The Ringling Magazine | June – September 2012

THE JOHN AND MABLE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART

5401 Bay Shore Road

Sarasota, FL 34243

www.ringling.org

Accredited by the American Association of Museums

Governor

The Honorable Rick Scott

The Florida State University

Dr. Eric J. Barron, President

FSU, College Visual Arts, Theater & Dance

Sally E. McRorie, Dean

Executive Director

Steven High

Board of Directors

Dr. Patrick J. Hennigan*, Chair

Clifford L. Walters, III*, Vice Chair

Michael E. Urette, Treasurer

Michéle D. Redwine*, Secretary

Sara A. Bagley*

Madeleine H. Berman*

Daniel J. Denton

George R. Ellis

Casey Gonzmart

Priscilla M. Greenfield

J. Roderick (Rod) Heller, III

Paul G. Hudson*

Dorothy C. Jenkins

Thomas B. Luzier*

Nancy J. Parrish*

Michael R. Pender, Jr.*

Samuel L. (Bo) Perry, Jr.

Roger C. Pettingell*

T. Marshall Rousseau

Tana V. Sandefur*

Ina L. Schnell*

Barbara J. Siemer*

Les R. Smout

Linda Streit

Howard C. Tibbals*

James B. Tollerton*

Helga M. Wall-Apelt*

Ex-Officio Board Members

Wilmer I. Pearson*, Chair, Volunteer Services Advisory Council

James M. LeTellier*, President, Members Council

Joan Urauga*, President Docent Advisory Council

The intensity of the January through March season in Sarasota, when our population triples and the business of culture is at its highest and most frenetic, was something that I had been warned about before moving here. I wasn’t warned enough! At the Ringling we saw record crowds stream onto our campus, over 50,000 visitors in February alone, exceeding last year’s attendance by 52 percent! Our dedicated visitor service personnel and volunteers managed this increase with grace and humor, and our docents and education staff provided constant attention and insight to our guests as they toured the museums and grounds. My sincerest thanks to all the staff that made great efforts to make sure every visitors’ experience was exceptional. During this fiscal year (which ends in June), we have experienced over a 30 percent growth in attendance from last year and are on track to have our most attended year in our 66-year history.

This past March the Ringling hosted our first international symposium on Peter Paul Rubens in 30 years in celebration of the opening of Peter Paul Rubens: Impressions of a Master. Exhibition curator Virginia Brilliant assembled scholars from North America and Europe to discuss the Eucharist Cycle paintings that are one of the foundations of our Baroque collection. It was an enlightening three days of presentations and discussions highlighted by many new insights into the paintings and tapestries meaning, placement, and use.

In July, we are pleased to open the nationally touring exhibition Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture, 1920 - 1945. This eye-opening exhibition explores a littlestudied and often ignored style in Japanese art between the first and second world wars and is selected from a Florida west coast private collection. It is a beautiful and illuminating collection of objects that helps us to re-imagine the cosmopolitan and international sophistication of Japan’s cultural scene leading up to the Second World War. Deco Japan continues the Ringling’s ongoing focus on Asian art as we proceed with the design of our new Helga Wall-Apelt Center for Asian Art. We are now entering the schematic design phase for the renovation of the southwest wing of the Museum of Art.

This issue of RINGLING features a preview of the fourth annual Ringling International Art Festival (RIAF), packed with powerful performances by New York-based Mark Morris Dance Group, Indian dancer Shantala Shivalingapa, Georgian folk ensemble Basiani, and experimental theater group Pig Iron. Unique to the festival this year will be experimental performances in Joseph’s Coat, our new James Turrell skyspace, and an evocative film series on contemporary performance. There are limited seats available this year, so buy your tickets early and online at ringlingartsfestival.org.

I’ll end this message on a high note, or high wire, highlighting our continued collaboration with Circus Sarasota, one of the great single-ring circuses in North America. This year’s summer circus in our Historic Asolo Theater, created by Circus Sarasota’s legendary leaders, Pedro Reis and Dolly Jacobs, will again bring some of the world’s best circus performers to Sarasota and the Ringling Museum campus. I encourage every member to attend.

On behalf of the board and staff of the Museum, I hope you enjoy this edition of RINGLING.

*Sarasota/Manatee County resident Available

Cover & page3: Artist Unknown, Songbook for “Song of the Milky Way”. (Ginga no uta) from the Shochiku film, Milky Way (Ginga) Courtesy of the Levenson Collection. Support for events in conjunction with this exhibition has been provided by the Toshiba International Foundation.

