RECENT ACQUISITIONS

At the heart of The Ringling Museum is its wideranging collection of art. The collection began with John Ringling’s initial bequest in 1936 of work by European masters, ancient Cypriot art, and works from Asia, along with a fund for future acquisitions. From this initial gesture of philanthropy, the museum’s collection has continued to expand throughout the decades, with continued support from our donors and museum members. The Ringling’s curators are each experts in a particular area, including European Art, Asian Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, Photography and New Media, and the History of the Circus. They work with the Museum’s director on how best to continue to build the collections. In order to identify what kinds of objects are available, The Ringling’s curators speak with artists, meet with collectors and donors, and follow galleries and auctions to stay abreast of their fields. The following are some of the most significant recent objects to be accessioned into the collection:

Japanese, late 17th-early 18th Century, Pair of Screens depicting the Tale of Gengi Monogatari. Ink, color, gold-leaf on paper mounted on silk brocade.

The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) is an 11thcentury Japanese classic novel written by a Heian court lady known as Murasaki Shikibu. This novel covers the life span of the brilliant Prince Genji and his romances with several ladies from elite clans or ordinary families. The protagonist Genji is believed to be Murasaki Shikibu's ideal of manhood: a prince who is gentle, poetic, stunningly handsome, and, above all, a tender lover. Different from the men’s prose introduced from China, the women of the Heian period developed a Japanese script more suitable to the Japanese language. Their tastes dominated the literature and art of the time, and the sensibilities of the time also continued to exert an influence over Japanese art in later years.

This pair of screens is an exceptional work showcasing Yamato-e—paintings of native subjects rendered in classical Japanese style.

Vanessa German (American, born 1976), Just Do It, 2014. Wood, wood glue, plaster gauze, tar, rage, cowrie shells, love, old plastic doll parts, witness, pain, steel, cloth, twine, rage, old toy boat, ceramic figurines, meanness, rage, old white baby shoes, something precious that you cannot see and will not ever be able to get at no matter how many probes you sink into my interstellar flesh, yes, you, uncle sam on the lam, porcelain doll heads from the bombed out german doll factories, humidor, rage, buttons, twine, old jewelry, and a knife to cut things with.

Vanessa German refers to her sculptures as “power figures.” The accumulation of objects that she collects from her neighborhood or the “fleatique” markets she frequents are attached to the body parts of dolls in a manner that in some way recalls the Nkisi Nkondi religious idols made by the Kongo people of the Congo region in Africa. The Kongo drive nails into The Nkisi Nkondi, each nail representing a type of oath. Though German was unaware of this precedent when she began creating her power figures, she now feels that there is a definite connection between her practice and those of her ancestors.

This work is on view in the Searing Wing as part of the inaugural installation of works collected during the first five years of the Art of Our Time program.

Aaron Pexa (American, born 1976), The Lucent Parlor: Chapter 1 Single channel video, 40 minutes.

Aaron Pexa is an artist who is pushing the medium of glass into provocative new directions. Trained as an architect and a glass artist, Pexa has lately incorporated multimedia work and video into his practice. In The Lucent Parlor, he unites the durational experience of video with the process of creating glass artefacts. He focuses on the liminal moments when matter transforms from liquid to solid as glass heats and cools. Filmed in real time before the light of the furnace used to melt the glass, Pexa ladles molten glass over a glass chandelier. It is through extended viewing that one becomes aware that the video is, in fact, being played in reverse, thus revealing the chandelier only to the patient viewer. The flickering of the furnace flame coupled with the enigmatic soundscape, composed by the artist Maralie, transports the viewer into a realm of perception where nothing operates as it is first perceived.

This work is on view in the Searing Wing as part of the inaugural installation of works collected during the first five years of the Art of Our Time program.

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Fra Bonaventura Bisi, 1658-1659. Oil on canvas.

A fellow artist and friend of Guercino, Bisi was a Franciscan friar at a convent in Bologna. The naturalistic and insightful rendering of the friar near the end of his life is typical of Guercino’s later expressive style and virtuoso technique. In the half-figure canvas, Bisi appears in his study holding a drawing of his patron, Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena.

Inventive and prolific, Guercino—alongside Caravaggio, Guido Reni, and Annibale and Ludovico Carracci—was one of the most influential painters of his time. This intimate portrait from the Italian Baroque is a wonderful addition to The Ringling’s established strength in European Old Masters. It is rare for such an excellent example of European Baroque portraiture to become available, and thanks to our acquisitions endowment, we are able to share it and allow everyone to experience its visual brilliance and cultural relevance.

This painting is on view in the Museum of Art, Gallery 11.