Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History Newsletter
Report of the Director
Dr. Richard R. Brettell
The last semester of the first full year of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History will
see the graduation of our very first PhD students linked to the program. Since graduate
education is at the core of what we hope to do with the resources at our disposal, this is
a true landmark—the first, we hope, of many outstanding dissertations defended by our
brightest students. And, if the work of the O’Donnell-supported graduate students this
year is as fruitful as we hope, next year we will have a bumper crop of new PhDs.
Elpida Vouitsis is an American who was educated in Montreal and graduated with an MA in Art History
from McGill University before coming to UT Dallas. While here, she has been deeply involved in a study
of the texts of the artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), whose writings have been known largely through
facsimiles of their gorgeous manuscripts and are, thus, little read. For her dissertation, soon-to-be Dr.
Vouitsis translated five of these complex texts (two of which remain unpublished to this day) with a critical
introduction as well as extensive notes and annotations on Gauguin’s intellectual sources. After graduation,
she will work with me to create a two-volume compilation of the complete texts of Gauguin in both English
and French. This project is presently under consideration for publication by the Getty. She is also hard
at work as a researcher for Pissarro in Eragny: Anarchy and Landscape, an exhibition for the Réunion des
Musées Nationaux in Paris.
Leigh Arnold has done all of her graduate work at UT Dallas, with lengthy forays
as a researcher funded by the Texas Curatorial Research Fund at the Dallas
Museum of Art. While there, she curated an important exhibition of drawings
for site-specific installations by the founder of the earth art movement, Robert
Smithson (1938-1973). A year ago, Leigh was hired to be the first occupant of
a new Assistant Curator position at the Nasher Sculpture Center. While there,
she completed the text of an important dissertation on the sculptural projects
of Robert Smithson undertaken over a twenty-year period in Texas, all but one
of which remain unbuilt. Her groundbreaking work, supervised by Dr. Charissa
Terranova, is now complete, and there is no doubt that it will find a publisher in
the coming years, as Leigh continues expertly to balance scholarly and curatorial
work at the Nasher.
Leigh Arnold, Assistant Curator at
the Nasher Scuplture Center
Sadly, we will say goodbye to our two Visiting Research Fellows who shared an office at the O’Donnell
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Institute while completing their dissertations on Byzantine art. James Rodriquez,
a doctoral candidate at Yale University, is in the final throes of completing his
dissertation on double-sided Byzantine icons. We are very proud that, in a crowded
art history market, James has accepted a position at DePaul University. Kristine
Larison successfully defended her dissertation on representations of Mount Sinai for
the University of Chicago and, with James, organized a very successful symposium at
the O’Donnell Institute, Diptychs, Triptychs, and Polyptychs, from the Middle Ages to
Modernity.
Richard R. Brettell, Ph.D.
Founding Director, The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History
and the Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair
·
·
·
·
James Rodriguez, Yale doctoral candidate, in his EODIAH office
Analysis of the Dyes Used in the Colored Papers of Jose Guadalupe Posada’s Prints (Amon Carter)
Analysis of the Morton C. Bradley Historical Pigment Collection (DMA)
Conservation of a contemporary painting: identifying the working methods and materials used by John Wilcox in the creation of Crucifix (DMA)
Studies of the Surface Chemistry of Gold Artifacts from Central America (DMA)
David is developing a conservation science laboratory at UT Dallas that will feature
a number of complimentary techniques such as optical and interference microscopy
and white light interferometry, FTIR, GCMS, XRF, IR reflectrometry, HPLC and
Colorimetry. The equipment at NSERL including SEM, TEM, AFM, SIMS, FIB and
XPS is also being used in his research as are a number of techniques on other sites,
for example TOF-SIMS LEIS and FIB-SIMS at Imperial College, where he is a visiting
Professor.
Dr. David McPhail, Distinguished
Chair in Conservation Science and
Professor of Chemistry with Bonnie
Pitman, Distinguished Scholar in
Residence
David is actively recruiting research students at present and has funding for two research assistants.
READ MORE about his work through the folllowing links: https://www.utdallas.edu/arthistory/conservation/;
https://www.utdallas.edu/arthistory/mcphail/; http://www.utdallas.edu/chairs/profiles/mcphail.html; http://
utdmercury.com/researchers-use-science-study-art/.