RINGLING is produced by the Marketing & Communications Department of The John and Mable Ringilng Museum of Art

The Ringling Legacy The Ringling Vision Steven High

RINGLING

4–5 Exhibition Focus: Deco Japan

Learn how the art and culture in Japan shaped this popular design movement.

6–7 Art Around the World

Discover how art is reunited at the Ringling and the pieces from our collection touring the world.

Summer Circus Spectacular

Beat the summer heat in the Historic Asolo Theater and Circus Museum for the annual Summer Circus.

R1–16 Calendar-at-a-Glance

Save the dates. Highlights of estate offerings, exhibitions and programs are featured in this at-a-glance calendar insert.

9–11 Special Event Highlight: Ringling International Arts Festival

Plan your RIAF experience. Tickets are on sale now.

12–13 Art of Our Time: Codex

Journey with Sanford Biggers as he honors the Underground Railroad in his new installation.

14–15 Membership

Be part of art; explore your passion; share your experience; expand your knowledge.

Elayne Kramer—Hand Balance/Contortion

Iriyama Hakuo (Japanese, 1904–1991)

Vase with Geometric Design, c.1930s Courtesy of the Levenson Collection

Mark Morris Dance Group © Katsuyoshi Tanaka

Related programs

ViewPoint: Delirious Japan: Japanese Deco in War and Peace

Thursday, July 12, 7:00 pm

The Historic Asolo Theater

Kendall Brown, Professor of Asian Art History, California State University at Long Beach, Exhibition Organizer. (see page R11 for details)

Art & Movie

Join us for a self-directed gallery tour followed by a film and discussion of themes shared by the art and Deco Japan the film. Pick up your movie ticket and gallery guide beginning at 5:00pm. Film begins at 7:00 pm. (see page R12–13 for details)

August 9, Fallen Women

The tension between old and new, film Sisters of the Gion.

August 23, Modern Life

The modern moment is reflected in films, Kodakara Sodo (Kid Commotion) and Koshiben Gambare (Flunky, Work Hard!).

Gallery Walk & Talk:

July 26, 6:00 pm

A Global Phenomena: Art Deco East and West (see page R10 for details)

September 20, 6:00 pm

Meet Moga, The Modern Girl (see page R15 for details)

ViewPoint: The Culture of Objects: DecoJapan

Thursday, October, 25, 7:00 pm

“UNKNOWN” ARTISTS OF RENOWN

Dr. Benita Stambler Asian Art Coordinator

The Ringling’s special summer exhibition, Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture 1920–1945, dazzles with the sheer number and quality of decorative Japanese arts of this period. Art Deco was the first global design movement, but it is usually viewed as a mostly European and American phenomenon. Not so, as we see in this exhibition. According to Bob Levenson, the owner who amassed this collection, ”Japanese Art Deco is not only virtually unknown in the US, it is barely recognized as an art movement in Japan.” In their day, though, some of the artists featured in this exhibition were quite important, in Japan and elsewhere throughout the world. Two artists whose works are featured in the exhibition are highlighted below. Both these artists used traditional Japanese materials and motifs but infused them with a new sensibility that signifies their importance in artistic movements of a modern Japan.

Enomoto Chikatoshi (1898–1973) was a Japanese painter and printmaker famous for his studies of beautiful women. A graduate of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he frequently exhibited his work in Japan and the U.S. His works are featured in the collections of such major museums as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art. Beautiful women were a traditional subject in Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (1603–1868), where they were often shown dressed in traditional kimono and presenting a rather shy demeanor.

Chikatoshi’s women, in contrast, are seen in new milieus, acting in a most modern fashion. Among his works in

this exhibition are panels and screens of women skiing, viewing fish in an aquarium and even waiting for customers in dancehalls. As a fledgling sport in Japan, skiing provided Japanese women with fresh air, exercise and a new sense of freedom. Dressed in a ski pantsuit, wearing lipstick and curled hair, this young woman (right) is certainly modern. The background shimmers with silver leaf and powdered shell, another special technique employed by Chikatoshi, reflecting the twinkling and glistening of falling snow.

