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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2009
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THE JUSTICE
THE JUSTICE
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2009
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The museum vault, opened wide By ANDREA FINEMAN JUSTICE EDITOR
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
MIXED MEDIA: Above, ‘Stave’ by Jenny Holzer (2008) incorporates text from government documents. Said Jedrzejczak, “The Foster Gallery is Abstract Expressionism to start off and branches into pop art, photorealism, minimalism. ... We’re showing video work as well.” Below, ‘Stave’ is reflected in a mirror of ‘Double Red Bathroom’ by Jim Dine (1962).
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
THE SPIRIT OF THE ’60s: Handlers hang ‘Rodado’ by James Brooks (1961) beside Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Second Time Painting’ (1961). The Rose acquired these works in 1962 with money from the Gevirtz-Mnuchin Fund.
Coinciding with tomorrow’s exhibition opening celebration is the recent release of The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, a catalog of the museum’s most illustrious holdings in the permanent collection. The book, which became available on Oct. 1, is the result of a two-year process of reviewing the collection, writing original essays and short descriptions of the work and preparing it for press. Ann Tanenbaum ’66, a member of the Rose Board of Overseers and a former employee of Abrams Books, the publishing company that handled the book’s release, helped bring the project from idea to fruition. “The idea came to me because of my lifetime career in book publishing and in thinking about being an overseer of the Rose and how important the collection is. … It seemed like a perfect circle to talk to them about publishing a book [and] to talk to Harry Abrams about publishing a book on the collection of the museum,” said Tanenbaum. “I knew that this would be wonderful publicity for the museum and for Brandeis and would also spread the word of the great collection and be an invaluable development mechanism as well, and of course be a magnificent book.” Over the past two years, Tanenbaum, as well as former Rose director Michael Rush, Rose Director Roy Dawes, former Assistant Curator Adelina Jedrzejczak and Profs. Peter Kalb (FA) and Nancy Scott (FA), as well as other art historians and alumni have contributed to the effort by choosing and refining the list of works to be included in the book, writing essays and catalog entries and preparing the book for printing. Said Dawes, “Adelina was really the driving force, and she was the point person for all of this. … Along with Michael Rush, we were making decisions as to what was going to be in the catalog, and so we came up with a large list of sort of the ‘best of’ the collection and we whittled that down to a reasonable number [of works].”
The catalog was almost finished by the time of the Jan. 26 Board of Trustees decision to authorize the sale of works from the collection. Yet the catalog’s appearance now, while the museum’s collection remains in something of a limbo state due to ongoing legal proceedings between the University and a group of Rose benefactors, presents something of a paradox. “When after Jan. 26 Abrams contacted me because they were concerned about whether or not we wanted to continue with the project. … I consulted with the president and others about [whether we] should continue with this, and everyone said, ‘Absolutely.’ We had a lot of people who had already done a lot of work in terms of writing essays, the selection of the art that would go into the catalog. … It was a big project, and we thought it’s an exciting project, so we decided to go ahead with it,” said Provost Marty Krauss. Most of the people interviewed for this article saw the Rose catalog as a positive expression of the museum’s brilliant collection during this uncertain time. Kim Rorschach ’78, who contributed written work for the catalog, said “Since the January debacle, I’d say the role of the catalog has expanded. It will still serve to make the collection known to a broader public, which will be very impressed by the quality and breadth of the collection. The catalog will also demonstrate the tremendous educational, scholarly and artistic value of the collection, and readers will draw their own conclusions about the wisdom of the University’s January decision to sell it.” Rorschach, who has held the office of curator and director at two university art museums and is currently director at the Nasher Museum at Duke University, continued: “I cannot predict how others will react, but it seems to me a very good and hopeful sign that the University has moved forward with publication, and a positive response will hopefully discourage the University from further thoughts of selling the collection for general budget relief.” The catalog’s contributors uni-
IMAGE COURTESY OF SCOTT EDMISTON
WORKS ON PAPER: ‘The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis’ came out Oct 1. formly praised the work of their colleagues in creating the final product. “Regardless of what happens with the future of the Rose and its beloved collection, this magnificent book will remain as a testimony to the wisdom, generosity and sense of adventure of all those connected to the creation of this unique collection,” said Rush. “I am so honored and proud to be a part of such an important publication,” said Helene Lowenfels ’05. “I must give thanks to my beloved professor, Nancy Scott, who suggested to the former Rose curator that I participate in the project. … The Rose graciously provided me with archival information about how the pieces came to the museum, what exhibitions they had been included in on campus and where they hang today. Having spent so much of my time as an undergraduate at the museum, the entire experience was very meaningful for me.” “University art museums provide a key component of a liberal education, as they did for me, and can also provide formative job training for students in art history and related fields as well as a great site for interdisciplinary learning and interaction,” said Rorschach. “My experiences at the Rose were invaluable and indeed made me who I am today.”
