Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Art + Science Wednesday: Come on down!

Posted by Gary Vikan on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Photo: Tony Venne

The exhibition “Beauty and the Brain,” on the 4th level of the Walters’ Centre Street Building, is small (just one work of art!) but it has gotten a whole lot of attention, not only in the SUN, but also in:

But we need your help.  This is more of an experiment than an exhibition. You, our visitors, come down, put on 3D glasses (think AVATAR!), and pick your most and least favorite shapes from among each of 10 groupings.

Put your scorecard in the box, add your e-mail address, and we’ll keep you posted on the progress of the experiment.

We are exploring, with Ed Connor of the Mind/Brain Institute at JHU, the notion of “significant form.” Do some shapes appeal more than others to our visual brain?

And is this what artists are after?

And there are no wrong answers!

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Baltimore, Neuroscience, The Walters, Uncategorized | 765 Comments »

Monday: Art Object of the Week – FABERGE!

Posted by Gary Vikan on Monday, February 8th, 2010

“Two Eggs…Modern”

On Easter Day, 1901, Marie Fedorovna, the widow of Alexander III, emperor of Russia, knew that she was in for a surprise. Sixteen years earlier, on the occasion of their 20th wedding anniversary, her husband had given her an enameled gold egg encrusted with jewels and precious materials from Carl Fabergé’s St. Petersburg workshop.

The tradition then continued every Easter morning. Her son Nicholas II continued the holiday tradition after his father passed away, presenting eggs to his mother and his wife. Altogether, 50 imperial Easter eggs were created during the Russian Revolution.

Visitors to the Walters Art Museum can admire the Gatchina Palace Egg, presented by Nicholas to his mother in 1901, and the Rose Trellis Egg, made for the reigning empress Alexandra in 1907.

How did these magnificent mementos make it to Baltimore?

Both remained treasures of the imperial family until 1917, but after the Revolution, they disappeared. In 1930, more than a decade later, the Walters’ building superintendent was checking the contents of a crate containing artworks Henry Walters had purchased in Paris. The manifest humbly listed two items which proved to be of extraordinary interest and value “one egg in white enamel with a ring of little enameled pearls … modern” and “one copper egg decorated with enameled roses, modern.”

“Orphaned” and unknown then, the Gatchina Palace and Rose Trellis imperial Easter Eggs have been recognized as among the greatest treasures of the Walters.

Posted in Art, Baltimore, The Walters, Uncategorized | 43 Comments »

Snowed In? Go to the CyberWalters!

Posted by Gary Vikan on Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Photo: Gary Vikan

More than 6000 works to choose from, on line!: http://art.thewalters.org/browsecollections.aspx

I recommend that you start with Jean-Leon Gerome’s “Duel after the Masquerade”: http://art.thewalters.org/viewwoa.aspx?id=12697

Not only is it a painting of snow, it’s a great painting, and was voted so by the citizens of Baltimore 100 years ago.

Piotrovsky and Vikan compare their museums

Also, when Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, paid a visit to the Walters a few months back, he stopped dead in his tracks in front of “Duel after the Masquerade.”

Why?  Because there is a near twin to it in the Hermitage.

And did I hear Mikhail say ours was better?

Posted in Art, Baltimore, Museums, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Science Wednesday: Museum Labels – good for what?

Posted by Gary Vikan on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Each Wednesday, thoughts on art and science….

We in art museums spend a lot of time researching and writing labels, but sometimes I wonder what value they add to the museum experience – which, for me, is an aesthetic experience first and a learning experience second. 

Artists, after all, whether their works are in the caves at Lascaux or the galleries of the Walters, are no more “teachers” than their viewers are “students” or their setting a “classroom.”

Anish Kapoor’s gigantic stainless steel elliptical sculpture “Cloud Gate” in Millennium Park in Chicago hardly needs a label. You simply experience it! 

In his book Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain, neuroscientist Semir Zeki invokes Cezanne’s dismissive dictum that “all talk about art is almost useless,” and observes that language was a relatively late arrival in our evolutionary history. 

Four years ago Walters curator Eik Kahng did an innovative (and controversial) exhibition without labels called Courbet and the Modern Landscape. The art experience was instead accompanied by contemporary music composed in response to the works, and by subtle fluctuations in the light levels in the galleries, to evoke the passing of clouds in the paintings. 

We discovered through research that our visitors not only said that they had a more immersing art experience than usual, but also that they spent significantly more time with each work of art than is typical for museum goers.  

Is there a disconnect between those mental processes that are called upon to create a verbally discursive art historical experience of a work of art - e.g., learning to put a “new” Courbet landscape into an art-historical sequence - and those that are useful in maximizing an immersing aesthetic experience of that same work?

I think Cezanne would have said so.

Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Museums, Neuroscience, The Walters, Uncategorized | 732 Comments »

What’s a “VELVIS”????

Posted by Gary Vikan on Monday, February 1st, 2010

Photo: GV ("Velvis")

Photo: GV ("Velvis")

On January 23rd of this month, after four years of much notoriety and some ridicule, “Velveteria,” the one and only “velvet painting museum,” in Portland, Oregon, closed its doors. Its 300 plus paintings on velvet were a monument to a peculiar medium that seemed to have reached its apogee in Tijuana in the 1970s.

Elvis pictures have been so prevalent in this medium that they have their own term of identification: an Elvis on velvet is a “Velvis.” Why the association?  Is it simply because velvet painting is ipso facto a genre of high kitsch art and for many, Elvis Presley is the essence of kitsch?

This may explain some of the association, but probably not all of it. Think of what dominates the iconography of velvet painting, besides Elvis, naked women, and unicorns. This is an art form for charismatic martyrs, including Jesus, JFK, MLK, Michael Jackson, and Che Guevara, and for various incarnations of sad, big-eyed waifs, sad big-eyed clowns, and sad big-eyed puppies. And everywhere possible in velvet art there are tears.

The decent from canvas to velvet is the decent from pathos to bathos.

With their dark, dramatic backgrounds, and sketchy, ambiguous details, paintings on velvet are powerful agents for opening the emotional floodgates of susceptible viewers. As neuroscientists have recently discovered, our visual brain will “complete” the compositional and emotional ambiguity of works of art to suit our own sensibilities. This is part of the work and the joy of viewing art.

The sweating/weeping Elvis on velvet will be empowered by our mental workings both to capture and to evoke a profound sense of compassion and pity.

Photo: GV

Photo: GV (Elvis Icon)

As an Elvis icon (above) is created to enable viewers make conversational contact with the King, a Velvis is created to enable viewers to tap into their most profound emotions about the King.

That’s why they looks so different.

Tags:
Posted in Aesthetics, Art, Elvis, Neuroscience, Religion | 728 Comments »

Should Art Museums be Allowed to Sell Art to Pay the Bills?

Posted by Gary Vikan on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Judith H. Dobrzynski, a former Times art writer, had an interesting op-ed piece in The New York Times the other day (1/2) called “The Art of the Deal.” She lays out the financially troubled state of America’s fine arts museums – a condition known by now to all who follow this industry – and then advocates for a revisit of the self-imposed rule that museums cannot sell art to balance their operating budgets. After all, what museum doesn’t have store rooms stocked with secondary works?

Dobrzynski calls for the creation a system monitored by an informed but “neutral” third party that would help decide whether the sale of works of art from a museum’s permanent collection is warranted by extreme and unusual circumstance effectively beyond the control of the museum. Is the alternative – presumably, the financial collapse or near collapse of the museum – so dire that a temporary bending of the no-sell rule is allowable?

She concludes: “until [museums' money troubles go away] , de-accessioning shouldn’t be imposssible – just nearly so.”

Whether her point of view gets any traction remains to be seen. But one distinction she failed to draw might be worthy of exploration: namely, the distinction between art that is part of a donor bequest (or purchased with donor-restricted funds) and art that is purchased by the museum’s trustees with funds they have themselves raised.

It is a distinction much like that between “permanent endowment” funds, that are held in the public trust and are untouchable, and “quasi-endowment” funds,  that have been assigned by the museum’s trustees to long-term investments but which, at their discretion, can be unassigned.

In other words: what trustees choose to do they can choose to undo, with cash and, presumably, with art.

I have no idea what proportion of our nation’s public art assets have been assembled in this way; at the Walters, it is a very tiny portion of our collections, most of which (and the best of which) were part of the Henry Walters bequest of 1931.

But for other museums – and specifically, the ones whose very survival is risk – it may be worth looking into.

Posted in Art, Museums, The Walters, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Should the Elgin Marbles go Back to Greece?

Posted by Gary Vikan on Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

This decades-old question has new urgency, thanks to the stunningly-beautiful new museum in Athens dedicated to the Acropolis. Something is missing, say the Greeks (www.culture.gr). Not so, say the English (www.britishmuseum.org).

IMG_4731

In the British Museum, so the argument goes, you can see the sculptures close up and personal, and millions upon millions have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with one of the great architectural monuments of all time, without a trip to Athens.

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

And, after all, who knows what may have happened to these great works in those dangerous times, two centuries ago, when what is now Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire – had not Lord Elgin stepped in?

And then, in the label, a more suble thought is expressed, that in effect makes didactic allies of the old British Museum and the New Acropolis Museum.

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

If you were a Trustee of the British Museum, how would you vote?

