winter 2018
from the director GREETINGS FROM ANN ARBOR AT THE END OF AN EXCITING FIRST TWO MONTHS AS DIRECTOR OF UMMA! It’s an extraordinary place, and I am deeply honored and thrilled to lead the Museum into its next ambitious phase of evolution. I enjoyed meeting many of you at UMMA GLOW in October, and I hope to get to meet and know more of you in the coming months.
I have a lifelong commitment to museums and to artists— I grew up surrounded by both, and I believe in the tremendous power of the visual arts to interpret the world around us, stimulate new ideas, and reimagine both the past and the future.
I came to UMMA to build on its great strengths as a renowned, forwardthinking campus museum with superb collections, a beautiful building, and a supportive community of alumni and donors. I have a lifelong commitment to museums and to artists—I grew up surrounded by both, and I believe in the tremendous power of the visual arts to interpret the world around us, stimulate new ideas, and reimagine both the past and the future. There is nowhere where that can be better realized than here at UMMA— at the greatest public university in the country, with its breadth of experts and scholars working on the most urgent issues and opportunities of our times. To realize that potential, the Museum will be thinking over the coming year about our exhibitions and programs, the collection and how best to strengthen it, and the development of exciting new forms of student engagement. Expect to hear more about all of that in the future.
This winter I hope to see many of you in the galleries where we will debut an exciting new exhibition, Exercising the Eye: The Gertrude Kasle Collection, which explores the groundbreaking impact of a Detroit-based gallerist who brought avant-garde art and artists to Michigan in the 1960s, and influenced a generation of collectors and artists in the process. Also on display will be Japanese posters from the post-war period, many new to the collection; a survey of stunning photographs of natural and man-made disasters; and Patricia Piccinini’s wonderful, eccentric sculpture of hybrid future species. I’m excited to make UMMA one of the most dynamic museums in the country, brimming with ideas and ground breaking exhibitions, and acting as a lively social hub for a diverse and broad public. I look forward to partnering with you to make that possible. Go Blue!
Christina Olsen
CONTENTS UMMA News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Annual Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Exhibitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
UMMA Happenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
New At UMMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
UMMA Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
COVER: William Tarr, Study for Gates of the Six Million, ca. 1980, bronze, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Gertrude Kasle, 2016/2.113
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YOU’RE INVITED OPEN OFFICE HOURS WITH DIRECTOR CHRISTINA OLSEN Here’s your chance to chat with our new director! Come by and say hello, tell her what you love about UMMA, or what you’d like to see change. See dates and times below.
OFFICE HOURS IN THE COMMONS Monday, Feb. 5 from noon to 1 p.m.
Monday, March 12 from noon to 1 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 6 from 4–5 p.m.
Tuesday, March 13 from 4–5 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 12 from noon to 1 p.m.
Monday, April 2 from noon to 1 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 13 from 4–5 p.m.
Tuesday, April 3 from 4–5 p.m.
Monday, March 5 from noon to 1 p.m.
Monday, April 9 from noon to 1 p.m.
Tuesday, March 6 from 4–5 p.m.
Tuesday, April 10 from 4–5 p.m.
Check UMMA’s website for updates: umma.umich.edu w i n t e r 2 018
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exhibitions
ABOVE: Grace Hartigan, Fells Point Florist, 1982, oil on canvas. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Gertrude Kasle, 2016/2.90. © The Grace Hartigan Estate RIGHT: Jasper Johns, Savarin, 1977-81, color lithograph on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Gertrude Kasle, 2016/2.92. Art © Jasper Johns and ULAE/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY, Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
ABOVE: Robert Rauschenberg, Intermission, from the series Ground Rules, 1996, intaglio on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Gertrude Kasle, 2016/2.109. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Universal Limited Art Editions, West Islip RIGHT: Susanna Linburg, Caryatid VII, 1981–87, bronze. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Gertrude Kasle, 2016/2.103 FAR RIGHT: Jane Hammond, The Wonderfulness of Downtown, 1996, screenprint and lithograph with collage elements on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Bequest of Gertrude Kasle, 2016/2.114. © Jane Hammond and Universal Limited Art Editions
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a. alfred taubman gallery | march 10–july 22, 2018
EXERCISING THE EYE:
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exhibitions
THE GERTRUDE KASLE COLLECTION
his exhibition celebrates Gertrude Kasle (1917–2016), a pioneer in the formation of Detroit’s contemporary art community in the 1960s and 70s. Highlighting an impressive collection of paintings, works on paper, and sculptures from the height of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1950s and 60s through the development of a new generation of contemporary artists in the late 1970s and 80s, Exercising the Eye speaks to the relationships Kasle fostered with regional, national, and international artists and to her keen eye for artistic expression and experimentation. Women artists feature prominently as a testament to Kasle’s role as a female gallerist committed to advocating for art that broke with tradition. Critical artistic voices include Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Jane Hammond, Grace Hartigan, Michele Oka Doner, Morris Brose, and Philip Guston. Gertrude Kasle began her studies in art at the age of six in New York City. Later, she majored in art in college, first attending New York University, then transferring to the University of Michigan, and finally completing her degree at Wayne University (now Wayne State University). Early in her career she astutely noted that her skills of visual observation surpassed her artistic abilities: “my eye,” she remarked, “developed beyond my hand.” After settling in Detroit, she focused on promoting contemporary art at the Detroit Institute of Art as a member and eventual vice president of its Friends of Modern Art group. In 1962, Kasle partnered with Detroit businessman Frank Siden to establish a contemporary art gallery, but she soon sought a space of her own in which to assert an independent voice. In 1965, she opened the Gertrude Kasle Gallery in Detroit’s Fisher Building, operating the business for eleven years. Kasle was fiercely committed to educating audiences about artistic expression and her guiding philosophy as a gallerist was to expose w in t er 2018
Detroit audiences to the kind of avant-garde art she experienced growing up in New York City. In the press release announcing the opening of her eponymous gallery, she said that “the art of today demands an educated eye … If you bring something of yourself to this art, if you are willing to grow with it, exchange old values and concepts for new ones, the rewards will be great.” This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore a dynamic moment in Detroit’s cultural history and to honor Kasle’s generous bequest to UMMA, through which she will continue to encourage future generations to look and learn.
