fall 2011 university of michigan museum of art
from the director
T
HOUGH THE FALL SIGNALS THE LAST THIRD
of the calendar year, around here we know it as the beginning of an exciting new academic term, and as such, a particularly busy season. As we welcome new students to campus and to the lively arts offerings at UMMA, we also reach out to faculty and educators, sharing our exhibition schedule in order for them to include, whenever possible, the Museum’s offerings, collections, and programs in their curricula for the year. As I mentioned in my last correspondence, this fall also inaugurates a new look-and-feel and publication schedule for the Museum’s membership magazine now in your hand. You may observe some changes to the content as well, for instance expanded coverage of new exhibitions and programs, event highlights, more frequent interview features, and a focus on UMMA’s collections and teaching and learning mission. You will also notice that the UMMA Calendar, with a comprehensive listing of all UMMA events, has been decoupled from the UMMA Magazine; it will arrive separately in your mail in early September. And of course don’t forget our website, which is a fantastic resource for complete information on everything UMMA.
If you haven’t had the chance to take in our major summer/ fall exhibition Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints, you still have time; it remains on view in the A. Alfred Taubman Galleries through October 23. An excerpt from guest curator Xiaobing Tang’s fascinating introductory essay in the accompanying scholarly catalogue is included in this issue to whet your appetite. In addition, a wonderful series of conversations with several artists in the exhibition has been planned—look for details inside. Opening in early October is Mark di Suvero: Tabletops, organized by UMMA and on view exclusively here. I’m thrilled that we are able to present this rarely seen work, and my heartfelt gratitude goes to private collectors for generously lending many works and to the artist and his studio for their cooperation and enthusiasm for the project. With two of Mark’s pieces so prominently displayed on the Museum’s grounds, it was high time to explore his work in greater depth. This is just one of three exhilarating new shows on view in our galleries this fall— the other two: a provocative video work by LA artist and UM alum Mike Kelley in UMMA’s new New Media Gallery; and Face of Our Time: Jacob Aue Sobol, Jim Goldberg, Zanele Muholi, Daniel Schwartz, Richard Misrach, an exhibition of documentary photography organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. There is so much to explore and experience at UMMA and at this astonishing world-renowned university. Wishing you a stimulating and beautiful fall wherever this reaches you. Warmest regards,
Joseph Rosa Director
contents UMMA NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 EXHIBITIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 PROGRAMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 SPOTLIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 MEMBERSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 MUSEUM STORE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Cover: Mark di Suvero, Maya, 1995, steel, Collection of the artist 2
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umma news
BEYOND THE MUSEUM / LOANS The Museum has always maintained an active loan program of sharing our collections with museums nationally and internationally and including works of art from other esteemed institutions in our own galleries to extend and contextualize UMMA’s holdings. This fall three of the Museum’s signature modern works will travel stateside and abroad: Kay Sage’s canvas Bounded on the West by the Land under Water (1946) will be on view at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, New York, through September 18, 2011 as part of the exhibition Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy (after which it will travel to the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina). Max Beckmann’s Begin the Beguine (1946) and Self-Portrait with Fishing Pole (1949) will be on view at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, beginning in October for its major exhibition Beckmann and America. On loan to UMMA from the UM Department of Papyrology this fall is the end of a papyrus roll that contained Book XVIII of The Iliad by Homer. Dating to the 2nd or 3rd century AD and originating from Egypt, this large roll was written by a professional scribe and speaks to the presence of script-based traditions in Africa. The work will be installed in a case in the Robert and Lillian Montalto Bohlen Gallery of African Art.
UMMA WINS PUBLICATIONS AWARD The Museum has once again been recognized by the American Association of Museums’ publications design competition with an honorable mention award in the 2011 magazine category for UMMA’s membership magazine. Each year UMMA competes with other institutions with budgets of more than $750,000; this win places us among some of the most august and largest municipal museums in the country, who set a high standard of publications design. Congratulations to UMMA Senior Designer Susan Thompson! fall 2011
Ralph Gibson, Bastienne, 1987, photograph on fiber paper, Gift of Selma and Gerry Lotenberg, 2010/2.47.2
RECENT PHOTOGRAPHY GIFT TO COLLECTIONS Since 1981, Gerald and Selma Lotenberg of New York City, parents of two UM alums, have been generous donors to the Museum. Their special interest is photography and their gifts to the collections—numbering 82 works, often complete portfolios—include photographs by such artists as Elliott Erwitt, Joel Meyerowitz, Erica Lennard, Helmut Newton, and Pete Turner. Recently, the couple gave UMMA six surreal and elusive Ralph Gibson black-and-white images, which added to the previous Gibson photographs they have given— a cache that now spans from the 1960s to 2003. Thanks to such donors as the Lotenbergs, the Museum is able to continue to expand and complement its renowned works on paper collection.
