More Higgins Armory Objects on Display at WAM

I’m delighted to announce the completion of our pilot “open-storage” installation of arms and armor in WAM’s new Medieval Galleries. Open storage is a way of displaying objects closely packed in a “storage-type” space. This means we can’t label the objects or present them as beautifully as in a normal gallery display, but it allows us to make a large number of objects accessible to the public.

We are ultimately working to put the full Higgins Armory collection on view, using a combination of gallery displays and open storage. With some 2000 objects in the collection, this is a huge project! The pilot installation in the Medieval Galleries will allow us to test our ideas for open storage before we implement them on a large scale. It also allows us to get more of the Higgins collection on view—at this point, we have 5 full suits of armor on display, and a total of about 100 Higgins objects.

In the meantime, WAM has received $40,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities and $250,000 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to support planning and preparation for our permanent arms and armor galleries. This money will support conservation and curatorial study of the Collection. It will also bring in interpretive and design consultants to help us map out plans for the permanent arms and armor galleries, which are currently scheduled for installation in 2023.

—Jeffrey L. Forgeng
Curator of Arms & Armor and Medieval Art

Introducing Yesenia Perez

We are pleased to welcome Yesenia Perez, the new Assistant Curator of Education and Experience at WAM!  Yesenia, who started November 1, will oversee project teams for all public education events, plan and coordinate docent training and continuing education, and help create programming tied to our exhibitions.

Originally from Bethlehem, PA, Yesenia comes to us from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where she completed her MA in Art and Museum Studies, focusing on Education and STEAM.  Her studies included six months in London, where she visited dozens of European museums and art galleries.  She finds the collection at WAM unique in its diversity – not just in the range of the collection itself, but the way the art, themes and even lighting change from one room to the next, creating a new and exciting experience in each gallery.  “Going from the Medieval Arms and Armor gallery to the European galleries on the second floor is like seeing two different worlds entirely, yet housed in the same museum.”

In the video below, Yesenia discusses her favorite piece of art at WAM – “Interior of the Studio of Van Dael and his Students at the Sorbonne” by Philippe Jacques van Bree (1816).  This painting shows eight female art students, a mix of wealthy women pursuing art in their leisure time and professional artists perfecting their craft.

Out of the many upcoming exhibitions and events, Yesenia is especially looking forward to her first Flora in Winter this January, saying she's impressed with both the size of the program and its long history at WAM.  But more than anything, Yesenia is excited to begin working with the community of Worcester, to meet the people who live here and find out why they love their Museum so much, and to better understand the important role WAM plays in the community.

Writing Museum Wall Labels: A Case Study

Recently a new rotation of works on paper--featuring prints and drawings reflecting the Renaissance interest in anatomy--went on view in the Italian galleries. I was asked to create the wall label to accompany it. Wall labels in museum galleries are concise blurbs about a work, or works of art, written in a way meant to be easily understand-able and accessible to the public. Prior to writing the label for this rotation, I had only worked on two labels for photographs in the 2016 exhibition Cyanotypes: Photography’s Blue Period, with each label representing a single work of art. In this case, I needed a label that would tie together and clearly present three works as a single grouping in 150 words or less. It was the same amount of space, but I had to squeeze in discussions of two additional pieces of artwork.

In order to create a cohesive didactic label for three artworks, I had to locate a single central theme to unite them and narrow down my focus. In this case, I focused on the significance of anatomical study to artists during the Renaissance. Understanding how to render the human body accurately was tied directly to successfully depicting a nude figure. All three images include at least one nude figure despite differences in medium, the artists’ personal styles, and the subject being depicted. While the print Bacchanal with a Wine Vat by Andrea Mantegna’s subject is more or less a standard mythological scene, the two other prints are a nude depiction of The Last Supper and a rather theatrical image of skeletal and flayed figures. With three diverse images, the narrative I conveyed needed to be observable to the visitor viewing the grouping of these works. Working within the 150 word limit, I was able to point out one element of each work on paper relating to the overarching theme of anatomical study, while still leaving room for the viewer to make their own observations within the theme and discover the works of art for themselves.

Through my own experience I can say that artwork has so much to say that it feels easier to write a book than it does to write a quick blurb. It is easy to go down a research rabbit hole when writing on a work of art, and thus it can be equally tempting to overwhelm a casual viewer or stray off subject. Sometimes you find more questions than answers. While looking into these objects, I discovered theories about how Skeletons and Ecorches by del Barbiere may have been intended for use as an illustration in an anatomy textbook, but it seemed too embellished with curtains and props for a book of that nature. Could it have had another purpose? If it was intended for a book? If so, which book? I also was fascinated by an ongoing debate over the artist attribution of the drawing of The Last Supper. In the past it was attributed to Rosso Fiorentino, but through formal analysis the curator and others agreed that his association with the drawing was not secure.  In addition to the unknown status of the artist, was this drawing a study for another work of art that exists today? Was it drawn by Andrea del Sarto? What about an unknown student in a workshop? Are there any other artworks or sketches connected to this piece somewhere out there? These questions may never find their answers. Limiting the subject matter discussed in the label prevents it from turning into a book or dissertation, and leaves room for others to enjoy the mysteries and speculation that make art history so fascinating.

--Gabrielle Belisle, Fellow for Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Worcester Art Museum

Contributions of Southern African American women artists explored

I’m thrilled to announce that my chapter, “Contrary Instincts: Art History’s Gendered Color Line,” was published in Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection.

