UMMA Magazine | Spring/Summer 2015 by UMMA MusTech

spring/summer 2015

from the director

Spring and summer plans are well underway at UMMA, and throughout these coming months a broad and exciting selection of exhibitions and programs will fill our galleries and delight our visitors. At the very core of the Museum’s mission is our commitment to our students. Whether we are guiding their interaction with the art of their own time, or helping them access and rediscover artists of the past, we strive to be a key resource and inspiration for students across diverse disciplines, and to have an impact on their lives as scholars today and professionals tomorrow. From the career survey of Julian Schnabel’s iconic works, to cutting-edge contemporary artists, such as Theaster Gates’s activisturbanist conceptual work and Sophie Calle’s immersive installations that span multimedia and photography, the Museum offers exceptional visual experiences for every visitor.

Our extraordinary permanent collections and compelling exhibitions showcase art in both traditional and progressive media. Housed in an architectural jewel of a facility, UMMA has become what we once only dreamed it might be: the cultural heart of a world-class public research university. Throughout 2014, UMMA was involved in a strategic planning process to chart the course for the Museum’s growth over the next five years. UMMA’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020 articulates a vision of how the Museum can achieve these goals: enhancing our visitors’ encounters with art inside the institution, off-site, and online; broadening our audience engagement through innovative programming; and expanding our community partnerships with a range of participatory opportunities. The Strategic Plan was the result of a collaborative process that involved Museum staff, University colleagues, leaders of peer museums, volunteers, and donors. The implementation of this plan, as it gives focus and shape to the institution’s future, will also be a collaboration—a sustained effort to connect, engage, and inspire all the members of the Museum’s family as we bring art, history, education, and innovation together. I hope you will join us as we work to achieve these ambitious goals and discover the limitless possibilities for UMMA’s future. Warmest Regards,

Joseph Rosa

CONTENTS From the Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

UMMA Happenings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

UMMA News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

UMMA Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Exhibitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

UMMA Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Cover: Julian Schnabel, Divan, 1979, oil, plates, bondo on wood, 96 x 96 x 12 inches Photo by Farzad Owrang, Copyright Julian Schnabel Studio, Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT.

umma news

UMMA RECEIVES GIFT OF TURNER WATERCOLOR

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bedford, Bedfordshire, 1829–30 Watercolor, Gift of Marvin H. and Mary M. Davidson, 2014/2.37

In 2014, alumnus Marvin H. Davidson and his wife Mary donated an important watercolor to UMMA by the British artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner. One of the most accomplished and subtle practitioners of the medium, Turner’s view of Bedford is a preparatory painting for an engraving in Turner’s series of the 1820s, Picturesque Views in England and Wales. Turner’s watercolors are characterized by a nuanced sense of atmosphere—even in his topographical works. Bedford, Bedfordshire is no exception. The lively figures gathered around the river are steeped in bright but hazy light.

TWO NEW DIRECTOR'S ACQUISITION COMMITTEE WORKS The Director's Acquisition Committee, chaired by longtime UMMA supporter Lisa Applebaum of New York City, was established in January 2014 to energize the ongoing priority of art acquisitions with recommendations and financial support for UMMA's acquisitions. The committee held its inaugural meeting on October 10, 2014 and recommended the acquisition of these two works.

Auguste Salzmann Photograph Commissioned in 1854 to photograph ancient monuments in Jerusalem, Auguste Salzmann’s photograph of a frieze above a tomb entrance has a monumental presence and is a very fine example of French calotype (paper-negative) photography. As with many of that first generation of French photographers, Salzmann was initially trained as a painter and he brought to his photographs the principals of composition he learned as an artist, as is evident in the rich tonalities, varied textures, and dramatic light effects in this work. Auguste Salzmann, Détails de la fries de la retrait des Apôtres, Valée de Hinnom, Jérusalem, 1854–56 Blanquart-Évrard process salted paper print from a paper negative Museum purchase made possible by the Director’s Acquisition Committee, 2014, 2014/2.104

With the addition of the Salzmann, UMMA now has a visually stunning example of French calotype photography from the best period of that medium and just prior to the eclipse of calotype photography by the collodion on glass plate process.

