cover photo - Chrysler Museum of Art

Chrysler
The Members’ Magazine | Spring 2016
SMILING AT A
NEW PORTRAIT
The striking portrait on the cover of this edition of Chrysler is of
the noted author James Baldwin, painted by his friend Beauford
Delaney. This is one of the Museum’s latest acquisitions—and it’s
one that particularly pleases me.
This impressive painting captures the sensitivity of a man who
was one of the most significant authors and essayists of the last
100 years and who was particularly incisive in his examination of
the African American experience. Both the artist and the sitter
were gay black men living and working in New York in the mid 20th
century, biographical facts that are not irrelevant to the meaning
of the painting. These factors may also account for the limited
appreciation of Delaney’s work in his own lifetime. Thankfully, that
assessment has changed in recent years, and now collectors and
museums avidly seek his work.
The neon yellow-green background crackles with energy and
hints at Baldwin’s own intellectual vitality. The quality of this
extraordinary portrait matches the standard set by the best works
in our collection. Its presence in our galleries allows us to tell
a fuller story of painting in America. It also begins to redress a
key weakness in our collection: the underrepresentation of
African American artists.
Central to our mission is the desire to serve the broadest range
of people. That is why we offer free admission and an eclectic
exhibition schedule. To test this philosophy, we often ask how our
collection and our mission match. While many factors influence our
acquisition decisions, among the basic considerations are:
Does the work build on our existing strengths? Does it fill
notable gaps in our collection? How might this object speak
to our patrons? What stories could we tell with this work?
Is it of exceptional quality? Can we afford it?
The Delaney painting, as well as other recent purchases now on
view such as Alvar Aalto’s Savoy Vase, Liza Lou’s Gild Amber/Divide,
and Carleton Watkins’ historical photograph of Yosemite, fulfill all
our requirements, as well as those of our Collections Committee.
And the generosity of various donors has made it possible to acquire
other important works of art that will enhance our collection
and improve our visitors’ experience. I believe these well-chosen
accessions make our great Museum even better. You can read more
about our new additions in our cover story, but better yet, come
take a look for yourself and tell us what you think. I think you’ll be
pleased as well.
Erik H. Neil, Director
board of trustees 2015–2016
Lewis W. Webb III, Esq., Chair
Thomas L. Stokes, Jr., Vice Chair
Lelia Graham Webb, Secretary
Yvonne T. Allmond
Dudley Anderson, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Tony Atwater
Shirley C. Baldwin
Carolyn K. Barry
Kathleen Broderick
Deborah H. Butler
Susan R. Colpitts
Elizabeth Fraim
Edith G. Grandy
James A. Hixon
Marc Jacobson
Linda H. Kaufman
Pamela C. Kloeppel
Harry T. Lester
Suzanne Mastracco
Oriana M. McKinnon
Peter M. Meredith, Jr.
J. Douglas Perry
C. Arthur Rutter III
Lisa B. Smith
Bob Sasser
Richard Waitzer
Joseph T. Waldo
Wayne F. Wilbanks
chrysler magazine
Denis Finley,
Director of Communications
Cheryl Little, Museum Editor/
Publications Manager
Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer
Jane Cleary, Graphics Manager
Chrysler Magazine is a quarterly
publication produced for and mailed
to Chrysler Museum Members as a
benefit of their generous support.
Update or verify your membership
information at http://reservations.
chrysler.org or contact Database
Manager Fleater Allen at:
Chrysler Museum of Art
One Memorial Place,
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 333-6287 | fallen@chrysler.org.
The Chrysler Museum of Art,
all rights reserved © 2015
on the cover
Beauford Delaney
(American, 1901–1979)
Portrait of James Baldwin, 1965
Oil on canvas
Museum purchase
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
used by permission
Chrysler
The Members’ Magazine | Spring 2016
inside front cover
Photo by Charlie Gunter for the Chrysler Museum of Art
2
5
6
8
Members’ Exhibition Opening for
Edward Burtynsky: Water
Photo by Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer
14
Docent-led Touch Tours
11
13
20 21
22 23 24 24 25 26 27 Visiting Artist Series 2016
at the Perry Glass Studio
Rik Allen (American, b. 1967)
Night Walk, 2015
Blown glass, silver and steel
Image by KP Studios,
courtesy of the artist
28
Director’s Note
in the galleries
Exhibitions on View
Loans, Here and There
Spotlight Exhibition:
In and Out of The Box with Kota Ezawa
Collection Connection: New Light on Land:
Photographs from the Chrysler Collection
cover story
New Additions to the Chrysler Collection
chrysler news
Always Learning:
Education and Our Docent Corps
A New Way of Seeing:
Touch Tours for the Vision Impaired
In Memoriam: Michele Ward Franklin
Ann Dearsley Vernon
Community Service, Community Fun
Jean Outland Chrysler Library News
At the Perry Glass Studio
Good News for Donors
Norfolk Society of Arts Lectures
member exclusives and
special events
Art Travel Opportunities
A Look Back at Member Events
Don’t-Miss Events for Members
last look
A Season of Water
back cover
Camp Chrysler
Exhibitions
Edward Burtynsky: Water
Closing May 15, 2016 in the
Norfolk Southern Special
Exhibitions Gallery
(Gs. 101–103)
Water is so present in
our lives that it can be a
challenge to comprehend
all that it means. In this
keynote exhibition, Canadian
artist Edward Burtynsky
provides a compelling global
perspective on this essential
resource and humanity’s
complex connections to it.
More than 60 expansive
color photographs—some
elegant, some haunting—
hover between the worlds of
painting, photography, detail
and abstraction. Together,
they weave an ambitious
representation of water’s
ever-more-fragmented
lifecycle, raising questions
about our increasingly stressed
relationship with our most vital
natural resource.
Edward Burtynsky: Water is
organized by the New Orleans
Museum of Art.
Edward Burtynsky’s exhibition is but
one of several water-themed programs
across Hampton Roads this season.
Check out more of the offerings in this
issue’s Last Look on page 29.
Norwood Viviano—
Cities: Departure
and Deviation
Ongoing in the Glass
Project Space (G. 118)
Precisely blown glass forms in
gradating shades of white, gray,
and black tell the centuriesold stories of urban growth,
suburban flight, and the rise
and fall of industrial influence
in this data-driven exhibition.
Norwood Viviano transforms
population statistics for 25
American cities into 3-D graphs
that serve as a starting point
for conversations touching on
commerce, race, technology,
culture, sustainability, and
change. The artist created
the glass graph of Norfolk
specifically for exhibition at
the Chrysler.
Norwood Viviano—Cities:
Departure and Deviation is on
loan from the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston. Norfolk addition is on loan
from the artist and Heller Gallery,
New York.
Edward Burtynsky
(Canadian, b. 1955)
Xiaolangdi Dam #1, Yellow River,
Henan Province, China, 2011
Digital chromogenic print,
60 x 80 inches
© Edward Burtynsky
Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier
Gallery, Toronto; Howard Greenberg
Gallery, New York; and Bryce
Wolkowitz Gallery, New York
2 | spring 2016
Norwood Viviano (American, b. 1972)
Installation detail of Cities of
Philadelphia, Phoenix,
Pittsburgh, and San Francisco
from the series Cities: Departure
and Deviation, 2011
Blown glass and vinyl cut drawings
Installation photo by Ed Pollard,
Museum Photographer
In The Box: Kota Ezawa
In The Box: Tony Oursler
Extended through April 10
in The Box
Reimagine the familiar as our
new-media gallery features the
San Francisco artist known for
his animated audiovisual mashups of popular culture and art
history. Enjoy his lightbox take
on the iconic Earth From Moon,
as well as two recent video
works. City of Nature presents
unpopulated nature scenes
from more than 20 feature films
in paint-by-number-kit style,
while Beatles über California
remixes footage of the Fab
Four’s 1964 Ed Sullivan Show
appearance with a 1979 punk
soundtrack by Dead Kennedys.
Opening the evening of
Third Thursday, April 21
in The Box
Two of the world’s most
influential avant-garde artists
join forces as the Chrysler
debuts their new collaboration.
Tony Oursler, renowned for his
imaginative multimedia art
and installations, presents the
international premier of TC: The
Most Interesting Man Alive.
His short movie focuses on Tony
Conrad, legendary conceptual
artist, filmmaking innovator,
minimalist composer, and
educator. This improvisational
biopic presents how Conrad
became an artistic tour de force
and explores how personal
histories become the building
blocks of creative possibilities.
This project between two
longtime friends promises an
unforgettable experience in
experimentation.
The artist’s In The Box exhibition works
are on loan from Murray Guy, New York.
Kota Ezawa has more to say about his
art at the Chrysler. Learn more in this
issue’s Spotlight Exhibition story on
pages 6–7.
Meet and Greet / Artist
Talk with Tony Oursler
Third Thursday, April 21
Free for Museum Members
and students with current ID,
$5 for all others
TC: The Most Interesting Man Alive, a
movie by Tony Oursler in collaboration
with Tony Conrad, and its related
installation works in The Box are on
loan from Lehmann Maupin, New York.
Kota Ezawa (German, b. 1969)
Earth from Moon, 2005
Single-channel HD video,
3 mins., 54 secs.
© Kota Ezawa
Image courtesy of Murray Guy,
New York
Beyond the Tangible:
The Roots of Abstraction
in American Art
On view in the Roberts
Wing | 20th-Century Art
Gallery (G. 222)
Our Modernist art gallery is
reinstalled with 15 masterworks
by artists on the forefront of
the American avant garde:
Charles Sheeler, Georgia
O’Keeffe, Joseph Stella, Niles
Spencer, and Stuart Davis, to
name a few. Their quest was, as
Arshile Gorky said, “to extract
the infinite out of the finite.”
Explore the blend of vision,
imagination, and symbolism
that they present as they
experiment with flatness, color,
and rhythm—and blur the
lines between representation
and a radical new way of seeing.
Oscar Bluemner
(American, 1867–1938)
Red Green in Grey, 1934
Oil on board
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Tony Oursler (American, b. 1957)
TC: The Most Interesting Man
Alive, 2016
Photographic still from movie
installation
© Tony Oursler
Image courtesy of Oursler Studio,
New York
in the galleries | 3
AT THE HISTORIC HOUSES
Harry Cowles Mann
(American, 1866–1926)
Cape Henry Lighthouse, ca. 1918
Gelatin silver print on
texturized paper
Anonymous
Willoughby-Baylor House
601 E. Freemason St., Norfolk
Harry C. Mann:
Norfolk Photographer
Opening April 16 | First floor
Discover the pioneering
photographic work of Harry
Cowles Mann (1866–1926).
Between 1907 and 1924, Mann’s
camera documented the
bustling commercial life of
Granby Street and downtown
Norfolk. Featuring 50 vintage
prints from the Chrysler
Collection, this exhibition also
presents his experiments in
capturing waves, clouds, and
shadows on the sand dunes
of Virginia Beach, evidence
of his powerful but unsung
artistic ambitions.