Tsuda Shinobu (1875–1946) was one of the foremost metal artists of his period. As a professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he was a major influence on many of the metal artists whose works are featured in the Deco Japan exhibition. After he returned from Europe, where he had been sent to study metalwork, Tsuda was instrumental in founding a group of Japanese artists dedicated to creating art and design based on fresh modes of thinking. He was commended by the French government for his contributions to art, which included serving as a juror for the 1925 International Exposition in Paris. Tsuda’s roaring lion (upper left) begins with the depiction of a traditional Chinese mythical lion, a frequent guardian figure. Here, however, the significance is turned against itself. The object’s title, Deluded Demons Run Away, refers to the Chinese, who had just become enemies of Japan in its quest for Asian domination. The lion’s aggressive stance, pointed mane and assumed roar signify Japan’s new militant attitude.

Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture

1920–1945 will be on view in the Searing Wing from July 13–October 28, 2012. Paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues.

Tsuda Shinobu (1875–1946). DeludedDemonsRunAway(RoaringLion Sculpture)(Kimitohoku) 1938

Members Only After Hours

Exhibition Opening of Deco Japan: Shaping Modern Culture

July 12th 5:00–7:00 pm

Searing Wing Loggia

Join fellow Members and be the first to see the special exhibition.

Light Bites and cash bar.

Open to all Ringling Museum members. No RSVP required. Members may bring complimentary guests based on their membership guest benefit.

Call 941.360.7332 for information about this event.

Enomoto Chikatishi (1898–1973). YoungWomenAdjustingHerSkis (detail), c. late 1930s Panel Courtesy of the Levenson Collection. Support for events in conjunction with this exhibition has been provided by the Toshiba International Foundation.

PAINTINGS REUNITED AT THE RINGLING MUSEUM

Dr. Virginia Brilliant Associate Curator of European Art

Many of the world’s most iconic paintings were originally conceived in pairs or sets and have been separated since their creation.

The Ringling’s collection contains many such works. Just think of our portraits of Pieter Olycan by Frans Hals and Francesco Franceschini by Paolo Veronese, whose wives live, respectively, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Pinacoteca di Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza, the gold ground panel paintings in Gallery 4 which are but fragments chopped from larger altarpieces, or even our enormous paintings by Rubens from the Eucharist series, which show only five scenes from a cycle of twenty works. Opportunities to remedy such situations are few and far between, so when one comes along, we have to seize it!

As many members will know, the Ringling owns a series of paintings called the Misadventures of Harlequin, created by the 18th century Florentine master Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (1692–1768). The museum’s first director, A. Everett “Chick” Austin, purchased the works to decorate the lobby of the Asolo Theater that he had acquired for the Museum in 1950. All fifteen paintings came from the collection of the famous German theatre director Max Reinhardt (1873–1943) at Schloss Leopoldskron, near Salzburg. Yet the series had originally been conceived as sixteen canvases. Reinhardt had owned them all, but for some reason, one simply did not come to Florida in the 1950s. This painting, the series’ missing piece, was recently brought to my attention as being on the art market in

Europe. When it was sent out on approval to the Museum, we were thrilled to see that the work was in beautiful condition. The Ringling has purchased the work, and soon it will be brought together with its brothers (now installed in Gallery 16), allowing visitors to appreciate Feretti’s series fully and completely, the way the

artist intended.

Ferretti’s set of paintings is rooted in the commedia dell’arte, a theatrical form characterized by improvised dialogue and a cast of colorful stock characters that emerged in northern Italy in the 15th century and rapidly gained popularity throughout Europe. The zanni (servants)

Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (Italian, 1692–1768). Arlecchino (Buffoon) from the Misadventures of Harlequin Series, 18th century. Museum Purchase, 2012.

RINGLING AROUND THE WORLD

Works from the Ringling Museum can be enjoyed in exhibitions all over the world in 2012. From Daytona Beach and New York to Rimini and Paris visitors can enjoy the treasures of the Ringling!

Pop Art: Sources and Context

Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida

September 29, 2012–January 2, 2013

Raffaello verso Picasso

Basillica Palladiana, Vincenza, Italy

October 6, 2012–January 20, 2013

Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona, Italy

February 2–April 1, 2013

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

September 18, 2012–January 13, 2013

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

February 19–May 27, 2013

The Art Institute of Chicago

June 30–September 22, 2013

Also on view:

