Museum musings

[cany10011]

For those interested in asian art, the Met currently has a great exhibit of Tale of Genji inspired objects and screens. Also, would like to add the Liang Yi museum and the Hong Kong Museum for those into ceramics and furniture, as well as the National Palace museum (Taipei) and Palace museum (Beijing), and Shanghai museum of Art. Must not forget the portguese Gulbenkian in Lisbon for its wonderful chinese scholar objects and ceramics too. Tokyo has the lovely Nezu museum of pottery and wonderful tea room.

[cany10011]

If not mentioend already, the Rubin museum in NYC has a wonderful collection of buddhist art and its evolution from india to other countries. It also has a very accessible cafe and (free and clean) restrooms.

[cany10011]

I will have a few days in both Vancouver and Toronto next month. Any recommendations on museums in those cities?

 

Canadian museums are nowhere as well funded as its american counterparts. However, the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) has some nice chinese tomb sculptures with fascinating history as well the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics across the street. The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) is worthwhile for its canadian-inspired works from the Group of Seven.

[samhexum]

Artist sues museum and city of L.A. after his work is accidentally thrown away

 

But is it art? That’s the question at the center of a dispute between a Los Angeles museum and an artist who showed there.

 

Artist David Lew, who goes by the name Shark Toof, has sued the Chinese American Museum and the city of Los Angeles, among other defendants, for throwing his work in the trash after displaying it.

 

Lew, who splits his time between L.A. and Detroit, was one of nine graffiti artists and muralists featured in the 2018 exhibition “Don’t Believe the Hype: L.A. Asian Americans in Hip-Hop,” which was on view at the Chinese American Museum from May to December. Lew said he contributed a site-specific installation called “Shayu De Yi Nian Lai See (Year of the Shark Red Packet)” for the museum’s courtyard. Eighty-eight empty canvas sacks were adorned with hand-applied gold leaf paint and suspended on burlap twine with wooden clothespins. It was meant to evoke the history of Chinese immigrants in the laundry business. The number eight symbolizes prosperity and good fortune in Chinese culture.

 

How the individual bags weathered the natural elements — the canvas fraying or the paint fading and cracking in the sun — was part of an artwork about longevity, Lew said. The bags were meant to develop individual character over time, as people do.

 

The museum is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, a department of the city, and is located downtown in the historic Garnier Building, the last surviving structure from L.A.’s original Chinatown. The building is owned and maintained by the city, and the museum is a city entity.

 

Around Dec. 7, according to the lawsuit, days before the exhibition was to end, a city maintenance crew took down the canvas bags and threw them out. According to the lawsuit, no one from the museum or El Pueblo management was there to supervise the removal of the bags. The crew may not have known the intent behind the bags and instead saw them as deteriorating objects to be discarded.

 

“Not being able to see these things after eight months, at the location, was gut-wrenching,” Lew said in an interview. “It’s like you’re watching the Super Bowl and they say, ‘We’re not gonna call a winner, we’ll just end it in the third quarter.’ There’s no resolution.”

 

Fourteen of the 88 bags were not thrown out. They had fallen down during the run of the show, Lew said, but were never reinstalled or returned to him. The lawsuit presumes the bags to be destroyed, but in response to The Times’ query, the museum said the bags were put in storage.

 

The museum said it had not been informed by the city or El Pueblo that Lew’s pieces would be removed that day but, perhaps more important, the museum said it did not see the bags as art in the first place.

 

Several of the bags had been promised to Lew’s collectors after the show, and others were to be sold at the museum for $88 each. The museum said the bags were merchandise hanging outdoors — courtyard decor as opposed to an official art exhibit. A vendor agreement provided to The Times by Melvin N.A. Avanzado — the attorney representing Friends of the Chinese American Museum, the nonprofit that operates the museum — specified that his client would receive 20% of the sale revenue, not unlike a consignment arrangement.

 

The museum’s executive director, Michael Truong, declined to comment and referred all inquiries to Avanzado.

 

“We are still reviewing the allegations,” Avanzado said in an email to The Times. “However, the Friends of the Chinese American Museum did nothing wrong with respect to the tote bags that decorated the courtyard outside the museum. I look forward to proving that the claims against my client have no merit.”

 

Exhibition cocurator Justin Charles Hoover — who had a one-year contract at the Chinese American Museum that ended in December 2018 — said he did view the installation as art.