A Moveable Feast:
A Reconfiguration of
Contemporary Art
New Light on Land:
Photographs from the
Chrysler Collection
On view in the McKinnon
Wing of Contemporary Art
(Gs. 223–227)
The Chrysler takes advantage
of the Museum’s modular wall
system with the first major
reinstallation of our 20th- and
21st-century art since our
reopening in 2014. Sprawling
canvases, imaginative sculpture,
and other popular favorites
return to the galleries as we
reimagine our expansive wing
for contemporary art. Many
of the works show the unique
collecting tastes and insider
dealer relationships of the
Museum’s key benefactor,
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Collection
standouts by Larry Poons, Nam
Jun Paik, Barkley Hendricks,
and Idelle Weber headline this
new display.
Closing May 15 in the Frank
Photography Galleries
(G. 228)
Whether pastoral or polluted,
the landscape has been an
enduring subject in the history
of photography. New Light on
Land draws from the Museum’s
rich photography collection to
explore how nature has inspired
photographic innovation and
creativity since the advent of
the medium. Presented as a
companion to Edward Burtynsky:
Water, this exhibition offers
eclectic perspectives from
environmentalist critiques
to grand visions of the
untrammeled earth.
Different eyes see different things.
Five Chrysler Museum staff members
share their insights on these landscape
photos in our Collection Connection
highlight on pages 8–10.
Seascapes by
William Trost Richards
Closing May 1 in the
Focus Gallery (G. 229)
In the 1870s, William Trost
Richards (1833–1905) discovered
the beauty of the ocean. Over
the next three decades, he
visited and painted some of
the finest beaches and most
dramatic rocky coastlines
of New England and Europe.
Thanks to a generous gift from
the painter’s granddaughter,
the Chrysler Collection includes
scores of oils, watercolors,
and drawings by this master
landscape painter. Trace
Richards’ working process from
sketchbook pages to finished
canvases and experience a
diverse selection of seascapes,
including recently conserved
paintings on display for the
first time.
The Norfolk Rooms
Ongoing | Second floor
in the Norfolk History Museum
Moses Myers House
323 E. Freemason St., Norfolk
Moses Myers:
Maritime Merchant
Barton Myers:
Norfolk Visionary
Adeline’s Portal
by Beth Lipman
4 | spring 2016
Nam June Paik
(American, b. South Korea, 1932–2006)
Hamlet Robot, 1996
Video installation
Museum purchase and gift of Joan Dalis Martone,
Fran and Lenox Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Macon F. Brock, Jr.,
Susan and Paul Hirschbiel, Renée and Paul Mansheim,
and Robert McLanahan Smith III
© Estate of Nam June Paik
Robert Glenn Ketchum
(American, b. 1947)
Jedediah, After The Rain, ca. 1978
Cibachrome print,
from the portfolio American
Photographs in the
National Parks
Gift of Jack B. Ketchum
© Robert Glenn Ketchum
William Trost Richards
(American, 1833–1905)
Seascape, ca. 1890s
Oil on millboard
Gift of Edith Ballinger Price
On the
Road Here
and There
Chrysler
Loans in the
Spotlight
our McKinnon Wing of Modern
and Contemporary Art.
|
The Bath is still on view in
Gallery 216, but won’t be for
long. The charming 1868 oil
painting goes to Paris later this
spring for Charles Gleyre (18061874): The Repentant Romantic.
France’s first solo show of the
artist’s work runs at Musée
d’Orsay May 9–September 11.
Art from the Chrysler
Collection is always
in demand for special
exhibitions across the
country and around the
world. If you’ll be traveling,
you may see these
favorite works on loan
to other museums.
Jackson Pollock
(American, 1912–1956)
Number 23, 1951, 1951
Enamel on canvas
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
© The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/
Artists Rights Society, New York
Stanislav Libenský
(Czech, 1921–2002)
Jaroslava Brychtová
(Czech, b. 1924)
Green Eye of the Pyramid,
1933–97
Cast glass
Promised gift of Lisa Shaffer
Anderson and Dudley Buist
Anderson
© Stanislav Libenský and
Jaroslava Brychtová
Franz Kline’s Hot Jazz is
helping Germans explore
the intertwining influence of
American jazz on poetry, music,
and the visual arts throughout
Europe and America. I Got
Rhythm: Jazz and Art Since 1920
is on view at Kunstmuseum
Stuttgart through March 6.
Five historic albumen
prints from our acclaimed
collection of Civil War photos
are featured in the Alexander
Gardner: The War and the
West in Washington, D.C. The
exhibition is the Smithsonian’s
first major retrospective of the
photographer’s work and the
finale of the National Portrait
Gallery’s seven-part series
commemorating the 150th
anniversary of the Civil War.
The show closes March 13.
Our swirling Number 23, 1951
is one of an unprecedented
31 black paintings featured in
Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots. On
view at England’s Tate Liverpool
for much of 2015, the popular
show includes 70 of the great
abstract expressionist’s works.
The exhibition is at Dallas
Museum of Art now until
March 20.
Our Edward Hicks’ Scene from
“The Tempest” goes on loan
to the Baron and Ellin Gordon
Art Galleries at Old Dominion
University in April. The ca. 1825
canvas will be featured in
Shakespeare and the Americas:
A Look Back to the World of
“The Tempest.” The exhibition
celebrating the Bard 400 years
after his death is on view
through September 25.
It’s an unusual Germanthemed work for French artist
Henri Fantin-Latour, but The
Rhinemaidens is in the
spotlight in Wagner’s Ring:
Forging an Epic. The ca. 1880
oil painting really sings thanks
to a recent restoration by
our Conservation Team. The
musically themed exhibition
is at Engelhard Gallery of The
Morgan Library & Museum in
New York until April 17.
Our St. Andrew makes its West
Coast debut as Kehinde Wiley:
A New Republic moves from
Fort Worth to Seattle. The
acclaimed exhibition returns
East for a culminating run
at the Virginia Museum of
Fine Arts in Richmond from
June 3–September 5. After that,
our key accession of 2014 comes
home to the Chrysler to grace
Charles-Francois Daubigny
headlines the traveling
exhibition Daubigny, Monet,
Van Gogh. Our 1873 oil painting,
The Beach at Villerville at
Sunset, is at the Taft Museum
of Art in Cincinnati through
May 29, then the show crosses
the Atlantic for engagements
at the Scottish National Gallery
in Edinburgh and the Van Gogh
Museum in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.
Saint Philip by Georges de la
Tour blesses Museo Nacional del
Prado with its presence in a key
international exhibition. Our
ca. 1625 masterwork is one of 30
paintings by the long-forgotten
artist, perhaps the most
important French painter of the
17th century, now on view in
Madrid, Spain, through June 12.
Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for
the Camera, here at the Chrysler
last summer and fall, continues
its successful run. Now at Tufts
University Art Gallery (through
May 22), the exhibition moves
to the Block Museum of Art,
Northwestern University,
September 17–December 11.
The Chrysler has three photos in
the show: National Grassland,
South Dakota; Niagara Falls,
New York; and The Shrine of
Democracy: Mount Rushmore,
Black Hills, South Dakota.
For images of other Chrysler
Collection art on the road, see our
#ChryslerMuseumTravels posts at
instagram.com/chryslermuseum.
From the Road:
Loans Amid
Our Collection
In addition to lending our own
works, the Chrysler Museum
also benefits from loans from art
collectors who are friends of the
Museum. On your next visit, look
for these and many other fine
artworks on loan to us.
McKinnon Wing of Modern
and Contemporary Art
Stanislav Libenský
Jaroslava Brychtová
Green Eye of the Pyramid
Promised gift of Lisa and
Dudley Anderson
Joan P. Brock Galleries
Érard
Napoleon III Ormolu-Mounted
Satinwood and Parquetry
Grand Piano
Lent by the Norfolk Education
Foundation
Winslow Homer
Girl with a Four-Leaf Clover
Promised gift of
Mrs. Frank Batten
Frank Photography Galleries,
in New Light on Land
Sally Mann
Untitled
Lent by Lelia Graham and
Randy Webb
Tung Hing
Scene from Foo Chow, China
Lent by Susan and Paul Hirschbiel
Waitzer Galleries of Glass
George Woodall
Cameo Plaque
(Girl Carrying Fruit)
Lent by James and
Rebecca Summar
Joel Philip Myers
Dr. Zharkov’s Gold One
Lent by Carolyn and Dick Barry
in the galleries | 5
|
Out-of-theBox Art
in The Box
Kota Ezawa
If you haven’t yet seen our
current show in The Box,
our new-media and video
gallery, you’re in luck.
Kota Ezawa’s exhibition
at the Chrysler has been
extended until April 10.
Chrysler asked Seth Feman,
our Curator of Exhibitions
and Acting Curator of
Photography, to talk
with the acclaimed artist
about how his imaginative
works have such
universal resonance.
seth feman: How did the works now on view at
the Chrysler become your exhibition here?
kota ezawa: The idea to show these three works
together in The Box came out of a conversation
between Janice Guy, my gallerist in New York,
Chrysler Museum Director Erik Neil, and me. I
really appreciate the collaborative aspect of
exhibition-making. This makes every show unique.
Earth from Moon (2005) is a drawing from my
ongoing series The History of Photography Remix.
Prior to this series, almost all my work was in
video form. A lightbox looks a lot like a TV, but
it only shows a single image. As a video artist
this gave me a natural entry to this format. My
drawing is a remake of the famous photograph
taken by an Apollo 11 astronaut gazing at the
Earth from space. It’s said that this photograph
started the environmental movement.
City of Nature (2011) is an animation based on
40 nature scenes from narrative films, including
The Old Man and the Sea, Fitzcarraldo, Swept
Away, Brokeback Mountain, and many others. The
animation was constructed in a way that one
scene leads to the next—a creek leads to a river,
which leads to an ocean, which leads to a shark.
You could say that this piece functions like a
cinematic chain reaction.
And Beatles Über California (2011) is a mash-up.
I re-animated the Beatles’ 1964 performance on
the Ed Sullivan Show with the Dead Kennedys’
famous 1979 punk anthem “California Über Alles.”
It surprised me how easy it was to sync up the
existing images with the newer music. Image
and sound are two very different experiences,
but they naturally form a pact. You can almost
pair any sound with any image—but some
combinations are more powerful than others.
6 | spring 2016
SF: You’ve described your process of transforming
photographs and film into animation as “just
like translating a text into English from Chinese.”
Would you elaborate on this and on how you
select and create your imagery?
KE: Since my work starts with an existing film or
photograph, there is a relationship to a source
material. It’s similar to a translated text that has its
roots in an original. I also like to compare my work
to the job of a translator because I try to bring
across the essence of an image, just as a translator
attempts to preserve the character of a text.
Another parallel is that making art for me is really
work. I’m not just sitting around in my studio with
a glass of wine, waiting for inspiration to hit. As
in translating, there is a lot of tediousness and
meticulousness required.
But this is only one aspect of what I do. The other
portion I could describe as a form of visual DJing.
It involves a lot of cutting and editing, all with
the purpose of initiating a conversation with the
viewer. It’s much like the way a DJ tries to animate
the dance floor. I pick the subject and source
material for my work very quickly and intuitively.
I trust my initial ideas more than those that come
out of long contemplation. But the actual creation
of the work involves a slow and meditative
process—hours and hours with a drawing tablet
in front of a computer or with a paintbrush on a
piece of paper.
SF: Maybe it’s the bright colors or cartoonlike
animation, but City of Nature has been especially
popular with children. Adult visitors often try to
connect the animated clips to the source movies,
but children don’t care about the origins. Many of
your works draw on memory and nostalgia, but is
there a value in seeing your work with fresh eyes?