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
Rose will welcome back art lovers Show is perhaps most extensive ever By ANDREA FINEMAN JUSTICE EDITOR
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
SUN GOING UP: A Rose worker prepares to hang ‘Rising’ by Adolph Gottlieb, which was purchased by former Rose Art Museum director Sam Hunter.
Coinciding this month with the release of The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, a catalog of the museum’s choicest holdings, Director Roy Dawes and former Rose Assistant Curator Adelina Jedrzejczak have put together a show of works from the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition marks the first time the museum has presented works solely from the museum’s own collection in all three of the museum’s galleries. Usually, the museum hosts a fall, a spring and a summer exhibition each year. However, since the Board of Trustees’ controversial decision this January, the museum has been less able to organize exhibitions with artists and receive works on loan from other museums. The show, which opens tomorrow, will remain on view until May 23, 2010. Dawes and Jedrzejcak chose works from the collection that would show the breadth and depth of the collection as well as provide an educational resource for students. “That’s something that we were very conscious of; ... doing a service for the stu-
dents and the general public to be able to see a lot of art ... and have the chance to come back and explore. Some of these pieces are some of them are the ones that [Profs.] Nancy Scott (FA) and Peter Kalb (FA) always asked to see in the vault, and now they have a chance to come out,” said Jedrzejczak. The show purports to have an unprecedented number of works on display this year. Said Dawes, “Adelina and I were thinking that it’s going to take folks to come by at least two to three visits to begin to absorb the amount of work [on display], which is a good thing, because it’s going to be up for the rest of the school year. Our last day will be commencement.” Jedrzejczak continued, “I don’t think there’s ever been a time when so much artwork has been shown in this museum. ... What Roy and I are doing ... is this sort of exuberant feeling of celebrating the collection and seeing what’s here and obviously considering the educational value of it but also the visual pleasure, and that’s something that I’m interested in as a curator—for the exhibition to look great.”
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
GEOMETRY: Ellsworth Kelly’s ‘Blue/White,’ (above left) featured prominently in 2008’s ‘Arp to Reinhardt: Rose Geometries,’ curated by Jedrzejczak as well. Pablo Picasso’s ‘Reclining Nude’ (below left) appeared in the ‘Saints and Sinners’ exhibit last year. Said Jedrzejczak, “There are definitely some things [in the show] that have not been seen.” In addition to Kelly and Picasso, the show will feature “Rauschenberg, De Kooning—some of the world’s best examples of art by those artists. But then there are other works by artists like James Brooks and Oscar Hjorn, who are not maybe as appreciated and they're amazing.”
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
JULIAN AGIN-LIEBES/the Justice
A CENTURY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: According to Jedrzejczak, the exhibition is organized “based on the thematical differentiations [from the catalogue], the exception being the downstairs gallery, which will be photography and the photgraphy is ... from all different periods, so it starts with the early Walker Evans and ends with [works] from the last few years.”