New
at Carnegie Museum of Art
Fast chairs, tiny portraits,
80,000 Pittsburgh
photos
By Ellen S. Wilson
It may seem obvious to say that the essence of an art
museum is its collections, but in fact, acquiring those works of art, as well
as the labor and money required, is not the most visible part of the
museum. The blockbuster shows, the
children’s activities, the lectures or films, may compose a visitor’s main
experience of the museum. But there
would be no "there" there--to invoke Gertrude Stein--without the
collections.
“One of
the triumphs of the Second Century Fund,” says Richard Armstrong, Henry J.
Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art, “was the creation of
endowments specifically to buy art.
Previously, the museum was handicapped as a collector, with few
funds designated for acquisitions.
Historically, the museum presented wonderful objects, but seldom had
the ability to purchase them. Now
our greater-than-$25 million endowment puts us in the ranks of the top
museums in the country.”
Most of
the collecting the museum does is guided by the curators, with the International being a prime shopping
opportunity. “All the Internationals since 1985 have been
successful in terms of acquisitions,” says Armstrong. But the collections are also built
through the generosity of patrons, who offer exceptional works of art –
Armstrong cites the grand art deco relief Chariot of Aurora
, a gift of Frederick Koch.
Surveying
purchases and gifts of the last two years reveals a museum that is, at its
core, healthy and ambitious, fulfilling its mission to seek and purchase
works “for the enjoyment and enlightenment of all.”
Contemporary
Alex Katz, American, b. 1927 Lake Time,
1960, oil on canvas Henry L. Hillman Fund
The paintings of Alex Katz bring together two seemingly
unreconcilable styles – abstraction and expressionism. Katz's work was a highlight of the 1999 Carnegie International. This painting shows Katz’
s wife Ada holding their
baby Vincent and sitting with friends on the shore of a lake. Both a highly personal memory and an
expression of universal tranquility, the painting exemplifies, says
Armstrong, “the simplified iconic forms that would come to dominate pop
art.”
Duane Michals Archive
Over
the next 11 years, the museum will acquire the complete archive of Duane
Michals, the acclaimed photographer born in McKeesport
now living in New York. The first installment of the archive,
which includes silver prints, working prints, and other materials, has
already been received. Micale's work
is an especially welcome addition to the museum's growing collection of
photography. Acquired through the
Henry L. Hillman Fund.
Elizabeth Peyton, American, b. 1965 Ben Drawing, 2001, oil on board A.W. Mellon Acquisition
Endowment Fund
Elizabeth Peyton is among the
most esteemed figurative painters to have emerged in the nineties. Peyton’s tiny portraits “quiver,” says
Laura Hoptman, curator of contemporary art, “with emotional fervor.” Evoking both 19th-century French
romantic painting and the work of such Pre-Raphaelites as Dante Gabriel
Rosetti and Edward Burne Jones, the romance in Peyton’s work “lies not only
in the languorous young toffs she loves to paint, but in the act of
painting itself,” Hoptman says. “For her, it is the magic stuff that
elevates and ennobles.”
Fine Arts
John Constable, British, 1776-1837 The Washing Line, ca. 1821, oil on canvas, Heinz Family Fund
John
Constable is an essential artist for any museum collection representing the
19th century, says curator of fine arts Louise Lippincott,
because “his influence extended to artists in Europe
and the United States
well into the 20th century.”
Constable
was among the first painters in the modern era to focus on realistically
treated local subjects, and this small painting represents the view from
the window of his house in Hampstead. It is among the museum’s most
important British paintings of the early 19th century and was included in
last year’s Light! exhibition. The
painting is “executed with the freedom, precision, and spontaneity that
make his sky studies such technical tours de force,” says Lippincott.
John Leslie Breck American, 1860–1899 Giverny Winter, 1889, oil on canvas Given anonymously in honor of the late Adolph W. Schmidt
John
Leslie Breck was an advanced American painter who went to Claude Monet’s
home in Giverny to study impressionism at its source. There he painted Giverny Winter and gave it (possibly in return for lodging) to
hotelkeeper Max Baudy, whose inn housed an American art colony in the 1880s
and 90s. Its style, says Lippincott,
is a fluent interpretation of late impressionism, and exemplifies the close
connection between American avant-garde art and French modernism at the end
of the 19th century.
Aime Jules Dalou French, 1838 – 1902 Portrait of Dorothy Heseltine, 1874, terra cotta Given
anonymously in honor of the late Adolph W. Schmidt
Jules Dalou was the most illustrious early practitioner
of impressionism in sculpture, and this piece complements the museums two 18th -century terra cottas by French master
Clodion. Portrait of Dorothy
Heseltine is typical of the revival of this expressive medium in the 19th
century, and enhances the museum’s collection of impressionism over
all. Dorothy Heseltine, portrayed
here at age 10, was the daughter of a notable connoisseur and collector J.
