Director's Vlog
Today Dr. Walker discusses his favorite work in our current exhibition from The Phillips Collection and compares it to a work in the Amon Carter's collection.
Director's Vlog 10/30/2012
Today Dr. Walker discusses the exhibition Larry Sultan’s Homeland: American Story. The artist Dru Donovan, who was a student of Sultan’s, will speak to both his and her work in a free lecture on November 15 at 6 pm.
Registration is required; visit cartermuseum.org for more details. Please join us.
From Blog to Vlog: A New Way to Hear from Our Director
Check in every other week as Dr. Andrew J. Walker posts a video from his office. These video blogs, or “vlogs” as they are called, will address everything from the day-to-day operations of a museum and how new works enter the collection to exciting new exhibitions on view and the latest thoughts on Dr. Walker’s mind.
How the Regional becomes National
Late in April I had the privilege of delivering the keynote address at the 10th Annual Symposium of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art, or CASETA. This association of collectors, dealers, and scholars has passionately devoted a decade to expanding the understanding of Texas art and art history, focusing on the state’s tremendous regional artistic impact since the late nineteenth century. In the short time that I have been a resident of Texas, I have been impressed with the many discoveries and untold stories of artists as wide ranging as Frank Reagh and Everett Spruce.
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is an institution committed to the story of American art and visual culture, and we want to understand the “regional” in relationship to our larger national story. As we continue to develop plans for the growth of the collection, that relationship—the regional to the national—is vital. I can imagine the day when works by Reagh and Spruce hang beside paintings by George Inness and Grant Wood. Expanding the canon of art in this way inevitably involves the community of collectors of early Texas art.
But how to get started in this partnership, keeping in mind the breadth and quality of this region’s early Texas art? At the Amon Carter we are initiating a plan to educate ourselves and to build those relationships within the community through small exhibitions in our galleries of loaned works that we find to be the strongest art in private collections. Our quest is for the best representation of artists—those who made a significant contribution to the nation’s art history. In other words, we are aiming to find the line where, for us in this great state, the regional becomes national.
This direction involves both an expanding vision and an invitation: the museum’s vision to help elevate the high-quality regional art of the state, and an invitation to such artwork’s collectors. Questions will arise, some challenging, as we expand our collecting vision in this way. Our hope is that collectors will find the Amon Carter a worthy partner in this exploration of Texas art. We recognize that the knowledge and passion, along with the works of art, reside with collectors who have already discovered and come to appreciate the value and beauty inherent in these works.
Excellence for Everyone
Our Excellence in Education Campaign continues to bloom with exciting results. The lunches and afternoon meetings have been happening at a brisk pace, and the development committee has been working overtime to help make the connections. Both Stacy Fuller, director of education, and Carol Noel, director of development, have helped to bring the importance of this campaign to our donors. Their passion and professionalism not only compel people to provide support but also clearly deliver our message of innovation, quality, and customer service that are so important to all that we do at the Amon Carter.
What will these funds do for our community?
For the past six years the Amon Carter has charged a nominal supply fee for teachers participating in its educator workshops. The campaign funds have already allowed the museum to offer, free of charge, all the educator programs held onsite and via videoconference in 2011–12. At a time of unparalleled and severe fiduciary constraints for state education, this service is indeed a boon to our community.
Similarly, the museum’s Teaching Resource Center (TRC) has offered North Texas educators the opportunity to borrow free resources on American art in a wide range of formats. The campaign has allowed the TRC to expand its loan program from North Texas to the entire state!
New programs made possible by the campaign are also underway, including the First Steps Outreach Program, which targets students ages three to five from seven Tarrant County day care centers. This multiple-visit program introduces these young visitors to a museum setting through positive experiences, cultivates their observation skills, and teaches Pre-K lessons, such as social behaviors and fine motor skills.
The Connect to American Art Outreach Program serves patrons from Tarrant County senior centers. This multiple-visit program sends docents to these centers for five visits, followed by bringing seniors three times annually to the museum. The program aims to generate awareness and ownership of the museum’s collection, exhibitions, and public programs. Programs are currently scheduled for senior centers in Stop Six, White Settlement, and Arlington.
I ask you to consider becoming a part of this effort. We have known for years now that exposure to the arts, particularly at a young age, results in an astonishing array of benefits that last a lifetime and benefit our community in return. If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact me. This message is one I have no problem discussing!
To San Antonio and Back—but Why?
For the past few years the Paper Guild, one of the Amon Carter’s collector groups, has traveled to San Antonio to attend the annual print fair hosted there by the McNay Art Museum. We went there this past weekend, and in addition to attending the fair, we visited two remarkable private collections of American art. In the photograph below, we are getting a tour of one of America's most important collections of African-American art: the Harriet and Harmon Kelley collection. Some of you may remember that the museum featured their collection a few years ago. The Kelleys have searched high and low, with the help of curators, peers, and art dealers, for the best works that convey the creative achievements of artists of color.
Collecting art is at the core of what art museums do, and the collectors in any community are vital to that aspect of a museum’s mission. In this way, institutions and individual collectors are part of a symbiotic relationship. The Kelleys, for instance, not only have given important works to the San Antonio Museum of Art but also have inspired others within their community to begin collecting.