 

“We always saw David as an artist, and we saw this as an outdoor art installation,” Hoover said. “The work was always meant to weather and fade outdoors. It was meant to fall apart and be sold. Whoever took it down thought, because it was weathered, it was garbage. But I assume it was a completely innocent mistake.”

 

The lawsuit, filed by Les Weinstein and the law firm One llp, names the city, El Pueblo, the museum and Friends of the Chinese American Museum as defendants.

 

El Pueblo general manager Arturo Chavez declined to comment. Rob Wilcox, a representative from the office of City Attorney Mike Feuer, said staff would review the complaint and had no further comment.

 

Lew said he was not consulted about deinstallation of his work and found out the bags had been tossed when he received an email from cocurator Hoover on Dec. 12.

 

“We have a major issue with the bags,” Hoover wrote in the email. “The team that was tasked to bring the bags down from their lines thought they were to be disposed of. Like thrown out.”

 

Hoover added: “Obviously we are horrified by this.”

 

Lew said he was speechless.

 

“It took months to develop the concept and measurements and diagrams and logistics,” he said. “It was like a break-up or a death: You knew this one thing, and then it leaves your life in an instant, and you’re left to pick up the pieces and grieve.”

 

Lew, who has other work in the museum’s permanent collection, showed a large painting of a shark, titled “Qinru (Trespass),” as part of the same exhibition. It was returned to him after the show, undamaged. Other artists in “Don’t Believe the Hype” included Gajin Fujita, Hueman, Kenny Kong, Defer and Erin Yoshi. Ninochka McTaggart cocurated the exhibition.

 

Lew declined to give a monetary value for “Shayu De Yi Nian Lai See” but said it was “priceless” to him “because it’s part of a body of work that I can’t ever, in a future retrospective setting, revisit.”

 

The work also has familial value, he said. Lew’s great-grandparents worked in the laundry services business after immigrating to L.A. from China in the early 1920s. He said it offended him that the bags were discarded.

 

Lew did not specify how much he was suing for in the lawsuit. Under the Visual Arts Rights Act, better known as VARA, the court allows for damages ranging from $750 to $30,000 per item, unless the court finds that the defendant’s action was intentional. Then damages can go up to $150,000 per item.

 

In addition to suing for damages, attorney’s fees and other costs related to the case, Lew is asking the court to issue an injunction preventing the city and museums under city control, such as the Italian American Museum, from taking down an exhibit without advising an artist first.

 

Lew’s attorney, Weinstein, represented artist Kent Twitchell, who sued the federal government and the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, among other defendants, when his 1987 mural of artist Ed Ruscha — on a Hill Street building for nearly two decades — was whitewashed in 2006 without his permission. In 2008, Twitchell won a $1.1-million settlement.

 

Lew said he hopes his case draws attention to perceptions about what constitutes art, what’s worth saving and what’s disposable.

 

“Most people’s understanding of high art is Michelangelo,” he said. “If these were American flags, how carefully would they have been placed in a pile? But these look like something we’d eat fried rice off of — this can’t be from a master. And sadly, the bags were thrown away like dirty laundry.”

 

[+ WilliamM]

Just about everything about art is opinion NOT fact. Much of what hangs in major art museums in NOT great art. It is frequently what was or is currently politically correct art.

 

Matisse, Cezanne, Gauguin are not major art? The Prado and the museums in St. Petersburg, Vienna and Paris have junk, not real art?How about Florence and Rome? Amsterdam? The Barnes Foundation?

[dbar123]

The Peabody-Essex in Salem MA is also well worth the trip especially if you like nautical scapes and trade. They have great exhibitions....I think it’s a more interesting museum these days than the MFA in Boston. Just don’t go on Halloween weekend.

[+ bigjoey]

For those interested in asian art, the Met currently has a great exhibit of Tale of Genji inspired objects and screens. Also, would like to add the Liang Yi museum and the Hong Kong Museum for those into ceramics and furniture, as well as the National Palace museum (Taipei) and Palace museum (Beijing), and Shanghai museum of Art. Must not forget the portguese Gulbenkian in Lisbon for its wonderful chinese scholar objects and ceramics too. Tokyo has the lovely Nezu museum of pottery and wonderful tea room.

