Posts Tagged ‘Jasper Johns’

Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC, Reinstalls Collection

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

I went to the Déjà View Day at the Columbia Museum of Art on July 18, 2009, for several reasons – it was free admission all day, for once you could take pictures in the museum, to do some research, and to see how different things would look – it’s been awhile since I’ve been there last. Yes, I missed the big blockbuster exhibit, Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales, which attracted over 46,000 people to the Museum.

I’ve got a few words for those who think America is into staycations this year – I-26 between I-95 and Columbia was almost a parking lot and traffic on I-95 wasn’t moving too fast either. People were on the move and there was no Carolina football game either, so I think some people are going on vacations.

Free admission is always an attraction to me, the Columbia Museum of Art just raised adult admission to $10 from $5 (since 2001), making them now the highest admission for an art museum in SC, but I’m sure the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, won’t be too far behind. They seem to think the way to attract more visitors is to raise admission prices. How’s that been working out for you? Of course the Museum offers free admission every Sunday and all members get in free.

Upon arrival I went upstairs right away and discovered my digital camera was going to be my pain in the rear of the day. Before leaving home I transferred all the photos I had on it to one of our computers, but must have done something wrong in the process. When I went to take a picture, the camera told me there was no memory space left. I’m like what are you talking about? My camera doesn’t really talk – it’s not an expensive model, but it also wasn’t making sense. So I was just going to have to manually delete all the images to clear the camera’s memory. I knew the files were on my computer – I looked at some of them before I left home. Houston, we have a problem! I couldn’t find any old files on the camera to delete and it wouldn’t let me take any more as there was no memory space and the instructions were in the car to reduce my carry load. Darn, no pictures.

I used to be a photographer. I made a good living in photography, but lately photography has been my curse. Either I forget to take my camera with me, end up talking with someone instead of taking photos, or the camera doesn’t function properly.

Oh great photography spirits – forgive me for abandoning you. I swear when I retire I’m going to get a new battery for my Nikkormat. Give me another chance! Of course I hope that battery is still available then – whenever that is.

So, it’s another blog posting without much or any visual entries – sorry.

Ok, we’re back upstairs at the Museum. Things looked great. I couldn’t really tell if that much was changed, new or what. But, I’m the same when we move furniture around in a room of the house – instantly I can’t remember how it was arranged before. At the same time the impression it gave me was that new car smell. I’m sure even regular viewers could find something new, even if a lot of the works were the same. And, it’s my understanding that a lot of new items have been added. Besides this is one of the few art museums in SC where you can see such a large collection of older works from Europe and the rest of the world.

But, I have to confess, I’m not that much into older works. I’ve seen my fair share of masterworks in Chicago and Washington, DC. I’m not that much into art history. But, every art student and artist in SC should be making regular trips to the Columbia Museum of Art and the art museum and gallery at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, to see these kinds of works. The same goes for other folks in the region who have never seen works found most of the time in art history books. It’s amazing that many have survived so long and museum folks have put a lot of effort into keeping them in shape so you could take a look back in history through art. It won’t kill you – believe me.

Many of these works upstairs at the Columbia Museum of Art are from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Just imagine all those times I spent my nickles and dimes on toys made in Japan at the Kress store in my hometown – some of those profits were going into masterworks of art. It is a small world.

I spent amost an hour upstairs so I did my duty.

I was also at the Museum to get the current names of all the different gallery spaces. I have a problem with institutions that sell names of gallery spaces for major donations and then slowly abandon the use of those names in publicity. I noticed that the new gallery guide the Museum was handing out did not give the names of the sponsors of these gallery spaces. And, there is no space in the Columbia Museum of Art that doesn’t have the name of a sponsor on it – except maybe the restrooms. They might – I just didn’t notice in the one I checked out. So, inside the Museum these people get their due credit, but it’s outside the Museum where things tend to fall off. Long names of spaces are shortened or not offered at all in press release about exhibitions.

I don’t think that’s fair. Look, I’m not looking to take up more space in the paper, but these people who gave this money expected that they would get credit for it – always and forever. That’s what I would expect for such a donation. So, at the end of this entry I’m  going to list all those gallery names.