KE: In other works of mine, like The Simpson
Verdict, people experience a kind of ghost effect.
They see the shadow of their own memory of an
image that’s in my work. Though City of Nature
samples many well-known films, the references
are more obscure. Nature is less recognizable than
a human face or an iconic building, so that ghost
effect is less noticeable. City of Nature addresses
viewers in an almost purely experiential way. This
might explain why children are drawn to it.
Subject matter is only one thing I consider when
making the work. I hope that viewers can access
the work from different directions. I’ve heard
people say that they like the way I draw eyes and
noses. To me, this comment is just as meaningful
as a comment about the content of the work.
SF: It’s hard for me to watch the grazing sheep
in City of Nature without laughing, but there’s
something a little audacious in the work. What
place do humor or irreverence have in your work?
KE: The German artist Martin Kippenberger once
said that whoever is serious is lying. I kind of see
it the same way. What you call “irreverence” might
be the residue of my punk rock upbringing. Even
though my work looks almost like graphic design,
it borrows a lot from the attitudes and strategies
of punk musicians and artists of the era. One
of the big accomplishments of punk was that it
brought culture to eye level. Musicians jumped
off the stage and became a part of the crowd.
My visual style is often referred to as “paint-bynumbers,” something usually associated with the
work of hobbyists and bored teenagers. To me
this is almost a compliment. Making “paint-bynumbers” art might be comparable to writing
songs that only use three chords, which is what
a lot of punk bands did in the ’70s.
SF: During your talk here last fall, you showed
Beatles über California. When you described über
alles, a term often associated with the Nazis, you
said, “For a German person, it almost doesn’t go
over the lips. It’s a very distasteful title, but it just
worked well for the piece.”
Then you said you showed the work in Moscow
not long after members of the punk band Pussy
Riot were arrested for disorderly conduct, which
many in the international community saw as the
Kremlin cracking down on free speech. It’s hard
to see your Dead Kennedys’ song as an accidental
choice. What is the role of politics in your work?
KE: Any work that influences the thinking of
the viewer is political, in my opinion. It is not
necessary that the work carry a specific political
message. Just by having an impact, art can
change the course of events. Consider the work
of Robert Mapplethorpe
or Karen Finley. Although
their art doesn't
necessarily have any
activist agenda, it has had
huge reverberations in
American society.
If my work is “political,”
I would consider this a
compliment. Of course,
it is my wish to move the
thoughts and feelings
of the viewer, but I
also realize that this is a
difficult and complicated
task. The German-Jewish
philosopher Hannah
Arendt once remarked
that beauty is political. I
can totally relate. Without
beauty in our lives, we
wouldn't have anything
to fight for.
Beatles Über California may be one of my more
political pieces. People spontaneously applauded
when it was screened in public in Miami and
Moscow. It is also my only video that you can
easily find online—30,000 people have watched
it so far. That may make it the most democratic
work I have created.
SF: What new projects are you are developing?
What can we look forward to seeing in the future?
KE: I just debuted Gardner Museum Revisited at
Murray Guy in New York, and it is currently on
view at Christopher Grimes Gallery in L.A. In this
new work, I recreated the 13 artworks stolen
from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in
1990. Along with the color lightboxes, I present
an animation based on the surveillance footage
recorded the night before the theft at the
museum. The tape was recently released by the
FBI. The response to this work has been quite
strong, and I might add more elements to it for
future exhibitions.
facing page
Kota Ezawa (German, b. 1969)
Self-Portrait, from The History
of Photography Remix, 2006
© Kota Ezawa
above
Kota Ezawa (German, b. 1969)
Beatles über California, 2011
Still from black and white video
with sound
© Kota Ezawa
Kota Ezawa (German, b. 1969)
Video still from
City of Nature, 2011
Single-channel HD video,
3 mins., 54 secs.
© Kota Ezawa
Images courtesy of Murray Guy,
New York
I am also working on a new animation with James
Rogers, who is a dancer with Houston Ballet.
The project is still in the beginning stages, but
I am excited to have my first collaboration with
a performing artist. The project will open at the
Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco
at the end of July.
SF: Thanks for giving us this in-depth view of your
art, Kota. Understanding you and your process
will help us appreciate your upcoming projects
even more.
spotlight exhibition | 7
|
Ten
Eyes on
New Light
on Land
Chrysler asked several
Museum staff members
with an affinity for
photography to
select an interesting
image from our new
exhibition of landscape
photography from the
Chrysler Collection.
Enjoy seeing these
photos from their
different viewpoints.
the photog r aphs in n ew light on l an d
the re ’ s a fle eting urg e nc y to l andsc ape
tell many surprising stories, often because what
you see is only a half-truth.
photography—and it’s keenly felt in O. Winston
Link’s Creek Junction, Bridge 52. The train races
by on the bridge and track built over the river,
framed by trees that engulf it on either side.
Shadows seem to dance playfully along the
bottom half of the photograph before they yield
to an uncluttered, open sky above. The choice
to create this image in this orientation, more as a
portrait than a landscape, shows that his subject
truly is the steam train.
This image of a couple looking out over Niagara
Falls from Prospect Point suggests that they
are communing with transcendent nature, and
they almost certainly were. The Catholic Church
recognized the falls as a “pilgrim shrine” in 1861,
and faithful tourists travelled from far and wide to
take in the beauty and glory of God’s earth.
The photographer Platt D. Babbitt, often hiding
his camera in a pavilion overlooking this site,
would make photographs of unwitting tourists,
later approaching them with their image in hand
and offering it for sale. So there’s one truth—a
couple, possibly unaware of the camera, is having
a candid moment with nature.
But there’s another truth you can’t exactly see—
Babbitt was a clever and sometimes cunning
businessman. Fiercely competitive, he was known
to have aggressively defended this vantage from
other photographers. There even are reports of
him running out with an open umbrella to disrupt
their work. I imagine there are photos out there
capturing that truth, but I haven’t seen one yet.
—Seth Feman, Acting Curator of Photography
and Curator of Exhibitions
8 | spring 2016
It’s clear that Link was meticulous in setting up
the picture, finding the right angle at the right
time of day, and then patiently waiting for the
train. A careful composition can change in an
instant with a cloud passing overhead, a bird
circling back around, or a train charging through
the scene. After such deliberate preparation, he
would have had only a few seconds to get the
arrangement he wanted. If something had gone
wrong, if he’d snapped the photograph too late,
for instance, he would have to wait again for
another train to come by in an ever-changing
landscape.
As a photographer myself, I know that feeling.
Sometimes a beautiful moment will come and
go, and the chance to get that image is gone
forever. That’s something that’s mirrored in Link’s
attempts to immortalize the disappearing world
of steam trains. This photograph, to me, seems
to be a collision of multiple worlds—the serene
old landscape with a modern bustling train, the
patience of setting up the composition with the
urgency of capturing the photograph at just
the right instant, and the disappearing world of
steam trains being replaced by diesel. Thankfully,
Link captured an amazing moment in time before
this era came to an end.
—Christine Gamache,
Senior Visitor Services Representative
i always gr avitate to the photog r aphs
that seem casual or deadpan, but have a layer
of humor or subtlety underneath. Route 64
epitomizes a style of photography that has this
compelling dual component. At first glance the
images seem objective, a documentary mirror
of what is in front of the lens. But they also
hold the opposite possibility, a subjective view
of the scene that expresses the feelings of the
photographer. David Graham’s image may be
about the land, preservation, or nature as real
estate—and it doesn’t matter to me that his
intent is unclear.
Threads to past work and influences weave in
and out of photo history, and Graham’s work has
a lineage to the New Topographics. This stylistic
approach to landscape photography stripped
away all artistic frills and often focused on human
occupation of the land, with all of its uses and all
of its industrial and domestic structures.
This style had an incredible moment in 1975 when
the International Museum of Photography at the
George Eastman House put on the exhibition
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered
Landscape. Its 10 photographers presented a
combination of natural and built scenes that
wrested supremacy from the convention of
romantic landscape photography. They decided
to face the environment we’ve made for ourselves
and depict what they saw. Their work said that
the genre á la Ansel Adams, with nature as the
center of attention and without any sign of
human intrusion, wasn’t enough. Crucial to them
was the way people associate with their world. All
places matter—not just vast vistas of the largely
untouched, natural world, but also less striking
places that too easily go unnoticed. All places
deserve our attention.
facing page
Attributed to Platt D. Babbitt
(American, 1823–1879)
A Honeymoon Couple,
Niagara Falls, ca. 1860
Ambrotype
Gift of Dr. Robert W. Lisle, M.D.
O. Winston Link
(American, 1914–2001)
Creek Junction, Bridge 52, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Lent by David and Susan Goode,
with intent to give
above
David Graham (American, b. 1952)
Route 64, West of Route 89,
Arizona, 1986
Chromogenic print
Gift of Joyce F. and
Robert B. Menschel
While radical in 1975, photographers like
Robert Adams, Stephen Shore, and Lewis Baltz
themselves had links weaving back to Walker
Evans’ 1930s work and 19th-century survey
photography of the American West. And their
collec tion connec tion | 9
impact continues today with the narrative in the
landscape form found in the work of Alec Soth,
Mark Ruwedel, and European exponents of the
Düsseldorf School like Andreas Gursky, Candida
Höfer, and Thomas Struth. In my personal work,
it’s obvious that I've absorbed this strain of
photography.
—Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer
fr ancis frith ’ s tours of egyp t and the
Middle East were the most ambitious and
systematic photographic undertakings of the
region in the 19th century. Beginning in 1857, Frith
presented to the public more than 500 images
in eight published works. A retired grocer and
devout Quaker, he brought a religious zeal to his
efforts. Considering the difficult conditions in
the desert, with dust and extreme heat affecting
the delicate process of developing a wet plate
collodion negative, extraordinary determination
was required to produce such an extensive body
of work.
Frith had experienced a religious epiphany as a
young man, and his quest to portray the Holy
Land and the places mentioned in the Bible
through photography can be directly linked to his
beliefs. Though the biblical or historical import
of a site guided many of his selections, he also
sought to realize a profitable enterprise. In some
cases, he chose to photograph a certain place
because “the scriptural interest in the locality
is so great.” In these choices he was following
itineraries established by the writers of guide
books and travel memoirs of the Middle East—
as well as feeding the appetites of his devout
Victorian-era audiences. His view of the Temple
of El Karnak near Thebes is at once a careful
composition of spectacular ancient ruins and a
very marketable recollection of the fallen glory
of the pharaohs.
—Erik Neil, Museum Director
time, had a way of bestowing honor and dignity
on the impoverished people she was charged
with documenting. In Men Cradling Wheat, Near
Sperryville, Virginia, two men go about their daily
task, paying little attention to the overwhelming
natural surroundings that seem to be closing
in on them. Their body language suggests
resignation. They are front and center in the
frame, but look small compared to the landscape.
The viewer can almost see the men moving slowly,
listlessly to complete their work, wondering if it
really matters.
But the photograph also captures a measure of
pride in these men. The eye keeps going to the
tiny
hole in the man’s shirt. Is it a meaningless
the farm securit y administration , created
detail or a metaphor for the tear in the
in 1935 to raise awareness of rural poverty during
country’s social fabric? I don’t believe Lange’s
the Depression, produced some of the greatest
compassionate eye ignored symbolism. This
documentary photographers in history. The work
beautifully evocative photograph challenges
of these artists inspired me to pursue a career in
the viewer to empathize with those suffering
photojournalism, which I have always believed,
during the Great Depression and who have been
in its purest sense, combined art and journalism.
treated cruelly by fate and the natural world.