Greetings from the Assistant Director
This semester we welcomed to the O’Donnell Institute Dr. David McPhail, Distinguished Chair in
Conservation Science and Professor of Chemistry in UT Dallas’s School of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics. He is the O’Donnell Institute’s first Distinguished Chair to be invested at UT Dallas. David is an
expert in the analysis of surfaces and the study of how those surfaces interact with their environment. He has
worked at the interface between analytical science and museum conservation for over twenty-five years. His
research includes studies on the conservation of artifacts made of glass, metal and ceramic as well as the study
of modern materials such as plastics.
The overriding aim of David’s research is to use science to inform best practice in conservation, ensuring that
the research delivers practical, cost-effective guidelines that conservators and curators can use to preserve
artifacts that would otherwise be lost to future generations. The complimentary analytical techniques he is
using reveal the mechanisms and kinetics of decay, leading to treatments that can slow down or even arrest
the deterioration completely. David also uses high sensitivity surface analysis to determine the effectiveness
of the cleaning processes used in conservation (for example solvents, laser cleaning and steam) and the rate of
re-contamination of surfaces once they have been cleaned.
David is engaged in collaborative research projects with museums in the Dallas-Fort Worth, including
the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and the Amon Carter Museum. To date six project themes have been
identified and more are appearing on a regular basis; the project themes will form the basis of graduate
student projects.
·
·
An investigation of Andean textile dyes involving the development of novel analytical techniques
(DMA)
Investigating the surface materials found on a collection of 14 Jose Posada printing blocks in the Amon
Carter Museum of American Art (ACMAA) collection.
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And listen to his recent interview with Roger Malina:
http://creativedisturbance.org/podcast/when-do-scientists-get-time-to-think-eng/
Dr. Sarah K. Kozlowski
Assistant Director
The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History
EODIAH Announcements
The O’Donnell Institute is very pleased to welcome Lauren LaRocca as new
Coordinator of Special Programs, a position dedicated to overseeing collaborations
between the DMA and the O’Donnell Institute. Lauren holds an MA in Art History
from University of North Texas. She has held positions both at the O’Donnell
Foundation and at C2 Art Advisors, and worked as a McDermott Intern at the DMA.
Based at the O’Donnell Institute’s DMA research center, Lauren will act as the primary
point of contact between our two institutions. She will coordinate scholars’ access to
collections, arrange class visits, plan the logistics of jointly-sponsored programs, and
oversee both day-to-day operations and special events at the research center. Lauren
is passionate about art and education, and she will bring her energy, enthusiasm, and
outstanding management skills to our EODIAH team. Please join us in welcoming
Lauren into the fold!
May / June 2016
Coordinator of Special Programs
Lauren LaRocca
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EODIAH Upcoming Events
Contents
Report of the Director
1
-------------------------------------------Dr. David McPhail 2-3
-------------------------------------------EODIAH Announcements
3-8
-------------------------------------------Field Reports 9- 10
-------------------------------------------Pollock Sculpture Acquisition
11
-------------------------------------------Exhibition Highlight
12
-------------------------------------------Exhibitions, Events,
& Upcoming Lectures
13 - 14
--------------------------------------------
EODIAH Philosophy of Art Courses by Professor Charles Bambach
The Art of Examination: Art Museum and Medical School
Partnerships
Wednesday, June 8 and Thursday, June 9, 2016
At the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Invitational Forum organized by Bonnie Pitman, Distinguished Scholar
in Residence, The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, and hosted
by Wendy Woon, The Edward John Noble Foundation Deputy Director
for Education, MoMA bringing together 130 art museum and medical
school professionals. The Forum will explore and develop deeper understandings of the value of engaging art museums in programs with medical schools to deepen awareness of looking closely, responding creatively
and thoughtfully to works of art and relating these to clinical practice.
READ MORE
Plaster: Medium and Process
Traditional metaphysics has defined the work of art as a beautiful “object” as a re-presentation of the ideal
(mimesis); as an instantiation of the “good,” the “true,” or the eternally valid.. Modern German philosophy
has, however, offered its own transformative critique of this metaphysical tradition ---one that involves us in
a hermeneutic relation to the world. And it is in terms of art as an engaged, performative enactment of our
interpretation of the world that this tradition attempts to rethink art’s meaning. Art happens, not as a form
of presentation, but as a founding leap that opens up a world, one where being emerges out its concealment
into the openness of a kind of truth that often remains inaccessible in our ordinary ways of re-presentation.
One of the essential questions raised in these courses is the ethical significance of the work of art ---namely,
in what sense can we speak of art as an ethical act?