UMMA AS TRAINING GROUND One of the markers of a university art museum is its role as a training ground for future museum professionals. Many undergraduate and graduate students pass through the Museum during their academic careers as interns, research and library assistants, and tour guides. Wen-chien Cheng, who received her PhD in art history from Michigan, organized the 2010 UMMA exhibition Tradition Transformed: Chang Ku-nien, Master Painter of the 20th Century as part of her work as a research assistant. This fall, an exhibition she curated entitled Looking Both Ways: The Republic of China 100 Years and Beyond will be on view at Eastern Michigan University’s Ford Gallery. Through presenting works by an international group of artists, the exhibition aims to improve dialogue and discussion about a host of issues, from societal and generational change, to personal narratives, questions of geopolitics, and political and economic control. 3
exhibitions
MARK DI SUVERO
october 8, 2011–february 26, 2012 irving stenn, jr, family project gallery
Preeminent American sculptor Mark di Suvero is best known for his dynamic and monumental works made of industrial steel and salvaged materials that populate museum grounds, landscapes, and urban environments around the world. This exhibition, organized by UMMA and on view exclusively in Ann Arbor, features approximately fifteen of di Suvero’s rarely exhibited smaller scale works called tabletops, from the late 1950s to the present. The tabletops are not maquettes of larger-scale works but an expressionistic and engaging genre all their own, an outlet for exploring ideas relating to the calligraphic nature of form, balance, proportion, and movement. Crafted of steel, stainless steel, and titanium, most of the pieces are kinetic, akin to his larger works, while others remain stationary. Drawing from numerous private collections, as well as the artist’s studio, the exhibition offers the opportunity to experience this lively and intimate work in the Museum’s ground level, glass-walled Irving Stenn, Jr, Family Project Gallery, in conversation with the two di Suvero outdoor steel sculptures on the Museum’s grounds—Orion (2006) and Shang (1984–85). UMMA has been a strong supporter of di Suvero’s work over the years: in addition to the two current outdoor works, di Suvero visited Ann Arbor in 2004 to install his 2001 piece
TABLETOPS
Ave Delirio on the site where the Frankel Wing was later built. Born in 1933 in China, di Suvero immigrated with his family to San Francisco in 1941 and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in philosophy in 1956. Di Suvero moved to New York in 1957 and he maintains studios in Northern California, New York, and France. In addition to countless national and international exhibitions and awards, di Suvero was honored in March of this year with the National Medal of the Arts by President Obama in a White House ceremony. His work can be found in such venerable public collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, among many other outdoor locations and sculpture parks worldwide. This year the artist’s work was featured in the high-profile exhibition Mark di Suvero at Governors Island: Presented by Storm King Art Center in New York City. As the poet and essayist John Yau has written, “While sculpture is generally regarded to be about space, di Suvero’s work is about space-time and nature’s invisible forces, gravity and the movement of air in a room or a field, each being quite different. His work expresses that sense of discovery that we associate with Leonardo when he watched migrating birds rise into the sky, contemplated the flow of a river, stared into the deluge, or dreamed up infernal and beneficial machines. Like da Vinci, di Suvero is a dreamer. But unlike him, he is much more practical and down-to-earth.” This exhibition is made possible in part by the Office of the President of the University of Michigan, the University of Michigan Health System, and Laura Lynch and Hugh McPherson.
