on the National Gallery’s No-Show Show

Soon after posting on Thursday about the National Gallery of Art’s cancelation of its A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750, I myself got canceled—laid low by a bad reaction to my Covid booster shot, from which I have now recovered. Before I became nonfunctional, I managed to shoot off a series of questions to the NGA’s press office, regarding what had seemed to me an astonishingly abrupt turnaround, just a little more than a month before this complex exhibition was scheduled to have opened (Sept. 26).

Here’s one of the show-stoppers that got stopped—a van Dyck portrait of a future Genoese doge:

The loss of this anticipated exhibition had given me traumatic flashbacks to the sudden postponement (decried by many, but supported by me) of another show on NGA’s schedule—the “Philip Guston Now” retrospective (which perhaps should be retitled “Philip Guston Much Later”). As the NGA stated here, that controversial show, initially scheduled to tour four museums from 2020-21, was rescheduled for 2021-22. Now it has been RE-rescheduled.

Here are the latest dates, as listed in an email to me from the NGA’s press office:

—Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 1, 2022 – Sept. 11, 2022
—Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Oct. 23, 2022 – Jan. 15, 2023
—National Gallery of Art, Washington, Feb. 26, 2023 – Aug. 27, 2023
—Tate Modern, London, Oct. 3, 2023 – Feb. 4, 2024

But back to “Art in Genoa”… Below is my emailed Q&A with Anabeth Guthrie, the NGA’s indefatigable chief of communications, prompted by her museum’s surprising announcement that it would not mount the show in DC, where it had been overseen by Jonathan Bober, the NGA’s senior curator of prints and drawings:

Guthrie’s detailed answers to my queries provided a rare inside look at the challenges and frustrations of exhibition orchestration, and showed how the best laid plans of even the most distinguished museums can go seriously awry (especially in the Age of Covid):

ROSENBAUM: Will “Superb Baroque” still be shown in Rome, March 4-June 19? [As I had mentioned in my earlier post, I could find no mention of the show on the website of the planned second venue, the Scuderie del Quirinale.]

GUTHRIE: The Scuderie will announce their plans in at a later date. We do not know at this time if their dates will change. [The Scuderie’s press officer, Nicoletta Ciardullo, has not yet responded to my emailed query on this.]

ROSENBAUM: What factors motivated you to make your abrupt decision to cancel, such a short time before the planned opening? [Guthrie gently took issue with my use of the word “abrupt,” given the prolonged efforts that were made to salvage the show.]

GUTHRIE: Despite our best efforts to pursue other options, it was not possible to wait any longer, due to the especially complex nature of the works of art, their deinstallation, crating, and shipping and installation requirements. Aug. 16 was when the deinstallation of major works in churches in Genoa would have begun, with packing of other works continuing throughout the week, and shipments to immediately follow, assuming we could secure travel permits for couriers, which was uncertain.  

We were negotiating with several foreign lenders about shipping their works, because it was uncertain that we could secure the National Interest Exception (NIE visa authorizations) required for travel for the lender representatives, but we ran out of time on those conversations.

Of the 128 works in the show, about 35 foreign works would have been potentially affected by the NIE situation, which is about 27%. However, in terms of impact, these were some of the most important works for the presentation. We may have been successful in getting some of them without the lender representatives, but as stated, we ran out of time for the negotiations due to the deinstallation, packing, shipping, and installation schedule.

Objects requiring foreign lender representative required a national interest exception (NIE) to get here, which was by no means assured. In addition, we had concerns that if the pandemic was continuing to escalate globally, international transport restrictions might not allow the objects to be shipped back to Europe, leaving them stranded here in the U.S. with potential impact on the Rome presentation. Last year, two exhibitions got stuck here due to issues with transport—Degas at the Opéra and True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780-1870.