EODIAH Courses Offered Fall 2016:
“Data-driven Art History” and “Great Scientific Figures”
John Wilcox: Diptychs and Polyptychs II
on view through September
“Data-driven Art History” taught by Maximilian Schich, Associate Professor in ATEC and founding
member of EODIAH, is an art history grad-course offered in Fall 2016 at UT Dallas. The course explores
outstanding data-driven projects in art history where rigorous hermeneutic observation is complemented
with computation, quantification and visual analytics. Participants will learn about pertinent challenges and
emerging methods, enabling collaboration and engagement in data-driven projects.
On Saturday, April 16, The Wilcox Space celebrated the opening of John Wilcox:
Diptychs and Polyptychs II, curated by Ben Lima and Sarah Kozlowski.
The second in a two-part installation, the show focuses on a period between
1986 and 1989 and explores in particular how Wilcox’s multi-part paintings are
related to the modularity and seriality of his word drawings.
May / June 2016 Professor of Philosophy Charles Bambach to teach
course on philosphers’ interpretations of artwork
In raising such questions, students are beginning to understand art as a way of life that extends beyond any
disciplinary boundaries artificially imposed by institutional structures.
Saturday, August 27, 2 p.m.
At the Nasher Sculpture Center, open to the public
The show will be up into September; email Sarah Kozlowski (sarah.kozlowski@
utdallas.edu) to arrange a visit.
Prof. Charles Bambach, an affiliate faculty member in the Edith
O’Donnell Institute of Art History, is teaching two courses dealing with the Philosophy of Art in this Spring Semester: an undergraduate course with 28 students and a graduate seminar of 16.
Each course deals with fundamental questions about the purpose,
structure, and ethical meaning of the art work with a special
focus on the way art opens up a space for human beings to engage and interpret their very relation to the world. The course is
organized around 5 major philosophers (Kant-Hegel-NietzscheHeidegger-Walter Benjamin) and the way they interpret works
such as Greek temples- the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich
and Vincent Van Gogh-cinematic film, et al.
John Wilcox, Untitled: Paradise, acrylic
on canvas, 1989
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“Great Scientific Figures” taught by Maximilian Schich, is an ATEC grad-course also offered in Fall 2016 at
UT Dallas. The course deals with the functional art of high-impact journal figures in much the same way as
a traditional art history seminar would deal with paintings. Pursuing the core aims of raising visual literacy
and to develop strategies of making great figures even better, participants will get insight into a broad set of
domains.
May / June 2016
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EODIAH Scholar Reports
Maximilian Schich
Charissa Terranova Book Talk and Upcoming Research
On June 1, 2016 at 7:30 pm there will be a public discussion at The Wild Detectives
bookstore (at 314 W Eighth St. in Oak Cliff) about Charissa N. Terranova’s forthcoming Art as Organism: Biology and the Evolution of the Digital Image between Terranova and Janeil Engelstad, Founding Director of Make Art with Purpose, MAP.
Terranova then takes off June 11 for the UK to consult the archives of several contributors to Gyorgy Kepes’s Vision + Value series from the mid twentieth century,
including those of the embryologist Conrad Waddington in Edinburgh, mathematician Jacob Bronowski and biologist Joseph Needham in Cambridge, and the archives
of the Institute for Contemporary Art at the Tate in London.
Exhibition photograph of György
Kepes’ The New Landscape at
Hayden Gallery, 1951. Artistimpresario Kepes curated this
exhibition, including an array of
scientific images alongside photographs of his kinetic light-art.
Terranova finishes out her research junket in the UK by presenting two papers at the
Transimage Conference at Plymouth University. This year’s Transimage gathering
coalesces around the “atemporal image,” and accordingly Terranova’s papers address
“the captured time of the biocentric image” and “the a(llo)termporal postgenomic image.”
In Summer 2016, Maximilian Schich is invited to join CAS-LMU, the Center for Advanced Studies of the University of Munich, Germany. He joins as a fellow “to collaborate beyond the established boundaries of disciplines”, with his own work addressing digital art history, quantitative network science, and migration. Feeding
into the same mission, Schich recently co-organized a high-profile workshop at UCLA/IPAM in California,
bringing together academic and industry experts that deal with “Culture Analytics Beyond Text: Image, Music,
Video, Interactivity, and Performance.” In June, Schich is invited to speak at the “International Workshop on
Science and Culture” taking place at the Zaha Hadid designed Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, South Korea
(picture). Schich’s presentations in the US, Europe, and Asia outline an emerging field of global interest that
focuses on the challenge of “Figuring Out Art History” in a world of exponentially growing cultural production
and pervasive cultural entanglement. A broad audience perspective article that summarizes the presentations is
about to appear in the Journal of Digital Art History and is available for download on arXiv. The presentation
video is available via UCLA.