“...my eye developed beyond my hand.” - Gertrude Kasle
Jennifer M. Friess Assistant Curator of Photography Lehti Mairike Keelmann Assistant Curator of Western Art Lead support for Exercising the Eye: The Gertrude Kasle Collection is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, Michigan Medicine, and the University of Michigan CEW Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund.
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exhibitions
PATRICIA PICCININI:
THE COMFORTER A
RIGHT: Patricia Piccinini, The Comforter, 2010, silicone, fiberglass, steel, fox fur, human hair, clothing, edition 3 of 3. Courtesy Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco. Photo: David Stroud. ABOVE: Patricia Piccinini, The Comforter, (detail)
ustralian artist Patricia Piccinini’s strange, hyper-real, yet sentimental sculptures are often rooted in her speculative visualizations of future species—beings transformed by, or even created by, developments in genetic engineering and technology. Piccinini’s work explores the sometimes uncomfortable boundaries between the natural and the artificial, but at the same time she observes how humans continually redefine what they will accept as normal.
scientific progress and the conflicts inherent in man-made replications of natural processes. Created most often in silicone, the hybrid human-animal creatures of Piccinini’s works have a magnified realism that is often disturbing, but Piccinini incorporates features to offset their decidedly alien, synthetic qualities. The forms are deliberately crafted with softness or cuteness or vulnerability—they remain grotesque but are made unthreatening and childlike, a strategy the artist says is intended to help viewers “move from an initial sense of revulsion . . . toward a sense of understanding.”
On view in the Museum’s Irving Stenn, Jr. Family Gallery, The Comforter (2010) presents the likeness of a young girl whose appearance suggests a rare genetic condition causing excessive hair across her face and body. In her lap she tenderly cradles an udder-shaped, eyeless creature—a possible reference to current experiments in genetically altered milk-producing animals. The encounter staged by the sculpture, though curious and unexplained, appears to be one of innocence and intimacy, and evokes the possibility for emotional connection between a diversity of beings.
Piccinini’s goal is to create what she calls “a space for the viewer to think, ”and in this way her work articulates what she believes is our cultural potential for heightened compassion and, especially, empathy. The artist is earnest in describing her focus: “I love the wonder and diversity I see in the natural world, and I would love us to be a part of expanding rather than contracting that. . . . Sometimes, it is interesting to sit back and reflect on how weird and amazing the world is, but also how fragile, and to wonder how much we’ve learned, or how little.“
This theme is a common one for Piccinini, whose work engages, often obliquely, with ideas and questions about the ethical implications of
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Kathleen Forde Adjunct Curator of Media Arts Lead support for Patricia Piccinini: The Comforter is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment, the University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, and the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.
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irving stenn, jr. family gallery | december 16, 2017–april 15, 2018
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exhibitions
photography gallery | january 13–may 27, 2018
“But the landscape of devastation is still a landscape.” - Susan Sontag
TOP: Photographer unknown, Civil Forum, Pompeii, 1855–1865, albumen print. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Transfer from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 1980/1.176 RIGHT: Peter Turnley, New York, 9-11-01, 2001, archival pigment print on paper. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of David and Jennifer Kieselstein, 2016/2.504 FAR RIGHT: Leonard Freed, Workers Outside a Home Damaged by Flood, Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA, 1972, gelatin silver print. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of Thomas Wilson ’79 and Jill Garling ’80, 2014/2.326, Photo © Magnum Photos
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exhibitions
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AFTERMATH: LANDSCAPES OF DEVASTATION
rom news reports of human conflict, blight, and natural disasters, to the ever-expanding genres of war-based video games and apocalyptic blockbuster films, contemporary viewers are inundated with a deluge of visual images of devastation from across the globe and in our imaginations. Does the constant repetition of such imagery both numb and fascinate us at the same time? In her 2003 essay Regarding the Pain of Others, American author Susan Sontag (1933–2004) observes that our ability “… to find beauty in war photographs seems heartless. But the landscape of devastation is still a landscape.” Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation expands Sontag’s poignant reflection beyond representations of warfare to consider an array of destructive forces wrought on the land and its inhabitants. It explores landscape photographs made at the sites of natural or human-made disasters, including volcano eruptions and floods, massacres and uprisings, and even nuclear explosions. The exhibition features photography from 150 years of the medium’s history, although the images represent or reference events spanning almost 2,000 years of human history.