Posted in Architecture, Art, Cultural Property, Greece | 744 Comments »

Should the Rosetta Stone go Back to Egypt?

Posted by Gary Vikan on Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s “Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities,” friend of Walters’ curator Regine Schulz (left), and charismatic star of anything pyramids-related on TV, was all over CNN prime time two weeks ago.

His emotional plea was simple and complelling: Zahi wants to borrow the famous Rosetta Stone from the British Museum for an exhibition in Egypt. What a novel idea!

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Now, some might reasonably wonder if the Rosetta Stone, once back in to Egypt, will ever make its way back to England again. Not to worry, says Zahi, we are not the “Pirates of the Caribbean”; you English (and, by implication, all western powers) are the real pirates. 

This is a line of reasoning that Ben Weideman of CNN finds quite compelling. 

And Zahi goes on to point out the obvious: namely, that King Tut’s treasures have been sent all over the world by the Egyptians.

Well, have a look at the label, and read it through the eyes of Zahi Hawass.

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in the town the Egyptians call Rashid, not Rosetta, by the invading French, but very soon taken from them by the conquering British. In fact, the British “captured” it and “presented” it to King George the III.

Interesting enough, but read on: it seems that the usefulness of the Rosetta (aka Rashid) Stone for deciphering hieroglyphs was realized nearly 200 years ago! It certainly is not much to look at and, until recently, it was exhibited without a glass cover on its case, so that anyone could touch it.

So Zahi Hawass seems to have a point, and at this stage, no decision on the possible loan to Egypt has been made by the Trustees of the British Museum.

And so that pretty plain chunk of black stone in the main Egyptian gallery at the British Museum – the one with all those little squiggles on it – is now more popular than ever!

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Posted in Art, Baltimore, Cultural Property, Museums, The Walters, Uncategorized | 737 Comments »

A Ray of Hope from within the Gloom of the Arts Scene

Posted by Gary Vikan on Monday, January 4th, 2010

In an article in the SUN on December 29th (“Audience for the arts down, but not out”) – which draws on a recent survey issued by the National Endowment for the Arts – we learned that between 2002 and 2008 attendance at art museums and galleries declined by 22% (classical music was down by 17% and opera by nearly 34%); this happened in just six years.

And this was happening during a period of unprecedented museum building expansion! 

Nowadays, significantly fewer people are taking part in the arts, and those that are, are doing so less frequently than in the past.

In that same article we learned that the percentage of leisure time among those 18 and over devoted to “arts” activities declined from 41% to 34.6% between 1992 and 2008.

Another disturbing fact: only 2 of 10 people ages 18-24 had ever taken a visual arts class in 2008, compared with 4 of 10 in 1982.

Ouch!

This seems not to be just a phase or cycle, but a fundamental shift, driven by technology and by the explosion in competing choices for our leisure time.

 The good news, such as it is, is that participation in sports and movies has declined even more precipitously - and, as might be expected, many more people are experiencing art on the internet than in the past. 

Today, on the op-ed page of the SUN (“A new exodus”), we learned, among other things, that the population of Baltimore City declined by 13.5% between 1990 and 2010.

And we all know that this decade ended with the DOW lower than it was in 2000.

Is there any good news out there?

There certainly is.  Since the Walters eliminated its general admission fee in 2006, our base-line (non-exhibition-driven) attendance is up, and remaining up, by about 40%.

And the attendance at the show we closed yesterday, HEROES: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, exceeded our projections by 40%.

Something to be thankful for at the beginning of a new decade.

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Posted in Art, Baltimore, Museums | 1,111 Comments »

If Lascaux II works, why not Mona Lisa II

Posted by Gary Vikan on Monday, December 28th, 2009

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

The famous cave in southwest France was discovered in the summer of 1940 by two boys looking for their dog, which had fallen down a hole. That easily, they stumbled on to 19,000-year-old paintings, and the very beginnings of art history.

From the late 40s to the early 60s more than 1,000,000 million eager tourists followed the path of that hapless French dog, leaving the walls of Lascaux – thanks to their steaming breath – covered with green moss and white calcite.

In 1963 Lascaux was closed, but in 1983, “‘to relieve public disappointment,” an exact replica was opened nearby!

Nowadays, pretty much everyone is happy – except, I guess, those who want to have a “Pique-Nique” there. Groups of tourists from around the world line up excitedly for the 40-minute tour of Lascaux II.

So think of that overworked Mona Lisa in the Louvre. In this case, moss and calcite are not the problem, nor is steamy breath, but rather the masses of tourist bodies which make any meaningful experience of the original Leonardo all but impossible. And think of that very nice copy of Mona at the Walters, with no one in your way.

Lascaux II works, so why not Mona Lisa II?

Photo: GV

Photo: GV

Posted in Art, The Walters | 762 Comments »