Lotus and Carp Korean Screen

Lotus and Carp, Korea, Joseon period (1392–1898) 19th century Six-panel folding screen, ink and color on paper Museum purchase made possible by the Director’s Acquisition Committee, 2014, 2014/2.202

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This newly acquired work for UMMA’s Asian art collection is a great example of Korean minhwa, or folk painting. Korean folk painting is known for its vivid colors and simple yet playful designs based on folk beliefs. The lotus flower, which emerges pristine from muddy surroundings, is historically the Buddhist symbol of purity, creation, and birth. Known for the plenitude of seeds it holds in its seedpod, the lotus is equally popular as a folkloric symbol of abundance. The latter symbolism prevails in this screen, in which pairs of carp, signifying marital harmony and fertility, swim below the water. The Chinese word for lotus is a partial homonym with “harmony” and “union,” suggesting that this screen may have been commissioned for a wedding and later kept in a bride’s quarter in a wealthy home. In the Joseon period folding screens such as this piece were primarily used to decorate rooms, but they were also used as ceremonial backdrops and to help insulate against drafts.

exhibitions

a. alfred taubman gallery i | july 5–september 27, 2015

JULIAN SCHNABEL Julian Schnabel presents a comprehensive survey of the work of this iconoclastic New York painter and filmmaker, known for a pictorial language that embraces eccentric materials and radically unconventional techniques. The exhibition, which originated at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, Connecticut before traveling to UMMA, will feature artworks from the mid-1970s to the present, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures.

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exhibitions

Left: Large Girl with No Eyes, 2001 Oil, wax on canvas, 162 x 148 inches Photo by Farzad Owrang Copyright Julian Schnabel Studio Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT Opposite: The Sea, 1981 Oil, Mexican pots, plates, burnt wood, plaster, styrofoam, antlers, bondo on wood, 108 x 156 inches Photo by Farzad Owrang Copyright Julian Schnabel Studio Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT

From his first solo exhibition in 1979, Schnabel broke with the prevailing paradigm of Modernism to forge a practice that encompassed figuration, personal narratives, and references to history and mythology. He was among a group of 1980s artists known as NeoExpressionists (a term that he would reject) who wanted to return to painting pre-abstraction, to a renewed exploration of the medium’s emotional and expressive potential. The exhibition explores Schnabel’s use of found materials, his experimentation with chance operations, and his unconventional and inventive mark-making. Whether dragging a canvas on the ground, allowing a drop cloth to absorb environmental stains, or using printed images as backgrounds for his paintings, Schnabel’s formally and conceptually wide-ranging work is connected through the idea of the palimpsest, a metaphor that speaks to the dense and often mysterious layering of cultural signifiers and imagery that characterize his work.

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The show will feature rarely exhibited early works from 1975 onwards, including drawings and studies for Schnabel’s first mature series, the Plate Paintings and Wax Paintings. The plate paintings—large-scale compositions created using broken ceramic plates and other vessels—are perhaps the artist’s most well-known and defining body of work. The exhibition includes his first plate painting, The Patients and the Doctors, from 1978, as well as The Sea, a monumental tableau created in 1981, in which Schnabel used shards of broken Mexican vases to construct an allegory of cultural upheaval and death. Themes of immortality, death, and the passage of time are common in Schnabel’s oeuvre. In his early wax paintings, Schnabel cut holes into the surface of the canvas and made ridges out of canvas and modeling paste in order to make the paintings look and feel like found objects, as though he were painting on a garage door or a brick wall. Some pieces in the exhibition embody this same rejection of traditional forms and hierarchy, including

work from the artist’s 2001 Big Girl series, inspired by a small painting he found in a Houston thrift shop in 1987; paintings on Kabuki theater backdrops from 1986; and a 2012 goat painting, in which an image of a stuffed goat with a rabbit on its head is transposed onto 19th-century Dufour wallpaper. Challenging the notion that there is any difference between figurative and abstract painting, Schnabel founded his work on an infinite exploration of the way paint can make a pictorial surface out of anything. He said in 1987, “I don’t think the battle between figuration and abstraction is even an issue. Anything can be a model for painting—a poplar tree, another painting, a smudge of dirt.” This exhibition was organized by the Brant Foundation Art Study Center. Lead support for UMMA’s installation is provided by Joseph and Annette Allen, the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, the University of Michigan Health System, the Richard and Rosann Noel Endowment Fund, and Retirement Income Solutions.