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Mark di Suvero Left: Silverbow II, circa 1999, stainless steel, steel, Collection of the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art Below: Untitled, 1999, steel, Private collection Bottom: Boxcar Hokusai, 1993–2001, steel and stainless steel, Collection of the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art
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exhibitions
november 12, 2011–february 5, 2012 | a. alfred taubman gallery i
FACE OF OUR TIME
JACOB AUE SOBOL, JIM GOLDBERG, ZANELE MUHOLI, DANIEL SCHWARTZ, RICHARD MISRACH The “documentary style,” as defined by American photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975), embodied a complex approach to photography. Documents are straightforward and useful records—a kind of unbiased truth that is an assumed characteristic of photojournalism. Photography can adopt the “documentary” approach but amplifies the document with qualities that go far beyond straight reportage: “perception and penetration…assurance, originality of vision,” as Evans described. The documentary style approach that delves beyond just the facts has become central to the work of contemporary photographers. Face of Our Time: Jacob Aue Sobol, Jim Goldberg, Zanele Muholi, Daniel Schwartz, Richard Misrach examines the work of five photographers who explore the world around them, imbuing their memorable images with the inflections and individuality of a personal sensibility inherent in Evans’s “documentary style.” In each case, the photographer has looked at a community or a locale that is in transition— emerging from or examining a world in flux. Danish photographer Jacob Aue Sobol’s suite of works, Sabine, emerges from a three-year stay in Greenland that began in 1999. The images profile his relationship with a Greenlandic woman, Sabine, her family of fishermen in eastern Greenland, and the tensions between the traditional and emerging modern cultures of that self-contained island nation. In contrast to Greenland’s more insular environment, Jim Goldberg’s works in Open See examine the illicit immigration to Europe from the African countries of Liberia, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Seen from the perspective of these immigrants’ countries of origin, Goldberg’s use of a landscape lens gives the works both sharp clarity and panoramic sweep. Zanele Muholi, a Zulu native of Durban, South Africa, explores the lesbian and transgender communities of black South Africa. When her portraits of lesbian couples were shown in South Africa in 2010, the South African minister of culture denounced the works as pornographic. Her series Faces and Phases endeavors to create a visible presence and evoke a sense of community for this largely invisible segment of the South African population.
Swiss-born photographer Daniel Schwartz’s Travelling through the Eye of History looks at a region that is largely unknown and misunderstood in the west: central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Kashmir, western China, and Mongolia. Occupying regions that were part of the Silk Road and that have been traveled for more than 5,000 years, the people Schwartz photographed live in lands layered by history but that are being transformed by economic, cultural, and political forces resulting from globalization. Instead of precious silks, lapis lazuli, and jade, Schwartz encountered oil pipelines, fiber-optic systems, refugee camps, and drought. As Schwartz himself described, “My work is in the history of places. It is really history from which I draw inspiration, and it is history which helps me understand the present.” Although raised in California and known for his large-format photographs of the American West, Richard Misrach’s series Destroy this Memory shifts his attention from the grandeur of the American landscape to the destructive powers of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on the city of New Orleans. Arriving in the wake of the storm, Misrach’s works explore the human toll of the storm in a collection of small-scale images that capture the sense of rage and despair of the city’s residents as they experience the inadequate response of officials. As Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and curator of the exhibition, observed, “In each of these projects, there is a rethinking of the nature of objective representation in photography, and its new relevance in the contemporary world we all share.” Face of Our Time: Jacob Aue Sobol, Jim Goldberg, Zanele Muholi, Daniel Schwartz, Richard Misrach is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Generous support is provided by Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council. Face of Our Time at UMMA is made possible in part by the Lois Zenkel Photographic Exhibitions Fund and the University of Michigan Office of the Provost and CEW Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund.
Opposite, clockwise from top: Jim Goldberg, Making Fire, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2008, chromogenic print, Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson, © Jim Goldberg; Jacob Aue Sobol, Untitled #8, from the series Sabine, 1999-2002, gelatin silver print, Courtesy the artist and Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, © Jacob Aue Sobol, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York; Richard Misrach, Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast], 2005, printed 2010, inkjet print, Collection SFMOMA, gift of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, © Richard Misrach; Daniel Schwartz, Winter Day, Kabul, Afghanistan, from the series Travelling through the Eye of History, 2006, inkjet print, Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase, © Daniel Schwartz This page: Zanele Muholi, Nomonde Mbusi, Berea, Johannesburg, 2007, gelatin silver print, Courtesy the artist and Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, © Zanele Muholi