For Chinese Art, The Nelson in Kansas City has one of the best collections in the U.S.

https://www.nelson-atkins.org/collection/chinese/

[Epigonos]

WilliamM if you will be so kind as to read my post again you will note that I stated "much" of what hangs in major art museums is NOT great art. I DID NOT say all. All of the museums you mentioned have great hanging on their walls, HOWEVER, they also have politically correct junk art hanging on their walls. It is also a fact that not everything Matisse, Cezanne, and Gauguin painted is great art.

[jcmiami1]

My favorite museum in NYC - Frick Museum. Love the place and it’s art - I swear I could live there.

[+ WilliamM]

WilliamM if you will be so kind as to read my post again you will note that I stated "much" of what hangs in major art museums is NOT great art. I DID NOT say all. All of the museums you mentioned have great hanging on their walls, HOWEVER, they also have politically correct junk art hanging on their walls. It is also a fact that not everything Matisse, Cezanne, and Gauguin painted is great art.

 

Cezanne? Really?

 

Which of his paintings is "junk?"

[TruthBTold]

One of my favorite museums is the Rodin Museum in Paris which contains some of the namesake's greatest works, including The Thinker, The Kiss, Adam, and the model for the Gates of Hell. Besides the sculptures, the museum is surrounded by beautiful grounds where I shall one day be married.

 

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/sites/musee/files/jm_4540.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f3s3zOjS824/Ua5TFT7vIFI/AAAAAAAAEu8/HaJf4JwzOiE/s1600/Rodin_TheThinker.jpg

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7997008-3x4-700x933.jpg

[Luv2play]

On my visit there over 50 years ago a friend and I got locked in after closing time as we had wandered out into the gardens. As I recall the place was surrounded by high walls and fences. So we had to find a guard to let us out.

[cany10011]

For Chinese Art, The Nelson in Kansas City has one of the best collections in the U.S.

https://www.nelson-atkins.org/collection/chinese/

 

Laurence Sickman was a big proponent for Chinese art in Kansas. Some of his antique pieces came up for sale a few years ago I believe.

[+ bigjoey]

One of my favorite museums is the Rodin Museum in Paris which contains some of the namesake's greatest works, including The Thinker, The Kiss, Adam, and the model for the Gates of Hell. Besides the sculptures, the museum is surrounded by beautiful grounds where I shall one day be married.

 

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/sites/musee/files/jm_4540.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f3s3zOjS824/Ua5TFT7vIFI/AAAAAAAAEu8/HaJf4JwzOiE/s1600/Rodin_TheThinker.jpg

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7997008-3x4-700x933.jpg

The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia is closer and many of his most famous works are there (Burgers of Calais is up the street at the Philadelphia Art Museum).

[+ bigjoey]

Laurence Sickman was a big proponent for Chinese art in Kansas. Some of his antique pieces came up for sale a few years ago I believe.

His parents were missionaries in China and he grew up there. When the main building opened in 1933, the rage was for Egyptian artifacts (King Tut’s Tomb and all that). The Nelson could not afford much Egyptian art BUT Chinese art was “cheap” and Sickman bought large quantities of Chinese art to fill the building?. With his great eye, he bought the best at “low” prices. Thus chance played a big part in The Nelson having such a major Chinese collection.

[cany10011]

His parents were missionaries in China and he grew up there. When the main building opened in 1933, the rage was for Egyptian artifacts (King Tut’s Tomb and all that). The Nelson could not afford much Egyptian art BUT Chinese art was “cheap” and Sickman bought large quantities of Chinese art to fill the building?. With his great eye, he bought the best at “low” prices. Thus chance played a big part in The Nelson having such a major Chinese collection.

 

Great history. Thanks for sharing. Lots of valuable chinese art picked up for pennies in the 1930s. Now those prices are out of reach. My friend's dad went with Nixon to china and picked up some lovely paintings and sculptures that were offered him by antique runners who would solicit foreigners for American dollars in exchange for their cultural relics. Wonder what they are worth now.

[Luv2play]

While I am familiar with quite a few of the museums cited in this thread, one that has not been mentioned is the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where I studied for 5 years as a young child. It will always be my favourite as it gave me an appreciation for fine art at a young age and an interest that has endured, both as an amateur artist and a collector. When travelling I always try to fit in a visit to a museum but also art galleries selling works.

 

The Montreal Museum is Canada’s oldest (founded in 1860) and has a nice collection of Canadian and international art. In the last twenty years, the museum has greatly expanded and now encompasses a small campus of 5 buildings at the corner of Sherbrooke Street and Ave. de Musee, including a former church which has over 20 Tiffany windows and houses Canadian art.