exhibitions

media gallery | may 2–august 9, 2015

SOPHIE CALLE

NORTH POLE / PÔLE NORD

Above: North Pole / Pôle nord (detail), 2009 Duratrans light box, sandblasted porcelain plaques, video, screen, framed color photographs © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Courtesy of Sophie Calle and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Photograph by Steven Probert

Opposite: North Pole / Pôle nord (detail), 2009 Duratrans light box, sandblasted porcelain plaques, video, screen, framed color photographs © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Courtesy of Sophie Calle and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York Photograph by Steven Probert

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exhibitions

Following her mother’s death, French conceptual artist Sophie Calle wanted to bury her portrait and jewels on a glacier in the North Pole, a place her mother had always dreamed of seeing. This multifaceted installation, consisting of video, photographs, and a light box, documents moments of Calle’s journey to fulfill her mother’s unrealized dream. North Pole / Pôle nord also includes three porcelain plaques on which the artist has inscribed a story seemingly about her voyage, but in typical Calle fashion the text seamlessly segues to other anecdotes at once deeply personal and yet universally empathetic. The following is an excerpt: “I waited to reach the northernmost point on the trip in order to go ashore and bury my mother’s jewels. L., my cabin-mate on the boat, suggested that if the weather was not permitting, I could still flush the ring down the toilet. The prospect would have made my mother laugh. But on Thursday October 2, 2008, the weather was fine. I ventured onto the glacier, chose a beautiful stone and buried the portrait, the necklace and the diamond.

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Now my mother has gone to the Arctic North. Will climate change carry her out to sea as far as the Pole? Will she be dragged down the valley towards the ice cap? Will she stay on that shore, a marker of the Northern Glacier’s existence in the Holocene period?” The creative process that drives North Pole is characteristic of Calle’s practice: she not only shares a story drawn from her own life, but uses that moment to inspire further artistic exploration. Following a set of self-established behavioral instructions, she transforms her daily life with a series of performative actions, usually executed as a combination of texts, photographs, or films. For example, in 1979 Calle met a man at a party whom she then followed, in disguise, from Paris to Venice, documenting the surveillance with photographs. The man was only ever identified as Henri B. This action became a work called Suite Venitienne, which consisted of photographs and text. In the same year, Calle invited 24 people to inhabit her bed continuously for eight hours. Some were friends, or friends of friends, and some were strangers to her. She served them food and photographed them every hour;

the resulting images and accompanying text became The Sleepers. The approach Calle used in her earliest works continued to inform her process, from a variety of perspectives, for decades. In the 2007 piece Take Care of Yourself, named for the last line in a break-up email from an ex, Calle invited 107 women to interpret the letter in ways that were uniquely their own. Their diverse responses, including video, poetry, scientific analysis, origami, and a shooting target, formed an emotionally complex landscape that spanned profound sadness, joy, anger, humor, and even the seeming objectivity of pure scientific research. As a body of work, these strategies serve as a poignant reconsideration of the parameters of public versus private life. Calle’s compelling investigation of intimacy, and her immersive and personally vulnerable method of storytelling, connect her own life, through her art, to a broader examination of the human condition. Kathleen Forde Adjunct Curator of Media Arts This exhibition is made possible in part by the Robert and Janet Miller Fund.

exhibitions

brandon bridge | may 9–september 20, 2015

MINE MORE COAL WAR EFFORT AND AMERICANISM IN WORLD WAR I POSTERS

Propaganda, commodity, and art came together in the poster during World War I. Just a week after the United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Headed by George Creel, the CPI had many functions, from propaganda to censorship. Creel realized almost immediately the need for powerful images to sell the war to the American people. Just 16 days after the declaration of war, he met with the renowned illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944) and launched the Division of Pictorial Publicity (DPP). Since posters were already common in consumer advertising, the transition to effectively marketing the American war effort could not have been smoother. Looking back at the accomplishments and shortcomings of the CPI after the war, Creel wrote that:

Walter Whitehead, Mine More Coal, 1918 Color Lithograph University of Michigan Museum of Art Gift of Mr. Maurice F. Lyons, 1954/2.35.104

At America’s call, . . . painters, sculptors, designers, illustrators, and cartoonists rallied to the colors with instancy [sic] and enthusiasm, and no other class or profession excelled them in the devotion that took no account of sacrifice or drudgery. As a consequence, America had more posters than any other belligerent, and, what is more to the point, they were