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exhibitions
UMMA launches New Media Gallery with Mike Kelley’s
august 27–december 31, 2011 | new media gallery
In late August, the University of Michigan Museum of Art unveiled its new gallery space devoted to the breadth of thinking around new media. Loosely defined as modern and contemporary work that employs new technologies, digital projects, video, computer graphics, and interactive techniques, new media frequently quotes previous work and exploits its inherent mass communication properties. As a premier university art museum, UMMA is known for its renowned encyclopedic holdings, and the New Media Gallery expands the Museum’s ability to showcase the range of positions that contemporary artists are exploring through new media technologies. UMMA’s New Media Gallery, located just off the Apse, will present three to four works every year by different emerging and established artists. Inaugurating the New Media Gallery will be Mike Kelley’s video Day Is Done (2005–06), a recent acquisition to the collections, which will be on view through December 31, 2011. A renowned Los Angeles-based artist who has been featured in countless national and international exhibitions throughout his career and whose work is included in the most prestigious museums worldwide, Kelley was born in Detroit and received his BFA degree from the University of Michigan. Day Is Done continues Kelley’s career-long investigation into the relationships between order and transgression, popular and avant-garde culture, while touching on contemporary notions of trauma and repressed memory. Day Is Done comprises parts two through thirty-two of Kelley’s multifaceted and ongoing project, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions, a body of work envisioned to eventually include 365 parts, one for each day of the year. Its thirty-one episodes are based on a series of photographs, culled from high-school yearbooks, depicting various “extracurricular activities,” specifically those that represent what Kelley has termed “socially accepted rituals of deviance”: dress-up days, religious performances, fashion shows, singles mixers, and talent shows, among others. Kelley uses the situations from the original found images of the yearbook as points of departure to stage a series of loosely connected video narratives, featuring such characters as the Motivational Vampire, Morose Ghoul, Shy Satanist, and Devil/Barber. Noting that many of his source photographs depict people in costume singing or dancing, Kelley has compared the resulting video episodes to music videos. “In fact,” he has written, “I consider Day Is Done to be a kind of fractured feature-length musical…The experience of viewing it is somewhat akin to channel-surfing on television.” Kelley’s mash-up of different narrative modes and musical styles alongside his liberal use of cultural stereotypes highlights the fact that so much “personal” experience is filtered through conventional representations. Ultimately, Day Is Done is less about high school per se than about common cultural rituals and their persistence and mutations over time. Originally presented in December of 2005 at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City as a sprawling video/sculpture, Kelley subsequently re-edited Day Is Done into a single channel format for theatrical presentation. Aptly described by filmmaker John Waters as an “epic,” Day Is Done will be shown at UMMA in its entirety.
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fall 2011
Mike Kelley, Day Is Done, 2005-06. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
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exhibitions Excerpted from the introductory essay, “Continual Experimentation in Modern Chinese Printmaking,” by Xiaobing Tang in the exhibition catalogue Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints (2011). Tang is the Helmut F. Stern Professor of Modern Chinese Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. The exhibition is on view in UMMA’s A. Alfred Taubman Galleries through October 23.
ULTIPLE IMPRESSIONS presents 114 woodblock prints made by forty-one Chinese printmakers between 2000 and 2010. Though this is a relatively small sampling from just a single decade, works by many important print artists from several generations are included. The decision to begin with the year 2000 acknowledges an earlier and larger exhibition in London, Chinese Printmaking Today (2003–04), which covered the period 1980–2000 and was organized by the British Library in association with the Muban Foundation.1 The current exhibition is the first large-scale presentation in the United States of Chinese woodblock prints made in the twenty-first century. To viewers new either to printmaking or to contemporary Chinese art, the prints collected here must present an intriguing assortment of images and impressions. There are works that readily remind us of an aesthetic sensibility or pictorial conventions generally understood to be East Asian or Chinese; there are works that seem to belong to a realist tradition once dominant in modern Chinese art; and there are works with an apparent affinity in spirit and style to, for instance, German Expressionism or Abstract Expressionism. In addition, the rich array of techniques and effects in these prints challenges any preconceived notions of how a woodblock print should look. We find here stark black-andwhite images with a chiseled appearance; we also see brilliant colors and dancing shapes produced through reduction (also known as waste-block) printing. As we are in turn captivated, pleased, or haunted by these works, we may begin to ask how best to grasp their appeal and significance. To those viewers familiar with the development of the modern woodcut in twentieth-century China, it should be exciting to see this medium continue to thrive and develop; it is also gratifying to recognize enduring themes and subject matter. Amidst clear signs of continuity, there is also much
to appreciate in the creativity and imagination of younger generations of artists, some born as recently as the 1980s. No less compelling are the adventures of well-established printmakers. Multiple Impressions makes it clear that woodblock printing continues today to be a cherished artistic medium in many parts of China. Its importance is reflected in the wealth of visual materials and English-language scholarship available on the topic. Numerous exhibition catalogues, art historical studies or accounts, and scholarly monographs examine aspects of the extraordinary modern woodcut movement, which is closely intertwined with the social, political, and cultural histories of modern China.2 As we move further into the twenty-first century, the contours of this engaging story come into ever sharper focus. 1 The Muban Foundation is now the Muban Educational Trust, still based in London. 2 An informative mapping of the many aspects of the woodcut movement in its first stages of development is offered by Julia F. Andrews’s well-illustrated essay “The Art of the Revolution: Chinese Prints 1930 to 1949” in The Art of Contemporary Chinese Woodcuts (London: Muban Foundation, 2003), while a solid survey by Frances Wood charts the history of Chinese printmaking from the ninth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. David Barker provides a unique Chinese-English glossary of terms used in woodblock printing. Such comprehensive coverage makes the Muban Foundation volume an ideal companion to this exhibition. Top: Feng Xumin, Dissipated No. 6 (detail), 2007, reduction woodcut printed with oil-based inks, Collection of the artist. Above: Chen Qi, Notations of Time No. 5, 2010, multi-block woodcut printed with water-soluble ink, Amelie Art Gallery, Beijing umma.umich.edu
programs
MULTIPLE IMPRESSIONS IN CONTEXT Contemporary art exhibitions at UMMA bring the ideas and working processes of living artists to the Museum and its audiences. The works assembled for the current Multiple Impressions exhibition also represent guest curator Xiaobing Tang’s own journey as he immersed himself in learning about contemporary woodblock printing over a several year period, visiting the studios of the forty-one exhibition artists and gaining a direct understanding of the people and vision behind the works. This fall UMMA offers an opportunity to meet four of these artists and to learn about their creative process in a medium that is at once highly technically demanding and supremely expressive. One of the most well known visitors is Chen Qi, an artist who has continually responded to both his own inner mandate as an artist and to the evolving cultural contexts in China during a period of great change. A recent commentator noted, “Through more than two decades of perseverance, Chen Qi has enriched the expressive power of water-based printmaking language by expanding the medium into the unknown realms of the conceptual and pushing his works beyond the limitations of painting.” UMMA Dialogues, a new conversational format, will offer Professor Tang in discussion with Fang Limin and Zhang Yuanfan, both noted artists and teachers from the China Academy of Art, UMMA’s Chinese partner for Multiple Impressions and an important center for innovation in printmaking. Chen Limin—one of the youngest artists in the show, and one of the two women printmakers represented—will talk about her work and the challenges and opportunities for women pursuing careers as artists in China today. For an American printmaker’s perspective on these complex and engaging works, join artist and UM School of Art and Design Associate Professor Endi Poskovic for an informal conversation in the exhibition galleries. Multiple Impressions was organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art with the cooperation and support of the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China. It is made possible in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, Confucius Institute, Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and the CEW Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund. Additionally, UMMA gratefully acknowledges the University of Michigan Offices of the President and the Provost for their ongoing support.
UMMA Dialogues Guest Curator Xiaobing Tang, Fang Limin, and Zheng Yuanfan
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2–4 PM HELMUT STERN AUDITORIUM
A Chinese Printmaker’s Cultural Identity and the Transformation in Contemporary Printmaking: A Lecture by Chen Qi THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 7 PM HELMUT STERN AUDITORIUM
This program is preceded by a reception at 6 pm in the Commons and is organized and cosponsored by the UM Center for Chinese Studies.
In Conversation with Chen Limin WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 5 PM MULTIPURPOSE ROOM
This program is followed by a reception and is cosponsored by the UM Center for the Education of Women.
In Conversation with Artist and Printmaker Endi Poskovic SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 3 PM A. ALFRED TAUBMAN GALLERIES
Reading the Popular Chinese Print: A Lecture by Ellen Laing WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 5 PM HELMUT STERN AUDITORIUM
In contrast to the works by leading contemporary artists presented in Multiple Impressions, this lecture will look closely at the Chinese popular print. Though often called nian hua or “New Year’s prints,” in fact their use spans many seasons and contexts, from protecting the threshold and interior of the household to promoting fertility. Noted scholar Dr. Ellen Laing will explore these and other topics in examining these prints that, while commercial products, have also been deeply intertwined with both daily life and spiritual beliefs.
