Homa Taj In Conversation with Filmmaker & Photographer Jerry Schatzberg (part i)

Homa Taj In Conversation with Filmmaker & Photographer Jerry Schatzberg (part i)

Jerry Schatzberg, Catherine Deneuve, 1962

Late last month, I had the opportunity to interview New York-based photographer and filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg. Prior to that, I had met Schatzberg at the inaugural Art Miami New York where his photograph of Edie Sedwick was used as a promotional image for the art fair.

I have been familiar with Schatzberg’s work as a photographer circa 1950’s-’70’s and have seen several of his films, including Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) starring Faye Dunaway.

Schatzberg is the man who has discovered Al Pacino, directed Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Alan Alda … and photographed Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles among numerous other iconic performers.

For many in the film and the art world(s), Schatzberg needs no introduction. The remarkably youthful 87 year-old artist has been creating memorable images since circa the early 1950’s. Even those who may not know his name are well familiar with his images – especially, those of fashion photography in the 1950’s, musicians in the 1960’s and movie stars and movie makers through the 1970’s.

Homa Taj – You have been taking photographs and making films for more than half a century. And, you are still going as strong as ever. What are you working on at the moment?

Jerry Schatzberg – We have been working on a show for the Cinémathèque française, in Paris. Matthieu Orléan is in charge of the project…

HT – I have also thought Maison Européenne de la Photographie would be a great place to show your work. I recently interviewed  François Hebel – the former Director at Les Rencontres d’Arles – whom I understand you know.

JS – Yes, I know him from Arles. Back in the early 1980’s someone I knew invited me to present my work as “a new discovery.” I thought, “You’re kidding?” But, it worked out well. And, that is how I had my major exhibition at Rencontre d’Arles.

HT – It was a solo show at the festival in 1982.

JS – That’s right. But, of course, it is a big festival where photographs are shown everywhere – in the back of stores, etc. Anyway, we are just beginning to formally pursue (re-) presenting my photogaphy.

HT – It’s been a while since you have focused your energy on photography…

JS – Yes. I really stopped taking pictures quite a while ago because I was making films. As you know, so much goes into making a film – all the research – that I hadn’t had time to do photography or go out and sell my work.
However, over the years, many film festivals would ask me to exhibit my work so I started doing shows for them. At Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, they actually bought a gallery because they wanted to exhibit works by filmmakers who were presenting films at the festival and I was their first show there. That was at l’Institut Lumière, in 2009.

HT – So, France has been good to you…

JS – Oh, yes. In fact, they discovered me. It was Pierre Lucien … in San Francisco (1970). He saw the listing for Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) and figured here’s another film by a bull sh*t fashion photogapher and didn’t want to see it. As it happened, he didn’t have anything to do so he figured he’d go and see the first ten minutes of it. But, he fell in love with it and became my champion.

HT – Some have defined Puzzle of a Downfall Child with Faye Dunaway as a semi-autobiographical film.

JS – Well, the story was based on my friend and favorite model, Anne St Marie. It was her story I wanted to tell. I had 3 1/2 hours of taped conversation based on which Carole Eastman wrote the screenplay brilliantly for the film. To this day, it is my favorite film. A very personal film. But it’s loosely based on me. Or even her. It’s more fiction within fiction.

HT – Who is representing your photography now?

JS – Nikola Rukaj Gallery in Canada represents my photography in Canada and we sell a lot of work. I was with Staley Wise Gallery for 35 years. But, for the last 15 years nothing happened. They considered me a filmmaker not a photographer. Now, I understand. I don’t think there are any photographers who have as extensive a portfolio of stills as they have films. So, they figure that I am just a filmmaker. And, frankly, I got tired of being pushed aside so I left there.
I am still looking for a gallery that I really like.

HT – I think it’s very challenging for artists to find a good dealer – just as it is for filmmakers to find a good producer. You are really looking for a partner with whom you will end up working for the next 2-5 years minimum (at least in case of film). And, it’s becoming even more challenging…

JS – Yes. It is also difficult for dealers to take on ‘new’ people, even if they are older. And, more experienced. Because, they have to start to sell them just as they would someone brand new – someone much younger. So, it’s difficult for everyone.
I’d love to have shows in NYC. Really looking forward to working with a good gallery.