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exhibitions

Left: Philip Martiny, Under Four Flags – 3rd War Picture, 1918 Color Lithograph University of Michigan Museum of Art Gift of Mr. Maurice F. Lyons 1954/2.35.63A Right: James Montgomery Flagg, Will You Have a Part in Victory, circa 1918 Color Lithograph University of Michigan Museum of Art Gift of Mr. Maurice F. Lyons 1954/2.35.39

the best. They called to our own people from every hoarding like great clarions, and they went through the world, captioned in every language, carrying a message that thrilled and inspired. (1920) The U.S. avoided mandated rationing through volunteerism with the successful harnessing the democratic power of this modern medium. By war’s end, the DPP had designed over 700 posters meant to muster civilian support for the war. It made posters for the National War Garden Commission, U.S. Fuel Administration, Y.M.C.A., Red Cross, and even for Army and Navy recruiting, and some of America’s leading artists contributed designs: Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, E.H. Blashfield, Ralph Clarkson, Oliver Dennett Grover, Joseph Pennell, Edmund C. Tarbell, Francis C. Jones, Douglas Volk, and Howard Chandler Christy. Though these artists designed a huge variety of posters, two of the most important themes were war effort and Americanism. Persuading labor to work for the cause was of utmost concern. Escalating union activism had made

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many in Washington nervous about the reliability of the workforce. Also in doubt was the patriotism of America’s melting pot. Since most workers in the U.S. were foreign-born men at the start of 1917, including enemy-aliens, many propaganda posters sought to inspire loyalty to their adopted homeland. Of particular focus in this exhibition are the posters directed towards coal mining communities, which were microcosms of the social and economic pressures in the U.S. at the start of the war. Coal was vitally important to the war effort, yet its supply was jeopardized by increasingly frequent trade union strikes. Posters directed at coal mining communities, like those created for other industries, sought to persuade workers to participate in the war effort despite the long hours, dangerous working conditions, and low wages. At the same time, coal miners represented the nation’s equally volatile ethnic diversity of almost 10% foreignborn men in the United States—totaling some 14.5 million men and twice as many women and children. One U.S. Fuel Administration poster, for example, called out in seven languages to “Mine

More Coal” and “Stand By The Boys In The Trenches.” The tactic of likening the civilian worker to the soldier was similarly deployed in posters targeting the consumption habits of civilians on the home front in the National War Garden campaign. Marking the centennial of the Great War, this presentation of WWI posters from UMMA’s extensive collection highlights some of the lesser-known works by America’s most famous poster artists. From iconic Christy-girl illustrations to painterly works of art, these posters use a variety of means to present war-time American ideals. Works by James Montgomery Flagg, the designer of the Uncle Sam “I Want You” poster, are featured alongside those by illustrator J.C. Leyendecker and the acclaimed painter and printmaker Henry Reuterdahl. Antje K. Gamble Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment.

in focus

new acquisitions

LYNN DAVIS

ICEBERG PHOTOS

on view april 14â&#x20AC;&#x201C;july 19, 2015

Iceberg #10, Disko Bay, Greenland, 1988, 1988 Selenium-toned gelatin silver print Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Agah, Class of 1989 (BBA)

THEASTER GATES on view july 21â&#x20AC;&#x201C;october 18, 2015

Little Box for Starving Artists, 2013 Wood, ceramics, artist's clothing and books Museum Purchase made possible by Joseph and Annette Allen, 2014/2.1

Trained as a potter and an urban planner, Theaster Gates has developed an artistic practice that engages social questions, the production of space, and issues of race and class through sculpture, installation, and musical performance. His works are inextricably linked to large-scale urban interventions into the cultural and architectural fabric of his own poor, primarily AfricanAmerican neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. He occupies many roles, as artist, as Director of the Arts and Public Life Initiative at the University of Chicago, and as the head of his own foundation, all of which feed the development of the Dorchester Project. The Dorchester Project, which includes more than a dozen buildings serving as studios, residences, kitchens, art and research spaces, alongside affordable