The photographs on view portray both well-known and untold stories of violence, tragedy, and loss. The narrative of Aftermath begins with photographs of the ruins of Pompeii— including an image of a Roman amphitheater buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE—and concludes with images of firemen dousing the smoking remains of the World Trade Center
beneath a bright blue sky on September 11, 2001. Each scene on view is visually striking, yet viewers may be surprised at the presence of beauty and tranquility in these tragic landscapes. Photographs of atrocities and disasters are often expected to be documentary and unmediated, serving as didactic evidence of a terrible event and its aftershocks. However, photographs also have the power to shape public consciousness and perpetuate certain memories of a catastrophe; a single photograph can become symbolic of much more than confirmation that an event occurred. Indeed, the images on view remind us that disaster is often a collective experience that can tear apart the seams of a culture’s social fabric and impact societies well after an event. Aftermath invites viewers to contemplate photography’s role in framing representations of past and present landscapes of devastation. Jennifer M. Friess Assistant Curator of Photography Lead support for Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation is provided by the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment. Additional generous support is provided by the University of Michigan Department of Screen Arts and Cultures and School for Environment and Sustainability.
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exhibitions
RED CIRCLE: DESIGNING JAPAN IN CONTEMPORARY POSTERS
LEFT: Shigeo Fukuda, Kyogen, 1981, offset print. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion, 2017/2.88. © Shigeo Fukuda, 2017 MIDDLE: Kazumasa Nagai, Ueno Zoo, 1993, silkscreen. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion, 2017/2.71. © Kazumasa Nagai, 2017 RIGHT: Ikko Tanaka, Nihon Buyo (Japanese traditional dance), 1981, offset print. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion, 2017/2.25. © Ikko Tanaka/licensed by DNPartcom, 2017 10
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he works featured in Red Circle: Designing Japan in Contemporary Posters were created by Ikko Tanaka (1930–2002), Shigeo Fukuda (1939–2009), and Kazumasa Nagai (b. 1929), three renowned Japanese graphic designers active during the second half of the twentieth century. All three began their professional careers in the 1960s, when Japan was experiencing a near-miraculous recovery from the devastation of World War II. In the 1980s and early 1990s, when the country’s strong currency and trade surplus were causing anti-Japanese sentiment overseas, they took on the challenge of changing its image through art. In posters advertising government-sponsored trade fairs, cultural festivals, and sporting events, and in selfinitiated projects and exhibitions, they tried to convey to domestic and international audiences a deeper understanding of Japan and its long cultural history. These artists took a similar approach to design, using a powerful language of simple forms, vivid color, and symbols and motifs drawn from Japan’s rich visual tradition. The red circle of the national flag, perhaps the most recognizable icon of Japan, was one of the most frequently used motifs. Kazumasa Nagai’s promotional poster for Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, the oldest and most popular in the country, merges a red circle umm a .umic h.ed u
jan and david brandon family bridge | january 6–may 6, 2018
exhibitions
with an image of a lion, the king of the Distilled into forms of iconographic RELATED PROGRAM: animals. The visually bold combination clarity, archetypal animals, human UMMA DIALOGUE of the radiating sun and the lion’s figures, and landscapes borrowed Designing Japan: mane communicates the prestige of from folklore and visual culture, Graphic Works of Ikko this zoo, which attracted visitors from these graphic images clearly Tanaka, Shigeo Fukuda, all over the world. For a Japanese signified “Japan” for international and Kazumasa Nagai performing arts series at the University audiences, even those who did not of California, Los Angeles, Shigeo know the language. Visual twists with Natsu Oyobe, UMMA Fukuda focused on an actor’s leg and and nuanced humor were used to stir Curator of Asian Art, and foot movements in kyogen, a centuriesthe viewer’s curiosity, while strong Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo, old form of theater characterized by colors based on a historic palette Professor at the U-M humorous narratives and exaggerated increased their visual impact. Thus Stamps School of gestures. Kyogen protagonists are they succeeded brilliantly in both Art and Design. Friday, often put into situations from which communicating a message and March 9, 5:30 p.m. they do not know how to escape; the expressing an artistic vision, making harder they try, the worse the situation them an excellent tool for promoting becomes. Fukuda expresses this conundrum through a a new image of Japan. Together they offer a glimpse question mark comprised of entangled legs and feet; he into a fascinating chapter in the history of the was a master of creating such simple and humorous visual nation’s efforts to shape its identity in the postpuns with multiple layers of meaning. For the same UCLA World War II era. series, Ikko Tanaka portrayed the face of an onnagata (a male actor who specializes in playing female roles in Natsu Oyobe kabuki theater), a unique Japanese tradition. While the Curator of Asian Art Lead support for Red Circle is provided by the composition is a collection of squares, triangles, and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation circles, almost in the manner of a Chinese tangram puzzle, and the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies. it nevertheless expresses the onnagata’s sensuality. w in t er 2018
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exhibitions
media gallery | december 2, 2017–may 13, 2018
TIM NOBLE AND SUE WEBSTER:
THE MASTERPIECE S