I wanted to be just like them and, as Cliff Edom,
That was the noble goal of the FSA project, to
legendary photojournalism educator, said, “Show
“introduce America to Americans.” And I imagine
the truth with a camera.” So I studied their work
Lange saying to the viewer, “Romanticize this
and tried to emulate their grace and truthful style.
photograph at your own risk.”
Dorothea Lange, whose photograph Migrant
—Denis Finley, Director of Communications
Mother is one of the most famous images of all
10 | spring 2016
Francis Frith (English, 1822–1898)
The Temple of El Karnak,
from the South East, 1857,
from Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem,
1858
Mammoth albumen print in
original mount
Museum purchase
Dorothea Lange
(American, 1895–1965)
Men Cradling Wheat, Near
Sperryville, Virginia, June 1936
Gelatin-silver print
Museum purchase,
Horace W. Goldsmith Fund
|
Educating
Our
Educators
Docents
Love
Ongoing
Training
O
ne of the most dedicated groups at the
Chrysler Museum of Art is its Docent
Corps. More than 75 individuals bring our
educational mission to life for school students and
groups of visitors. Docents give tours to 12,000
students each year, facilitate art projects during
our Family Days and weekend activities, and give
free public gallery tours at 1 p.m. every day that
the Museum is open. All in all, between training
sessions, meetings, outreaches, and tours, our
docents contribute about 2,500 hours of volunteer
service each year.
Powers Peterson, M.D. (right),
helps Chrysler Museum docents
Richard Brown and Pat Behlmer,
also physicians themselves, to
diagnose ailments and illnesses
in paintings throughout the
Chrysler Collection.
In Briton Rivière’s War Time,
a faithful dog looks out for his
teary-eyed master, glasses in hand
after reading about the death of
his son in battle. The sheepherder’s
slumped posture conveys an
empty sadness typical of clinical
depression.
But if you ask any one of them why they invest so
much time in the Chrysler, each one will give the
same answer—they love exciting people about
art and they love learning.
And they are always learning. In this past year
alone, our docents participated in a myriad of
continuing educational opportunities. Much
of their expert training focused on special
exhibitions and new art acquisitions at the
Chrysler. For Georgia O’Keeffe: A Place of Her Own,
Brock Curator of American Art Alex Mann gave
them an insider’s view of the groundbreaking
artist and her work. Laura Garrity-Arquitt
from the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton,
Massachusetts, prepared docents and staff for the
intricacies of the content-rich exhibition Saints
and Dragons: Icons from Byzantium to Russia. Barry
Curator of Glass Diane Wright presented deep
background on several of the Museum’s recent
acquisitions in glass, including a philosophically
inspired new accession by renowned Danish artist
Steffen Dam. In preparation for Tseng Kwong Chi:
Performing for the Camera, our docents had not
only a private tour from Manager of Interpretation
Seth Feman, but a chance to hear personal
reflections from the late artist’s sister, Muna Tseng.
The Chrysler’s docents also are quick to take the
opportunity to share their individual collection
expertise and teacher-training strengths with
fellow docents. Randy McDaniel and Betsy
Browne offered a four-week class on GrecoRoman Mythology in which participants
researched, wrote, and gave presentations in
front of their classmates. And monthly, shorter,
more informal sessions take place. In recent Lunch
and Learn sessions, Jean Gulick gave a talk on
Art Nouveau art and furniture; Barbara Gornto
and Garnett Shores talked about costumes and
fashion in art; and Virginia Kitchin shared her love
of modern and contemporary art.
Two docents took training a step further and
provided sessions for the Museum’s Visitor
chrysler news | 11
Services staff. Richard Brown led Gallery Hosts
through the masks and mystique of our African
Gallery, sharing his experiences of nearly three
decades of practicing medicine in Africa. Gayle
Nichols, who also works as a Gallery Teacher
at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
near the beachfront, helped the Gallery Hosts
practice Visual Thinking Strategies, a technique
for fostering dialogue within groups, particularly
with students.
To enhance the docents’ learning opportunities,
the Museum also brought in several guest
lecturers and facilitators on special topics. Powers
Peterson, M.D., created a customized workshop
for docents that drew on her expertise as a
physician and a clinical pathologist. The Artist’s
Vision: Interactions of Illness and Art encouraged
them to look for medical conditions portrayed
in works of art or experienced by the artists
themselves. Virginia Lamneck, Program Director
at Equality Virginia, presented Creating an
Inclusive Museum: Welcoming LGBT Students and
Visitors. Finally Betsy Bowers, Director of the
Center for Innovation in Early Learning at the
Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, led
a full-day training session on how to keep
toddlers and preschool children engaged in
the Museum’s galleries.
12 | spring 2016
This kind of enrichment not only prepares, but
energizes our Docent Corps to do serve even
more effectively. “When I gave my first SAPLINGS
tour, things fell flat. Despite all my preparation,
the first-graders just weren’t very interested,”
docent Joan Nesbitt confessed. “But the Engaging
Young Children training session made all the
difference. I put what I learned into practice and
the results were amazing!” It’s a refrain heard
regularly among these die-hard volunteers.
Docent Pat Behlmer, a retired neurologist, felt the
same way about The Artist’s Vision. “The training
was a great way to pair my medical experience
with my love of the Museum. Now I have brand
new ways to look at art.”
Becoming a Chrysler docent is a great
opportunity to learn, to meet new people, and
to give back to your community by sharing your
love of art. The Education Department will start
recruiting for a new class of docents to begin
training in Fall 2016. For an application or more
details, contact Ruth Sanchez at rsanchez@
chrysler.org.
It’s hard to miss The Lunatic of
Étretat’s deranged behavior.
In Hugues Merle’s painting, a
barefoot, disturbed woman sits
beside a well, swaddling a log
instead of a baby. Her defiant eyes
telegraph withdrawal, anger, and
distrust of the outside world—
all classic signs of paranoid
schizophrenia.
Though Gustave Doré’s clear-eyed
Neophyte is having an epiphany
with his first experience of the
monastery, the visual acuity of
his spiritual brothers seems more
clouded. The older monks to the
left exhibit signs of cataracts
and myopia (nearsightedness).
Whether the bearded devotee
to the right is deep in prayer,
narcoleptic, bored, or drifting off
to sleep is debatable.
Many viewers notice that Joseph
Noel Paton’s soldier returning
Home has lost an arm in war,
but few look closely to see that
his mother’s gnarled hand on
his shoulder is wracked with
rheumatoid arthritis, one of the
most common auto-immune
disorders among the elderly.
H
ow do you make the visual arts accessible
to everyone—especially to Museum guests
who are blind? You look for a different
kind of vision. Director of Education Anne Corso
recently sat down with longtime Museum docent
Gray Puryear to discuss one creative way that our
docents can help visually challenged guests to
“see” the Chrysler Collection.
anne corso: Gray, you’ve been a docent for
11 years now and have given hundreds of tours
to both adults and children. Some people might
be surprised to know that we offer special tours
for visitors with visual impairments.
To arrange a docent-led
touch tour of the Museum
galleries, please contact
Ruth Sanchez in our
Education Department at
rsanchez@chrysler.org.
gray puryear: If a visitor doesn’t have sight or
has limited visual abilities, we can offer them a
touch tour. It’s an alternate experience where they
can wear protective gloves and feel works of art
that have been preselected by our conservator.
On a tour, a docent will guide participants by
describing the art to them, then allowing them to
experience the works by touch.
ac: How many touch tours have you given?
gp: I’ve probably given about a half a dozen tours
to people with visual impairments. Typically I’ve
led adult groups on touch tours. They are always
talkative and inquisitive. They understand that
they are having a very special experience.
Photo by Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer
|
A New Way
of Seeing
Docent
Touch Tours
ac: Just a few days ago, you “showed” our
collection to a fourth-grader who is visually
impaired. When you and Grace toured the
galleries, what was her experience?
gp: Grace has never had sight, and not
surprisingly she had never been able to touch
art in a museum. As I led her to several objects,
including the Egyptian Sekhmet and the
Roman sarcophagus, she was very quiet and
contemplative. She took her time really “seeing”
each piece. Ironically, she spent more time with
each work than most sighted visitors do.
ac: Did Grace have a favorite?
gp: I’d say yes. She absolutely spent the most time
with Elizabeth Catlett’s Ife. It’s such a beautiful
piece: so tactile and so engaging. I was really
honored that I could help Grace experience it.
ac: Gray, do you have any words of wisdom for
docents who might want to try giving a touch
tour, but are nervous to do so?
gp: While I have been through training on how
to give a touch tour, it’s not the kind of thing that
you have to get certified to do. There’s really no
right or wrong way to lead it. The most important
thing is that you have a passion for the art—and a
passion for helping people to see it in a new way.
chrysler news | 13
|
The
Collection
Grows
New
Acquisitions
of Note
Images by Ed Pollard,
Museum Photographer
14 | spring 2016
Architect-designer Alvar Aalto
applied the same curved forms
seen in his architecture and
furniture to his best-known
work in glass, the Savoy or
Aalto Vase. Part of a submission
for a glass competition held
by Karhula-Iittala in 1936, this
vase was displayed in the
Finnish national pavilions also
designed by Aalto at world’s
fairs in Paris (1937) and New
York (1939). In 1937, this model
decorated the luxury Savoy
Restaurant in Helsinki, giving
the vase its nickname. Recalling
the rounded shapes of the
islands and lakes of Aalto’s
native Finland, the Savoy is an
iconic example of Scandinavian
modern design, and is still
produced today in a variety of
sizes and colors.
Artist Peter Halley donated
Divide as a tribute to the life
and work of our curatorial
colleague Amy Brandt after
learning of her passing. Halley
met Brandt in 2009 when
she began researching her
dissertation on New York’s East
Village art scene in the 1980s.
Her study broke new ground by
exploring how artists like Halley
adapted past visual styles to
address contemporary concerns.
When MIT Press published her
research in 2014 as Interplay:
Neoconceptual Art of the 1980s,
Halley’s work illustrated the
cover. His paintings, with their
geometric cells, networking
conduits, and contained spaces,
evoke the modern experience
of physical isolation and control,
though their rough, plump
textures and Day-Glo colors
suggest the euphoria and
hyper-exuberance that is also a
part of modern life.
Alvar Aalto, designer
(Finnish, 1898–1976)
Karhula-Iittala, manufacturer
Hämeenlinna, Finland
Aalto, or “Savoy,” Vase, 1937
Mold-blown glass
Museum purchase
Peter Halley
(American, b. 1953)
Divide, 2011
Fluorescent acrylic, metallic acrylic,
pearlescent acrylic, and Roll-a-Tex
on two attached canvases
Gift of the artist in memory of
Amy L. Brandt (1978–2015), the
McKinnon Curator of Modern and
Contemporary Art at the Chrysler
Museum of Art, 2011–2015
© Peter Halley 2011
After organizing the first major
museum retrospective of Tseng
Kwong Chi’s work in 2015, the
Chrysler received a remarkable
gift of seven prints by the
photographer/performance
artist. Taking on the persona
of “the ambiguous ambassador”
in a Mao suit, Tseng traveled
to iconic tourist sites and
posed for carefully composed
photographs. His images play
with perceptions about racial
and cultural identity. The donor,
a collector in Minneapolis,
learned about the Chrysler
from Muna Tseng, the artist’s
sister and manager of his
estate. Muna Tseng had worked
closely with Amy Brandt, our
late curator of modern and
contemporary art, and was a
major lender to the exhibition.