Bohemes

Galeries Nationals, Grand Palais, Paris

September 24, 2012–January 6, 2013

Fondation culturelle mapfre, Madrid

January 29–April 28, 2013

Caravaggio and the European Caravaggism

Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France

June 22–October 14, 2012

Old Master Drawings

Museum of Arts & Sciences, Daytona Beach

November 16, 2012 to February 10, 2013

World of Shoes

Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois

September 4, 2012–February 10, 2013

were the most important characters, as their antics and intrigues decided the fate of all the others, from the frustrated lovers to the disagreeable elders. Best known of these is the poor man Harlequin. A brilliant acrobat, Harlequin is also gluttonous, illiterate, and gullible. His diamond-patterned costume suggests that he is wearing patchwork, a sign of his poverty; his mask is either speckled with warts or shaped like the face of a monkey, cat, or pig, and he often carries a batacchio, or slapstick. His paramour is Harlequina, a clever and coquettish maidservant who also typically wears patchwork garments.

The Draw of the Normandy Coast

Portland Museum of Art, Portland Maine

June 14–Sept. 2, 2012

Circus and the City

Bard Graduate Center, New York, NY

September 13, 2012–February 3, 2013

Giovanni Domenico Ferretti was famous for his harlequinades, or series showing the misadventures of Harlequin. The painter’s interest in the commedia dell’arte was encouraged by his cousin Anton Francesco Gori, an active member of the Accademia del Vangelista, a society for lovers of dramatic art in Florence. In 1742, the Venetian Carlo Goldoni, the most famous Italian playwright of the day, visited Florence. It was perhaps thanks to his influence—he often employed Harlequin as a subject in his comedies—that the Academy and its members began to commission Harlequinades from Ferretti.

Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and his Muses

The Jewish Museum, NYC

May 4–September 23, 2012

Rembrandt Paintings in America

Minneapolis Institute of Art

June 2012–September 2012

In the Ringling’s new painting, Harlequin is portrayed with the usual black mask and patchwork garments in primary colors while Harlequina wears a patchwork dress in pastel shades and sports a jaunty feathered fascinator atop her blonde curls and braids. The exaggerated dimensions of the child no doubt reflect the artist’s wish to ridicule the excessive paternal solicitude on the part of his father Harlequin, determined to stuff his son with maccheroni even before he is out of the cradle.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, Spanish, 1599–1660. Philip IV, King of Spain, circa 1625–1635. SN336. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936

Alfred Stevens, Belgian, 1828–1906. Eva Gonzales at the Piano, 1879. SN438. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936

Jasper Johns, American 1930–Ale Cans V, 1975. MF77.7. Foundation purchase with matching funds provided by Mrs. William Cox, 1977

SUMMER CIRCUS SPECTACULAR 2012

June 19 – July 28, Tuesday – Friday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. (no performances on July 4) $10 for children age 12 and under; $15 for adults. Historic Asolo Theater Box Office: 941.360.7399 or online at www.ringling.org

Dwight Currie, Associate Director, Exhibitions & Programs

For six glorious weeks in June and July, the entire spectrum of the Ringling legacy is on full display when the curtain goes up on the annual Summer Circus Spectacular at the Historic Asolo Theater. Where else besides the Ringling can you see great masterworks of art, explore the grandeur of a gilded-age palazzo, revisit the golden age of the American circus, and thrill to the artistry of international circus performers presented live, onstage in an authentic 18th-century Italian palace theater? Presented each year in collaboration with our good friends at Circus Sarasota, the Summer Circus Spectacular provides delightful—and affordable—summer entertainment for “children of all ages.” Serving as Master of Ceremonies for 2012 will be the Emmy-Award winning, forty-year circus veteran, Steve Smith. In addition to performing and directing with the Ringling Bros and Barnum &

Bailey Circus and co-directing the 2008 production of the Big Apple Circus, Steve Smith served for ten years as the Dean of the Ringling Clown College, was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1993, and has circled the globe as a performer, director, producer, and teacher. Steve’s good humor and quick wit will be matched by the Chaplinesque clowning of the irrepressible Renaldo, who has delighted audiences around the world with the Big Apple Circus, the Royal Hanneford Circus, the Garden Bros. Circus of Canada, Zippo’s Circus of England, and, of course, Circus Sarasota.

Once again—soaring high overhead—will be the magnificent Queen of the Air, Dolly Jacobs. Born to circus royalty (her father was the celebrated clown, Lou Jacobs) right here in Sarasota (a graduate of Sarasota High and the Sailor Circus), Dolly followed in her father’s footsteps and made her debut as an aerialist with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. She was later awarded a solo spot above the center ring of The Greatest Show On Earth. Dolly went on to join the Big Apple

Circus and received the prestigious Silver Clown award at the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo. In 1997, with husband Pedro Reis, Dolly cofounded Circus Sarasota, an organization devoted to teaching circus arts and celebrating Sarasota’s rich circus heritage through high-quality circus performances.