ince the 1990s, British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster have been known for their shadow sculptures built from materials as diverse as construction debris, garbage, taxidermy animals, and sex toys. When light is directed at these assemblages, they project shadows that are exceptionally accurate and intricate representations of other things entirely. A heap of scrap metal, for example, transforms into a detailed image of copulating rats; a pile of household trash mutates into precise silhouettes of the artist duo having a drink. The Museum presents Noble and Webster’s 2014 work, The Masterpiece—a shadow self-portrait the artists created from silver casts of dead vermin they collected and welded together into a ball. From afar the casts appear to be a stunning abstract sculpture in precious metal; a closer look reveals the disturbing menagerie of creatures emerging, only to change form again—as a shadow on the wall—into a clear and elegant image of the artists’ profiles that is astonishingly different from the objects that create it. The connection between the once-living rats, frogs, and squirrels whose forms make up the assemblage and the living humans represented in shadow is a deliberately surreal one for the artists. As Sue Webster noted: “Although the base elements to the sculpture are dead, once they are cast and put in this ball, they become perfectly alive again, if only in shadow.” The optical trickery at the heart of Noble and Webster’s work is an act of transformation with roots in numerous art traditions: turning non-art (trash or found objects) into art, elevating low art (crafts or consumer products) into high art, or representing figural forms with abstract forms. Since many of the artists’ shadow pieces are representations of themselves, their work also conforms to a longstanding sub-genre of portraiture, one in which the subjects remain obscured or mysterious even as they seem to be revealed.
FAR RIGHT: Tim Noble and Sue Webster, The Masterpiece, 2014, solid sterling silver, metal stand, light projector. Courtesy the artists and Blain Southern TOP AND BOTTOM: Tim Noble and Sue Webster, The Masterpiece (detail)
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The artists’ process also calls to mind elements from disciplines outside art history, including, in psychology, the use of Rorschach tests to observe how patients perceive something deliberate in a random composition; and, in philosophy, the discourse on Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, in which Plato’s subjects, having lived their entire lives chained inside a cave, have no experience of reality other than the shadows of passing objects cast on the wall by a fire behind them. umm a .umic h.ed u
exhibitions
Noble and Webster’s images are, despite their clarity, simply shadows. But though their work can seem humorous, at times even absurd, the artists are not merely illusionists. Rather they are testing, through a fundamental manipulation of light and dark, the relationship between perception and reality.
Lead support for Tim Noble and Sue Webster: The Masterpiece is provided by the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment, the University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, the Susan and Richard Gutow Fund, the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities, and the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. Additional generous support is provided by the Richard and Janet Miller Fund.
Kathleen Forde Adjunct Curator of Media Arts w in t er 2018
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new at umma
RECENT ACQUISITION
the connector | december 12, 2017–april 15, 2018
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hroughout the second half of the twentieth century, pioneering art director and graphic designer Paul Rand (1914–1996) was celebrated for crafting the brand identities of such American corporate icons as ABC, IBM, UPS, and Westinghouse. Rand considered the designer’s task to be the communication of a company’s character through symbols that could be universally understood by consumers. During the thirty-five years (1956–1991) that Rand worked as a design consultant for IBM (International Business Machines Corporation), he steadfastly advocated for the The amusing use of staff to embrace a symbols encourages cohesive companyviewers to interpret— wide branding or think—in order to strategy. Rand decode the company’s eventually intended message redesigned all that values “insight,” aspects of IBM’s printed materials— “industriousness,” including signage, and “motivation.” technical manuals, product packaging, advertisements, brochures, and annual reports. Moreover, he crafted iterations of IBM’s three-letter logo that expressed the company’s innovative approach to technology.
LEFT: Paul Rand, EYE–BEE–M (Rebus), 1991, offset lithograph. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo and Maria Phillips, 2016/2.202
This installation features a whimsical example of Rand’s approach to the company’s logo: a poster he created as part of IBM’s century-long THINK promotional campaign. The design is a rebus, or visual puzzle, wherein Rand cleverly transforms the letters of IBM’s logo into pictures—the “I” is conveyed as a lidded human eye and the “B” is signified as a winged bee. The “M” maintains the iconic blue-striped IBM logo, which Rand also designed. The amusing use of symbols 14
encourages viewers to interpret—or think—in order to decode the company’s intended message that it values “insight,” “industriousness,” and “motivation.” This poster is part of a larger gift to UMMA of Paul Rand objects and archival material from Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo— professor in the U-M Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design—and Maria Phillips. This donation of works by Rand greatly expands the Museum’s holdings in the history of design and visual communication. Jennifer M. Friess Assistant Curator of Photography umm a .umic h.ed u
docents
JOIN OUR DOCENT TEAM UMMA is seeking volunteers who represent the diverse communities we serve for our fall 2018 docent class. As tour guides and gallery interpreters, docents bring art to life for thousands of visitors each year. Docents talk with each other and patrons about art and life and engage their imaginations every day. To find out more about this stimulating group of learners and teachers, please visit our website at: umma.umich.edu/docents
Docents from the most recent 2017 class celebrate their graduation in front of Jim Cogswell’s Cocmogonic Tattoos.