P. Heseltine, and this portrait of his daughter was one of Dalou’s first
important commissions when he came to London. The bust is a rare example of directly
modeled terra cotta, and like the Breck painting, was given by an anonymous
donor to honor Adolph Schmidt.
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, French, 1824-1887Innocence Tormented by Love, 1871,
terra cotta Heinz Family Fund
Epitomizing, says Lippincott, “the playful eroticism of
late 19th-century French art and culture,” this piece is
believed to have been modeled in part by Belleuse’s star pupil and studio
assistant Auguste Rodin. Belleuse
was one of France’s
leading decorative sculptors in the later 19th century, and also
trained Jules Dalou. This lively
statue, depicting three putti revealing the charms of an attractive young
woman, is rare both for its size and its excellent condition. Belleuse finished his casts by hand, with
careful attention to detail and surface, and this work complements the
museum’s collection of
impressionist paintings.
Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive Heinz Family Fund
The museum has recently acquired the complete archive –
nearly 80,000 negatives – of Charles “Teenie” Harris (1908-1998), an incomparable
record of historical events and daily life in Pittsburgh’s
African-American community between 1936 and 1975.
“Harris
had a great eye for composition, and was extremely good at showing the
character of an event, or place, or person,” says Lippincott. While immediate plans for the archive
stress conservation and maintenance, the public will eventually have
electronic access to the archive, and a major retrospective of Harris’s
work is being planned.
Decorative Arts
Ross Lovegrove, British, b. 1958 Bernhardt Design, American
manufacturer o Chair, 2001,
magnesium and polycarbonate Gift of Bernhardt Design
Looking
like it is about to take off, the aptly named Go Chair, designed by Ross Lovegrove, was given to the museum
by the manufacturer, along with the aluminum prototype (now currently
touring with the exhibition Aluminum
by Design.) Lovegrove is a Welsh
industrial designer known for innovative shapes and materials who set out to, as he says, “break the mold of how you
deal with a four-legged chair,” and claims to have found inspiration in
dinosaur bones as well as African art.
Originally intended to be made of cast aluminum, the chairs, when
stacked, proved too heavy even in that light-weight material. Lovegrove chose to make the chair of
magnesium instead.
Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch, 1888-1964 Crate Chair, 1934, pine James L. Winokur Fund
“The
museum actively collects objects designed by architects,” says curator of
decorative arts Sarah Nichols, “ and Gerrit
Rietveld was an important designer who did interesting things throughout
his career. We have other chairs by
him spanning the whole of his career, but an example of crate furniture
seemed particularly important."
Rietveld
used the natural structure of materials as a design element. Sold as “weekend furniture” in the 1930s
and designed to be assembled by the customer and left unpainted, the
chairs, tables, and desks were inspired by the packing crate itself. Not suited for everyone, however, it was
more about architecture than comfort.
“That’s one of the rubs of modernism,” comments Armstrong, “No pun
intended.”
Ken Price, American, b. 1935 Mr. Icky, 2000, ceramic and acrylic paint Helen Johnston
Acquisition Fund
Ken Price has been a significant artist in the field of ceramics,
and beyond, for the past four decades.
“He’s very interested in surface and form and color, and the
relationship between them,” explains Nichols. “This piece is a new form for him, a very
organic form.”
Heinz Architectural Center Claude Parent, French, b. 1923 Deux
îles en terre ferme: Turbosite (1966, 1999) graphite
on paper Purchase: gift of the Drue
Heinz Trust
Acquired
during preparation for the recent exhibition Folds, Blobs + Boxes: Architecture in the Digital Era, this
1966 drawing by Claude Parent predates the digital era, but anticipates it
in the fluidity of the structure's form and its abandonment of the
traditional architectural grid of verticals and horizontals. The resulting
dynamism and indeterminacy of form mirrors the concerns of French
philosophers and literary intellectuals in the 1960s--ideas soon
appropriated by artists, architects and, eventually, digital designers. "Turbosite" is an invented name for an invented place.
Film and Video
Nam June Paik, American, b. 1932 TV Rodin, 1976-8 Plaster, video camera, tripod, monitor,
pedestal A.W. Mellon Acquisition Endowment Fund
Long considered the most important video artist since
the advent of the form in the late 1960s, Nam June Paik’s TV Rodin is from a small family of
related works that involve a sculpture – in this case, a cast of Auguste
Rodin’s Thinker – studying itself
in a small video monitor via closed circuit television. As museum visitors walk around the work
and look over the sculpture’s shoulder, their image is also captured by the
camera and appears on the screen. Paik’s
influential vision of television as a global cultural force found
intelligent and witty form in his videotapes, video sculptures, and
intercontinental satellite performances.
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