Back on earth and at center stage will be the magically mesmerizing and awardwinning contortionist, Princess Elayne. As one of the most sought after circus artists in the world, Elayne draws you into an enchanted, mysterious world where the impossible happens—she is best known for her ability to shoot an arrow with her feet. And speaking of feats of feet, the astonishing Poema family will dazzle and delight the audience with their risky acts of Risley—also known as “foot juggling.” At press time, our impresario Pedro Reis was securing the talents of yet another great circus act, but the identify of that exciting addition to the show will have to come in a later communication. In the meantime, plan now to join us for an hour of affordable family fun at the Ringling!

The Poema Family

Rafael the Juggler

Dolly Jacobs Elayne Kramer—Hand Balance/Contortion

If you attend the Summer Circus Show’s daytime performances you may see the Circus Museum before or after the performance for an additional $5 per person!

THU, OCT 11: 5:00

FRI, OCT 12: 8:00

SAT, OCT 13: 2:00

MERTZ THEATRE

Tickets: $50/$40/$30

Opening Night “RIAF Inspires” an intimate and elegent evening with the Mark Morris Dance Group

Wednesday, October 10. For more information call 941.360.7399

“Whether the effect is joyful, bombastic or as quiet as can be, the connective tissue is rhythm: the way a melody might hook its way into a foot and lengthen out through the opposite shoulder. Mark Morris finds ways to make bodies sing all the notes, not just the high ones.”

—The New York Times

Internationally hailed for its ingenuity, humor, and commitment to eclectic live music, the Mark Morris Dance Group is one of the world’s leading dance companies, performing across US and at major festivals around the globe. (75 minutes)

Ensemble Basiani Folk Ensemble of the Georgian Patriarchy

THU, OCT 11: 5:00

FRI, OCT 12: 8:00

SAT, OCT 13: 2:00

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

Tickets: $45/$35/$25

“… wild, primeval folk songs interspersed with the gentler harmonies of lyric songs … exquisitely rendered. A gripping performance.”

—The New York Times

From the Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral choir in the Basiani region of Georgia come the polyphonic harmonies and complex rhythmic patterns of traditional folk music and chants that sound like the work of modern-day experimental composers. (60 minutes)

Pig Iron Theatre Co. with Toshiki Okada Minister of Mascots

THU, OCT 11: 8:00

FRI, OCT 12: 2:00

FRI, OCT 12: 8:00

SAT, OCT 13: 5:00

COOK THEATRE

Tickets: $45/$35

—The New York Times

The OBIE Award-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company and Chelfitsch’s Toshiki Okada collaborate on a new work of contemporary performance about re-reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, moving out of Tokyo, and a national scandal. A funny, elusive, unusual work of autobiography. (approximately 80 Minutes)

Mark Morris Dance Group with MMDG Music Ensemble

“Absurd, unbalancing and exhilarating”

Shantala Shivalingappa

Shiva Ganga

THU, OCT 11: 8:00

FRI, OCT 12: 5:00

SAT, OCT 13: 5:00

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER

Tickets: $45/$35/$25

“Not all standing ovations are created equal … There are times when an audience surges to its feet as one, radiating a grateful joy … Shantala Shivalingappa and her marvelous musicians received one on Sunday.”

—The New York Times

Born in India and reared in Paris, Shantala Shivalingappa dances in the classical Southern Indian tradition of third-century B.C. Kuchipudi, marrying a fierce precision with sensual flowing lines and deft intricate footwork. (60 minutes)

RIAF: The Last Night, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

SAT, OCT 13: 6:30

“Twenty-five years from its New Orleans debut, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band continues to be a national treasure: steeped in both the past and the present, impossible to categorize, and mighty funky.”