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Fang Limin in his studio
programs
THE STUDENT VOICE the SPAB creates opportunities throughout the year that focus on student participation and awareness—not to mention having a bit of fun—including Third Thursdays, a monthly student performance series; an annual late-night event when students have the exclusive run of the Museum; and interviews of visiting contemporary artists that appear on UMMA’s website and social media platforms.
ach year, new UM students join UMMA’s Student Programming and Advisory Board (SPAB) because they are passionate about art and outreach. “I am a believer in art being able to affect all of the aspects of life,” commented Mallika Roy (above left), an incoming Board member and an undergraduate studying anthropology. “I feel that I have a good set of skills and networks for bringing people together and getting people excited about art who might not otherwise be involved in it.” Now in its fourth year, the Student Programming and Advisory Board is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of departments and organizations across campus that share UMMA’s commitment to creating significant experiences with the arts for UM students. Led by Lauren Rossi Harroun (above, center), UMMA’s Education Program Coordinator for Public Programs and Student Engagement, 12
Coming to UMMA after four and a half years at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), where she worked with their young professionals committee, the New Wave, and other volunteer groups, Harroun believes in the importance of having a direct link with young audiences. “They are able to advise us on what students are looking for in the Museum and share information about UMMA with their peers,” Harroun notes. “Participating on the Student Board allows students to get behind the scenes and learn firsthand about working in an art museum. It helps them—and us—think about what meaningful engagement looks like.” “I love how accessible UMMA is to students,” said Ellen Busch (above, right), an undergraduate dance major and another new SPAB member. “I really hope to help other students take advantage of the resources that we have at the Museum.” Check the “For UM Students” section of the UMMA website to find out more. Student programs at UMMA are supported by the University of Michigan Credit Union, Whole Foods Market, the Katherine Tuck Enrichment Fund, and the Doris Sloan Memorial Fund.
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IN TUNE:
ART AND MUSIC MEET AT UMMA Over the past two years, the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at UMMA series has presented twenty-two site-specific concerts to diverse intergenerational audiences of more than 4,000 people. But those are just the numbers. What makes this series special are the imaginative thematic connections between musical and visual art that serve as the inspiration for programs of wide-ranging repertoire, including the creation of new work performed by established world-class performers and the next generation of virtuosos. “The Museum context and extra-musical inspiration allows for unusual depth and breadth in choosing concert repertoire,” says SMTD@ UMMA series curator Jennifer Goltz. “I am especially attracted to opportunities that go beyond chronological and stylistic connections.” Free and open to the public, the experience for concertgoers is enhanced by the opportunity to visit related exhibitions during intermissions and
by the occasional pre-concert talk by UMMA curators and SMTD faculty. As we welcome the 2011–12 academic year, audiences can look forward to new riffs on the theme of imaginatively conceived concerts. Fall highlights include: A Sense of Steel: Dances for di Suvero on Sunday, October 9. Under the direction of UM Department of Dance faculty Amy Chavasse and Peter Sparling, students perform in movement dialogue with two of di Suvero’s outdoor works on the UMMA grounds—Orion and Shang–adjacent to smallerscale works in the special exhibition Mark di Suvero: Tabletops. Wood Cuts, in association with the exhibition Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints, on Sunday, October 23, an evening of chamber music exploring the wide variety and long history of musical sounds made by wooden instruments. Performed by students and faculty on violins, cellos, guitars, marimbas, woodblocks, recorders, clarinets, and bassoons, wood will thud, ring, and hoot. Coming up in winter: William Bolcom Portraits, in association with the exhibition Face of Our Time, on January 27. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom, joined by his wife and muse Joan Morris and sopranos Jennifer Goltz and Rhea Olivacce, presents two large song cycles that paint portraits of remarkable women. Digital Music Ensemble, in association with the exhibition Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life. Led by composer Stephen Rush, the Digital Music Ensemble performs works on March 30 with a Fluxus state of mind, including pieces by La Monte Young, John Cage, and Robert Ashley, as well as new works by members of the group. For a complete listing, please check the UMMA website at umma.umich.edu.
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The SMTD@UMMA concert series is made possible in part by the Katherine Tuck Enrichment Fund.
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FAMILIES
CONNECT
ART WITH
Visit UMMA on a Saturday morning and you might wander past a room humming with the sounds of youthful creativity or a semicircle of pre-schoolers raptly listening to a story. Family workshops organized by the Ann Arbor Art Center and UMMA’s Storytime at the Museum are specifically designed to engage children with art at a very young age. Often responding to the UMMA collections, twice-monthly family workshops “make the Museum equally accessible for parents and children,” remarked Amy Blondin, director of programs at the Art Center, “allowing them to learn together through a combination of looking and kinetic activity.” Workshops have included such media as sun prints and mobiles inspired by Alexander Calder. Blondin has heard from parents that their kids, following their participa-
tion in family workshops, “were excited about art and eager to discuss it, creating an ongoing dialogue between them.” During Storytime at the Museum children gather in the galleries for stories that animate both the art and a complementary activity. “This program is a treat. Kids hear about exciting characters such as Action Jackson, Dave the Potter, the Queen Mother of the West, and dragons,” said Pam Reister, UMMA’s Curator for Museum Teaching and Learning, who started this program with readers drawn from the Museum’s Student Docent program. “At the end of one story a youngster chirped ‘Now, let’s go look at some art!’ which is exactly what we hope they will want to do.” Parents must accompany children for each of these programs. Family workshops are designed for five year olds and up; Storytime at the Museum for four-to-seven year olds. Both are scheduled on Saturdays; workshops generally from 11 am to 1 pm, Storytime from 11 to 11:30 am. Check the UMMA website for dates.