HT – I personally find it astonishing that you are not represented in NY. When I go on any major social media – Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram … – I see your photos everywhere. Especially your fashion photos. Well, as well as, the celebrity ones… Of course, sometimes they are not credited because people don’t know. But, you do have a huge fan base. Though they may not know that they are fans (because they may not know your name, yet!)

JS – In a way, I have always been lucky because I have always gotten the publicity that I needed without going after it, for one reason or another. And, then, I went from film to film to film… After my last film (The Day the Ponies Come Back, 2000), I realized that my legacy is still going to be in photography. And, while I still have to earn a living, it is still photography that will pay my bills because the films that I do are low budget, as they were even at the beginning. Unless, of course, you get a big hit, and the films that I do are not immediate commercial mega-successes. They are not blockbuster types of films. But they do stay around for a long time.

HT – So, no super heroes jumping from building to building, for you?

JS – No. I am afraid not. But, now, I am finally making a little bit of effort to focus on my photographs.

HT – Who holds the copyright to your photographs?

JS – I do. I never signed a contract when I worked for Vogue – I worked for them for two and a half years. So, they are all my photographs, basically. I didn’t sign a contract with anybody. I did a lot of work for Atlantic Records because I was friendly with Ahmet Ertegün (the late founder and president of Atlantic Records) so they kept asking me to photograph this one and that one…

The Dylan photographs, I pursued. There were actually two people telling me about Dylan in ’63-64. Somebody called Sara Noznisky, a friend of mine. And, Nico from Velvet Underground. Though She wasn’t Velvet Underground then…

HT – That’s right. She was a rather conventional model at the beginning of her career. And, she looked very sweet, back then.

Jerry – Yes. Well, she was very sweet – before she got mixed up in drugs. And, when I would go to Paris, she’d come to my hotel room and say, “Jerry, have you seen or heard of Bob Dylan? The guy I have been telling you about?” And, then, I listened to Dylan and understood why everyone was so crazy about him.
Anyway, I don’t know whom I was photographing when I heard a journalist talk about Dylan. I went over and told them, “If you see Dylan, tell him I’d like to photograph him.” And, that was it. The next day, I got a call from Sara, who later became his wife.

So, she told me where the session was and I went over the next day and photographed him. They liked the photos that I took of him and wanted me to photograph him in the studio. The next thing they asked me to do was BLONDE ON BLONDE (cover). That is the only one for which I was ‘commissioned.’ But all the other photographs are mine.
You see over there [pointing to a wall in his apartment], Shepard Fairey saw that one in the Dylan book [Thin Wild Mercury: Touching Dylan’s Edge by Jerry Schatzberg, 2006] and asked me if he could paint it and I said, “Sure.”

But people know my photographs. For example, the image of Faye Dunaway’s Legs was used for official poster of the 64th Cannes Film Festival, 2011.
I have never thought that I had to go out and pursue selling my work. Or, my name.

HT – I am rather surprised that you haven’t had a proper museum show in the US. Given your body of work…

JS – Well, when Quentin Bajac came from Centre Pompidou to MoMA, in 2003, someone told me that he was organizing his first show. So, I emailed him to introduce myself and asked if I could go and see the exhibition. He wrote right back and said, “I know who you are…” which didn’t surprise me because the French know me. And, I did have a show (a retrospective) at the Pompidou in 1983. Bajac did say that it is not really an opening but told me that he’d love to give me a tour before his exhibition opened.

But then, I did not really pursue any conversations after that …

Homa – I don’t know Bajac, the only photography curator I know of at MoMA is Roxana Marcocci whom I interviewed several years ago …

JS – I used to know the film people at MoMA when Larry Kardish was there. And, Peter Galassi bought four of my pictures – Laverne Baker (1957); Edie Sedgwick (1964); Sandy Dennis (1964); and, one of Bob Dylan (1965).

HT – Tell me about your new project with Dylan…

JS – The new project with Dylan is a portfolio of photos that I took of him. It will include somewhere between 10-15 photographs that both he and I will sign. And, we are only going to make 50 (or so) of them.

HT – What about your fashion photography?

JS – WOMEN Then: Jerry Schatzberg (1954-1969) shows many of those. Then, there is the catalogue of the exhibition at the Pompidou – Jerry Schatzberg, de la photographie au cinéma, (20 Octobre 1982 – 29 Novembre 1982).

The Pompidou catalogue was the very begining of my archiving which is greatly time-consuming.

HT – You took several years off from photography to make films.