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in focus Lynn Davis is widely known for photographs of the human nude and of iconic architectural sites from around the world. Her work took a new direction when she turned her attention to the monumental features of the Arctic landscape. Over a 20-year period from 1986 to 2007, she photographed the Jakobshavn Glacier facing Disko Bay in Greenland. This project is a testament to what she has described as that “mystical experience of awe that I first experienced when photographing that changing alchemy of ice and water that created such monolithic forms.” Davis’s photographs of glaciers capture different characteristics of the Arctic ice in a range of weather. In some images the ice has an opaque quality, like a curtain composed of creamy custard; in others the bright sun creates sharp angles and the brilliance of the light

housing, serves as a cultural catalyst, both for the use of the immediate community and as a model for artscentric development internationally. His artworks often repurpose elements from these redevelopment projects, transforming salvaged found objects with a nod to histories of assemblage in modern art, while referencing the forms and symbols of urban life and the cultural, economic, and social systems that produce them. Beyond this physical feedback loop lays a similar economic interdependence, as the sale of artworks seeds the development of new sites, and the sites serve as inspiration for new bodies of work. Little Box for Starving Artists is part of an ongoing series addressing the relationship of objects, food, and ritual. The work gathers functional,

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on the ice dazzles; yet others have the character of the romantic ice paintings of 19th century American artists such as Frederic E. Church (1826–1900). In the evocative Iceberg #10, the projection of the edge of the iceberg is like the prow of a monumental vessel emerging from a shroud of mist. Davis tones her Arctic photographs with selenium or gold, adding a warmth to her black and white prints that amplify the qualities of an enveloping fog and the textures of ice. Davis has made four voyages to Disko Bay to photograph ice formations. While in the 1980s the permanence of the ice was not in question, over time the glacier has retreated and on more recent trips she has been unable to find the same monumental icebergs she photographed earlier. She mourns this loss: “What was first a mystical and lifechanging experience has now turned

biographical, and symbolic items to narrate the larger themes of his work and encapsulate ephemera suggestive of performance. The work channels both the elegantly simple construction of Japanese packaging of food and ceramics (Gates studied ceramics in Japan), and art historical forms like the Flux Kits assembled by Fluxus artists to include small multiples made in the form of everyday objects. Made in collaboration with Japanese potters, the ceramics were originally produced in the context of meals and discussions around “soul food” and its relationship to generosity across cultures. There Are No Children Here offers a true account of brothers struggling to survive a hostile environment, growing up poor and black in Chicago. Two of the artist’s own shirts (literally off his back), along with a memento from the artist’s exhibi-

to an awareness that nature as we have known it and taken for granted is now disappearing faster than we had ever imagined. It has been my melancholy privilege to record and celebrate such an extraordinary journey of impermanence and renewal. It is my hope and prayer that by witnessing and recording such transcendent phenomena that it is not too late to change what now seems like an irreversible fate.” This photograph was recently gifted to UMMA by James (BBA '89) and Wendy Agah as part of a significant contribution of over 150 works from their photography collection. Carole McNamara Guest Curator

tion at Documenta are more personal offerings. Each object points to specific actions and ideas, offered perhaps by Gates to the “starving artist” for both inspiration and use, a nod to Gates’s own practice that mixes the aesthetic and the functional, the symbolic and the social. In his words, “One thing that's really important to me is thinking about the role artists play in public life. In addition to painting and drawing and sculpture, artists can imagine they have the right as creative people to transform the city and the world.” The acquisition of this work was made possible by a gift from UMMA National Leadership Council member Joseph Allen (BA '63) and his wife Annette. Elizabeth Thomas Guest Curator

education

FORM SHAPING TIME AND SPACE

Jessica Fogel

Peter Sparling

In 1984–85 a young and eager group of new Dance faculty converged at U-M. They founded Ann Arbor Dance Works as a resident professional dance company of the University of Michigan Department of Dance in order to make, perform, and tour new work. For more than two decades, UMMA has collaborated with many of the same faculty to bring to life diverse projects that link choreography, movement, and the visual arts. This June 18 and 19, UMMA will host the 30th anniversary of Ann Arbor Dance Works. To mark the occasion, UMMA asked U-M Professor of Dance and AADW Artistic Director, Jessica Fogel, and Thurnau Professor of Dance Peter Sparling, to talk about our history together.