—The New York Times

Join us in the Museum of Art Courtyard to raise a toast to RIAF 2012 and bid a fond adieu to our artists. Featuring the worldfamous New Orleans music machine, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, whose name is synonymous with genre-bending romps and highoctane performances.

www.RinglingArtsFestival.org

Film: Carmen and Geoffrey

THU, OCT 11: 2:00

HISTORIC ASOLO

THEATER

Tickets: $10

Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, two living legends of American dance, are the subjects of this documentary by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob. Filmed over several years in the US, Trinidad and Paris, the film features interviews and dance performances with Alvin Ailey, Herbert Ross, Lester Horton, Joe Layton, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker. (80 minutes)

Film: Joseph

Brodsky: In the Prison of Latitudes

FRI, OCT 12: 2:00

HISTORIC ASOLO

THEATER

Tickets: $10

Directed by Jan Andrews, this film about Nobel Prizewinning poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky blends interviews, cityscapes and audio of Brodsky to create a poetic homage to one of the 20th century’s great literary talents. (60 minutes)

MUSIC IN THE SKYSPACE

Adam Tendler / Prepared Piano

THU, OCT 11, SAT: 8:00PM

Tickets: $35

Gather for a soul-stirring sunset in the James Turrell Skyspace, at 7:00 pm then thrill to the evocative music of these fine musicians. Skyspace viewing 60 minutes.

Celebrated for his uncompromising recital programming, unapologetic literary voice, and bold original compositions, Adam Tendler has presented lecture-recitals of modern American music to underserved communities in all fifty states. For RIAF 2012 he performs John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes (performed from memory) to honor the composer’s centenary. (60 minutes)

BECOME A SPONSOR

The generous businesses and individuals that support RIAF as sponsors help ensure that admissions to RIAF performances will be affordably priced for our entire community.

Sponsors enjoy many benefits, including:

• Priority seating for Festival productions

• Recognition in RIAF signage, E-blasts and program books

• Tickets to RIAF events

• Access to Sponsor Hospitality Suite

• Museum membership

For more information about how you or your company can become a sponsor of RIAF, please contact Development at 941.359.5821 or stacey.corley@ringling.fsu.edu.

Film: Labyrinth

Within SAT, OCT 13: 5:00

MERTZ THEATRE

Tickets: $10

A haunting take on jealousy, Labyrinth Within posits a man, a woman, and an elusive lover in a series of intense pas de deux. Danced to a score by David Lang, the work features New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan, Giovanni Bucchieri and Pontus Lidberg, who also directed the film. (30 minutes)

Phyllis Chen / Toy Piano

FRI, OCT 12: 8:00PM

Tickets: $35

Praised by the New York Times for her “delightful quirkiness matched with interpretive sensitivity,” pianist Phyllis Chen can hold her own playing the classical repertoire on a conventional instrument, but over the past decade, she has become one of the world’s leading proponents of the toy piano. (60 minutes)

Sponsors to Date (as of 4.19.2012)

Anonymous

Blalock Walters

Bright House

Cheryl and Steve Dupré

Gulf Coast Community Foundation

Huisking Foundation, Inc.

Macy’s

MGA Insurance

Nancy and Chuck Parrish

Charlotte and Charles Perret

Sarasota Magazine

SunTrust

CODEX BY SANFORD BIGGERS

Dr. Matthew McLendon, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Codex features new work by Sanford Biggers, the 2010 Greenfield Prize Winner and Hermitage Retreat Artist, and opened at the Museum on March 30. Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Dr. Matthew McLendon, sat down with Sanford during the installation and spoke with him about the work displayed and his process.

Matthew McLendon: So, Sanford, how did you begin working with quilts?

Sanford Biggers: I first started working with quilts during a project that I did in Philadelphia called Hidden Cities (2009) where several artists were asked to do interventions at landmarks which were in disrepair or had been forgotten by history. I chose a sprawling project that went throughout the city but was focused on the Mother Bethel Church located on Lombard Street and then several locations identified as stops along the Underground Railroad located throughout the city. At the Mother Bethel Church, I hung eight quilts around the second story hanging down into the sanctuary, one of which I’ve included in the exhibition here at the Ringling (UGRR: US2.2, 2009).

MM: And of course quilts are related to the history of the Underground Railroad because they were used to signal stops along the way.

SB: Exactly.

MM: So why do you draw and paint on the quilts?

SB: Well, I wanted a way of making a direct intervention. I don’t sew, I’m not a quilter, so I went to what I do know which is paint. I have done some basic stitching and embroidery; I add other pieces of fabric to the quilts.

MM: You’re always discussed as an installation artist. Did you focus on painting during your training?

SB: Yes, actually I did my MFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in painting, but I did experiment with video and sound there, and I’ve been doing sculpture all along, too.

MM: That’s very interesting. So this is a return to your artistic roots in a way.

