Tyler Green Modern Art Notes

In a surprise development, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston announced that it will be free to the public for 24 hours starting at 7pm on Sept. 17.

The move is a direct response to the cross-town Museum of Fine Arts’ planned $200 charge to see the recent MFA acquisition The Clock, a 24-hour-long film installation by Christian Marclay. The MFA announced yesterday that it will charge admission on a sliding scale, starting at $200 for entry at 7pm on Sept. 17, ending at 7am on Sept. 18, when entry to the MFA will be free as part of a community day. As a result, non-$200-level visitors will have the opportunity to see only half of The Clock when the MFA debuts the work. Last night the MFA reminded people via its Twitter feed, which it does not charge readers to access, that the $200 fee also includes a party. “After all, the art is really secondary to the shindig,” the Twitter feed did not add.

“It’s going to be awesome,” MFA Boston curator Jen Mergel really did say about the $200-a-head party, honest to god, I am not making up this part, I swear it.

“As part of the free celebration of our own museum and our own program, we’ll be having a party too,” ICA director Jill Medvedow told MAN. “Furthermore, we’re pleased to announce that the MFA seems to have had a moment of realization about the optics of their $200 event and is sending to our event a cake. The MFA promises to deliver the cake on a late-18th-century French plate from the MFA’s collection. [Above.] I understand that the MFA will allow our visitors to see the plate free of charge. Also, MFA director Malcolm Rogers specifically requested that we let visitors eat the cake.”

Critics were quick to criticize the MFA event as reinforcing notions that art, particularly contemporary art, is little more than a luxury good meant to be enjoyed by the privileged few. They pointed out that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which also bought a copy of The Clock, has made the work available to the public via special screenings and that it has used the potentially populist piece as a way to build a connection with its community instead of as a reminder that art is first and best accessible to the privileged class.

“That’s just outrageous,” Rogers said via a statement that was printed on thick bond paper that smelled of rosewater. “That’s like saying the Bush tax cuts only benefited the wealthy. Once we’re done soaking the rich, the rest of Mr. Marclay’s artwork will trickle down to the little people, you know, the ones for whom we exhibited Chihuly. In fact, we’re so generous that we’re letting anyone see half of all our artworks for free on Sept. 18 starting at 7am. That way anyone who can’t afford $200 to see an entire artwork can at least see half of it.”

Rogers explained that the MFA”s new ‘half-viewing’ policy was directly inspired by the Marclay: Because Marclay requires that The Clock be shown in real time, visitors who want to see the 8pm part of the artwork have to be in the gallery at 8pm, which means they’d have to pay $200 to see it. Because visitors who enter the MFA after 7 am on Sept. 18th will be able to see only half the Marclay and because they won’t be paying anything, Rogers said the museum wanted to replicate the experience of seeing The Clock. That means that freeloaders visitors will be able to see only half of all other works the MFA has on view.

Informed that many museums charged much less than $200 for access to their collections and that many others were free, Rogers snorted. “Please, I’m running a business here,” he said. Informed that he is not, in fact, running a business but a non-profit institution that has as its mission to make its art accessible to “broader constituencies,” he replied: “That’s crazy talk. We even have inventory available for rent.” [Image: ICA Boston, via Flickr user Joevare.]

Medvedow also said that her museum was working with the MFA to present a series of Sept. 17 events for people who could not afford the $200 fee at the MFA. Prime among them will be the opening of the ICA Boston’s roof to visitors, access that Medvedow said was specially requested by Rogers himself. ”The MFA felt that many Bostonians might miss the metaphor it is presenting with its $200 charge, so in the spirit of institutional collegiality we asked what we could do to help,” Medvedow said. “Malcolm told me that the MFA could best get across the nuance of its $200 message by inviting people to dive from our roof into Boston Harbor. That seemed a little odd, but the MFA told me that this would be a good way of cooperatively promoting the ICA’s beautiful, waterfront location while at the same time allowing the MFA to tell average Bostonians to take a flying leap.”

In the wake of a decision by Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli to cover up the bare-breasted woman on the Virginia state seal, officials at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond are concerned that Cuccinelli will next turn his attention to the museum and its collection. Cuccinelli’s interest in the state’s seal was first reported by Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Cuccinelli is a right-wing Republican best known for questioning President Obama’s citizenship and for ending protections for gays and lesbians at Virginia universities.

The Virginian-Pilot reported on May 1 that Cuccinelli had modified the state’s seal — which was designed in 1776 by a four-man committee consisting of Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, George Wythe and Robert Carter Nicholas. The seal features a classical-inspired image intended as a clear departure from a British-style coat of arms. In a reference to the colonies’ separation from Great Britain, the seal shows a bare-breasted female figure, intended to signify virtue, standing victorious over a male figure meant to personify tyranny. According to the Virginian-Pilot, Cuccinelli recently distributed lapel pins to his staff that feature Virtus with her torso covered by a breastplate.

The timing is especially difficult for the VMFA, which re-opened last weekend after a $150 million expansion that makes it America’s 14th-largest art museum. The new VMFA has more gallery space than the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Seattle Art Museum or the J. Paul Getty Museum. Its collections of French art deco, south Asian and African art are among the nation’s best. The VMFA also has particular strength in European painting, modern art, American art and in Faberge objects. The VMFA is effectively the state of Virginia’s art museum and describes itself as state-supported but privately endowed, a phrase that is believed to concern Cuccinelli.