“Degas at the Opéra” had to be held here during our closure while were able to negotiate an extension. We were the second and last venue for the show (the first was the Musée d’Orsay, Sept. 24, 2019 to Jan. 19, 2020). The original dates in Washington were: March 1 to July 5, 2020. But it closed on March 13, due to the COVID-19 crisis, and reopened on June 20, 2020 when we reopened the West Building (the first time). Our exhibition team worked around the clock to get the extension approved by the lenders. It closed on Oct. 12, 2020, and we were able to return the works to the lenders after that.

For “True to Nature,” Washington was the first venue (original dates: Feb. 2 – May 3, 2020; revised schedule: Feb. 2-Mar. 13, reopening July 20-Nov. 15). The works have been stored here waiting to ship to Paris ahead of their Dec. 3 opening at the Fondation Custodia.This situation is a bit different: As the first venue of a three-city tour, the fact that we were able to keep the show here and reopen it to our U.S. audiences, created a ripple in the tour schedule. Our exhibition officers worked hard with and on behalf of the Paris and Cambridge [Fitzwilliam Museum] venues to extend the loans to accommodate their presentations.

ROSENBAUM: What are the financial implications of canceling the “Genoa” show, for which there had been so much work and planning?

GUTHRIE: There is no financial hit since we don’t make money from shows. We have invested in the project [which, to me, does sound like a “financial hit”] but quite a bit of the expense went into the important scholarly catalogue, which exists as a permanent record of the work, as you have robustly covered in your post!

ROSENBAUM: Had any of the loans already arrived in DC and will now have to be shipped back?

GUTHRIE: No.

ROSENBAUM: What will you now show in the space that was to contain “Superb Baroque”?

GUTHRIE: Currently there are no plans for this space.

ROSENBAUM: Your press release indicates that the show had been previously postponed. When was it to have originally opened and why was it postponed (i.e., closure due to the pandemic)?

GUTHRIE: The exhibition was originally scheduled for May 3 to Aug. 16, 2020, but had to be moved due to the pandemic.

ROSENBAUM: Will the show in Rome be changed from the original plans? If so, in what ways?  

GUTHRIE: This has yet to be determined.

ROSENBAUM: Are all the lenders still willing to loan their works to the Rome showing?

GUTHRIE: Yes

ROSENBAUM: What other plans, displays and activities at the NGA are being impacted by the worsening (Delta-related) Covid situation?

GUTHRIE: None other at the moment, but we have not resumed our regular schedule of onsite public programming. “Genoa” was a particularly complex exhibition—on a very different scale from the other shows we are opening this fall. Our plans for the other fall shows remain on course, as they are less complex, and three are drawn primarily from our own collections. We do not expect to cancel any other shows. The fourth show, The New Woman, a photography show, is already on view at The Met. It will come intact from New York (all of the works are already in the US) and is a straightforward hanging of framed photographs.

ROSENBAUM: Is there anything else that you think I should know about all this?

GUTHRIE: We are doing everything we can to support Rome in their spring 2022 presentation of the exhibition.

In her Washington Post report on the canceled DC leg of the show, published online the day after my post appeared, Peggy McGlone quoted NGA director Kaywin Feldman‘s mournful requiem for “Superb Baroque”:

It is devastating. My heart breaks for all the curators, and scholars and exhibition leaders and everybody who has worked so hard for this exhibition.

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PERSONAL NOTE: I thought I should warn you that, for happy reasons, my posts may be sparse during the next few weeks. My daughter, son-in-law and their two young children are moving back to New Jersey from the West Coast (a new job opportunity for her and, most importantly, a chance to be near the East Coast grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins!). If all goes according to plan, it will be the realization of my fondest personal wish, but it will require much time and effort on our part: They’ll be staying with us until they can close on their house (mid-September). CultureGranddaughter, born at the very beginning of the Covid pandemic, encountered us in-person only during the first few days of her life. Some 17 months later, she may at first be puzzled to discover that we’re not merely cartoon characters on a FaceTime screen, whom she can mischievously pause and cancel at whim. CultureGrandson, who has already bicycled along the pedestrian pathway of the Golden Gate Bridge, may be clamoring to conquer the George Washington!