This catalogue, years in the making, acknowledges the achievements of female artists working in and inspired by the American South. Spanning the decades between the late 1890s and early 1960s, the volume examines the complex challenges these artists faced in a traditionally conservative region during a period in which women’s social, cultural, and political roles were being redefined and reinterpreted.

My essay looks at the mutual marginalization of trained and self-taught southern African American women artists. For Boston-born Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998), Clementine Hunter (1886-1988), and Minnie Evans (1892-1987), the challenges posed by their race were complicated by an additional barrier: their gender. As limited as the opportunities were for African American male artists, meaningful opportunities were even rarer for women. Trained or untrained, Southern African American women artists had to overcome extreme disadvantages in order to create art. Furthermore, the American South looms over their artwork: the rich and complex cultural and historical dynamics of Southern life are manifested in subject matter, medium, and even reception by the art world. In considering artists such as Alma Thomas (1891-1978), Selma Burke (1900-1995), and Augusta Savage (1892-1962)—alongside Evans, Hunter, and others—this essay seeks to explore their similar struggles, their connections to the American South, and their range of creative expression.
 
--Erin R. Corrales-Diaz, Assistant Curator of American Art

Learn more about Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection:  http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/2018/7954.html)  

Sainsbury/WAM Fashioning Colors Symposium

WAM partnered with the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, one of oldest organizations devoted to the study of Japan in the UK, to co-organize the symposium Fashioning Colors: New Perspectives on Japanese Woodblock Prints. Held last week at the Sainsbury Institute in Norwich, England, this international symposium brought together ten print and textile scholars and conservators from the UK, the US, and Japan to discuss the intersection of fashion, textiles, and ukiyo-e woodblock prints through the lens of color. The event was conceived as a pre-exhibition symposium for an upcoming show at WAM in 2020 that will draw on our collection of rare early Japanese prints from the late 17th century to late 18th century.

Speakers shared a diversity of fresh perspectives and research, such as Henry Smith (Columbia University) in his talk about the crossover histories between color printing in prints and textiles, and Stephanie Su (Sainsbury Institute) in her presentation about the prestigious kimono house Chiso and its 19th century commissioning of printed paintings to inspire its designers.

Prints, fashion, and textiles were also placed in a global historical context by economist Fujita Kayoko (Ritsumekan University), who discussed the domestic consumption of textile imports in early modern Japan, while conservation scientist Marco Leona (Metropolitan Museum) presented how the introduction of synthetic dyestuff from Europe to Japan dramatically transformed the context for print production. The following day the British Museum hosted a special viewing of works in its storage.

For those who missed the symposium do not despair. The exhibition catalogue in 2020 will feature essays by the symposium speakers so stay tuned!

--Vivian Li, Associate Curator of Asian Art and Global Contemporary Art

Why Curators Visit Art Fairs

This spring I was invited by the Chinese University of Hong Kong to give a series of public lectures for their “Art and Museum Lecture Series.” While there I attended the major contemporary art fair in Asia—Art Basel Hong Kong—that is now in its tenth year. For museum curators, art fairs are important not necessarily just for acquiring art, but for networking with dealers, collectors, and artists in the region and internationally. Special exhibitions, panel discussions, gallery openings, and artist talks happen in and around the art fair. Additionally, art fairs allow visitors to see in person recent artworks by established artists to those up-and-coming. Jeff Koons’ work, the stainless steel sculpture Swan (Inflatable), 2011-15, was a crowd favorite at the fair, as well as the debut of Marina Abramović’s new virtual reality work, Rising, 2017.
Aisha Khalid’s Two Worlds As One, 2017, was another stand out. Two monumental rugs hung suspended facing each other. While the heads of hundreds of steel and gold plated pins created stunningly intricate patterns on the rugs, the tips of the steel pins created a menacing field of sharp pin points on the reverse side. An exciting artist I learned about at the fair was Shinji Ohmaki. His popular large-scale installation, Liminal Air Space-Time, 2018, was simply a single cloud-like fabric constantly hovering and moving in the air by unseen fans. It was a magical respite from the general frenzied pace and visual overload of the fair.

-Vivian Li, Associate Curator of Asian Art and Global Contemporary Art

James Walker's monumental work, The Battle of Gettysburg: Repulse of Longstreet's Assault, July 3, 1863

This past week I presented on the monumental canvas, The Battle of Gettysburg: Repulse of Longstreet’s Assault, July 3, 1863, at the Boston Athenaeum. As part of a sponsored program for the current exhibition, Subscription Campaigns: Contributions in Support of Community, this talk explored the history of the panoramic painting and its subsequent souvenir industry. (You can read about the talk here.)

Six years in the making, James Walker’s twenty-foot long by seven and a half feet wide The Battle of Gettysburg debuted in Boston on March 14, 1870. No less than five major Boston newspapers lauded the work’s sweep and substance, praising its “remarkable minuteness and comprehensiveness and . . . fidelity.” Indeed, several of the generals depicted in the work (Longstreet, Meade, Hancock, Webb, Hall, and others) vouched for its accuracy—and its pathos. After its first appearance, The Battle of Gettysburg embarked on a cross-country tour with owner, the historian John Badger Bachelder, to “delight and instruct” American audiences. The popularity of the picture and the narrative of the battle of Gettysburg generated a souvenir market including guide books, descriptive keys, and small-scale print reproductions. This cottage industry around Walker’s panoramic painting enabled Bachelder to shape Americans’ popular—and persistent—perceptions of the battle.

 

 --Erin R. Corrales-Diaz, Assistant Curator of American Art

Image: James Walker, The Battle of Gettysburg: Repulse of Longstreet’s Assault, July 3, 1863, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina