Hasta La Ideas

It’s been nearly a month since we last heard any news about the ongoing struggles at Fisk University over efforts to try selling off their collection of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings to help pay off their debts. At last we’d left it, a judge had struck down Tennessee’s attorney general’s request to remove the art from Fisk so the pieces could be cared for by the state until the university had its finances in order. That battle over, the university is back to trying to sell off half the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, by sending out newly-revised plans to the same judge who told them no the last time they tried this. From the Tennessean, here’s their new proposal:

Fisk’s revised sale plan removes a provision that would have set up a separate Delaware-based corporation to oversee the art and mediate between Fisk and Crystal Bridges. Opponents warned that the corporation, again, could have shifted the balance of power in the art-sharing agreement to Crystal Bridges’ favor. Instead, the chancery court would oversee any disputes between the two sides.

The new contract also blocks Crystal Bridges from selling its share of the collection without the Davidson County court’s permission. It also beefs up the language in the contract urging that O’Keeffe’s wishes be followed as closely as possible.

In response, the Association of Art Museum Directors has decided to get themselves involved, issuing a letter to Fisk’s president (PDF), both chiding them for attempting to sell, reminding them that if they sell a major collection now that future donors might be wary of ever giving to Fisk for fear their gifts will be broken up to help pay bills as well, and offering to meet with them to help devise some other solution that would keep O’Keeffe’s art where it is. Although they’ve won their share of defensive legal battle thus far, Fisk hasn’t had much luck yet in getting any momentum going in the sale direction, particularly in front of a judge who at their last meeting told them that a deal with Crystal Bridges would “dilute, override and in some cases thwart Ms. O’Keeffe’s intention.”

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Every once in a while, you get a reminder of how wonderful and complicated a thing art can be. Though often it comes at the expense of something negative happening. Such is the case in the small town of Loveland, Colorado, where the local museum, the Loveland Museum Gallery, is in the middle of running an exhibition called “The Legend of Bud Shark & His Indelible Ink,” a collection of prints assembled/curated by the famed printer, publisher and Colorado resident, Bud Shark (who donated the exhibit and therefore “no tax dollars were used”). Included in the exhibition was a beautiful paneled lithograph by artist Enrique Chagoya, “The Misadventures of the Romantic Cannibals,” which according to Fox “includes several images of Jesus, including one in which he appears to be receiving oral sex from a man as the word ‘orgasm’ appears beside Jesus’ head” (Chagoy’s own description of the piece is far more accurate and far less inflammatory). Somehow, possibly due to some online outrage that caught fire and then the local, then national media picked it up (see the quote above), protests and things like failed calls from a councilman to have the piece removed revved up to a full boil. The final act came this week when a woman from Montana showed up to the gallery with a crowbar and smashed a cover protecting the piece and then tore Chagoya’s print. She was arrested immediately and is now facing felony charges and fines. The artist and Bud Shark are both understandably upset by what’s transpired, Chagoya stressing that it was his First Amendment rights that were attacked and violence is hardly a teaching of Jesus, who this woman was presumably trying to protect from a piece of printed paper. So while charges have been filed, the museum isn’t going to rehang the print, and a piece of art has been damaged, if art’s purpose is to engage the public, then it feels like it was a life well-served.

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Come for the proto-cubism and Mayan sea creatures, stay for the Renzo Piano maquette! Such is the range of works now on view at the Kimbell Art Museum, which recently unveiled the final design by Renzo Piano Building Workshop for a major new museum building located to the west of its iconic Louis Kahn-designed home. The Fort Worth institution is offering visitors a glimpse of its future with a detailed scale model of the new building (pictured at right, click for an enlarged version) now on display in the museum lobby. “The model is beautiful,” says Kimbell director Eric M. Lee. “It will provide visitors with a clearer understanding of how the new building relates to the Kahn building and how it will be positioned in the landscape.”

Expected to open in 2013 and cost $125 million, the Kimbell’s Piano-designed addition will consist of two connected structures: the first, facing and echoing the west front of the Kahn building and the second, running parallel in the rear. The front pavilion will welcome visitors into a spacious, travertine-clad lobby, with major exhibition galleries extending to the north and south. A third gallery, as well as an auditorium, library, and education center, will be housed in the rear pavilion, which will be topped with a green roof (the recreational possibilities are endless…Kimbell kickball, anyone?). In addition to the green roof, which reduces heating and cooling demands, photovoltaic panels on the lobby’s floating glass roof will shade direct sun, filter daylight, and generate enough power to offset up to half of the carbon produced by the building each year. “I see designing for energy savings as the only proper, contemporary way to build, not as an ‘add on,’” said Piano in describing his approach to the Kimbell’s new building, which will require only a fourth of the energy consumed by the Kahn building.

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After three months of sifting through more than 1,500 entries, then testing out the five finalists, the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago have finally made their pick for who will spend a whole month living in their museum for their aptly titled promotional experiment, Month at the Museum. Although they didn’t wind up picking either of our two favorites, they still went local, which wins them points, and selected Kate McGroarty. Here are the official details from the museum:

Beginning Oct. 20, 2010, McGroarty, 24, will become the Museum’s roommate for 30 days — taking in all the Museum has to offer, getting amazing behind-the-scenes access, sharing it all with the world — and taking home a $10,000 prize at the end of it all. McGroarty, a teacher and theatre artist, Minnesota native and 2008 Northwestern graduate who now lives in the Chicago neighborhood of Ravenswood, wowed the MSI judges with her natural curiosity, creative spirit, wit and writing skills. McGroarty was also the clear favorite with the public, garnering the top position after more than 20,000 online votes were cast in a week.

And before you start wondering/worrying about where exactly she’ll be living in a museum not usually accustomed to overnight visitors (except for ghosts and mummies), of course they made sure to shore up some choice sponsorship deals along the way:

As if getting to live in the Museum for 30 days wasn’t cool enough, Kate will be treated to sleek and modern living accommodations, delicious meals and a technology package she gets to keep. Both the winner’s office and private sleeping quarters will be designed and furnished by CB2. Sodexo Leisure Services, the Museum’s exclusive caterer, will provide the winner with breakfast and lunch daily, while Whole Foods Market will provide dinner and snacks. And the technology package to document the entire experiment is provided by Best Buy and supported by Geek Squad.

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In the middle of last month, you might recall that the New York Board of Regents made the sudden and unexpected move to let the regulations surrounding the sale of art by public museums expire, thus making it easier for them to sell pieces or whole collections to help pay bills, instead of the expected procedure wherein a museum only sells when doing so is in the interest of building up their art holdings in other areas. While there are still provisions in place, the expiration now gives way to older rules that are far more lax in their ability to oversee sales. While the big New York City-based museums who have lobbied against any form of mandatory restrictions are plenty pleased by the Board’s decision, the NY Times reports that those who were in favor are livid over the move. In particular, they’re pinpointing the Board’s chancellor, Merryl H. Tisch, who not only helped the vote to expire go through, but also happens to be connected through family to those big museums who were fighting it (“There are Tisch Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum, for example, named for her father-in-law, Laurence, and his brother, Preston”). Chancellor Tisch, of course, says her family associations had nothing to do with the Board’s decisions. So while there has yet to be any big fire sales of whole collections yet, the situation certainly seems to be gathering some press momentum, with the Board certainly not winning any points along the way. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

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