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.03301
Video: http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/abstract/?tid=13668
Virginia Curry (PhD student in Humanities – Aesthetic Studies) was asked by colleague New Zealand Judge
Elizabeth Nogan Ranieri (PhD student in Humanities – Aesthetic Studies) has
had an essay, “Sacred Space and Imagery: The Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore’s
Eighteenth-Century Sacristy,” published this month in Agents of Space: Eighteenth-Century
Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Elizabeth Nogan Ranieri’s
essay published in Agents of
Space: Eighteenth-Century
Art, Architecture, and Visual
Culture
Editor Christina Smylitopoulos writes, “Incorporating sacred space theory, Elizabeth
Nogan Ranieri’s chapter builds on this harkening back to earlier cultural identities as
a means of creating and strengthening contemporary values. Her study focuses on the
Neapolitan baroque painter Francesco Solimena’s eighteenth-century fresco in the sacristy
of the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples. In her reading of the Trionfo della
Fede sull’Eresia ad Opera dei Domenicani (Triumph of Faith over Heresy by the Works
of the Dominicans), executed by the artist in the first decade of the eighteenth century,
Ranieri argues that in commissioning the construction and decoration of the sacristy, the
Dominicans have created a sacred space.
Crucially, however, it was not achieved through representing traditional Christian virtues. As the fresco
assumes the role of a mnemonic device, the performance of pious activity becomes an act of remembrance
of the virtues of central figures of the Dominican Order. Solimena’s depiction of allegories, such as Faith,
Wisdom, Obedience, and notables like Saint Thomas Aquinas, weigh upon those who occupy and move
through the space, encouraging deep reflection and introspection, thus eliciting most pious and faithful
conduct. But this fresco could also become an agent of Dominican values beyond the Dominicans
themselves; beholders, moved both by the aesthetics and, subsequently, the principles that drove the imagistic
performance, could properly contemplate the Order’s sacred responsibility in combatting heresy.”
Arthur Tompkins who is an expert on the topic of Art in War, to write a chapter for his upcoming edited book,
“Art Crimes and Their Prevention” for London Publisher, Lund Humphries. Her chapter, “Villains, Thieves, and
Scoundrels” has been accepted for publication and this book, presently in printing process, will be launched at
the June 24th International Conference of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art, where Curry
will also be a speaker.
Her paper “ In the Eye of the Beholder: ‘Bad Karma’” concerning the collection practices of Isabella Stewart
Gardner and Bernhard Berenson in Italy has been accepted for presentation at this conference which is cosponsored by the Italian National Police, (Arma Carabinieri, Tutela Patrimonio Artistico.) The Italian Police
have recently agreed to lend assistance to UNESCO in regard to their International Blue Shield cultural
patrimony preservation efforts. All will participate in UNESCO ICOM International Conference in Milan.
Immediately thereafter, Curry is participating in the joint pre-ICOM international conference programs of
the International Council on Fine Arts and the International Council on Collections as well as presenting
her paper at the ICOM International Conference in Milan on the conference theme, “Museums and the
Cultural Landscape”. Curry’s paper concerns the loan of the Keir Collection to the Dallas Museum of Art
and the incorporation of the study of the Keir collection into a UT Dallas graduate seminar from the Spring
2016 semester, taught by Dr. Sabiha al Khemir, Distinguished Scholar of Islamic Art in Residence, the Edith
O’Donnell Institute of Art History. The presentation highlights this seminar and how the Keir Collection
resonates with the multi-cultural landscape of Dallas, Texas.
For more information visit: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/agents-of-space
For more information visit: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/agents-of-space
May / June 2016
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May / June 2016
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CentralTrak Celebrates 10 Years with Gifts
Don’t forget to visit EODIAH’s website for all the latest news and events!
Two major gifts to CentralTrak were announced during the institution’s
10-year anniversary celebration April 11 as the UTD artists residency was
honored for its significant cultural contributions to the city of Dallas.