The collector groups at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art—the Paper Guild; the Council, which focuses on paintings and sculpture; and the Stieglitz Circle, which focuses on photographs—are filled with a similar spirit of mutual exchange. Trips such as last weekend’s sojourn to South Texas are a part of an education experience, where the example of others becomes a point of inspiration. If you would like to know more about becoming a member of one of these groups, please write to me. It is truly rewarding to participate.
Good Things Come In Small Packages
A week ago, the Amon Carter opened a major exhibition focusing on Charles Russell’s watercolors. As one visitor to the show related to me, “I have been a fan of Russell for many years but never realized that he painted so many watercolors.” Part of the strength of this exhibition is that it brings together nearly 100 of the artist’s works in the medium, providing a comprehensive view of Russell’s subject matter and technical progression.
There is also power in more intimate, focused art exhibitions. In two weeks, we will be opening an exhibition on John Singer Sargent that includes just four works, all on loan from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. In the midst of a historic renovation and expansion, the Clark has generously loaned masterworks from their collection to institutions around the world—including our neighbor the Kimbell Art Museum, which will host a concurrent exhibition of the Clark’s holdings entitled The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark.
John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Fumée d'Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris), 1880, oil on canvas, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA, image © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA, 1955.15
The Amon Carter’s dossier exhibition, Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark, centers on the artist’s Fumee d’Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambregris). Painted in 1880, the iconic work not only evokes an exotic mystery but shows Sargent’s capacity for immense subtlety as a painter. A study in whites and creams, the painting is, as the artist himself said, about color. The volumes it speaks on the subject are a distinct pleasure to behold. The exhibition opens March 11—don’t miss it.
What Do You See?
I have fallen a week behind! Last week was the meeting of our museum’s board of trustees, so perhaps that explains why.
Our most recent acquisitions were presented during that board meeting. One notable addition to the museum’s collection is Larry Sultan’s large-scale photograph Novato, from his series Homeland, which focused on the landscape near his home in Corte Madera, California.
Larry Sultan (1946–2009), Novato, 2009, dye coupler print, Purchase with funds provided by the Stieglitz Circle of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, courtesy of Estate of Larry Sultan/Wirtz Gallery
This important series was the last the artist completed before his untimely death in 2009 from cancer. Sultan hired day laborers to pose as actors in a semi-uncultivated landscape that abuts the edge of a housing community. The multiple layers of meaning in this work are riveting, but what struck me when I saw it in San Francisco for the first time was its pastoral qualities. It reminded me of another work in the Amon Carter’s collection: Thomas Cole’s The Hunter’s Return, painted in 1845.
Thomas Cole (1801–1848), The Hunter's Return, 1845, oil on canvas
The settled landscape emerging out of the “wilderness” in both works is one point of intersection, but I would be interested to know what you think. What points of similarity or difference do you see? Write me in the comments section, and I will respond. And if you would like to see the Sultan work, stay tuned. I will let you know in my next blog when the opportunity will be available to you.
A Post from the Road
I have been on the road now for several days, traveling from Fort Worth to New York City and on to San Francisco, where I am attending the mid-winter meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors. More than 240 directors from the United States, Canada, and Mexico have gathered to discuss the issues that our cultural industry is facing. As the economic and demographic trends change in urban communities, art museums are not only positioned to increase their value as destinations for education and entertainment, but also to think about new ways of doing business. Like any industry, creative and innovative thinking is the core of leadership.
Right now, I am in a seminar on how to motivate innovative thinking to meet the needs of the communities we serve. My group is exploring ways to engage younger audiences in the life of the art museum. The facilitators are encouraging us to do the unexpected. One of the ideas we are discussing is a “speed dating” event for young people on Valentine’s Day where participants pick their favorite works of art as a starting point for compatibility. Would you come to such an event? I would be very interested in ideas that you might have for ways to attract young individuals and couples to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Enter them in the comment section; you never know, we might just put it into action!
Happy New Year!
Although 2011 marked our celebration of the museum’s 50th anniversary, I am a firm believer that any anniversary of significance should last for at least eighteen months. So we will continue to celebrate, even as we turn fifty-one.
For me, our celebration continued when I returned from my holiday adventures to find on my desk an advance copy of the book that will accompany our exhibition, Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell, which opens here February 11. Rick Stewart, the author of the book and curator of the project, tells a lively story of Russell’s tremendous achievement working with a medium that is subtle and variable. Every watercolor in the exhibition is reproduced in a stunning plate section in the book that proves what Rick claims in his essay: Russell was a true artistic genius as a watercolorist.
Holding this book made me realize yet again the strength of the museum’s collection and our commitment to find new ways to deepen our understanding of art that seems so familiar. Charlie Russell is one of the artists that we have long celebrated. He was a favorite of the museum’s namesake, Amon G. Carter. But never before has his work as a watercolorist been explored—he was an innovator in this medium. Finally, that story is available for all in the book that I hold. If you are a lover of watercolor, or a fan of Charlie Russell, this volume belongs in your library. Come see the works in person, then visit our store to take them home with you.