Archives for December 2010

Have you ever heard of Alexander Reid, 1854-1928? Me, neither — at least until recently. 

But he deserves a place in the annals of important gallery owners and among friends of van Gogh. Reid was not only a friend to Vincent, but also a look-alike. He was Whistler’s friend, too.

This is all laid out in a book I just learned about (hat tip to Art Fix Daily) called Van Gogh’s Twin: The Scottish Art Dealer Alexander Reid. It was published recently by the National Galleries of Scotland in the U.K. and, Amazon says, will be available in the U.S. in March.

According to the author, Frances Fowle, who is a senior curator in French art at the NGS, Reid was an extremely influential dealer, the first British dealer to take a serious interest in Impressionist art. Based in Glasgow, then the “second city of the British Empire,” he also supported the “Glasgow Boys” (who recently wowed visitors to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum there) and the “Scottish Colourists,” profoundly influencing taste in Scotland, which in those days was bubbling economically. Because of him, many rich Scottish merchants purchased works by Impressionist “well in advance of their English contemporaries.”

Last week, Scotland’s Herald wrote about the book, leading off with a story about a proposed suicide:

You are a young Scottish artist and art dealer, living in Paris in the late 19th century. You are sharing an apartment with one of the greatest, and one of the most tortured, painters of the modern age. But you are unhappy in love, and, one night, you make the mistake of telling him some of your woes. He empathises with you. The painter, in this case named Vincent van Gogh, feels so sorry for you, in fact, that he suggests a suicide pact. What would you do? If, like the very intelligent Reid, one of the most influential Scottish art dealers of the past 100 years, you smile sweetly, say it’s a wonderful idea – then run for the hills.

As Fowle says in the article, Reid’s relationship with van Gogh, while colorful, is not the meat of the book. Reid could “make” artists, but he, Reid, too, missed the significance of van Gogh’s work: “He once said to William Burrell’s daughter: ‘I could have bought any work by van Gogh for £5 at the time, but I didn’t realise what an important artist he was going to be’,” Fowle writes.

It seems to be a fascinating story, and Fowle tells it all in fewer than 200 pages. 

Sometimes a little nagging is a good thing, even if it’s done at an inconvenient time. Heaven knows that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has had its hands full this fall opening its Art of the Americas wing. Nonetheless, in October, the Boston Phoenix ranted about the MFA’s failure to award the Maud Morgan Prize, intended to shine a light on Massachusetts women artists. It was last given in 2006.

Last week, the Phoenix reported that the MFA had announced that it will reinstate the $5,000 prize next year.

The Phoenix‘s Greg Cook, who did the nagging, had help, and he acknowledges it:

The move comes in response to a column I published here on October 6, which prompted Roslindale portrait painter Laura Chasman, who won the prize in 2001, to e-mail MFA director Malcolm Rogers about how much she missed the prize program. “His response was immediate, and it was simply ‘I appreciate your thoughtful e-mail,’ and it was CC’d to the curators,” Chasman says.

 

Then on November 20, a local artist and donor to the prize fund (who asked to remain anonymous here for fear of offending certain powers-that-be) e-mailed 50 women urging them to contact Rogers.

Then, last Wednesday, the Boston Globe weighed in, adding to the pressure (with a really striking photo to illustrate the article, btw).

 

It’s not just about the money, which is how the MFA tried to portray it (discontinued because of low funds) — it’s about the attention the winning artist receives.

 

The last award went to Ambreen Butt, whose work (above) was displayed in the MFA’s lower rotunda; one of her works was added to the permanent collection.

 

Good for Cook for agitating, though there’s one caveat: As he wrote, “Of course, the MFA told me last year that they’d reinstitute the award in 2010, only to postpone it again. Let’s hope they keep their word this time.”

 

Amen to that.

 

Photo Credit: Courtesy MFA, Boston

 

There’s life after the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis: Michael Rush, the former head of the beleaguered museum at the beleaguered university, has landed a job as director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

Makes sense — on several levels, including the snowy weather shared by Waltham, MA. and East Lansing, MI. (I couldn’t find exact statistics, but nearby Boston averages 43 in. of snow each winter and nearby Lansing gets 48 in,)

The MSU announcement came yesterday, and quotes MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon saying:

We have a prestigious donor, world-class architect Zaha Hadid, stunning architecture and have now found the essential missing piece – an innovative art museum director – in hiring Michael Rush. Michigan State University welcomes this award-winning curator and widely published author and critic. With his entrepreneurial spirit, Michael will direct the months leading to a vibrant opening of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in 2012 and the exciting years to come.