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program
ART MEDICINE T
his fall, UMMA Deputy Director for Education Ruth Slavin sat down to talk about art and medicine with her long-time teaching partner, Dr. Joel Howell, a physician and historian. Slavin and Howell have worked together since 2009 in the Medical Arts Program, a Medical School Program co-founded by Howell that brings together medical students, residents, and attending physicians for shared arts and humanities experiences, dinner, and discussion. More recently, Slavin and Howell have been working with medical students in the Medical School’s Path of Excellence in Medical Humanities, along with Path Director Dr. Mary Blazek and other core faculty. slavin: I still remember our first meeting at a campus-wide arts gathering: we were both very excited about the possibility of creating connections between art and medicine. howell: Absolutely. Over the last eight years I have become even more convinced of the value of arts and medicine for each other. The Medical Arts Program was founded on the belief that the arts—whether visual art, music and performing arts, literary or theatrical ones—are valuable for training physicians who will provide high-quality, humanistic clinical care. slavin: Historically, some leading programs have focused on observational skills and these remain foundational to working with the visual arts. However, in our work together, we have ranged quite widely into topics and concerns such as working in teams and with multiple perspectives, empathy, and patient communication, understanding social context and cultural competence, and in particular, the issues of complexity and ambiguity. howell: When people first train as physicians, it can be very difficult to accept and deal with the ambiguity and uncertainty that are a pervasive part of medical care. Plus we are dealing with human beings. Sometimes our patients die, and interacting with people at the end of life leads to
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some of the most difficult challenges that young physicians face. slavin: Some of our teaching together has explicitly focused on mortality, often using contemporary and conceptual art to invite quite open-ended discussions with medical students—the works of Felix GonzalezTorres have proven especially compelling for starting discussions. howell: I have loved teaching with those works. The Felix Gonzalez-Torres light bulb work at umm a .umic h.ed u
program
ABOVE: Giulio Carpioni, The Death of Leander, ca. 1655, oil on canvas. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, 1984/1.290 LEFT: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (March 5th) #2, 1991, 40-watt light bulbs, extension cords, porcelain light sockets. University of Michigan Museum of Art, museum purchase made possible by the W. Hawkins Ferry Fund, 1999/2.17
UMMA—which frankly I would have walked right by—has become one of my favorite works. This installation has been fruitful for so many important discussions. What do you do when you don’t understand or don’t like a patient? Or when you encounter difficult, hard to understand patients.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ often quiet, minimal works are diverse in approach and subject matter, addressing history, love and mortality, as well as social and political issues regarding AIDS. Like Untitled (March 5th),
For example, some students chose the same work but reflected on very disparate experiences, ranging from encountering both death and life on the transplant team, to working with a favorite patient facing a terminal illness. Students also discussed the experience of constantly being watched and judged, or even treated as largely irrelevant. Through the intermediary of specific works of art, they shared stories that continued to resonate with them, as well as those experiences that stymied or frustrated them.
