The postwar and contemporary art galleries at the Crystal Bridges Museum have always been the weakest part of the collection, but steadily the museum has been filling out the collection. Sixteen acquisitions in this category, all made in 2014, were announced on Friday–I broke the news Thursday evening in a small item in The New York Times (scroll down; it’s the last of four items)–valued at about $20 million.
The works include Robert Rauschenberg’s The Tower and three paintings and two works on paper by Helen Frankenthaler, including Seven Types of Ambiguity from 1957. The full list is below.
Just as interesting, the museum is reinstalling those galleries, a project led by curator Chad Alligood, who co-curated the museum’s big State of the Art exhibition. State of the Art was so big that it took over some of the museum’s postwar gallery space–and led to the addition of walls in those galleries. The deinstallation of that show provided the opportunity to weave in several of the new works and rearrange some of the others.
Based on my conversation with Alligood, it’s not an installation that would be done at any other U.S. museum, imho. Aa can be seen elsewhere at Crystal Bridges, it continues, at moments, to link a piece of art with American history. So the first art one sees coming round the corner, out of the American Modernists gallery, on a large wall in the center once occupied by a Joan Mitchell, will be Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter alongside Janet Sobel’s Hiroshima (at left). Once inside, you’ll have to do almost an about-face to see Rothko’s No. 210/No. 211 (Orange).
Frankenthaler’s painting, which demonstrates the bridge she created between Abstract Expressionism and color field painting, will hang between Adolph Gottlieb’s Trinity and a red-white-and-blue Kenneth Noland painting.
Rauschenberg’s The Tower will hang near a painting by him and near a John Chamberlain and another new piece, Nancy Grossman’s Car Horn–all three of which use everyday materials, at the time unconventional in art, that refer to America’s rampant consumerism at the time.
- Frankenthaler’s Untitled (1951) and Pink Bird Figure II (1961), plus two of her works on paper, The Bullfight (1958) and Untitled (1980);
- Ruth Asawa’s Untitled, (ca. 1958);
- Allan D’Arcangelo’s My Uncle Whiskey’s Bad Habit (1962);
- Vija Celmins’s Untitled (Ham Hock) (1964),
- Alma Thomas’s Lunar Rendezvous—Circle of Flowers (1969),
- Roni Horn’s When Dickinson Shut Her Eyes No. 859: A Doubt If It Be Us (1993),
- Mark Tansey’s Landscape (1994)
- Charles LeDray’s Rainbow (2012-2014)
Plus, two gifts:
- Brice Marden’s For Carl Andre (1966) from an anonymous donor
- Nancy Graves’s Fayum-Re (1982), gift of Agnes Gund.
Notice anything else? I did, and the museum confirmed it: Alice Walton, the museum’s benefactor, continues to be interested in redressing the prejudice against women artists prevalent in the art market and museum world. More than half of these works are by women, and the press release emphasizes the Frankenthaler purchase, even though the Rauschenberg on its own undoubtedly cost more. It was, as I said in the Times, once owned by famed collectors Victor and Sally Ganz but failed to sell when put up for sale at Christie’s in 2011, with an estimate of $12 million to $18 million.
Here’s what I like about this news and the installation: By aligning the art with history, the installation tells a story that’s a bit different from other museums and, possibly, more tailored, more accessible to people who live in areas without many rich museums–like Arkansas. I say this sight unseen, of course, and reserve the right to change my mind if I get there and find the execution wanting.
Here’s what I don’t like: Crystal Bridges seems to be on something of a name-check exercise–one Marden, one Pollock, one Thiebaud, one Mitchell, one Rauschenberg plus a minor painting, etc. There are exceptions–five Frankenthalers, for example. But there’s little depth in any of the myriad strains of postwar art. Granted, Crystal Bridges is young and its collection came together quickly. But I do wonder if there is a strategy beyond checking names off the list of must-haves.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Crystal Bridges