For his part, Rush said:

This is for me an extraordinary opportunity; moreover, this new museum is a great moment in philanthropy, education and international contemporary art.

You can read more of the press release here.

The Broads have given nearly $30 million for the museum, which is under construction; there’s much more information, including a live webcam of the site, here.

Meantime, if memory serves, Brandeis now says it will fill the post Rush vacated in 2009.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of MSU

A phone call just brought the sad news that Peter C. Marzio, long time head of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, died last night.

Here’s the Houston Chronicle obit, and here’s a previous post of mine on him. I have admired Peter for as long as I have known him; I can’t remember exactly when or where we met, but it was probably in the early ’90s.  

More from me shortly.

Deciding what to say here about Peter was not as easy as I thought. Certainly, he was one of the warmest, nicest museum directors I’ve ever known. His accomplishments at MFAH are legend, but best left for a Houstonian, who would know more details, to say.

Here’s a link to the tribute on the museum’s website.

I can offer an anecdote or two that illustrate his enthusiasm and his openness. Unafraid of speaking out, he was often a go-to guy when I wanted an art expert to weigh in on a slightly off-beat topic. For example, when I wrote a piece for The New York Times in 1998, pegged to a list of the “top 100 novels,” wondering if there might be a list of the top art works, most people pooh-poohed the idea.

Not Peter, as I wrote then:

Peter C. Marzio, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, is one member of the establishment who is not horrified by the whole subject. He even suggested two lists, one drawn up by experts and one voted on by the people.

”I’d like to know what the general public thinks are the greatest works of art,” Mr. Marzio said. ”It would probably be Monet, Monet and Monet at the top. The one work that might make it on both lists is the ‘Mona Lisa,’ and maybe the bust of Nefertiti.”

Another time, I remember receiving a small catalogue, displaying the work of an upstate New York realist artist, whose work was clearly out of fashion. The artist had no gallery representation in New York (or any other art center), and little chance of getting any. With the catalogue came with a note from Peter, praising the work and asking if I could help out by writing about the artist and his work. He really cared.

Peter was a fine writer as well; he could describe art beautifully and articulate why it moved him.

I saw Peter three times this year, and was set to go to Houston in early January for a longer conversation — for an article about his views on museums today. I’m sad that I won’t get the opportunity to see him again. The museum world — no, the whole world — will miss him.

 

Can sports-lovers be turned into art-lovers? True, they sometimes overlap, but the Dallas Museum of Art had conversion in mind, I think, when it organized Big New Field: Artists In the Cowboys Stadium Art Program. And tourism.

The exhibit, which opened Dec. 5, is keyed to the Super Bowl, which will take place in February at the Cowboys Stadium — a first for Dallas, and thus a big deal. Lucky for the museum — others have tried outreach to sports fans by pandering — the $1.2 billion stadium has an art program. It includes 21 large-scale, site-specific art works in all, by such artists as Olafur Eliasson (whose The outside of inside is at left), Teresita Fernandez, Doug Aitken, Annette Lawrence, Lawrence Weiner, and Franz Ackermann (his My “Ready Now” is below). It was started in 2009 by Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones and his wife, Gene.

The museum’s exhibition features about 20 works by the same artists from its collection and from local private collections. More details here in a press release.

There’s more: According to Dallas Art News, the museum and stadium are offering a joint ticket, an Art Tour at Cowboys Stadium and admission to the DMA, for $16. Regular adult admission to the museum is $10, but it’s unclear — judging from the website — whether the stadium offers art tours regularly at all. But a self-guided tour of the entire stadium costs $17.50; VIP escorted tours are a tenner more.  

DMA has planned other related programs as well.

When the Dallas Morning News reviewed the exhibit on Monday, it focused, interestingly, on scale.

Pieces more than 100 feet long that hang over concession stands in Arlington have siblings that are scaled for the museum’s walls. Still big, they are petite compared to those that are painted in escalator lobbies or hang over the four stadium entrances. The tone is different, too – the museum pieces are more contemplative than the dynamic stadium creations…

Artists were chosen for their ability to create large-scale works, and they didn’t disappoint, which is a facet lost in the museum.

…The most compelling aspect of the exhibition comes from appreciating how environment plays such a pivotal role in appreciating the nuances of a piece.

It’s a worthy experiment for the DMA. I can’t wait to hear how it all turns out.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art