slavin: In the Medical Humanities Path, the painting, The Death of we have experienced the impact of such Leander also grapples with discussions on successive cohorts of the death of a young person, medical students. Recently, we worked in this case through the with our initial 2015 cohort, who had mythological story of moved from the classroom into the slavin: It was an intensely focused Hero and Leander. clinical clerkships. It was quite an experience, yet there was also a lot of experience: we asked students to find a laughter and empathy. work of art in UMMA’s Tisch Modern and Contemporary galleries through which to reflect on and recount stories howell: Senior physicians were struck by the fact that these of the last few months. stories wouldn’t come out in the busy environment of the hospital. Yet they did in the UMMA galleries, providing howell: This simple request led to some extraordinary insights that were valuable for the students to articulate discussions, which nicely demonstrated the power of art. and for teachers to hear. w in t er 2018
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annual report
UMMA METRICS FOR FY17 July 1, 2016–June 30, 2017
FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
VISITATION
$6,241,731
Annual Operating Budget
240,000
On-site museum attendance
$361,066
Earned Income Store, event rentals, conservation lab, donation boxes, traveling exhibition fees
6,000
Off-site attendance for programs
41,656
23,290 Public and student programming 18,366 Teaching at UMMA
7,904
Free members
22,300
Social Media followers
36
Regular employees
166,360
Website visits
37
Temporary employees
5,736
Annex visits (student blog)
94
Docents (77 touring docents)
11,825
Annex followers
7,603
Docent hours
DEVELOPMENT
EXHIBITIONS, PROGRAMS & COLLECTIONS
$30.16 MILLION (75% OF GOAL) Victors for Michigan campaign progress through FY17 (Campaign runs through 12/31/2018)
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Exhibitions
901
Educational programs 120 Public and exhibition programs 586 Class visits (U-M and K–12) 195 Adult and family classes/tours
607
Total Accessions 520 Gifts 5 Purchases 82 Bequests
$16,475,099 ENDOWMENT MARKET VALUE (6/30/17) up 33% from Fiscal Year 2016 $3,257,314 TOTAL DOLLARS RAISED IN FY17 includes all gifts, foundation grants, government grants, pledges, and campus partner support
U-M STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 453 CLASS VISITS / 9,525 STUDENTS Teaching in U-M Galleries and Study Rooms 9 SCHOOLS / 38 COURSES U-M Schools (non-L SA) 36 DEPARTMENTS / 303 COURSES LSA Departments 23 U-M PROGRAMS Area Studies or Special Institutes 69 PROGRAMS / 14,537 STUDENTS Programs organized by and for students 76 STUDENTS / 8 MUSEUM AREAS Research associates and fellows, interns, student council, docents
20 Works of art loaned to other institutions 8 Venues Ann Arbor, Michigan Jackson, Michigan New York, New York Syracuse, New York Wichita, Kansas Basel, Switzerland Copenhagen, Denmark Rochefort, France
SERVICE TO SCHOOLS BEYOND U-M 133 CLASS VISITS / 5,248 PEOPLE K–12 school tours 39 SCHOOLS / 25 DISTRICTS Public schools 15 SCHOOLS Independent schools 6 WORKSHOPS / 146 TEACHERS Professional development for teachers
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annual report
ANNUAL GIFTS The University of Michigan Museum of Art is most grateful to the following individuals, corporations, and institutions for their generous support of acquisitions, exhibitions, and programs, and for gifts to the collections from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. $300,000+ Irving Stenn, Jr.
$100,000-$299,999 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Dr. Duncan Hartley^ University of Michigan Credit Union
Mosaic Foundation of R. and P. Heydon
Michael Boehnke and Betsy Foxman
William Susman and Emily Glasser
The Estate of Gertrude Kasle
Drs. Bertram and Elaine Pitt
David C. Bohnett Margaret and Howard Bond
Barbara Timmer and Catherine Glynn Benkaim
David Kieselstein
Jenny Flexner Reinhardt and John Peter Reinhardt
Thomas H. and Polly Walker Bredt
Laurie M. Tisch Carol and James Trapp
Bobby Kotick
David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris
Susan B. Ullrich
Kammi and Brad Reiss Julie and P.J. Solit Trish Turner-McConnell and Thomas McConnell
University of Michigan Office of the Provost
University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies
$25,000-$99,999
University of Michigan College of Engineering
Peter Benedek
George Collins and Paula Hencken James and Patsy Donahey Deanna and Richard Dorner Nicole and Stephen Eisenberg Barbara and Oscar Feldman
Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan
$2,500 - $4,999
Fidelity Investments
Essel and Menakka Bailey
Alice Fishman and Michael DiPietro
Erica and Michael Barrish Christie’s
Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
University of Michigan A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning University of Michigan African Studies Center University of Michigan Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
Alan Hergott and Curt Shepard
University of Michigan Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Michele Oka Doner
Scott Hodes and Maria Bechily-Hodes
Jann Wesolek and Joel Greenson
Prue and Ami Rosenthal
James and Wendy House
Myrna and Newell Miller
Bruce and Lois Zenkel
Virginia E. Stein^
Mary Paul Stubbs and Bruce Stubbs
Erik Hyman and Max Mutchnick Dr. Joachim Janecke
GIFTS UNDER $1,000
Dr. and Mrs. Richard F. Gutow Greg Hodes and Heidi Hertel Hodes Susan B. Meyer
Craig Robins
Stephen and Mercy Kasle
Marlene Ross
Kenwal Steel Corporation