With this generous donation,
the Chrysler has become a
leading institution for the study
of the artist’s work.
A rare vintage platinum print
is the first work by esteemed
photographer Lotte Jacobi to
enter the Chrysler’s collection.
Before Hitler’s atrocities forced
her immigration to America in
1935, Jacobi ran a portrait studio
in Berlin, following in the
footsteps of her photographer
father and grandfather. This
haunting image shows only a
pair of eyes behind a web of
black lace. The subject may
be one of the artist’s friends
from Berlin’s vibrant theater
and cabaret scene, whose
dramatic lighting, costumes,
and poses inspired her to
experiment with high contrast
and unconventional framing.
With the purchase of this
work and a 1951 photo by Ruth
Orkin, the Museum is steadily
building its holdings by female
photographers.
The Chrysler crosses new
frontiers with the acquisition
of its first Western bronze, the
selection of the Masterpiece
Society at the 2015 Art Purchase
Dinner. Modeled from life in
1903 by American sculptor and
painter Charles Schreyvogel,
The Last Drop depicts a brave
cavalry officer sharing water
from his canteen with his horse
during a harsh trek through
the deserts of the Wild West. In
mint condition, this work shows
the extraordinary level of detail
possible with the lost-wax
method, a technique of bronze
casting newly introduced to
America at the turn of the 20th
century. The sculpture will
be a centerpiece of the major
traveling exhibition Branding
the American West, our Fall 2016
keynote exhibition, opening
this October.
Tseng Kwong Chi
(American, b. Hong Kong,
1950–1990)
Cape Canaveral, 1985
Gelatin silver print, printed 1995
Gift of Carlos H. Schenck, M.D.
© Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc.,
New York
Lotte Jacobi
(American, 1896–1990)
Woman with Veil, ca. 1935
Platinum print
Museum purchase
© Lotte Jacobi Estate
Charles Schreyvogel
(American, 1861–1912)
The Last Drop, 1903
Bronze cast by
Roman Bronze Works,
Brooklyn, N.Y., cast no. 75
Gift of the Masterpiece Society,
2015
cover story | 15
Liza Lou
(American, b. 1969)
Gild Amber/Divide, 2012–2014
Woven glass beads on canvas
Museum purchase, with funds
provided by Pat and Doug Perry,
Linda H. Kaufman, Mr. and Mrs. Tim
Robertson, Meredith and Brother
Rutter, Leah and Richard Waitzer,
Joe Waldo, in memory of Amy
Brandt, Carolyn and Richard Barry,
Patterson and Colin McKinnon,
Virginia and John Hitch, Shirley
Baldwin, Deb Painter, Selina
and Tom Stokes, Leslie Friedman,
Suzanne and Vince Mastracco, and
Adriane and Stephen Thormahlen
© Liza Lou
James Turrell
(American, born 1943)
Image Stone: Moon Side (detail),
1999
Series of six, photogravure,
aquatint, and photographic
lithography
Museum purchase
© James Turrell
Luke Jerram
(English, b. 1974)
HIV, 2013
From the series Glass
Microbiology, 2004–present
Flameworked glass
Museum purchase
© Luke Jerram
16 | spring 2016
facing page
Carleton E. Watkins
(American, 1829–1916)
From the Sentinel Dome,
Down the Valley, Yosemite,
ca. 1865–1866
Mammoth plate albumen print
from glass negative
Museum purchase with funds
provided by Michael Bakwin,
Susan and David Goode,
Penny and Peter Meredith,
Nancy and Everett Martin,
Mary Ellen and Daniel Dechert,
Christina and George Kemp,
and Amy and Kirk Levy
Edward S. Curtis
(American, 1868–1952)
The Vanishing Race, 1904
Platinum print
Museum purchase
Oliver Harvey Willard
(American, 1828–1875)
Artillery, Corporal, 1866
Albumen print
with watercolor
Museum purchase
Liza Lou works exclusively with
tiny glass beads. In Gild
Amber/Divide, the beads are
woven together by using a
peyote stitch—each bead
interlocking and snugly pressed
against its neighbor, staggered
so that there is a minimal gap
between them—to form a
fabric. These strips of beads
are then sewn onto a canvas
and stretched on a frame
to give it a rigid shape, 5 ½
feet square. From Lou’s most
recent body of work, this
minimalist composition in
two shades of gold looks like
a color-field painting from far
away. Only close examination
reveals the meticulously
detailed beadwork. Requiring
a tremendous commitment
of time and physicality, Gild
Amber/Divide challenges us to
meditate on the fulfillment to
be found in our labors.
James Turrell’s popular
skyspaces play with light and
visual perception. His most
famous work to date is perhaps
his ongoing project to turn
the Roden Crater, a dormant
volcano in Arizona, into a sort
of celestial observatory. In our
new suite of six numbered
prints, Turrell uses a variety
of technologies to document
the ongoing transformation.
Created in collaboration
with master printmaker Joe
Segura, the images include
his design of a room for lunar
observations and projections,
the specially conceived stone
on which the image of the
moon will appear, and views
of the moon in four different
phases. This acquisition not
only enhances our growing
collection of contemporary
art, but anticipates a future
collaboration between the
Chrysler and one of the world’s
most prominent artists.
Luke Jerram’s flameworked
model HIV is from his
continuing Glass Microbiology
series, which depicts viruses
enlarged nearly 1,000,000
times. Made entirely of
colorless glass, the artworks
stand in contrast to the
artificially colored imagery of
diseases traditionally used to
illustrate scientific publications.
Today, images of Jerram’s virus
sculptures often appear in place
of embellished drawings in
medical journals and textbooks.
By creating deadly viruses
as transparent, jewel-like
sculptures, he presents a
tension between the intrinsic
beauty of these glass models
and the often deadly reality
they represent. Jerram’s work
raises challenging questions
about global issues that many
communities face as they deal
with both the tragic history
and ongoing concerns of HIV
and AIDS.
Disturbing the Peace:
Beauford Delaney’s
James Baldwin Arrives
at the Chrysler
Beauford Delaney
(American, 1901–1979)
Portrait of James Baldwin,
1965
Oil on canvas
Museum purchase
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
used by permission
“Artists are here to disturb the peace,” James Baldwin said in a 1961
interview. With its fluorescent yellow background and the sitter’s
penetrating stare, Beauford Delaney’s portrait of the author is a
striking—perhaps disturbing—new acquisition.
Few had ever seen Yosemite’s
dramatic beauty when
Carleton Watkins created this
photograph. The region’s
soaring peaks and plunging
cliffs had shielded it from
settlers, and cumbersome
camera equipment made
images of the site rare. This
photo only hints at the labor
required to create it. Watkins
loaded a pack of mules with
more than 2,000 pounds of
baggage: an enormous camera,
tripods, a darktent, glass plates,
processing chemicals, and
camping supplies for a monthslong journey. He had to coat
and process his glass plates
on-site, but if dust settled on
them or if wind rustled the
leaves during the long exposure,
the photo would be ruined. By
providing a pristine view of
nature in all its glory, Watkins
set a precedent for generations
of landscape photographers
to follow.
By the time Edward Curtis
made this picture, often
considered his signature
image, Native Americans had
endured decades of forced
assimilation and relocation to
reservations. The pioneering
19th-century photographer
believed his prints served to
document the traditions of
the so-called “vanishing race.”
Though he spent 30 years on his
40-volume photographic record,
The North American Indian, his
images show no evidence of the
conflicts that destroyed Native
American customs, nor of the
ongoing efforts to sustain
them. Instead, soft edges and
muted tones make this visual
metaphor seem especially
dreamlike. It is as if the Native
Americans riding away from
the camera already were fading
into memory, or as Curtis
described it, “the darkness of
an unknown future.”
Following the success of our
exhibition Shooting Lincoln,
the Chrysler’s impressive
collection of Civil War-era
photography grows with
the acquisition of three
works by early Philadelphia
photographer Oliver H. Willard.
Commissioned in 1866 by the
Army’s Quartermaster General,
supervisor of equipment
and supplies, these vintage
albumen prints are from a large
set documenting the distinctive
uniforms belonging to different
ranks, divisions, and duties
among soldiers. The same
model, a bearded, middle-aged
man, changed costume to
pose for all works in the series.
In Artillery, Corporal, he holds
a long rifle and turns to face
viewers. To show the uniforms’
colors—here a dark blue coat,
light blue trousers, and red
stripes on the sleeves—
the black-and-white prints
were carefully hand-tinted
with watercolor.
Baldwin was a celebrated writer and spokesperson for the Civil
Rights Movement. In novels like Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and
the essay collection The Fire Next Time (1962), he challenged racism
and prejudice. This 1965 portrait is by his mentor Delaney, who,
like most African American artists of earlier generations, received
limited acclaim during his lifetime. Today Delaney’s vivid layers of
color and abstract swirls are recognized as brilliantly blending the
emotional energy of Van Gogh with the spiritual rhythms of gospel
and jazz.
Born in 1901, Delaney’s uphill battle began in poverty in Knoxville,
Tenn. By the 1930s he was in New York meeting the leaders of the
Harlem Renaissance: black painters like Jacob Lawrence and Romare
Bearden and poets Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Artistically,
however, he gravitated toward white, European-inspired circles of
modern artists and became friends with Alfred Stieglitz, Thomas
Hart Benton, and Stuart Davis.
Despite these prestigious connections, Delaney struggled to pay
rent for his unheated studio in Greenwich Village. He worked odd
jobs, including stints as a caretaker, porter, and telephone operator
at the fledgling Whitney Museum. Wealthy patrons gave him
second-hand clothes, including a raincoat that he later cut up when
he couldn’t afford canvas for his paintings. Like his friend Baldwin,
Delaney understood that talent was no guarantee of comfort for
black artists, and both ultimately moved to France for a more
tolerant social climate.
Beauford Delaney’s Portrait of James Baldwin is a landmark
acquisition, the Chrysler’s first-ever purchase of a painting by
a deceased black artist. We welcome its fearless color into our
galleries, where it shines a blazing yellow spotlight on America’s
history of injustice toward minorities. But the fight for equality and
respect continues, and we promise to bring you more works of art
that disturb the peace.
events | 17
PaJaMa
American, active 1937–1950s
Paul Cadmus
(American, 1904–1999;
Jared French
(American, 1905–1988;
Margaret Hoening French
(American, 1889–1973)
George Platt Lynes and Jared
French, Fire Island, ca. 1940
Gelatin silver print
Museum purchase
© Estate of Paul Cadmus /
Licensed by VAGA, New York
© Jared French
© Margaret French /
Artists Rights Society, New York
Frederick Carder
(American, b. United Kingdom,
1863–1963)
Diatreta Vase, 1958
Pâte de verre (glass)
Gift of Leah and Richard Waitzer
in recognition of Chief Curator
Emeritus Jeff Harrison and
his 33 years of service to the
Chrysler Museum of Art
Greta Pratt (American, b. 1955)
Julee and her Daughters,
Chandler, AZ, 2014
Archival pigment print, printed
2015
Gift of the artist, © Greta Pratt
18 | spring 2016
facing page
Préfecture de Police de Paris,
Service de l’Identité Judiciare
Paris, France
Crue de la Seine. Quai Debilly.