To support the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History,
please call Lucy Buchanan, Director of Development at
972-883-2472 or e-mail [email protected]
Dallas philanthropists Ruthie and Jay Pack have given CentralTrak a
$50,000 gift matched by the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History. “With the
impetus of our planned MA in art history and our interest in curatorial studies,
the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History is partnering with the Packs to
provide a new cash infusion to CentralTrak’s budget,” said
Dr. Richard Brettell.
The University of Texas at Dallas
800 West Campbell Road, ATC 11
Richardson, TX 75080
Telephone: 972-883-2475
During the celebration, Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings honored both
Brettell and CentralTrak with a proclamation for their contributions to the
artistic spirit of the city. “The most unique quality of CentralTrak is that we
are hosting and facilitating the creative practice of living artists,” CentralTrak
director Heyd Fontenot said.
Top: Dr. Richard Brettell with City of Dallas
Mayor ​​Michael S. Rawlings​​ (R-L)
Connections and Collaborations in Texas and Beyond
This Spring offered opportunities to connect with colleagues at institutions in Texas and beyond. From UT
Austin, Professors Joan Holladay, Jeffrey Chipps Smith, and John Clarke traveled to Dallas to participate in our
symposium Diptychs, Triptychs and Polyptychs, from the Middle Ages to Modernity. We were also honored
to welcome to the symposium Professor Anthony Cutler from Penn State. At the end of April, we traveled
with a group of O’Donnell Fellows to Houston, where we met with colleagues at University of Houston, Rice
University, Glassell School of Art, MFA Houston, Project Row Houses, and the Menil. Highlights were studio
visits with artists- and critics-in-residence in the Core Program at Glassell, a visit to the Menil’s “treasure
rooms,” and the opening of Mark Flood: Gratest Hits at Contemporary Art
Museum Houston.
We were all energized and inspired by our conversations with Houston colleagues, and
we’ve already begun to discuss how we might collaborate in the future—potentially in
a series of annual scholars’ days hosted each year by a different Texas collection and
partner university. Farther afield, we are working with Sylvain Bellenger, director of
the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, to develop a partnership between the O’Donnell
Institute and the Capodimonte to support research that envisions a new history of art
across geographical boundaries, with particular focus on the cultural histories of port
cities, the mobilities of artworks, and the history and practice of art conservation. Stay
tuned for news of these working projects as they unfold!
Dallas Museum of Art:
Our research center at the Dallas Museum of Art is
adjacent to the Mildred R. and Frederick M. Mayer
Library.
Field Reports
Bottom: Jay Pack, Heyd Fontenot, Dr. Rich“This is such an important mission. We aren’t supporting the arts in some
ard Brettell (R-L)
vague sense; we are supporting the actual creation of art. Art literally comes
out of our doors. It is a workshop, a laboratory and a creative space like no other
in North Texas. It’s vital to artists, and it makes Dallas and UTD true champions of the arts.”
May / June 2016
UTD Office:
The main office of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of
Art History is located in the Edith O’Donnell Arts
and Technology Building at the University of Texas
at Dallas, Suite ATC 2.800.
of Art History
Emerging from the Treasure
Room at the Menil Collection
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Bon Voyage
Suspended Power has temporarily left the DMA, but we are exceptionally proud to say
farewell. The painting by Charles Sheeler is part of a series commissioned by Fortune
Magazine in 1938 to display the industrial prowess of the United States. The first stop on the
works grand journey is the Art Institute of Chicago where it will be featured in the exhibition
America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s. After its stint in Illinois it will travel to Musée
d’Orsay in Paris and finally conclude its adventure in 2017 at the Royal Academy of Arts in
London before returning home again.
Charles Sheeler, Suspended
Power, 1939, oil on canvas,
Dallas Museum of Art, gift
of Edmund J. Kahn (image
courtesy of DMA)
Seasonal Rotation
March featured a rotation of a few pieces from the Keir Collection of Islamic Art in the
Spirit and Matter exhibition. Among the new pieces selected by Dr. Sabiha Al Khemir
for display is a drinking vessel in the shape of a seated lioness. This is a rare piece that
has survived intact from the 12th-13th century. It is decorated with strokes of vivid
luster that shimmer like gold against a deep blue glaze. New metalwork pieces show a
modernity of form such as a 9th-10th century jug with a feline head protruding from
its handle and peeking inside the jug, or a 14th century casket that must have held
precious items, itself displaying a richness of silver inlaid decoration.