Jack and Noreen Rounick
Betty Jo Kolb
Carrie and Peter Throm
Eric and Liz Lefkofsky
Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch
Barbara R. Levine
DONORS TO THE COLLECTIONS
University of Michigan CEW Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund
Dr. and Mrs. Paul R. Lichter
David and Gayle Ackley
John Mansfield and Deborah Masten
Dr. Stephen Addiss
University of Michigan Department of the History of Art University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities
Sanford and Jeanne Robertson
University of Michigan Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design
$5,000 - $9,999
Bruce and Stephanie Germain Vinokour
Anonymous
Elise Weisbach
Ann Arbor Observer Lisa Applebaum
$1,000 - $2,499
Linda Bennett and Robert Bagramian
Anonymous
Bill Heidrich Japan Business Society of Detroit The Japan Foundation
Tena and Christopher Achen Katherine A. Aldrich Nancy Dolinko Berkowitz and David Berkowitz Joan A. Binkow Joan and William Boddie
w in t er 2018
Erna Mayr
J. Ira and Nicki Harris
Marina and Bob Whitman
Maxine and Stuart Frankel
Doris E. Marsh
Francis Nunoo-Quarcoo and Maria Phillips
Michigan Radio
Comerica Bank
Hebe Lutz
University of Michigan Nam Center for Korean Studies
Richard and Rosann Noel
E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation
Professor Emerita Joanne Leonard
Ilene Forsyth and Karl Hauser
Paola Luptak and Markus Jakobson
$10,000 - $24,999
Leon Polk Smith Foundation
Gail Fliesbach
National Endowment for the Arts
University of Michigan Office of the President
The Estate of Marion Lawrence
The Estate of Robert C. Metcalf
Michigan Medicine
University of Michigan Bicentennial Office
Kathleen Lauster and Jarir Derouach
University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender
Regent Emerita Julia Donovan Darlow and Judge John Corbett O’Meara
Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs
Dr. Cassandra M. Klyman
Edward L. May Catherine and Douglas McClure
956 Gifts Totaling $175,361.40
Dr. Seymour and Barbara K. Adelson Howard and Margaret Bond
Cruse W. and Virginia Patton Moss
Professor David L. Chambers and Mr. John Crane
Mark and Lee Pavach
Darryl Curran
Jorge M. and Darlene Pérez
Nicholas and Elena Delbanco
Dennis Powers and Jeanette Mack-Powers
William and Virginia Dixon
Cass and Cynthia Radecki
Jamie Dylenski
Sherry Root and Roger Craig
Anika Fischer
Christopher Rothko and Lori Cohen
Eeta B. Gershow
Gary and Jacqueline Sasaki Alyce K. Sigler Maxine and Larry Snider Dr. and Mrs. James C. Stanley State Street District
Dr. Jane Friedman Dr. Irwin J. Goldstein and Dr. Martha Mayo^
Kazuko Miyake
Sheila Mae Pinkel Lorna Ritz Leonard Rosenberg Ernestine and Herbert Ruben Donald R. Shepherd^ Alice A. Simsar Larry and Maxine Snider Jeffrey and Elena Sobel Professor Walter M. and Nesta Spink Virginia E. Stein Bruce and Mary Paul Stubbs Mark W. Swanson Barbara Timmer and Catherine Glynn Benkaim Dr. Jonathan Tyman and Ms. Deborah Bayer^ Dr. Jiu-Hwa L. Upshur Bruce and Stephanie Germain Vinokour Robert von Sternberg Melanie Walker Nancy Webber Professor Xu Weixin Professor James Boyd White Thomas Wilson and Jill Garling
Zoe and Yuri Gurevich
Howard Yamaguchi and Patricia Matusky-Yamaguchi
J. Ira and Nicki Harris
Bruce and Lois Zenkel
John and Susan Harvith Stuart and Barbara Hilbert
^Planned Gift
Sandeep Joshi
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umma glow
2 1 UMMA GLOW More than 200 guests attended UMMA GLOW, the Museum’s biennial fundraising gala illuminating the important role that U-M alumni have played in the international arts landscape and in UMMA’s evolution, on Friday, October 6. This year, in commemoration of the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial, UMMA GLOW celebrated the alumni who lent artwork to UMMA’s Victors for Art: Michigan’s Alumni Collectors exhibition. The event also introduced UMMA’s new Director Christina Olsen to the Museum’s loyal and many new supporters. Co-chaired by Catherine and Nathan (AB ’85) Forbes and Cathy and Charles (BS ’90) Schwartz, UMMA GLOW surpassed its revenue goal, netting over $100,000 for UMMA’s exhibitions and educational programs.
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1 Bob Brown, U-M Vice President for Development Jerry May, Jenny Flexner Reinhardt, Susan Brown, John Peter Reinhardt 2 Jack Rounick 3 Co-chair Nathan Forbes addressing crowd, U-M President Mark Schlissel looking on 4 Laura De Becker, Sue Meyer, Cheryl Guettler 5 Paola Luptak, Maxine Frankel, Judi Male 6 Catherine and Nathan Forbes 7 Charlie and Cathy Schwartz 8 Crowd shot from Apse balcony
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happenings
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HAPPENINGS 1 ARTSCAPADE U-M students celebrate Welcome Week at UMMA during Artscapade! on Friday, Sept. 1. 2 CURATORIAL DILEMMAS Dr. Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts addresses African art and its place in museum settings during the “Curatorial Dilemmas” speaker series in October and November. The series coincided with UMMA’s exhibition, Power Contained: The Art of Authority in Central and West Africa. 3 NIGHTS UMMA’s second Nights at the Museum series finished with a showing of the opera Einstein At the Beach on Friday, Sept. 22, in partnership with UMS. 4 AFTER HOURS Guests at UMMA After Hours on Friday, Sept. 8 dance in the apse during Tumbao Bravo’s Cuban jazz performance. 5 VISITORS interact with Random International’s Swarm Study / II, on view outside of the Irving Stenn, Jr. Family Gallery during Victors for Art: Michigan’s Alumni Collectors—Part II: Abstraction.