jessica fogel: The first thing I did with the Museum was a commission by the Museum on the occasion of getting two new Picasso paintings in the early ‘90s. It was very much about finding a way into the paintings through embodiment and finding a response to them. It’s another way of entering into visual art for audiences, but also for choreographers. For myself, it becomes about a work of visual art as a score, just as music is a score.

walls. I like to think that there is always that direct correspondence. My first experiences choreographing were about visualizing music. In 11th grade I would listen to the Bartok string quartets and I would imagine motion and I would draw pictures before I knew what choreography was. Of course, we in dance have a long tradition of working with artists whether it was Martha Graham and Isamu Noguchi or Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg.

peter sparling: I think of visual art as arrested motion and dance as motion full of arrested moments. That kind of shaping of time or space into human body or forms is a direct correlation to when forms went up on the cave

jf: I did a lot of what I call visual art works. One was a dance highly influenced by Louise Nevelson. I created a series about Vermeer, a different series about Hopper paintings, and others, many here with UMMA.

ps: Students now don’t always come with an awareness of this tradition. It’s our task to get them over to the Museum where we can talk about our concurrent histories. The eras in dance—Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Expressionist, Cubist, etcetera—correspond so closely to our Modern Art tradition. jf: In the 30 years I’ve been here, my freshman composition classes almost always do a study at the Museum. The students are excited to have a different kind of reference. And their quick sketches are usually quite vivid even at this early stage. So right from the get-go they’ve got this idea that this is a way in, a way other than their favorite threeminute song on their playlist. It’s kind of a change of psyche.

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education

(left): Student dancers outside UMMA in front of Orion by artist Mark di Suvero. (above top): Pablo Picasso Two Girls Reading (Deux Enfants Lisant), 1934 Gift of The Carey Walker Foundation, 1994/1.67 (above bottom): Pablo Picasso Portrait of Françoise (Buste de Femme), 1949 Gift of The Carey Walker Foundation, 1994/1.68

ps: When I worked with UMMA on the Mark diSuvero exhibition in 2011, students were dancing in relationship to Orion. They had to explore: How does movement reflect an object and resonate with something of such a monumental scale? About visuality, about striking the pose such that there is some relationship between that shape they’re making and that work of art, or not. It’s also helping stretch their imaginations in terms of what can inspire them to make work. You folks have been

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largely responsible for our being here too because your Education program has welcomed us in. I think it is a wonderful fit. It’s a way of alerting audiences who have perhaps been a little museum shy to see things in a new way. jf: I think everything I’ve done at the Museum has been a real highlight for me. There’s a kind of resonance of the space. That’s one reason I wanted to have the Dance Works anniversary here. I envision moving through the different

spaces with the audience in a more immersive role for the first part of the program and then settling into the Apse for the main event. And then, of course, we’ll end with cake! AADW 30th Anniversary performances will take place on June 18 and 19 at 7:30pm. Cake to follow. Please visit www.umma.umich.edu for more information.

education

TEACHERS AND DOCENTS

A LABORATORY FOR LEARNING

Students clamor off the bus and into the museum for a school tour with world-class art and astute and friendly docents. In the 21st century, field trips at UMMA offer more than an enriching day away from school. Docents encourage students to look carefully, think critically, and extend their classroom learning in new and creative ways. UMMA offers tours that make connections with classroom curriculum, notably in writing, science, and social studies. Educators at UMMA work with both docents and teachers to make these exciting new ways of learning happen. It all begins with docent training. In the first weeks with a new class, instructors Pamela Reister and Ruth Slavin introduce strategies for interactive, inquiry-based teaching and reinforce and expand on these strategies throughout the year. Members of the training class of 2014/15 appreciate the importance of this approach. One reported, “the focus of the docent training program is engaging the students. Group dynamics, interaction, and participation are key. A successful visit should raise interest and awareness, which hopefully will inspire the student to learn more.” Other trainees noted that docents are taught to “evoke personal responses,” that “interaction and participation are key,” and that docents should encourage students to “take away curiosity” about what they see. UMMA also reaches out to the community. Robin Bailey, Fine Arts Coordinator for Ann Arbor Public Schools, has been invaluable as a conduit of information on district and state curricula as well as specific creative lessons offered by her teachers. These gems are set in the galleries, expanding the