The choice of the new objects retains the musicality and harmony that was originally
sought in Spirit and Matter, while at the same time augmenting its informative and
educational texture. The objects that have been replaced are among the loan
that was granted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York, for their current exhibition, Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs.
May / June 2016 Figurine of a Seated Lioness, 12th13th century, ceramic, The Keir
Collection of Islamic Art on loan
to the Dallas Museum of Art
(image courtesy of DMA)
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Ancient Time Travel
Rare Jackson Pollock Sculpture Acquired by Dallas
Museum of Art
There is something so undeniably intriguing about ancient
Greece and Rome that even time cannot diminish our
curiosity. To satisfy our interest, we assembled Visions of
Antiquity in the Eighteenth Century, a collection of works
on paper now on view in the European art second floor
gallery.
The exhibition hearkens back to an equally inquisitive
Europe after the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum were
discovered in 1738. Aristocrats of the time became so
infatuated and fixated with the archeological wonders that
illustrations of the findings, reproductions of frescoes,
picturesque landscapes, and images of antique statuary
circulated throughout Europe at an unprecedented rate.
Work Is One of Only Six Extant Sculptures Created by Abstract Expressionist
Master
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, View of the upper storey of the Cages for
Wild Animals built by the Emperor Domitian, associated with the Flian
Amphitheater and commonly called the Curia Hostilia, c. 1760-1778,
Etching, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts, The Alfred
and Juanita Bromberg Collection, bequest of Juanita K. Bromberg
(image courtesy of DMA)
Interestingly, among the treasures on view are prints by
Giovanni Battista Piranesi that were widely collected by
gentlemen on their Grand Tour of the Italian ruins. To date, only nine of the 18 works have ever been on
view at the Dallas Museum of Art, and those that have been, have not been seen in some cases in over two
decades. This captivating glimpse into the art that paved the way for a re-awakening in classical era Europe
and that fueled a phenomenon will be on view until October 23, 2016.
During April’s Dallas Art Fair, the Dallas Museum of Art
was the recipient of the inaugural Dallas Art Fair Foundation
Acquisition Program. The program, with $50,000 generously
funded by Tricia and Gil Besing, Linda and David Rogers,
Susan and Shawn Bonsell, Gowri and Alex N.K. Sharma,
and Marlene and John Sughrue, and The Dallas Art Fair
Foundation, provided the Dallas Museum of Art with the
means to acquire work by artists exhibited at the annual Dallas
Art Fair.
The sculpture was acquired by the DMA from the Tony Smith Estate, with support from The Gayle and Paul
Stoffel Fund for Contemporary Art Acquisition. Untitled becomes the third Pollock work to enter the DMA’s
modern and contemporary holdings, which also include the highly regarded paintings Cathedral (1947) and
Portrait and a Dream (1953).
Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Tunisian Americans, 2012, courtesy the artist
and Lawrie Shabibi, photo credit: Musthafa Aboobaker
(image courtesy of DMA)
“This new collecting initiative will blend patron, public institution and fair. It is a meaningful way to
encourage the DMA to look in new directions, inspired by the work on display. In addition it is a great way
to encourage exhibitors to bring and present work of museum quality.”
May / June 2016
Primarily known for his iconic “drip” paintings, Pollock produced more than a dozen sculptures over the
course of his career, many of which were later lost or destroyed by the artist himself. The surviving sculptures
reflect Pollock’s distinctive aesthetic and inform a greater understanding of the experimental, almost
improvisatory approach that characterized his practice. Rarely exhibited during his lifetime, Untitled (1956)
seems to precede the aesthetic sensibility variously known as Anti-Form, Post-Minimalism, or Process art,
which would be carried out in the following generations by artists such as Eva Hesse, Richard Serra, Bruce
Nauman and others.
The acquisition is one of two extant sculptures that Pollock created in the summer of 1956, while he was
staying at the home of his friend and contemporary Tony Smith. Struggling with depression and unable to
paint, Pollock produced over the course of a single weekend a series of vivid abstract sculptures composed of
sand, plaster, wire and gauze. These sculptures are believed to be Pollock’s last completed works prior to his
death in a car accident at the age of 44.
Fair Play
DMA senior curator Gavin Delahunty chose nine works
by four international artists Michelle Grabner, Nadia
Kaabi-Linke, Merlin James, and Lina Puerta.