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hen the audience at the Sean Dobbins Trio concert in August 2010 crowded into the UMMA Commons and extended down the hallway out of sight of the band, it was clear that in less than a year of its formation the UMMA Jazz Series had outgrown its original space. The next month, the series took over its new space in the Museum’s much larger Forum.
PLAY ON
Adam Unsworth Brings Region’s Best Jazz Musicians to UMMA
UM Associate Professor of Music Adam Unsworth, who brought the idea for the series to the UMMA Education Department in 2009, is committed to presenting the very best jazz performers from the Ann Arbor and Detroit area. “As an educator, I like the idea of the University taking a lead role in providing arts and culture to the community,” said Unsworth. “And for many of the concerts to date, I have been thrilled to feature UM’s stellar jazz faculty, a group of musicians that need to be heard and appreciated by jazz lovers everywhere.” Unsworth, formerly of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and who recently toured in Europe with the San Francisco Symphony, is also a composer and recording artist. “Jazz is too often relegated to the background,” Unsworth said. “I want to keep these events in a setting where listeners have the opportunity to truly enjoy the performance and give the music and musicians the attention they deserve. So far, so good—our audiences have been fantastic!” Please join us on the following Wednesday evenings in the Forum at 8 pm:
SEPTEMBER 21: DETROIT TENORS Tenor saxophonists Carl Cafagna and Steve Wood will lead the explosive rhythm team of Scott Gwinnell (piano), Paul Keller (bass), and Sean Dobbins (drums).
OCTOBER 12: DOBBINS, KRAHNKE, AND WEED TRIO Sean Dobbins, known for his hard-driving, solid rhythm, and refreshing melodic sensibility, is joined by Kurt Krahnke (bass) and Tad Weed (piano) for the second appearance of this phenomenal trio at UMMA.
NOVEMBER 16: LES THIMMIG SEVEN Musical renaissance man Les Thimmig (woodwinds) performs a concert of his own works joined by Andrew Bishop (alto saxophone), Adam Unsworth (horn), Cary Kocher (vibraphone), and Kurt Krahnke (bass).
DECEMBER 14: ELLEN ROWE IN THE APSE Copresented with the SMTD@UMMA concert series, Ellen Rowe premieres her new suite inspired by the Southwest—the writings of Georgia O’Keeffe, photography of Ansel Adams, Native American monuments, and works in the UMMA collections—with Andrew Bishop on saxophone. The UMMA Jazz Series is made possible by the Doris Sloan Memorial Fund.
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spotlight
ADULT LEARNERS IN A 2.0 WORLD As many have observed, the hallmark of the 2.0 world is not so much the technology itself, but the emphasis on active engagement and participation. While conversations, hands-on activities, and an emphasis on interactive learning characterize UMMA’s work with university and K–12 students, so often when it comes to adult programming, museums focus on the lecture format. Yet with easy access to information and their years of formal education behind them, adult visitors to the art museum also come seeking a meaningful experience with visual art, one that includes the opportunity to exercise their curiosity and to participate actively in the process of learning. “With UMMA at the center of a premier research university, of course you will still hear great lectures: however, adults will also be able to choose new formats that emphasize dialogue and conversation and offer different kinds of experiences,” said Ruth Slavin, Deputy Director, Education and Curatorial. “We have been recognized for being quite innovative in our programs developed with and for university students, and I wanted to bring that same more participatory approach and spirit of experimentation to our adult programs.“ With last spring’s Slow Art Day—a nationwide initiative that UMMA’s docents spearheaded locally—and this summer’s introduction of a new series of informal gallery programs called In Conversation, the Museum hopes to signal a welcome shift in adult programming. Adults can experience artmaking by taking advantage of the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Drop-In and Draw sessions. And this fall the Museum launches the new UMMA Dialogues series, a program in which participants can speak directly with artists, curators, and experts who visit UMMA.