Now, one of the treats for me was in the only gallery space upstairs which offers changing exhibits, number G15 on the gallery guide or as I like to think of it as the Mamie and William Andrew Treadway, Jr. Gallery, which is displaying the exhibition, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg: 20th Century Masters in the Collection, on view through Oct. 4, 2009. The PR folks at the Museum did include the proper gallery space’s name with that press release.

This exhibit was more like it – for me. The exhibit, although small, showed some of the works the Museum has in its collection by these two artists, with a very informative text panel to go with it. Johns is a SC native, which is always a point to be made. It is possible to come from SC and become about as big as you can get in the art world. Which is a good opportunity to mention that the Gibbes Museum of Art will be presenting the exhibit, Brian Rutenberg: Tidesong, from Oct. 23 – Jan. 10, 2010. Rutenberg may be SC’s next homegrown artists to find big fame in New York City. He’s big, but I’m talking Johns big.

Now, before I head downstairs, I must mention that the Museum’s new gallery guide does offer a little education about labels on the artworks on display – explaining what that info is all about. Bits of education like this can always help and it was offered in a non-condescending way. People get so uptight about things – asking or not asking what might seem like stupid questions, when on the other hand the folks at the Museum – any museum wants you to ask and enjoy your stay and wants you to come back and learn more.

Downstairs in the Lipscomb Family Galleries, (not mentioned in the PR we received on this exhibit) was the exhibition, Cleve Gray: Man and Nature, featuring a 30-year retrospective of noted American painter Cleve Gray, on view through Sept. 27, 2009. I was blown away by this exhibit. And, here I have to apologize for not being able to print our paper in full color, not exactly in my control, but nonetheless the ad we have been running for this exhibit does just not cut it in black and white.

Man and Nature #1, 1980, acrylic on canvas, 100″ x 65″

Zen Gardens #116, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 68″ x 70″

Both, 1979, acrylic on canvas, 69″ x 44″

Diana and Actaeon, 1989, acrylic on canvas, 60″ x 70″

I’m used to this factor after all these years and always tell people – if you think what you see in black in white is in anyway interesting – wait till you see it in person. Perhaps if we added  ads for beer and strip clubs like some other publications we could do color, but I’m not there yet, and I’m not sure I ever will be.

If you like abstract art – big abstract paintings – go see this exhibit. Without photos – that’s about all I can say. Check out our June article about this exhibit at Carolina Arts Online.

Now, you might be wondering why I just didn’t go back to my car and read the instructions to see what was wrong with my camera. I was nearing my two hour limit on my parking meter, but the instructions didn’t offer any help and we’ve yet to figure what has happened. If I could have gotten it to work – I would have returned for another two hours to take photos – admission was free all day.

Next to the Gray exhibit were two more rooms of contemporary art in the Dawn Helfont Christopher Galleries. There was some really interesting works there, but I soon started thinking that many of the examples of the work on display could have been works by SC artists. These were works by big name artists from the Museum’s collection which would be on display for some time, but I think just as impressive works could have been offered by artists from our state.

Upstairs there is a small gallery space, one of the smallest in the Museum which displays a few works by SC artists or regional artists. The space G10a – Southern Traditions – in the guide, but which is actually the BB&T Gallery, has works by Edmund Yaghijan, Mary Jackson, William Aiken Walker, Charles Fraser, among others, but I would have liked to have seen more works by SC’s better artists in the downstairs contemporary display.

I know, this is not what art museums’ say they are all about, but how could it hurt to sprinkle in a few local works as long as they are of the same quality. Not all the works in these two gallery spaces were what I would call – household names. Maybe they are to some, but I bet most there that Saturday wouldn’t know who they were.

I’ve seen more works by SC’s contemporary artists on view at the Mint Museum of Art. Is this the – you’re nobody in your own area factor? Well, it’s no big deal – all was enjoyable and that’s another battle for another day.

On my way out of the Museum I ran into Kristina Montvidas Kutkus, an artist who a long time ago used to write reviews for Carolina Arts and Lynne Riding, an abstract painter, both from Charleston, SC. Both have been art instructors at the College of Charleston and Riding now teaches at the Art Institute of Charleston. They were enjoying the Cleve Gray exhibit and were headed upstairs – also concerned about their parking meter so we didn’t get to talk much.