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ALUMNI DONORS ENDOW ASIAN ART INTERNSHIPS THE RECENT VICTORS FOR ART: MICHIGAN’S ALUMNI COLLECTORS EXHIBITION FEATURED WORKS FROM THE PERSONAL COLLECTIONS OF BOTH DR. WEESE AND DR. UPSHUR.
Two University of Michigan alumni have exemplified what it means to be a victor for art by funding endowments that will support student internships in Asian art at UMMA. William Weese (BS ’65) and Lynn Wetherbee Weese have established the William C. Weese, M.D. and Lynn Wetherbee Weese Internship in Asian Art Fund. Dr. Weese has balanced a career in pulmonology with a passion for Asian art, and specifically Chinese art. He and his wife Lynn are also deeply committed to supporting students and have established scholarships at several other universities in the medical and nursing fields. Dr. Weese hopes the gift to UMMA—their first in the arts and humanities— will “encourage students to study and appreciate Asian art, fostering the next generation of scholars.”
Rackham Graduate School and has gifted more than 30 Chinese objects to UMMA’s collections. The Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur Internship in Asian Art Fund will create sustainable support for paid undergraduate or graduate student internship experiences in Asian art at UMMA. The interns will be supervised by UMMA’s Curator of Asian Art, Dr. Natsu Oyobe, who began her own museum career as a graduate student intern at UMMA while completing her doctoral work. “A museum internship is an indispensable experience for establishing a curatorial career,” Dr. Oyobe says.
The recent Victors for Art: Michigan’s Alumni Collectors exhibition featured works from the personal collections of both Dr. Weese and Dr. Upshur. ABOVE: China, Sui dynasty (581–618) or Tang dynasty (618–907), Pair of guardian figures, Earthenware with polychrome decoration. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur (AM ’61, PhD ’72), 2017/1.562.1&2 BELOW: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Twelve animals of the Zodiac ca. 1630–40, Earthenware with three-color (sancai) glaze. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Collection of William C. Weese (BS ’65)
To learn more about how you can support the Museum and Michigan students, contact Carrie Throm, Deputy Director, Development and External Relations at 734.763.6467.
Dr. Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur (AM ’61, PhD ’72) has supported several scholarships at the U-M
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Unique Gifts for Everyone • Jewelry and Home Decor Made by Ann Arbor Artists • University of Michigan Gifts • Gifts Inspired by the Museum’s Collection • Exhibition-Related Merchandise • Free Gift Wrapping • Sign up to be a Free Member and Receive 20% Off in the UMMA Store
SWEETWATERS COFFEE, TEA, AND BAKED GOODS AVAILABLE DAILY w i n t e r 2 018
SHOP ONLINE! store.umma.umich.edu STORE HOURS Mon–Sat 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun 12–5 p.m.
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Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PA I D Ann Arbor, MI Permit No. 144
525 South State Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1354 734.764.0395 umma.umich.edu
For up-to-date details on UMMA exhibitions and programs, visit umma.umich.edu or follow UMMA on Facebook or Twitter!
EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW
connect online
through february 18, 2018 Matisse Drawings: Curated by Ellsworth Kelly from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Collection
facebook.com/ummamuseum twitter.com/ummamuseum instagram.com/ummamuseum
make a gift umma.umich.edu or umma-giving@umich.edu
through january 7, 2018 Gloss: Advertising Beauty
through april 15, 2018 In Focus: Paul Rand
gallery hours
through april 15, 2018 Patricia Piccinini: The Comforter
September–April Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday 12–5 p.m. Closed Mondays
through may 13, 2018 Tim Noble and Sue Webster: The Masterpiece
store hours Monday through Saturday 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday 12–5 p.m.
building hours September–April The Forum, Commons, and selected public spaces in the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing are open daily 8 a.m.–8 p.m. The Museum is always free. $10 suggested donation appreciated.
january 6–may 6, 2018 Red Circle: Designing Japan in Contemporary Posters january 13–may 27, 2018 Aftermath: Landscapes of Devastation march 10–july 22, 2018 Exercising the Eye: The Gertrude Kasle Collection through june 3, 2018 Jim Cogswell: Cosmogonic Tattoos
university of michigan board of regents: Michael J. Behm, Grand Blanc; Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor; Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe; Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor; Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park; Ron Weiser, Ann Arbor; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Mark S. Schlissel, ex officio contributors: Lisa Bessette, Lisa Borgsdorf, Laura De Becker, Kathleen Forde, Jennifer Friess, Mark Gjukich, Katie Derosier, Lehti Mairike Keelmann, Ruth Keffer, Stephanie Rieke Miller, Christina Olsen, Natsu Oyobe, Anna Sampson, Jakob Skogheim, Ruth Slavin, Leisa Thompson, Nettie Tiso, Carrie Throm editor: David Lawrence designer: Mike McGowan