SB: Yes, in a way it is.

MM: The Art Institute has one of the important fiber arts programs in the country. Were you involved in that program at all?

SB: I was very interested in what the artists in the fiber arts program were doing. Many people looked at it as craft or ghettoized it as “women’s craft,” but I actually thought they were doing some of the most interesting work at The Institute at the time. Their work was very interdisciplinary. MM: The quilts in Codex are, of course, being repurposed which is an aspect of contemporary art that I am quite interested in at the moment. One of the artists I’ve been looking at is Nick Cave and his elaborate soundsuits made of found and repurposed objects. Was he at The Institute yet when you were a student?

SB: Nick wasn’t teaching there yet, but I knew of him and we did a studio visit. My first works at The Institute incorporated found objects.

MM: So again, with the repurposing and painting of quilts this is a return to form and incorporates both your roots as an

artist and as an African-American. Where did the idea of using star or constellation maps as the basis for some of the designs come from?

SB: Well, the idea of Harriet Tubman as an astronaut, navigating from the south to the north via the stars. The first constellation map was in the Philadelphia project. I made an aerial view of the city that looked like a constellation chart and marked the stops on the Underground Railroad and then connected them like the stars on a constellation map. So I started to implement that same strategy and drawing constellations on the quilts and then those started to become dance notations that formed galaxies and constellations.

MM: Why dance notation?

SB: These are visual puns and dance notations because entertainment has always been a form of transcendence for Black people. In the United States it is an accepted form of achievement. There are subversive aspects as well that I have always been interested in. The slaves used dance as a form of communication unbeknownst to the masters. There is a mining of history, a deep cultural communicative history. So then one can “read” these histories in the quilts like a codex. That’s why the show is called Codex MM: You then blend these symbols with Buddhist imagery, why?

SB: It’s about transcendence. I use the lotus motif because the lotus grows from the muck of the pond bottom eventually breaking the surface of the water into the light—it transcends its beginnings.

MM: What do you hope to accomplish with this installation?

SB: Developing a visual vocabulary. There are several symbols that I’ve used in installations as three-dimensional objects and sculptures that I’ve embedded into these quilts. Reading them is like reading the codex, and I’m morphing some of those symbols in the quilts which can later have an off shoot into the installations. I can see in the future cutting up quilts and stitching different quilts together.

MM: Well, I imagine that will be quite controversial in the quilting world. However, if you take African-American quilts, and Caucasian quilts, and Native American quilts, and sew them together then the “patchwork” which is to symbolize America

becomes a real embodiment of the mixing of cultures, or backgrounds, that is America—at least the America of today. In the history of the quilts themselves, they were of course segregated.

SB: It’s the Creolization of quilts?

MM: The Creolization of quilts—that’s quite a lovely phrase. I think we should end with that; it’s powerful. Thank you, Sanford, it’s been a pleasure.

SB: Thank you.

Sanford Biggers, Quilt #7 (detail), 2012. Photography by Giovanni Lunardi. All work copyright Sanford Biggers, 2012 Sanford Biggers, Quilt #9 (Cheshire) (detail), 2012. Photography by Giovanni Lunardi. All work copyright Sanford Biggers, 2012

UP CLOSE RINGLING MEMBER

The Wyatt Family

Please tell us about your impressions of the Ringling during your first visit to the Museum. (When, what stood out)

We have been coming frequently in the past ten years with our children (now 8, 9 and 11), My first impression was how much the Ringling Museum has changed since the 1970s when I came for my first field trip in elementary school. Each city has its own history and everyone who lives in Sarasota should know the story of the Ringling Family, their home, art museum and circus. The Ringling Museum is our family’s museum and being able to visit weekly is one of the benefits of living in Sarasota. Having a family membership to the Ringling Museum is a no-brainer. For about ten dollars a month you have access to one of the most fun and family-friendly places in Sarasota. The Ringling Museum helps us make wonderful family memories. There are so many new exhibits that if you haven’t been to the Ringling in the past year–you haven’t been to the Ringling!

What are the top 3 activities you do with your family when you are at the Museum?