But as I was leaving I had to wonder – I keep running into folks who used to write reviews for us at exhibits around the state. I wish they were still writing for Carolina Arts, but like color we have had to go without reviews – it’s the stupid economy and the economy in the visual arts has been bad for the last eight years. Now, what happened in our country over the last eight years?

Well, on the two plus hour drive home – I-26 was still a slow moving parking lot – I was still struck by this nagging thought that here I have an arts newspaper, people who are qualified art reviewers and good writers are still seeing exhibits throughout the area, but we can’t afford them and they would like to be paid for their efforts. Some are getting some exposure in local alternative weekly newspaper (the kind with beer ads and ads for strip clubs), but not enough reviews are being done of art exhibits taking place in SC. If only there was some statewide organization that’s purpose was to help the art community out in providing such a needed and wanted service – a group who in planning for the future said this is a need in the art community – a group with funding sources. Well anyway – wishing and hoping won’t get you very far and eventually I was back in Bonneau, SC – land of good water, so I’m told.

Gallery Spaces at the Columbia Museum of Art
Upstairs
G1 – Ray Taylor Fair Gallery – Ancient
G2 – Helen and Joseph Walker, Jr. Gallery – Late Medieval and Early Renaissance
G3 – Herbert – Hart Gallery – Renaissance
G4 – First Citizens Bank Gallery – High Renaissance
G5 – Wachovia Gallery (may soon change to Well Fargo) – Renaissance in Venice
G5a – South Trust Bank Gallery – Mannerism
G6 – SCANA Gallery – 18th c. European
G7 – John Cliffton and Francis Bell Judy Gallery – 17th c. Baroque
G8 – UPS Gallery – Asian
G8a – NBSC Gallery – China Trade
G9 – Callie and John Rainey Gallery – Neoclassicism
G10 – Lucy Hampton Bostick Gallery – Colonial and Federal America
G10a – BB&T Gallery – Southern Traditions
G11 – Carolina First Gallery – 19th c. American
G12 & 14 – Andrew Kerns Galleries – (12)Early 20th c. American and (14) 19th c. European
G13 – PYA/Monarch Gallery & Budweiser of Columbia Gallery – Art Glass
G15 – Mamie and William Andrew Treadway, Jr. Gallery – Changing Exhibitions

Downstairs
Lipscomb Family Galleries – Changing Exhibitions
Dawn Helfont Christopher Galleries – Modern and Contemporary
Caroline Guignard Gallery – Recent Acquisitions

P.S. The digital camera is running again after Carolina Arts‘ technical adviser and my better half, Linda fixed it and she was able to download some images by Cleve Gray, not exactly the ones I would have liked to show, from the Columbia Museum of Art‘s website.

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A Trip To The Gibbes

Friday, June 20th, 2008

I finally made it to the exhibit, Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art, on view at the Gibbes Museum of Art in downtown Charleston, SC. The exhibition examines plantation-related works of art from the eighteenth century to the present. Organized by the Gibbes, this exhibit was on view at the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville, VA, from Jan. 18 through Apr. 20, 2008. And, after its viewing at the Gibbes will travel to the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA, to be on view from Aug. 23 through Oct. 19, 2008.

The Gibbes exhibition started on May 9 and will be on view through Aug. 3, 2008. So this was the exhibit Spoleto Festival USA visitors would see – if they fit a visit to a visual art museum into their busy performance schedule – they may have for this exhibition. I think it’s exactly the kind of exhibit which the Gibbes should be offering visitors during the Spoleto Festival. Why try and compete with the contemporary art they can see in their own home cities – New York, Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, or any other northern city or from Europe for that matter.

These folks don’t want to see art that was probably in their cities years ago. They want to see art from Charleston and the South. The success of the exhibitions Spoleto offered when they were offering visual art exhibitions was due to the fact that they were site-specific to Charleston and the South.

I went to the Gibbes on a day when they had free admission. The normal admission is $9 – almost twice the cost of visiting other museums in South Carolina and the region. I had to drive around the area of the Gibbes three times to find a parking space that wouldn’t cost another fortune for a short visit. That free parking at the SC State Museum in Columbia, SC, is great.

This was the first time I have set foot in the Gibbes Museum of Art since 2002 when a few members of the board of the Carolina Art Association figured it was a good idea to boot out long time director Paul Figueroa on the trumped up charge that the Gibbes was in the red for the first time in many a year. Does anybody remember what happened to our economy after the Fall of 2001?

Now here they are, two directors later and a lot more red ink, the board has recently named Angela Mack the new director (and curator of this exhibition) – a hire from inside the Museum – also someone who worked as curator under the administration of Figueroa. I hope those board members are long gone too.

On my walk to the Gibbes I passed the house at 76 Queen Street that was once used as the Gibbes Studio School where they offered art lessons to students and adults – under a Figueroa administration. I understand the building is for sale for $3 million. Why, I don’t know. Even if they found someone to pay this price, it is hardly worth the value of the Gibbes future expansion as this property is adjacent to the Gibbes. The space would allow for a healthy expansion – unless they plan on one day leaving the peninsula for a totally new museum space. But I doubt that – I can’t imagine where that money would come from in Charleston – a performing arts town – when it comes to support from the City of Charleston and its Mayor.

So into the Gibbes I go and at the front desk I learn that there is no exhibition handout for the Landscape of Slavery exhibit, other than a family activity booklet for parents and children to play a game while visiting the exhibit. Of course there is the exhibition catalogue or book, but if I went on a free day and had to look for cheap parking – I don’t think I was going to be investing in the book. Look we didn’t name our publishing company Shoestring Publishing Company just because it might sound cute – it’s a reflection of reality. That’s OK – I brought a pad and pen to take notes.

They did have a map of the museum which was an interesting legacy of Todd Smith, who was director for the last two years. Except for the Main Gallery and the Rotunda – all the galleries at the Gibbes are now identified by a letter of the alphabet – A – L. Now that’s classy. At one time people gave good money for the names of those gallery spaces or were honored for one reason or another by having a gallery space named after them, but in Smith’s new contemporary view of the Gibbes a letter of the alphabet was cool – I guess.

I’m sure this all sounds like I’m leading up to a not so good review of this exhibition but it couldn’t be anything further from that notion. This exhibit was a winner – a real education and I hope an eye-opener for some. The juxtaposition of the old view of slavery in artworks by white artists of the colonial days, revolution, civil war and even Charleston’s renaissance period against the works of African American artists working in the present time – was quite an exhibit.

The slaves in the works of Winslow Homer, William Aiken Walker, Anna Heyward Taylor and Alice Ravenel Huger Smith portrayed slave life on the plantations of the South – as not so bad, while the contemporary works created by African American artists gave an entirely different view on how they viewed life on the plantation. Especially in works like Joyce Scott’s, No Mommy Me I, a leather and bead creation of a nanny and her golden charge and Juan Logan’s Foundation, a wall of metal blocks on one side but each block on the other side was shown to be the back of a slave on all fours – holding up the next block of another slave holding up another block and on and on. Two views of this wall – both very different.

When family and friends come to visit and I take them on the traditional tour of downtown Charleston someone always brings up the wonderful homes Charleston is full of and so lucky to have. They remark about the skill and craftsmanship it took to produce such masterpieces of architecture. I always reply, “Yes, it’s the best city slavery could build – I just want you to remember that.” It’s something everyone should remember in Charleston.

Slavery is a part of Charleston’s history and past, it’s not one of the better parts of that history, but it is part of the history. That said, that history, if told properly, can be a major part of Charleston’s cultural tourism. All we can do is apologize for that past, learn from it, and embrace it as part of the history of the city and the people who lived here – free citizens black and white and the slaves and the indentured. They all made Charleston what it is.

The artworks in the exhibition come mostly from collections of regional art museums and from regional contemporary artists. So this is pretty much a homegrown exhibition with a few exceptions. The works are placed in various sections including: Introduction, Protest, Politics, Nostalgia, and Identity – each interesting for their own reasons.

I think it was in the Politics section or maybe Protest – I can’t remember now – that I found two very interesting artifacts. One was a first edition copy of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, from 1852. What historical events did this small book set off?