Paris, Janvier 1910 and Juillet
1910, 1910
Gelatin silver prints
Museum purchase, in memory
of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank
Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel
(French, 1851–1913)
Portrait of a Young Girl, 1880
Oil on canvas
Gift of Joseph T. Waldo,
in honor of Jeff Harrison and
his 33 years of service to the
Chrysler Museum of Art
Christopher Dresser, designer
(British, b. Scotland, 1834–1904)
James Couper & Sons,
manufacturer
Glasgow, Scotland
Clutha Pitcher, ca. 1895
Blown glass
Museum purchase
The Chrysler has new PaJaMas.
Maintaining our reputation
as a pioneer in collecting
photography, the Museum
purchased at auction two 1940s
photos collaboratively made
by Paul Cadmus, Jared French,
and Margaret French. Sharing a
camera, this trio staged photos
of themselves and friends
during summer retreats to
beaches on Long Island and
Cape Cod. They signed these
joint works “PaJaMa,” an
acronym based on the first
letters of their names. Notice
the visual balance of the two
men seated on sawhorses in
this photo—typical of the
artists’ astute use of symmetry
and composition to create their
haunting images. Instead of
casual vacation snapshots, the
PaJaMa group produced bold
and surreal experiments in
space, shape, and shadow.
At the age of 95, Frederick
Carder was still at the top
of his craft. The co-founder
of Steuben Glass created
this intricate homage to the
ancient Roman cage cup in
1958, just a year before he
retired from glassmaking.
Like the luxury glass factory
he directed, Carder’s own
artistic work was known for
exceptional quality, ambitious
design, and bold color. Using
the lost wax process, he
crafted a remarkable vessel of
marbleized clear and opaque
blue glass. Raised latticework,
grotesque masks, and small
cartouches emulate the
ancients, as does an inscription:
Straight is the line of duty.
Curved is the line of beauty.
All of the work on this rare
signed vessel was Carder’s
own: astonishing, significant,
and uniquely his.
Greta Pratt, when she’s not
teaching at Old Dominion
University, crisscrosses the
country in search of modernday rituals that are in dialogue
with the past. The Chrysler is
proud to have exhibited and
purchased her Nineteen Lincolns
series, as well as acquired
one of the photographer’s
newest works. Julee and Her
Daughters, Chandler, AZ is from
her ongoing project A Cloud
of Dust, in which Pratt turns
her lens from the American
presidency to another historical
subject: the Wild West. Like
Pratt’s Lincoln presenters, the
Bradys and their horses charm
audiences with their vintage
costumes. By showing us a
dynamic family of cowgirls
who win rodeo pageants, Pratt
offers a witty, even subversive,
alternative to the traditional
iconography of the West as
a place only for lonesome
cowboys.
When the Seine River rose six
feet above normal levels in
the winter of 1910, massive
flooding drove thousands in
central Paris from their homes.
The city police sent teams of
photographers to document
the devastation, and six
months later, long after the
water had receded, a second
round of images were made
in the same locations. The
Chrysler has purchased one of
these rare before-and-after
photo pairs, two views of
the Quai Debilly in the 16th
Arrondissement, just north of
the Pont d’Iena. Looking at
the reflections of facades in
the flooded street, one senses
that these anonymous Parisian
photographers appreciated the
beauty of their city even during
this moment of crisis.
This exquisite oil portrait is
but one of several fine works
recently given to the Chrysler
in honor of Chief Curator
Emeritus Jeff Harrison. LouisMaurice Boutet de Monvel,
also one of the foremost
children’s book illustrators of
his generation, painted this
attentive young girl in France
around 1880. In contrast to
the loose, impressionist style
of Pierre August Renoir or
Mary Cassatt, he renders her
penetrating blue-eyed gaze
in sharp detail, evidence of his
academic training. Critics hailed
Boutet de Monvel’s mastery
of expression and character,
particularly in his paintings of
children. This charming portrait
makes it easy to see why.
Christopher Dresser was one
of the great industrial Scottish
designers of his day, creating
distinctive, culture-melding
styles for ceramics, metalwork,
furniture, and textiles. His
eclectic designs for glass were
produced by James Couper &
Sons of Glasgow and retailed
at the fashionable Liberty
& Co. department store in
London. Dresser’s Clutha
pitcher shows his keen interest
in combining decorative
styles from many parts of the
world, incorporating elements
inspired by historical Roman
and Islamic glass. Companies
in the 19th century often
employed a range of exotic
names to market lines of
glass—in this case borrowing
Clutha, the Latin name for the
River Clyde in Glasgow.
cover story | 19
In
Memoriam
Michele Franklin Ward (1958–2015)
Possibly the most colorful employee to ever
grace the halls of the Chrysler Museum of Art,
Michele Franklin Ward was also the longest
serving member of our staff at the time of her
passing in November 2015. Michele came to the
Chrysler in 1980 and quickly established herself
as a dedicated security officer and one of our
most recognizable employees because of her
distinctive personal style.
Michele Franklin Ward poses
beside her 2006 portrait of
her son, Genesis, as a baby.
The oil painting was her
contribution to the 2009 staff
art show, After Hours.
Photo by Ed Pollard,
Museum Photographer
Ann Dearsley-Vernon was the
Chrysler Museum of Art’s first
Director of Education.
Hired directly by Walter P.
Chrysler, Jr., she served
in the position for nearly
three decades.
Chrysler Museum Archive photo
Her irrepressible personality would not allow
her to sit still. She studied art at Tidewater
Community College, painted at home, created
jewelry and fiber art, and wrote poetry. When
she wasn’t busy with those pursuits, Michele
satisfied her creative urge with an abiding love of
music. She not only performed in an alternative
rock band, Hegemony, in area venues, she also
performed solo, playing guitar and singing her
own compositions. Michele was famous around
the Chrysler for her creative hairstyles and
frequent changes in hair color. She sported a
variety of wigs in accordance with her preference
of the day or week, yet she was never out of place
in the accepting environment at the Museum.
Michele was a Norfolk native and graduated from
Maury High School. We here at the Chrysler and
her friends will remember Michele as a fiercely
creative spirit with a quiet, gentle demeanor.
She loved people and life, and always brought a
smile to the faces of those with whom she came
in contact.
Gifts in memory of Michele Franklin will go to a
college savings plan to benefit her son.
American Funds
Memo: Chester Ward,
Custodian for Genesis Ward
Wall Einhorn & Chernitzer, P.C.
c/o Linda Dore, Paraprofessional
150 W. Main Street, Suite 1200
Norfolk, VA 23510
20 | spring 2016
Ann Dearsley-Vernon (1938–2015)
No one who knew Ann Dearsley-Vernon would
be surprised to learn that the night before she
died at 77, she spent an evening with friends at
the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Ann loved
life, adored the arts, and was a fighter who was
passionate about her beliefs. True to form, she
was one of a handful of white students who
joined black protesters at the now famous
Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro,
N.C. in 1960.
More than a decade later, Ann displayed that
same fearlessness when she wrote to the Chrysler
Museum of Art to suggest improvements to a
Picasso exhibition that included four paintings
from Walter Chrysler, Jr.’s collection. Chrysler,
who headed the Museum then, immediately
summoned the unemployed art teacher for
a meeting, then hired her on the spot to be
the Chrysler’s first director of education.
She remained in that role for almost 30 years,
building our volunteer Docent Corps and
coordinating exhibitions that focused on her
lifelong passion—educating young people,
especially about social justice.
In 2011, Ann’s health took a turn when she almost
died from heart failure. Rather than fixate on her
illness, she allowed herself to be outfitted with an
experimental heart and used that experience as a
catalyst to take up painting again. She produced a
series of artworks she called My Mechanical Heart,
two of which hang in the Sentara Heart Hospital.
Ann was a positive force for life and for doing
what you love. Her community spirit lives on and
offers a life lesson to everyone here.
Gifts in memory of Ann Vernon will benefit the
Chrysler Museum of Art’s educational programs
and public outreaches.
Impact
Across
Our State
As part of the Chrysler’s
Salute to Service last
November, veterans and
active-duty military
members crowded
the Perry Glass Studio
for our third annual
free ornament
blow for Veterans
Glassblowing Day.
Photo by Glass Studio staff
Robin Rogers, with help
from Hannah Kirkpatrick,
had the honor of creating
an ornament to hang
on the tree in Virginia’s
Executive Mansion. He
fashioned a clear-glass
anchor at the Perry Glass
Studio to represent our
city’s naval heritage.
Photos courtesy of City of Norfolk
December’s Third Thursday was an encore partnership
with the Governor’s School for the Arts. A Common Thread
marked their second annual fashion show of wearable
art inspired by works in the Chrysler Collection or our
exhibitions. The GSA Jazz Band warmed up the crowd
before students showcased their original creations on the
Huber Court catwalk.
Photos by Eleise Theurer for the Chrysler Museum of Art
The Virginia Department
of Forestry awarded its
prestigious Browning
Award for 2015 to the
Chrysler’s Team Smokey
for our partnership in
presenting Celebrating
Smokey Bear: Rudy
Wendelin and the
Creation of an Icon.
Photos by John Campbell, Virginia
Department of Forestry
chrysler news | 21
|
Books
and More
A JOCL
Update
Throwback Thursday:
A Chrysler Weekly Favorite
Each week the Throwback Thursday section of
Webmaster Gary Marshall’s weekly e-blast offers
visual time travel for its readers as we share
favorite memories preserved in the archives of
the Jean Outland Chrysler Library.
Subscribers have seen the inside a fully staffed
operating room at St. Vincent’s Hospital in
Norfolk in 1904, watched Coxswain Herman
cry “stroke” to his crew at the U.S. Naval Training
Station of Hampton Institute in 1943, and seen
into a 1944 diorama of the dining room of the
Moses Myers House as it probably looked in 1791.
Photo from the Jean Outland
Chrysler Library Archives
December 22 was moving day
as the Jean Outland Chrysler
Library donated several boxes
of duplicate books to Norfolkbased Teens With a Purpose.
back : Terry Benson and Mike
Braun (CMA Facilities Team)
center : Emeka Onyirimba,
Marvin Parker, Elijah Judson,
Michael Berlucchi (CMA
Community Engagement
Manager), Deirdre Love (TWP
Executive Director), Jeannine
Harkleroad (JOCL Assistant)
front row : Amakhatmaati
Tyehimba, Mary Yaeger
and Benjamin Boshart
(CMA Gallery Hosts),
Photo by Michael Berlucchi
22 | spring 2016
These images just skim the surface of a diverse
archive that includes many periods of regional
history, U.S. history, the business and family
affairs of Moses Myers, and, of course, the
famous M. Knoedler & Co. art dealership
reference collection.
To enjoy our Throwback Thursday features, opt in to
receive our weekly electronic update here: chrysler.org/
membership/sign-up-for-email.