We have been visiting Mr. Tibbals’ miniature circus for years and each time we see something new. With 925 teeny-tiny circus animals. 1,300 circus performers and workers, eight tents and a 55 car train, there are endless tiny scenes telling unique and exciting stories. And when night falls and the circus lights come on–it is magical! Watching the twirling ballerinas performing high on the wires is my daughter Susan’s favorite part of the circus. Our new favorite activity is walking the tightrope and hearing the roar of the crowd after we cross. Bruce and Maggie like to fire the cannon and launch missiles aimed into the net. And there are endless ways to balance and pose on the trick horse’s back! All of the

interactive displays and buttons to push for movies, clips and music are perfect for today’s digital-friendly child.

What do you hope your children will share with their friends about their experience? I hope my children will share with their friends how much FUN it is to visit the Ringling.

Do you visit other museums when you travel? When we travel, we like to visit children’s museums. Some of our favorites have been The Children’s Museum of the Upstate in Greenville, S.C. and the Portland Children’s Museum in Maine. This summer our family is going to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Each child is going to pick an area of the museum, research it, and be our tour guide. With a little imagination, visiting a museum is like time travel as you go back in history to fascinating times and places.

What are a few of your favorite places on the Estate? Once a week our family has a picnic on the Ringling grounds. We alternate between sitting under the banyan trees, sitting on the terrace of Ca’ d’Zan overlooking the bay, and sitting in Mable’s

Rose garden. If we bring a card game, we sit and play at the silver tables outside by the Banyan Café. After five, the museum buildings close but the grounds stay open until six. We pretty much have the run of the grounds and like to play tag around the Dwarf Garden. And no visit would be complete without a tram ride!

What other areas would you like to explore? Next month my eleven-year-old Susan has requested we go on the “Private Places Tour” at Ca’ d’Zan. We are planning a mother-daughter date and look forward to seeing the upper floors and climbing to the top balcony of Ca’ d’Zan

What are you most looking forward to experiencing in the coming year? In the summer we will be spending more time inside the Museum to beat the heat. The Education Department offers lots of fun and educational tools for families. Before your visit go online and print out interesting worksheets that focus on images, animals, color, and story. The best part about the Ringling Museum is that there is always something new to see and do.

THE POWER OF PHILANTHROPY LEGACY LUNCHEON

The John and Mable Ringling Legacy Society Luncheon was held on March 2 on Sarasota Bay at The Bolger Campiello. At the luncheon, long-time member and supporter of the Museum, Charlie Huisking, shared with us the legacy his mother created at the Ringling Museum and the impact the Ringling Museum has made in his life from the time he was a small child taking art classes to his current involvement with the Ringling International Arts Festival. Dr. Patrick Hennigan, chairman of the Ringling Museum Board, also spoke about finding his own way to leave a legacy at the Ringling Museum through his collection of Asian art.

At the end of the luncheon, the donor wall was revealed in the Visitors Pavilion.

The luncheon honored members of The John and Mable Ringling Legacy Society (individuals who have included the Museum in their estate plans), as well as members who have showed tremendous support of the Museum as a member for over fifteen years.

Following in the tradition of John Ringling’s planned gift, members and friends who have chosen to support the Museum through their own planned gifts, allow us to look forward with confidence and ensure a future stream of support which enables the Museum to provide projects, programs, and scholarship to the community. We are thankful to those John and Mable Ringling Legacy Society Members and we were honored to recognize them at the luncheon.

Barbara and Marty Arch

Jim Bagley, Howard Tibbals, Chris Darlington, Joan McKniff

Steven High, Michael Longworth, Susie Walters, Lowe Morrison, Cliff Walters

Scott Nutter and Charles Hattendorf

Carolyn Johnson, Eleanor Merritt-Darlington, Patrick Hennigan

In Dance of the Cranes, a bronze vase featured in Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture 1920–1945, Tsuda Shinobu depicts a frontal view of the crane with wings bent into a circle. The artistic abstraction of this vase was the inspiration for our simple, but elegant Crane Necklace featuring black lacquer and turquoise beads. $90/members 10% discount

Beautifully accented with faceted gold-plated rondelles, crystal drops, and a playful tassel, this Art Deco Cloisonné Choker reflects the light and feminine side of Art Deco yet captures the modern and masculine aspects of the style with its geometrical abstract design.

$90/members 10% discount

NEW AT THE RINGLING MUSEUM STORE

The thunder pattern featured on the fan shaped beads of this lovely black lacquer bracelet with semi-precious stones is a popular design motif in Japanese art deco. Our Fan Bracelet is inspired by Gyobu Kiyoshi’s Vase with Thunder Pattern Design, featured in Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture 1920–1945.

$57/members 10% discount