 

Not having the financial resources of some of the American museums (it is only the 18th largest in North America), they have to be nimble in acquiring contemporary works that are still reasonably priced before prices hit the stratosphere, such as the two J-M Basquiat’s that they purchased when they were priced in the thousands of dollars and not the millions like today.

 

The museum itself is situated in the heart of Montreal, the so-called Golden Mile, a square mile which once housed most of Canada’s millionaires in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of those mansions, many of which still exist, housed fabulous art collections but on the death’s of their owners were dispersed (Cornelius Van Horne) or otherwise lost (the J. W. McConnell collection of old masters went up in flames in the 1960’s). Still, a lot remains.

[Luv2play]

The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia is closer and many of his most famous works are there (Burgers of Calais is up the street at the Philadelphia Art Museum).

How many casts were made of the Burghers of Calais? I saw the whole group in Calais (naturally) years ago. I think they were in the town square. We had one in Montreal on Sherbrooke Street for many years when I was going to university there but not sure if it is still there. It was outside the Dominion Gallery, owned by Max Stern, whose advice to me, a young collector when he was still alive, was to buy a masterpiece of a second or third tier artist if that was all you could afford, rather than an inferior piece of a master painter (all master painters have second or third rate works).

 

Today, when a lot of art has become commodified, that advice may not always hold when people are prepared to pay for the name, not the actual merits of the work. But if you intend to keep the work and live with it daily, then his advice still holds, IMO.

[+ Charlie]

Almost all the art on the walls of my home is original, most of it by artists whom I have known personally. The funny thing is that the only painting by an artist with a substantial reputation (his work hangs in many galleries) is one that our guests almost always pass by without comment, although at an auction for serious collectors it would probably command the highest price.

[+ WilliamM]

WilliamM if you will be so kind as to read my post again you will note that I stated "much" of what hangs in major art museums is NOT great art. I DID NOT say all. All of the museums you mentioned have great hanging on their walls, HOWEVER, they also have politically correct junk art hanging on their walls. It is also a fact that not everything Matisse, Cezanne, and Gauguin painted is great art.

 

The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg perhaps, however I kept going back again and again and again.

[Epigonos]

WilliamM for me the museum with that has more than its fair share of junk hanging on its walls is the Louvre. One must look carefully for the great pieces there. Personally, I’ll take the D’Orsay any day over the Louvre.

Again, strictly personal taste my favorite art museum is the Uffizi. The fact that I am particularly fond of Italian Renaissances painting makes that an easy choice.

In my opinion both the Uffizi in Florence and the Prado in Madrid have done an outstanding job culling their collections. There are a few trite piece in both of those museums but they are few and far between.

[cany10011]

Has anyone mentioned the Borghese villa? That is such a gem;)!

[+ WilliamM]

WilliamM for me the museum with that has more than its fair share of junk hanging on its walls is the Louvre. One must look carefully for the great pieces there. Personally, I’ll take the D’Orsay any day over the Louvre.

Again, strictly personal taste my favorite art museum is the Uffizi. The fact that I am particularly fond of Italian Renaissances painting makes that an easy choice.

In my opinion both the Uffizi in Florence and the Prado in Madrid have done an outstanding job culling their collections. There are a few trite piece in both of those museums but they are few and far between.

 

I haven't been to the Prado in Madrid since 1973. Frankly, I was quite concerned about being in a Fascist country under Francisco Franco though.

[TruthBTold]

The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg perhaps, however I kept going back again and again and again.

 

One of my favorite movies is The Russian Ark directed by Alexander Sokurov. It is filmed in the Winter Palace of St, Petersburg so I hope it is the right place. It is amazing because it is a documentary/historical drama showing the museum since its inception and really amazing because it is a 96 minute movie filmed in one shot depicting the movies 300 year history and various characters. The same director did one about the Louvre but I did not like it as much.

[cany10011]

One of my favorite movies is The Russian Ark directed by Alexander Sokurov. It is filmed in the Winter Palace of St, Petersburg so I hope it is the right place. It is amazing because it is a documentary/historical drama showing the museum since its inception and really amazing because it is a 96 minute movie filmed in one shot depicting the movies 300 year history and various characters. The same director did one about the Louvre but I did not like it as much.

 

A few years ago, i went on a private tour of the Hermitage with 20 classmates on a reunion cruise/trip. Wlonderful seeing those treasures up close and unrushed. Highly recommend to those who love art.