—Jeannine Harkleroad,
Jean Outland Chrysler Library Assistant
Books on Glass: A Historic Gift
Paul N. Perrot, director of the Corning Museum
of Glass from 1960–1972, has enhanced the
JOCL’s holdings about glass with a substantial
donation of 16 boxes of books from his personal
collection. He developed his reference library
during the 20 years he was with Corning and in
the years following as he served in leadership
roles at the Smithsonian Institution, the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, and the Santa Barbara
Museum of Art. Perrot, who is retired in Houston,
says he has “followed the splendid development
of the Chrysler Museum of Art” for more than
50 years. His donation to the Jean Outland
Chrysler Library is certain to delight glass
researchers everywhere.
The hundreds of volumes, monographs,
catalogues, and specialized publications in his
gift include not only fundamental tomes on
glass, but many now-hard-to-find publications
on scientific, archaeological, technical, aesthetic,
historic, and exhibition aspects of the subject.
The donation augments the JOCL’s holdings
with a significant collection of research books
published by Corning, as well as a nearly
comprehensive set of works he has written and
edited. Though duplicate copies were offered
to our Perry Glass Studio Team to improve
their personal collections, the vast majority of
the books we cataloged are new accessions
for the JOCL. We are deeply grateful for this
exceptionally generous gift. Stop by the Library
to see some of these new additions.
A Donation with a Purpose:
Youth Development
Several boxes of duplicate arts books from the
JOCL needed a new home, and who better than
a local youth organization to benefit from our
bounty?
Teens With a Purpose, also known as TWP—The
Youth Movement, are active in peer-led poetry
slams, art creation, and musical and dance events
across Hampton Roads. The nonprofit’s mission
is “to empower young people to use their voices,
energy, abilities, and talent” to change their lives
and their communities for the better.
The teens helped staff from the Chrysler relocate
the books from the JOCL to TWP’s Norfolk
headquarters, and were excited to explore the
donation boxes. In addition to encouraging
them in their arts endeavors, the well-rounded
selection of books has been entrusted to the
care of one of their students, Elijah, an aspiring
librarian. Learn more about Teens With a Purpose
at twp-themovement.org.
—Allison Termine, Dickson Librarian
Big Names
in Glass
at the
Perry
Again in 2016, the Chrysler Museum’s Perry
Glass Studio continues to bring notable names
in the world of glass to Norfolk. Some will create
new work before the public in our Visiting
Artist Series. Others, whose artmaking takes
more time, will present illustrated lectures on
their work. In all cases, these invited guests are
acclaimed for their solid success as cutting-edge
contemporary artists.
The Visiting Artist Series 2016
Rik Allen
Rik Allen’s futuristic explorations in glass focus on
rocketry and space travel, conveying the wonder
and humor of science fiction’s mid-20th-century
vision of the future. Allen has been a staple
of the Seattle glass world since 1995, working
both at Pilchuck Glass School and on the glass
sculpture team of William Morris. He and his wife,
artist Shelley Muzylowski Allen, teach at leading
international glass schools. They also exhibit their
highly collectible work regularly at American
museums and galleries.
Rik Allen (American, b. 1967)
Coribitous Ocularium, 2014,
Blown glass, silver and steel
Image by KP Studios, courtesy of
the artist
Judith Schaechter
(American, b. 1961)
Battle of Carnival and Lent, 2012
Stained glass, cut, sandblasted,
engraved, painted,
stained and fired, cold paint;
assembled with copperfoil
Image courtesy of the artist
Joyce Scott (American, b. 1948)
Buddha (Fire & Water), 2013
Hand-blown Murano glass
processes, beads, wire, and thread
Image courtesy of the artist
March 3–6 | Free
Come watch Rik Allen sculpt imaginative new
works inspired by his love of science and by the
100th anniversary of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.
Working live in the Perry Glass Studio
Thursday, March 3–Saturday, March 5
10 a.m.–1 p.m. and 2:30–5 p.m.
Sunday, March 6 | 11 a.m.–2 p.m.
Live Narrated Demos | Daily | noon
Artist Lecture | Sunday, March 6 | 4 p.m.
Guest Artist Lectures
Judith Schaechter
Wednesday, April 6 | 6 p.m. | Free
Judith Schaechter’s secular stained glass is famed
the world over. Though she uses traditional
copper foil-and-lead techniques, her subject
matter is decidedly contemporary and sometimes
confrontational. In evocative glass panels, she
presents the dramedy of everyday emotions
and challenges as parables. Her award-winning
works are known for their pathos and power,
melancholy and mystery. Truly an original, with
an incredible sense of humor, Schaechter is highly
regarded in the art world and exhibits her work
nationally and internationally. She was included
in the 2002 Whitney Biennial and the 2012 Venice
Biennale, and in 2013 she was inducted to the
American Craft Council College of Fellows. Join us
to hear directly from Judith herself what she has
in mind to create next in her own inimitable style.
Joyce Scott
Thursday, May 12 | 6 p.m. | Free
Joyce Scott’s cultural combinations and diverse
aesthetic have raised the profile for artists
of color for more than four decades. She is
hailed for her narrative sculpture, provocative
performances, and mixed-media art created
with appropriated objects. Her mixed-media
sculptures provide a biting social commentary
on racism, sexism, violence, and stereotypes, but
with an overarching theme of spiritual healing.
A signature of her best-known works is detailed
glass beadwork, which she painstakingly handsews to create intricate and often figurative
works. Her incisive work is in the collections of
the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American
Art Museum. Come discover how Scott’s richly
textured works are as thought-provoking as they
are beautiful.
—Robin Rogers,
Assistant Manager, Perry Glass Studio
chrysler news | 23
Good News
for Donors
and the
Museum
The IRA Charitable Rollover
allows individuals age 70 ½
to donate up to $100,000
to charitable organizations
directly from their IRA without
the disbursement counting
as taxable income. To qualify,
the donation must be made to
a public charity and must be
made from a traditional or a
Roth IRA.
It’s a great incentive for
Americans to give back to
the organizations they care
about during their lifetimes.
Many donors who use this gift
instrument are now able to
give substantially more, giving
them the opportunity to see
how their generosity helps
nonprofits transform their
communities.
The Rollover was allowed
to expire in 2008, but was
renewed by Congress
annually until January 2015.
The legislation making the
rollover permanent helps
nonprofits by removing the
uncertainty of whether donors
can continue to count on this
powerful incentive to give.
If you would like find out
more about making a taxadvantaged contribution to
the Chrysler Museum of Art,
please contact Director of
Development Brian Wells at
(757) 965-2032.
24 | spring 2016
History of The Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan, the most influential
financier in American history, was also a voracious
art collector in virtually every medium, including
rare books, manuscripts, drawings, prints, and
ancient artifacts. Discover how the venerable
institution he founded in 1924 became one of the
world's great treasuries of seminal artistic, literary,
musical, and historical works.
Monday, April 18
Lindsay Pollock
Editor-in-Chief, Art in America
Each month’s event
begins with a
coffee reception
in Huber Court at
10:30 a.m., followed
by the free lecture
in the Museum’s
Kaufman Theater
at 11 a.m.
Contemporary Art in the
Post-Internet Age
The World Wide Web changes
everything, including how 21st-century
artists conceive and conceptualize
their latest work. Increased accessibility
to millions of images that can be
appropriated, altered, or animated
give today’s artmakers new digital
strategies and tools for personal
expression, collective creation,
and easy-upload distribution to
international audiences. Engaging
and sometimes ephemeral, these new
works—whether on view digitally or in reality—
present novel possibilities, relationships, and
challenges as they redefine art in our day.
Annual Meeting, Benefit Luncheon, and Raffle
After the lecture, the NSA concludes this season
with a brief annual meeting and a special
luncheon to benefit of the Chrysler Museum of
Art. Tickets cost $75. To make your reservation,
please contact Alice Koziol at (757) 417-8494.
Luncheon guests may buy raffle tickets ($10 each,
3 for $25, cash or check) for a chance to win one
of several fun-themed baskets donated for the
benefit. The stunning orchids that adorn each
table also will be available for purchase.
The Norfolk Society of Arts promotes and
enhances the cultural life of the South Hampton
Roads community through lectures, special
events, and financial support to the Chrysler
Museum of Art. NSA membership is open to all.
For more information about membership or
the Society, please contact Edith Grandy at
(757) 621-0861 or EdithGrandy@gmail.com.
Courtesy of Lindsay Pollock
The comprehensive tax and
spending law that Congress
recently enacted contains
one measure that will serve
as a great gift to the Chrysler
Museum of Art and those who
support us. Included in the
law is a provision that restores
the IRA Charitable Rollover
permanently.
Wednesday, March 23
Colin Bailey, Ph.D.
Director, The Morgan Library & Museum,
New York
World
Travels
with the
Chrysler
Whenever and wherever
you travel take your
CMA membership card
with you.
Chrysler Museum Members
at the Associate level and
above enjoy free admission
and member benefits to
more than at more than 250
North American museums
through ROAM, the Reciprocal
Organization of Associated
Museums.
Chrsyler Members at the Friend
level and above gain benefits
at an additional 75 U.S. and
Canadian culture organizations
trough the Museum
Alliance Reciprocal
Membership Program.
The full list of participating
museums is available online at
chrysler.org/membership.
Join fellow Chrysler Museum Members on special
trips that offer unique opportunities to learn
about the artistic and cultural life of destinations
both far and near. Our Art Travel Program offers
excursions that include arranged activities as
well as time for independent exploration. Your
dream vacation awaits!
Exclusive 2016 Travel for
Upper-Level Museum Members
Sicilia: An Adventure in Art and Culture
April 2–15, 2016
Members at the Director’s Circle and above are
invited to join Museum Director Erik Neil and
his wife, artist Luisa Adelfio, on an exclusive art
travel experience to Sicily. Travelers will cross the
island to visit cultural centers including Palermo,
Agrigento, and Siracusa, with breathtaking sights
in between. Erik and Luisa are excited to share
their personal knowledge and passion for the
island they know so well.
2016 Trips for All Chrysler Museum Members
The Rich Heritage of Southern Italy and
The Dalmatian Coast
April 28–May 6, 2016
Enjoy an exclusive seven-night voyage from
Rome to Dubrovnik aboard Le Lyrial, a new
small-ship launched last spring. Its 122 exterior
staterooms and suites and many amenities will
make you feel like you’re sailing aboard your own
yacht as you explore these culture-rich locales.
The Great Journey through Europe
July 5–15, 2016
This extraordinary 11-day Grand Tour of Europe
lets you explore the picturesque waterways,
lakes, mountains, and countryside of Switzerland,
France, Germany, and The Netherlands. Cruise
aboard the deluxe Amadeus Fleet along the most
scenic sections of the Rhine River. Ride aboard
three legendary railways—the Matterhorn’s
Gornergrat Bahn, the famous Glacier Express, and
Lucerne’s Pilatus Railway.
Island Life of Cuba
October 20–November 7, 2016
Be among the first U.S. travelers to experience
Cuba during this unprecedented, nine-day
People to People opportunity. See Old Havana,
Santa Clara, Matanzas, and Pinar del Río. Enjoy
comfortable accommodations, interact with local
experts, and immerse yourself in Cuba’s history,
culture, art, language, cuisine, and daily life.
Find out more about any of our art travel programs at
Chrysler.org/membership/art-travel-program. For pricing
or to book your next vacation, contact Donor Stewardship
Manager Kerry Martinolich at (757) 333-6318 or kmartinolich@
chrysler.org.