Images: Untitled, 1956, on view with Yellow Islands, 1952,
The Dallas Museum of Art has acquired one of Jackson Pollock’s
in Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, Dallas Museum of Art 2016;
only existing sculptures, a work that offers unique insight into the
Jackson Pollock, Untitled, 1956, plaster, sand, gauze and
artist’s creative trajectory. Created just weeks before Pollock’s death, wire, Dallas Museum of Art, Gayle and Paul Stoffel Fund
for Contemporary Art Acquisition. Photo: Tony Smith
Untitled (1956) is one of just six of the artist’s sculptures in
Estate, courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery
existence, all but one of which are currently held in private
collections. The sculpture received a rare public presentation in the
DMA’s celebrated exhibition Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, only the third major U.S. museum exhibition to
focus solely on the artist and the largest-ever survey of Pollock’s black paintings.
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“The DMA has long played an important role in showcasing the legacy of Jackson Pollock, from becoming
one of the first American museums to acquire his paintings to being the first in nearly 50 years to exhibit his
influential black paintings series,” said the DMA’s Interim Director Walter Elcock. “We are deeply grateful to
Gayle and Paul Stoffel for their support of this acquisition, which makes the DMA one of only two museums
in the world to hold a portion of Pollock’s surviving work as a sculptor.”
“Even as his work as a painter transformed the landscape of 20th-century art, Jackson Pollock repeatedly
returned to sculpture throughout his career as a means of investigating the liberating qualities of nontraditional forms and materials,” said Gavin Delahunty, the DMA’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of
Contemporary Art. “The receipt of this rarely exhibited work into our collection represents a perfect
capstone to our ongoing exhibition of Pollock’s black paintings series, itself a step toward our understanding
of another under-examined vein in the artist’s practice.”
May / June 2016
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Exhibitions
Exhibition Highlight
Irving Penn:
Beyond Beauty
Exhibitions
At the Dallas Musuem of Art
On view through August 14, 2016
Irving Penn, Truman Capote, New York, 1979, printed 1983, Smithsonian American
Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © The Irving Penn
Foundation
Irving Penn, Bee, New York, 1995, printed 2001, Smithsonian American Art
Museum, Promised gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © The Irving
Penn Foundation
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the first
retrospective of Penn’s work in nearly twenty years. The exhibition presents over 140 photographs
including iconic images from his oeuvre as well as previously unseen or never exhibited photographs.
Irving Penn (1917–2009) is one of the best-known American photographers of the 20th century. In
a career that spanned almost seventy years, Penn worked on professional and artistic projects across
multiple genres. He was a master of both black-and-white and color photography, and he was key to the
revival of platinum printing in the 1960s and 1970s.
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LOCATION
MUSEUM HOURS
Dallas Museum of Art
1717 North Harwood
Dallas, Texas 75201
214-922-1200
www.dma.org
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Thursday: 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.
Friday*: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Saturday: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Sunday: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Special exhibition admission is $16.
Seniors (65+): $14
Military with Military ID: $14
Students with school ID: $12
DMA Members: FREE
Children 11 and under: FREE
May / June 2016
Issue 9 SOLILOQUY: Trenton Doyle Hancock
Opened April 16
The Public Trust
Jaq Belcher and Erin Stafford
April 16-May 21, 2016
Kirk Hopper
Hidden Histories
May 7, 2016
Reading Room
CHANCE, MFA show by Bradley Cruse
May 23 - June 6
CentralTrak
Sebastiaan Bremer: Recording Studio A
Closes May 7
TCU Moudy Gallery