content and reinforcing the themes with carefully selected works of art and accompanying activities. Last fall, docents and teachers met to test our methods at an UMMA teacher workshop designed for sharing ideas, experiences, and lessons. Both docents and teachers benefitted from seeing the work of the other. Teachers got to experience a docent tour without worrying about bus arrangements or permission slips. This tour sample included art from regions of the U.S. employed in social studies tours, abstract art as a prompt for writing, and painting and sculpture containing rocks and minerals that illuminate the study of geology. Ina Sandalow, a former Ann Arbor teacher and docent since 1998/99, noted that this was a good laboratory for both her and the teachers. She got feedback on what was effective about her tour and teachers got to see “that we ask students to look seriously and practice inductive reasoning.” Sherri Masson, former teacher for Huron Valley Schools and docent since 2008/09, pointed out that teachers got to practice using a work of art as a concrete way to start the writing process,

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education

to observe and think about the emotions and feelings depicted in paint and develop their writing from that.” Further, teachers “had to experience the risk-taking that is involved in writing, something their students feel in the classroom.” This teacher workshop was also something of a crucible for teachers from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Detroit to work together developing new ideas. Teachers worked in teams to create lesson plans for their schools based on the docent tour and presented their plans to colleagues in a curriculum slam, a lively, fast-paced workshop finale. Teachers said “it was great to hear the divergent thinking and creative lessons from other schools,” that it was “really important to develop art/ science connections,” and they appreciated the “opportunity to collaborate.”

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The work of UMMA staff, teachers, and docents on K-12 learning will be represented on a new web platform. UMMA recently received a Challenge Grant of $500,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support an initiative that will, among other things, make our humanities programming available online. The NEH grant will allow us to create a web platform for the lessons planned by teachers, the lessons that augment and extend our curricular tours, upon which other teachers can comment. This cyber adventure will expand the possibilities of learning at UMMA in more exciting, 21st-century ways.

umma happenings

1 EXPLORING IDENTITIES: Can a Photograph Capture the “Real You?” 1 · Lexi Harounian - History of Art & Museum Studies (2017) 2 · Brian Garcia, Interarts, Performance (2016) 3 · Corine Rosenberg – Social Theory and Practice (2015)

3 4 · On March 11 the Michigan Opera Theatre presented highlights from the opera AN OVERTURE TO FRIDA at UMMA, with music by Robert Xavier Rodriguez and Catalina Cuervo as Frida Kahlo. 5 · Sessions with the Cynic: A Night of Art, Hip-Hop, and Activism, January 22, 2015

umma happenings 6 · Dr. Cheng-Yang Chang and Teresa Chang view work from the FLIP YOUR FIELD: OBJECTS FROM THE COLLECTION exhibition in the Stenn Gallery at UMMA. 7 · Georgios Skiniotis, Professor of Biological Chemistry at U-M’s Life Sciences Institute and Medical School, curated an exhibition from the Museum’s collection of three-dimensional objects (FLIP YOUR FIELD: OBJECTS FROM THE COLLECTION.)

7 9 · UMMA Director JOSEPH ROSA with CAROLE MCNAMARA, Senior Western Curator of Western Art at her retirement reception.

8 8 · Bubbles outside the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing.

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UMMA-HISTORY OF ART CURATORIAL FELLOWSHIP ENDOWED WITH NEW GIFT UMMA’s efforts to nurture tomorrow’s museum professionals have been dramatically bolstered by a new commitment to endow a curatorial fellowship for PhD candidates in U-M’s History of Art program. Equally important, the fellows themselves have directly benefitted from a diversified work experience and exposure to museum careers. Projects by the fellows thus far have included the curation of UMMA’s Design Gallery, exhibitions of World War I and Soviet Constructivist posters, and resource development for use of UMMA’s medieval collection in broader teaching and learning.

Artist Mel Bochner and Irving Stenn, Jr. pose in front of Bochner’s Blah, Blah, Blah at UMMA GLOW, honoring Stenn, on April 11, 2013.

Irving Stenn, Jr. (BA ’52, JD ’55), a longtime supporter of UMMA and the U-M Law School, has made a pledge of $750,000 that will provide full tuition support for the Irving Stenn, Jr. Curatorial Fellowship in perpetuity. The University’s Michigan Matching Initiative for Student Support further extended Irv’s generosity, resulting in an additional $125,000 for the fellowship. In 2011 UMMA received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for several humanities-based initiatives, including three years of support for art history graduate students to gain curatorial experience at UMMA. Since its inception, the fellowship has provided significant benefit to the Museum, the Department of the History of Art, and the broader field. The research the fellows undertake, the new knowledge they create, and the services and programs they support impact the quality of UMMA’s campus and community service.

Due to the impact of the fellowship to date, last fall the Mellon Foundation renewed its support for another three years. The new Stenn Curatorial Fellowship will be fully funded by 2018, ensuring that fellowship appointments will continue, uninterrupted, long into the future. Irv Stenn’s involvement at UMMA has been central to the Museum’s growth in recent years. Beyond Ann Arbor, Irv’s civic leadership in the arts is felt deeply in his lifelong community of Chicago. In 2013 Irv was honored at the inaugural UMMA GLOW, the Museum’s biennial event that illuminates the important role that UM alumni art collectors and patrons have played in the international arts landscape and in UMMA’s evolution. Irv began collecting art in the early 1970s. His remarkable collection encompasses prints, paintings, sculpture, and drawings by such icons as Mel Bochner, Lucio Fontana, Sol LeWitt, Fred Sandback, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, and Ellsworth Kelly. Irv’s passions for art and for helping students have come together in the new Stenn Curatorial Fellowship at UMMA. "I am delighted to make this gift to the Museum of Art," says Stenn. "Supporting Michigan students is very dear to my heart, as I have had this same interest at the Law School for a number of years. With this fellowship at UMMA, I'm able to combine my passion for art with my desire to help talented students. It's ideal."

umma.umich.edu

JULIAN SCHNABEL: DRAW A FAMILY With the opening of the upcoming exhibition, Julian Schnabel, the UMMA Store will have a limited number of copies of the book Draw a Family available for sale. The book features nearly 400 color images from the mid-1970s to the present. Many of the works in the UMMA exhibition appear in this book.

Publisher: Karma, New York. Publication date: 2014. Pages: 544

GIFTS FOR THE GRADUATE Celebrate your grad’s success with a unique gift from the UMMA Store, as a reminder of their favorite years at Michigan!

the iconic “block m”

michigan view journals

handmade michigan jewelry

Our most popular graduation gift. There are only 30 available.

Handsome journals with images of iconic Michigan views. Published by Found Image Press.

Michigan Upper and Lower Peninsula Twist State Ring (Sterling Silver & Copper Ring).

SHOP ONLINE! STORE.UMMA.UMICH.EDU STORE HOURS MON–SAT 11AM–5PM, SUN 12–5PM

Non-Profit Organization U. S . P o s t a g e PA I D A n n A r b o r, M I P e r m i t N o . 14 4

525 South State Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1354 734.763.UMMA umma.umich.edu

For up-to-date details on UMMA exhibitions and programs, visit umma.umich.edu or follow UMMA on Facebook or Twitter! connect online facebook.com/ummamuseum twitter.com/ummamuseum instagram.com/ummamuseum

become a member umma.umich.edu or umma-giving@umich.edu

gallery hours May–September Tuesday through Saturday 11am–5pm Sunday 12–5pm Closed Mondays

building hours May–September The Forum, Commons, and selected public spaces in the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing are open daily 8am–6pm. Admission to the Museum is always free. $10 suggested donation appreciated.

EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW january 24–july 19, 2015

Flip Your Field: Objects from the Collection february 14–june 14, 2015

HE: The Hergott Shepard Photography Collection february 21–august 9, 2015

Hana Hamplová: Meditations on Paper may 2–august 9, 2015

Sophie Calle: North Pole may 9-september 20, 2015

Mine More Coal: War Effort and Americanism in World War I Posters july 5–september 27, 2015

Julian Schnabel august 15–november 29, 2015

Jem Cohen: Life Drawing

university of michigan board of regents: Michael Behm, Grand Blanc; Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor; Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfield Hills; Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe; Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor; Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Dr. Mark S. Schlissel, ex officio contributors: Lisa Borgsdorf, Kathleen Forde, Antje Gamble, Lauren Harroun, Ruth Keffer, Carole McNamara, Pamela Reister, Anna Sampson, Ruth Slavin, Elizabeth Thomas, Leisa Thompson, Carrie Throm, Benjamin Weatherston editor: Susanne Kocsis; designer: Kevin Woodland