Photos by Gohagen and Company, iStock photo © Darios44
member exclusives | 25
Exclusive
Members’
Events
Andrew Raftery was our
guest speaker for the
Fall Program of The
Masterpiece Society.
The contemporary
printmaker is known
for his classically styled
burin engravings and
visual storytelling.
Peggy and Barry Pollara,
Michael Bakwin, and
Carroll Frohman
Masterpiece Society
Chair Virginia Hitch and
artist Andrew Raftery
Bill Pinkham, Dana and
Linda Dickens
Photos by Eleise Theuer for the
Chrysler Museum of Art
Our Honorable Society
of Former Trustees and
current Board Members
met last fall for an evening
focused on the Museum’s
latest conservation efforts.
Jerrauld and Lyn
Simmons Jones;
Paul Hirschbiel and
Rev. Joseph Green
Photos by Echard Wheeler for the
Chrysler Museum of Art
Evening with the
Director on January 19
thanked 125 guests from
our Masterpiece Society,
Corporate Leadership
Alliance, and Director’s
Circle for their support.
Vickie Bilisoly, Betsy
Hardy, and Lorrie
Saunders; Meredith and
Cynthia Rose
Photos by Eleise Theurer for the
Chrysler Museum of Art
26 | spring 2016
The Masterpiece
Society Art Purchase
Dinner set a new
attendance record
in 2015 as 310 guests
attended the
December 15 event.
Society Members heard
the Museum’s curators
and director present
works of art they sought
to acquire for the
Museum. After three
spirited rounds of voting,
they agreed to purchase
The Last Drop by Charles
Schreyvogel, adding the
first Western American
bronze to the Chrysler
Collection. Contributions
by generous donors also
allowed the Chrysler
to obtain two other
desirable artworks by
Liza Lou and Carleton
Watkins. (Learn more
about these and other
noteworthy new
accessions in this
issue’s cover story on
pages 14–19.)
Museum Director
Erik Neil, Curator of
Exhibitions Seth Feman,
Barry Curator of Glass
Diane Wright, and Brock
Curator of American Art
Alex Mann
Bebe Edmonds,
Monique Adams, and
Lynne Monroe
Betty Willcox and
Gudi Stambuk study
the winning statue.
Henry Light, Bill and
Nancy Oelrich, and
Angelica Light
Photos courtesy of Glenn
Bashaw/Images in Light, for the
Chrysler Museum of Art
Don’t-Miss Events and
Benefits for Members
Third Thursday
The evenings of March 17, April 21, and May 19
Our monthly after-hours evenings at the Museum and the Perry
Glass Studio offer eclectic programs, artful entertainment, and
a cash bar to enjoy with friends. Museum Members at all levels
always are admitted for free. It’s only $5 for all others, so bring
someone new and introduce them to the Chrysler.
Conversations with the Curators
The evening of Thursday, March 31
Come see the Chrysler up-close and behind the scenes. The
Museum welcomes Members at our Patron level and above to be
our guests for this perennially popular program. After cocktails,
our curators and conservators share their unique insights
into the Chrysler Collection. Kindly R.S.V.P. when your mailed
invitation arrives to select your favorite topics.
Feldman Chamber Music Society Concert Discounts
Monday, April 4 | Hermitage Piano Trio
Chrysler Museum Members save 20% on single $25 tickets
purchased at the door for FCMS concerts in our Kaufman
Theater. WHRO’s Dwight Davis hosts a preconcert reception
at 7 p.m., with the performances beginning at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, see feldmanchambermusic.org.
Water: An Insiders’ Tour for Members
Saturday, April 23 | 9 a.m.
Members at the Friend level and above are invited to join us for a
special breakfast and a docent-led tour of our keynote exhibition,
Edward Burtynsky: Water. Invitations will by arrive by mail. Space
is limited, so please reserve your spot early.
The Masterpiece Society Spring Program
The evening of Thursday, May 12
At this season’s exclusive program, Masterpiece Society Members
welcome the co-curator of The Costumes of Downton Abbey. Jeff
Groff, Director of Public Programs at Delaware’s Winterthur
Museum, details how this exhibition came together and how
PBS acquired the period costumes for its popular Emmy-awardwinning drama. Invitations will arrive by mail this spring.
•••
The Chrysler Museum of Art offers personal, household, and
corporate memberships at 10 different levels of investment.
Choose the one that suits your interests and needs. All Members
enjoy invitations to exclusive Member events, art travel
opportunities, and discounts on Glass Studio classes, dining at
Wisteria, and purchases at The Museum Shop.
Join the Museum at the Welcome Desk or the Perry Glass Studio
when you visit, or discover all the benefits at each level and
become a Member online at www.chrysler.org/membership.
To renew or upgrade your membership to a higher benefits
level, please contact Development Officer Megan Frost at
(757) 333-6294 or mfrost@chrysler.org.
member exclusives | 27
|
Open
Water
Members
Dive Into
New Show
Frigid air and a warm Chrysler welcome made our Canadian
headliner feel at home for the Members’ Exhibition Opening
Party for Edward Burtynsky: Water. Our new keynote
show debuted on February 11 for nearly 500 Members and
special guests. The packed Kaufman Theater audience
enjoyed a fascinating talk between the globetrotting
photographer and Museum Director Erik Neil. Afterward,
though Huber Court was awash with partygoers, the
galleries were the real attraction. Guests reveled over
60 wall-spanning digital prints of amazing detail, promising
to bring friends to impress on their next Museum visit.
Photos by Charlie Gunter for the Chrysler Museum of Art
28 | spring 2016
A Flood
of
Activity
Water is the unofficial
theme for Norfolk for 2016.
In the spirit of sharing
our Edward Burtynsky
exhibition, we share some
of the other “must-sea”
artistic offerings from
across the area.
Edward Burtynsky (Canadian, b. 1955)
Ölfusá River #1, Iceland (detail), 2012
Digital chromogenic print,
48 x 60 inches
© Edward Burtynsky
Image courtesy of Nicholas Metivier
Gallery, Toronto; Howard Greenberg
Gallery, New York; and Bryce Wolkowitz
Gallery, New York
GLASS WHEEL STUDIO
Norfolk | glasswheelstudio.com
This NEON District gallery space
offers two environmentally
conscious exhibitions.
In Dioramas for the
Anthropocene, Jennifer
Bueno combines satellite
images with glassmaking and
painting to transform alarming
views of pollution and sea-level
rise into jewel-like, floating
microcosms of our planet
in flux. Rachel Schmidt’s
Apocaloptimist: A Future
True Story playfully creates
a mythical miniature model
city that merges nature into
the urban wilderness. Video
projections and audience
participation create a new
future that is less gloomand-doom than dystopia.
Both the shows are on view
through March 20.
WORK | RELEASE
Norfolk |
workreleasenorfolk.com
Native
Whether one hails from afar or
has always called Norfolk home,
our waterfront community’s
culture spills into daily life and
seeps into its art. This exhibition
of 21 new works by local
creators gives a glimpse into the
impact that waterways have
had an on our region. Curated
by artists Charlotte Potter
and Gayle Forman from the
Chrysler’s Perry Glass Studio,
this show, presented by the
Rutter Family Art Foundation, is
on view through March 19.
VIRGINIA STAGE COMPANY,
VIRGINIA SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA, AND
VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL
VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF
CONTEMPORARY ART
Virginia Beach |
virginiaMOCA.org
Water inspires much of MOCA’s
spring schedule. In Surface
Tension, Crystal Wagner turns
common synthetic materials
into an organic, sculptural
installation that engulfs its
gallery. Courtney Mattison:
Sea Change presents large
hand-crafted porcelain works
that celebrate the fragile beauty
of the endangered marine
ecosystem. An interactive, reeffocused ARTLab and Just Add
Water, an exhibition of short
animated films, complete the
thematic immersion. All are on
view through April 17.
MARINERS’ MUSEUM
Norfolk | vastage.org
Newport News |
marinersmuseum.org
Three leading arts organizations
join to present William
Shakespeare’s The Tempest,
adapted and directed by VSC’s
Patrick Mullins. This fully
staged theatrical production,
April 16–17 at Chrysler Hall,
features the music of Jean
Sibelius performed by the
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
and the VSO Chorus under the
baton of JoAnn Falletta. It’s
a sight-and-sound storm you
won’t want to miss.
Most everything at America’s
National Maritime Museum
has a direct connection to
water—exhibits on scrimshaw,
miniature ships, and Admiral
Nelson, as well as a seminar
promoting boating safety at
sea. The museum’s annual
Battle of Hampton Roads
Weekend, held this year on
March 5–6, commemorates the
epic confrontation between
the ironclads USS Monitor and
CSS Virginia in 1862.
CHRYSLER MUSEUM
PARTNERSHIPS
Norfolk | chrysler.org
Hampton Roads Sea-Level
Rise Adaptation Forum
Organized by the Hampton
Roads Planning District
Commission, Old Dominion
University, and Virginia
Sea Grant, and hosted by
the Chrysler Museum, this
February 18 discussion focused
on sea-level rise in our
community, especially how it
relates to the arts, culture, and
education in our locale. Artist
Norwood Viviano, whose work
is on view at the Museum, was
a special guest contributor.
Blue Planet Forum—
Water: A Blessing and a Curse
The Chrysler partners with
the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation, the National
Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration, and Old
Dominion University to
present this May 15 forum
inspired by Edward Burtynsky:
Water. A panel of six respected
scientists, environmental
leaders, educators, and artists
will explore local and global
issues related to our most vital
and valuable natural resource.
last look | 29
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SUMMER CAMPS AT THE CHRYSLER
museum and
glass studio hours
Tuesday–Saturday
from 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
information
(757) 664-6200 | Chrysler.org
follow the chrysler
Sunday from noon–5 p.m.
Third Thursday til 10 p.m.
Wisteria, the Museum
restaurant is open during
Museum hours.
and @chryslermuseum
Free Parking
Wheelchair Accessible
Subscribe to the Chrysler
Museum Weekly at
chrysler.org/email-signup.
historic houses hours
Museum Kids’ Camp
Ages 7–10
Teen Hot Glass Camp
Ages 13–17
Monday–Friday, July 25–29 |
8:30 a.m.–4 p.m.
Our theme is STEAM—learn
how “art is the queen of
all sciences (Leonardo da
Vinci).” Campers: explore
the Museum’s galleries,
various artmaking methods,
and innovation to create a
portfolio of your own work.
Monday–Friday, June 20–24 |
8:30 a.m.–4 p.m.
Teens: heat up your summer
with a sizzling week of
glassmaking techniques. Try
glassblowing, flameworking,
coldworking, and more, plus
gain the confidence and
experience you’ll need to take
more classes at the Studio.
Cost: $175 per camper for
Museum Members,
$275 for all others
Cost: $575 per camper for
Museum Members,
$750 for all others
Registration is now open for these weeklong options.
Sign up now at reservations.chrysler.org.
Saturday and Sunday
from noon–5 p.m.
Limited Accessibility
Rather than recycle,
share this issue of
Chrysler with a friend.
general admission is free
The Chrysler Museum of Art is
partially supported by grants
from the City of Norfolk, the
Virginia Commission for the
Arts, the National Endowment
for the Arts, the Business
Consortium for Arts Support,
and the Edwin S. Webster
Foundation.
and supported by
Museum Members!
Join the Chrysler on site,
on the phone at
(757) 333-6298,
or online at chrysler.org/
membership.