Modern Opulence in Vienna: The
Wittgenstein Vitrine
Nov. 15, 2015 – May 29, 2016
Conservation Gallery
DMA
Thomas Menikos: (TERRA)
May 7 - 28
Ro2 Art
Deborah Ballard and Gail Norfleet
Opens May 14
Valley House
RACHEL LIVEDALEN
May 14 - June 11
Erin Cluley
Between Paris and Texas: Marie Cronin,
Portraitist of the Belle Époque
Through Jun. 5, 2016
Meadows
Susie Phillips
May 14 - June 25
Conduit
Process and Innovation: Carlotta
Corpron and Janet Turner
Through Jun. 5, 2016
Meadows
Girls Just Wanna (all female show)
Opens May 14
Galleri Urbane Dallas
STUART ALLEN: BUBBLE
April 30 - June 18
PDNB
Maysey Craddock – Lost Bay
Opens May 14
Cris Worley Fine Arts
Salvador Dalí: An Early Surrealist
Masterpiece
Through Jun. 19, 2016
Meadows
Optimistic Storm, Roy Tamboli
Opens May 14
Mary Tomás Gallery
MANMADE
April 2 - June 11
Holly Johnson
Group show
May 14 - June 18
Craighead Green Gallery
Page 12
Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis
June 4–August 21, 2016
Amon Carter
May / June 2016 Sightings: Mai-Thu Perret
March 12 - July 17
Nasher
Rebecca Warren: The Main Feeling
March 13, 2016 – July 17, 2016
Hoffman Galleries
DMA
Spirit and Matter: Masterpieces from
the Keir Collection of Islamic Art
Sept. 18, 2015 – July 31, 2016
DMA
Discarded: Photographs by Anthony
Hernandez
March 5, 2016–August 7, 2016
Amon Carter
Works from the Fichtenbaum
Collection
March 13, 2016 – August 7, 2016
DMA
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty
April 15 – August 14, 2016
DMA
Protecting Wisdom: Tibetan Book
Covers from the MacLean Collection
April 2 - Aug 14
Crow
The Divine Feminine in Tibetan
Esoteric Buddhism
April 30 -Aug 14
Crow
Vermeer Suite: Music in 17th-Century
Dutch Painting
Jan 17 - Aug 21, 2016
DMA
FRANK STELLA: A RETROSPECTIVE
April 17, 2016 - Sep 18, 2016
The Modern
Identity
April 30, 2016–Sep 18, 2016
Amon Carter
Visions of Antiquity in the 18th
Century
Through October 23, 2016
DMA
Sam Francis: Prints
August 6, 2016–February 7, 2017
Amon Carter
Passages in Modern Art: 1946 – 1996
March 13, 2016 to May 28, 2017
Barrel Vault and Hanley, Lamont,
Rachofsky, and Stoffel Galleries
DMA
Issue 9
Page 13
Events, & Upcoming Lectures
Lectures
Events
Tibetan Buddhist Monks Residency
at the Crow Collection of Asian Art
Saturday, April 30 – Saturday, May 7
Meditation with the Monks
Sunday, May 1, 2:00 pm
Lecture with Monks from Drepung
Loseling Monastery: “Opening the
Heart: Arousing the Mind of Universal
Kindness”
May 3, 7:00 pm
Tea and Lecture with Monks from
Drepung Loseling Monastery: “Tibet
Today: History of a Diaspora”
May 4, Noon
Closing Ceremony
Saturday, May 7, 3:00 pm
Crow
Trivia Night
June 30, 6 p.m.
Amon Carter
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
July 1, 8:30 p.m.
Amon Carter
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
July 15, 8:30 p.m.
Amon Carter
Asian Art 101: Southeast Asia by Dr.
Gardner Harris
May 5, 6:30-8:00 pm
Crow
Shopping for Art on Bond Street:
The Rise of the Modern London Art
Market
May 11, 12:30 pm
Anne Helmreich, Dean, College of Fine
Arts, TCU
Kimbell
CentralTrak tête-à-tête with Erica
Stephens
May 19, 7:00 pm
CentralTrak
SYMPOSIUM: The Brothers Le Nain:
Painters of Seventeenth-Century
France
May 21, 10:15 am–1 pm
C. D. Dickerson, curator and head of
sculpture and decorative arts, National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Esther Bell, curator in charge of
European paintings at the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco
Claire Barry, director of conservation,
Kimbell Art Museum
Kimbell
The Brothers Le Nain and Modern
Art
June 10, 6:00 pm
Emerson Bowyer, independent
scholar, New York
Kimbell
I Don’t Get It: Untangling Abstract
Expressionism
June 16, 6:30 p.m.
Amon Carter
Arthur Dove’s Thunder Shower
(1940)
June 25, 10:30 a.m.
Amon Carter
Asian Art 101: Korean Art by
Jinyoung Jin
July 7, 6:30-8:00 pm
Crow
Asian Art 101: Confucianism,
Daoism and Art by Dr. George
James
August 4, 6:30-8:00 pm
Crow
Asian Art 101: Figure and Landscape
by Dr. Caron Smith
June 2, 6:30-8:00 pm
Crow
To Kill a Mockingbird
July 29, 8:30 p.m.
Amon Carter
Tibetan Book Covers: An Unexplored
Area of Art by Dr. Kathryn Selig
Brown
June 9, 7:00 pm
Crow
Newsletter produced by Katrina Saunders, Research Assistant, EODIAH
May / June 2016
Issue 9
Page 14