The other item was one of the Dave jars, now famous in South Carolina’s history. Dave “The Potter” Drake was a slave and pottery maker, who could read and write, in Edgefield County, SC, who wrote info on some of his creations. This one had the following written on it: “Dave belongs to Mr. Miles where the oven bakes-the pots biles/31st July, 1840″. Slave Dave probably would never imagine where those writings would take him in history. Just think about how many pots, jars, jugs, plates, etc. were made by slaves on plantations throughout the South, but if found today are just old examples of pottery. A 15 gallon jar by Dave sold at public auction in 2000 for $83,600. It is said that the jars have been sold for higher amounts at private auctions or in sales among private collectors and dealers. Most slaves were not allowed to learn to read or write – good thing Dave did or we may never of had a glimpse into his life.

Well, go see this exhibit before it moves on to another museum and the works are returned to their owners. And, if you have the time – go see one of Charleston’s plantations – Middleton Place or Drayton Hall – to get a close up look at a plantation.

Before I left the Gibbes I walked through the exhibit, The Charleston Story, an ongoing exhibit featuring artworks that tell the story of Charleston or show off some works by artists from the area. The first sections includes what some young people might refer to as the old paintings of old people. Except for a few recent additions these are works that anyone who has visited the Gibbes over the last two or three decades has seen many times before. When I got to the section identified as Charleston Today, I was a little taken aback. Yes, there were works by William Halsey, Corrie McCallum, Jill Hooper, Brian Rutenberg, West Fraser, and even Jonathan Green and Jasper Johns, but there was much more work on display by artists who at best have a very loose connection to Charleston. As a poster stated, these are artists who may have visited Charleston, taught here at one time or – reflect the complex story of the region.

I’m not sure viewers were making that subtle distinction and didn’t end up thinking that these artists had something to do with Charleston Today – artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Diane Arbus, Forrest Moses, or even Jeremiah Miller and Herb Jackson – both from North Carolina.

The Gibbes has works by artists with real connections to Charleston in its collection who would offer good examples of the works – styles – subjects – displayed by these artists. They may not have the same name recognition value in some people’s minds, but at least they are from Charleston.

This exhibit may be an example of former director, Todd Smith’s transformation of the Gibbes into a more contemporary art museum, but the Gibbes needs to do some repair within the Charleston visual art community. They may need to dust off some of those works by local artists to bring some back into the fold. Plus it would be a more honest representation of art being created in Charleston Today.

My final thought about my return to the Gibbes. It has been at least six years since I was last inside, but it seemed much smaller to me now. This may be from visiting much newer and bigger art museum spaces in North and South Carolina. With over 10,000 works in the Museum’s collection, you wonder where they are keeping them all and how long will it take to get many of the works into some kind of display so people can see them? But I’m sure that’s a problem for all art museums – too many works and too little space.

After leaving the Gibbes I popped into the new digs of the Wells Gallery at 125 Meeting Street, which used to be the old Virginia Fouché Bolton Studio & Gallery – almost a decade ago. Of course the space had gone though a major make-over – no one would recognize this as the old Bolton space. The new gallery space has two glass windows in the floor so visitors can see the building’s old cistern below.

This was the fourth location in the history of the Wells Gallery in Charleston. The gallery started out on Market Street, but eventually moved to Broad Street – then State Street and now – as owner Hume Killian said ( I caught him dropping something off at the gallery on a Saturday morning) – to it’s final location on Meeting Street, almost next to the Gibbes Museum of Art. This is an example of how Charleston’s commercial gallery owners have constantly been forced to move from one location to the next – due to raising rents in the City. These galleries help make Charleston a destination and then turn around and have to pay – more and more for their own success. It would be nice if the City or the landlords would give them a break for attracting visitors to Charleston.

The gallery had on view an exhibit by Karen Larson Turner entitled, Way of Life. Turner has been a staple of the Wells Gallery for a number of years – since Broad Street I think. She is one of the area’s excellent landscape painters and this show was a good example of that fact. Works ranged in size from 11″ x 14″ to 3′ x 4′ and larger. I spotted a number of red dots on tags so I think the public was in agreement. This show may be over by the time anyone gets to read this but works by Turner can be found at the gallery on a regular basis.

The Wells Gallery has a good group of artists which it represents including local, regional, and as Killian told me – more artists with a national reputation.

You can see their lineup of artists in our paper or on our website. This blog may be new, but it’s just part of the Carolina Arts offerings of info on the visual arts of the Carolinas.

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