Museum officials think that Cuccinelli may be outraged by numerous works in the museum’s  collection. “Certainly our first worry is how the attorney general will react to our Artemisia Gentileschi, Venus and Cupid (ca. 1625-30, above),” VMFA director Alex Nyerges said. “We held a meeting and decided our best bet was to call Hirshhorn director Richard Koshalek and to ask him to send some of his staff to Richmond. We understand they’re experienced at walking around a museum on request, so we’ll send them to to walk around the Gentileschi in the hopes of obscuring it from Cuccinelli’s view. We’re also having our staff study this turn-of-the-17th-century Italian suit of armor. As soon as possible, we’ll send our staff into our gift shop to draw breastplates onto posters of the Gentileschi. Same low price.”

Nyerges concedes that the VMFA collection is full of objects likely to outrage the attorney general. The VMFA has one of the best collections of English silver in the United States, including a 19th-century Hebe by Paul Storr (detail at right). Hebe was the Greek goddess of youth and is frequently portrayed with pert, bare breasts. The Virginia Hebe features breasts that aren’t only pert and bare, but that are also shiny. “Remember when Jimmy Carter said he had lust in his heart?” Nyerges said. “Well, nevermind that spiritual stuff. With Hebe you can actually see your lust reflected on her pert, bare breasts.”

Other works of concern to VMFA officials include Tom Wesselmann’s Great American Nude #35,  a George Segal sculpture, and a Greek female figure from ca. 2400 BC. “Normally we’d date the Greek figure to ca. 2400 BCE, before the common era,” Nyerges said. “However, we know that Cuccinelli is a Catholic conservative, so we’ve re-dated it to ca. 2400 BC, before Christ.”

While those works just include bare breasts, Nyerges said that he realizes that Philip Pearlstein’s Two Models Reclining on a Cast-Iron Bed will likely outrage Cuccinelli. “Cuccinelli has said that homosexuality is ‘intrinsically wrong,’ and that it is offensive to ‘natural law,’” Nyerges said. “In this work of art, an oil-on-canvas that Pearlstein may have been talking about when he described the human body as a ‘constellation of still-life forms,’ two women are sharing a bed. Our research shows that Cuccinelli also said that homosexual ‘acts’ are a detriment to our culture. Well, we’re not sure if sharing a bed is an ‘act’ or not.”

A museum official suggested that the museum’s best hope of avoiding a problem with the attorney general was an approach suggested by John Ravenal, VMFA’s curator of modern and contemporary art and the president of the Association of Art Museum Curators. Ravenal said that he thinks a Henry Moore in VMFA’s collection, Reclining Figure (Exterior Form) might actually be a work that the museum can use to reach out to Cuccinelli. “It’s a reclining female nude,” Ravenal said. “But that’s not as ‘bad’ as it sounds. Instead of breasts, it just has holes where the breasts would be. There’s nothing for him to want to cover up, just the absence of two entire body parts.”

Late Monday night Cuccinelli’s office announced that it was discontinuing use of the new, toned-down seal. “That’s great,” Nyerges said. “Now maybe we can show him the Gentileschi and explain to him the erotic symbolism of Venus’ left hand playing with that flimsy bit of sheer wrap.”

This morning the Washington Post published this Hirshhorn press release announcing the museum’s plans to relocate its bookstore. Because the new bookstore will be designed by Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken, the Hirshhorn plans to pay for it with funds set aside for acquisitions.

This morning I acquired got my hands on a top-secret list of the Hirshhorn’s next planned collection additions. [Image: The Emperor. Also, his empress, who would seem to have the emperor's...]

As it turns out, a museum spokesperson was eager to explain its new acquisition plans: “When the trustees refused to donate money for some of our director’s plans, we decided that one way to make things happen was to involve an artist in anything and everything we do,” the spokesman said. “That way we can tap the Hirshhorn’s abundant acquisitions funds to pay for whatever. We also thought the trustees would be less likely to object so long as it wasn’t their money. Heck, they might even be out shopping when this comes up at a board meeting. Wouldn’t that be ironic! Actually, now that I think about it, here’s another idea: We’ll have Richard Prince in the room when they’re out shopping. That way the whole trustee meeting can be paid for via the acquisitions budget!”

Here’s the list of upcoming Hirshhorn acquisitions:

1.) New sinks in the Hirshhorn bathrooms: Robert Gober. The sinks may still come from Kohler, but they won’t have faucets. “We thought about having running water in the sinks,” said Hirshhorn director Ken Lay. “But Olafur Eliasson was too expensive. Also, that’ll make Gober’s drains a nice conceptual touch.”

2.) Conservation of the Doug Aitken bookstore: Tino Sehgal. Conservators will walk in circles around the museum’s Bunshaft-designed building, talking about both the bookstore and the “progress” the museum’s director is making in transforming the Hirshhorn.

3.) New light bulbs for Hirshhorn galleries: Dan Flavin. Upon being informed Flavin was no longer alive, Lay seemed confused. Then a, er, light bulb went off over his head: “Spencer Finch!”

4.) Stocking the Hirshhorn bookstore: Josephine Meckseper. “We realized that acquiring stock for the bookstore would be expensive,” Lay said. “So we’re going to acquire books, t-shirts, whatevs, and then have Meckseper sign the purchase invoice. That way it’ll be fund-able through the acquisitions budget, convenient, and a wry commentary on consumerism!”

(In a related story, the Hirshhorn said that it plans to announce that from now on its library will be a Rachel Whiteread that the museum already owns. “That way we won’t need any more expensive books,” Lay said.)

5.) Auditing of the Hirshhorn’s acquisition expenditures: Josiah McElheny. Asked to explain the sudden switch away from Smithsonian accountants, Lay said: “From now on we’re pretty much going to do this kind of thing with mirrors.”