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ore than 900 UM students took part in this special late-night event at UMMA in mid-April, organized by the Museum’s Student Programming and Advisory Board. Students had exclusive access to the Museum from 9 to 11 pm and enjoyed gallery hopping, grooving to MEDMA (a UM electronic music group), decorating personal luminaries, and striking a pose in the photo booth. The first 100 students received a free T-shirt designed by Student Board member Colin McRae, a graduate student in art and design. umma.umich.edu
UMMA AFTER HOURS
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membership
UMMA Members
FALL PREVIEW UMMA Members will be treated to several exciting and thought-provoking events this fall, including:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 Private Showing of Multiple Impressions, UMMA’s landmark fall exhibition that presents the largest collection of contemporary Chinese prints in the US since 2000. Meet the guest curator, UM Professor Xiaobing Tang, chat with UMMA Director Joseph Rosa, and mingle with other Museum members and distinguished University guests.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4 For Curators’ Circle and Director’s Circle Members A private gallery talk and brunch with Sandra Phillips of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and curator of the exhibition Face of Our Time: Jacob Aue Sobol, Jim Goldberg, Zanele Muholi, Daniel Schwartz, Richard Misrach, which opens November 12. UMMA Members also enjoy these additional benefits: • Advance notice of and insight into upcoming exhibitions, for instance this fall’s rare installation of tabletop sculptures by 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient Mark di Suvero • Expanded bimonthly calendars detailing the exciting programs—more than 400 annually—offered by UMMA and partners such as the UM School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and the Ann Arbor Art Center • Invitations to special events celebrating exhibitions, behind-the-scenes tours, and dinners with visiting artists • Reciprocal benefits at more than 400 North American museums • 10% discount in the UMMA Store Your membership gift allows UMMA to continue to develop high-quality, thought-provoking arts experiences for diverse audiences. Membership support makes it possible for UMMA to share its resources with nearly half a million people a year—both onsite visitors to the beautifully renovated and expanded Museum and constituents elsewhere who enjoy digital and touring resources. Thank you for supporting UMMA. Look for revised membership benefits coming in January 2012!
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museum store
his fall the Museum Store features the catalogue that accompanies UMMA’s comprehensive examination of contemporary Chinese woodblock prints, Multiple Impressions. This major scholarly catalogue published by UMMA—see an excerpt from the curator’s introductory essay in this issue of the Magazine—is being distributed nationally and internationally and retails at $24.95. But Museum members will enjoy a special discount in the Museum
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Store. In addition, the Store will carry a selection of related books on printmaking and woodblock prints, in particular. Speaking of UMMA publications, don’t overlook the recent exhibition catalogue featuring the extraordinary work of Chang Ku-nien, Tradition Transformed; UMMA’s commemorative reopening publication, A Beacon for Art; and volumes on contemporary artists Walead Beshty, Lisa Anne Auerbach, and Jakob Kolding.
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Look for the new bimonthly UMMA Calendar in your mailbox soon!
university of michigan museum of art 525 South State Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1354 734.763.UMMA umma.umich.edu
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connect online facebook.com/ummamuseum twitter.com/ummamuseum youtube.com/ummamuseum
become a member umma.umich.edu or umma-giving@umich.edu
gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday 10 am–5 pm Sunday 12–5 pm Closed Mondays
building hours The Forum, Commons, and selected public spaces in the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing are open daily 8 am–10 pm. Admission to the Museum is always free. $5 suggested donation appreciated.
University of Michigan Board of Regents: Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor; Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms; Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich; Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor; Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park; S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio Contributors: Lisa Borgsdorf, Mary DeYoe, Lauren Rossi Harroun, Carole McNamara, Stephanie Rieke Miller, Jacob Proctor, Pamela Reister, Ruth Slavin Editor: Stephanie Rieke Miller Designer: Susan E. Thompson
EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW JULY 16–OCTOBER 23, 2011
Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints AUGUST 27–DECEMBER 31, 2011
Mike Kelley: Day Is Done OCTOBER 8, 2011–FEBRUARY 26, 2012
Mark di Suvero: Tabletops NOVEMBER 12, 2011–FEBRUARY 5, 2012
Face of Our Time: Jacob Aue Sobol, Jim Goldberg, Zanele Muholi, Daniel Schwartz, Richard Misrach NOVEMBER 12, 2011–JUNE 24, 2012
Recent Acquisitions