JS – I took 30 years off from photography. The last film I made was more than ten years ago. I figured I’ll take a year off and put my archives together. It’s been almost a decade already and we’re only half way through.

I have always wondered how I managed to take so may pictures in such a short period of time, c. 1954-1969.

HT – I think it’s because you were thinking cinematically. Like creating a storyboard… This is why some of your photographs are like series …

JS – Well, yes, I always thought cinematically. I always think of the story when I take photos.

HT – Speaking of cinema, I read in The Hollywood Reporter that you are now going back to making a sequel to Scarecrow (1973)?

… Tomorrow: Homa Taj In Conversation with Filmmaker & Photographer Jerry Schatzberg (part ii)

 

Q&A with Dutch-American Photographer Richard Koek

Yesterday, Dutch-born New York-based photographed made a note-worthy announcement on his LinkedIn profile: “The ministry of foreign affairs of The Netherlands have assigned me to follow The Dutch King and Queen on their recent trip to Grand Rapids and Chicago. I have learned a lot and am very grateful for this trust in my work.”

About three years ago, I met Richard as per the introduction of Robert Kloos, the long-time Director for Visual Arts, Architecture and Design at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York City. I had heard about Koek’s work as a rising star of portrait photography… but later came to learn about his more recent, experimental photographic and publishing projects, including the newly minted Koek NYC: “A Yearly Magazine celebrating NYC featuring the work of Photographer RICHARD KOEK in collaboration with emerging artists he encounters in New York.“

Congratulations, Richard. Your success is much-deserved!

In late December 2012, Richard agreed to participate in MUSEUMVIEWS‘ Artists Q&A series:

MV – What are favorite movie(s) & director(s)?
So many but seriously since JAWS I do not enjoy swimming anymore.

MV – What are your favorite book(s) & author(s)?
In George Orwell’s 1984: Smith’s devotion for big brother in the last page made me cry.

MV – Which is your favorite cultural centre or museum?
The KROLLER MULLER sculpture garden located in the centre of National Park De Hoge Veluwe in The Netherlands.

MV – What has been our most aesthetically (sensual, spiritual, intellectual) inspired experience?
Once I was drunk, hiding in an alley, in pouring rain while the cops were looking for me.

MV – What is your art (books, movie, exhibition, museum, etc) wish list?
To never loose sight, to be seen and to be an inspiration to others.

MV – Who is the artist or character (in any medium) with whom you most identify?
The way I believe August Sander saw the world. I identify with something in everyone and hope people identify with something in my work.

MV – What is the city in which you feel most inspired?
At the moment West Nyack this micro universe called THE PALISADES MALL.

MV – Who have been the influential persons in your life?
My mother and father. I promised myself not to be either of them.

MV – What are the most challenging aspects of working in the art world (& its institutions)?
Pausing the stream of images in my head, making something workable with the ideas and inspirations and going to sleep on time ;)

MV – What is the most gratifying aspect of being a part of the art world (& its institutions)?
The ability to show work that inspires people to find words to tell their own stories. That my work heals and makes me and others genuinely happy.

MV – What is the one thing that you always carry with you.
My MTA card and my ATM card

MV – What are arts patrons’ responsibilities, if any?
Simply to enjoy what they buy or collect for any reason they find fit and to share this with others.

MV – What are artists’ responsibilities to their art or(?) to society, if any?
My responsibility is universal and not special. To stay grateful. Grateful to be able to do what I love most, in a country I love most. To be loving towards others (well maybe except my neighbor who lets her dogs shit on our communal terrace).

MV – What are you art world pet peeves?
Too much explaining of what it means and what the concept is and talk about why I should love it particularly. Art should touch on a meta level and totally speak for itself. In Art to me it is yea or nay. I have not studied with the right vocabulary to find the right words…

Homa Taj in Conversation with Brooklyn Art Dealers Robert Henry Contemporary

 

Richard Garrison, courtesy Robert Henry Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY

Henry Chung is a Brooklyn based artist working in photography and mixed-media. Henry attended Columbia University and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and currently maintains a studio in Red Hook where he builds his pinhole cameras and programs obsolete computer equipment.

Robert Walden attended the Atlanta College of Art (BFA, 1994) and received of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2003), participated in Emerge 2001 at Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ and was a fellow at the Edward Albee Foundation (2005). Walden’s work has been seen in galleries and museums throughout the United States and in Europe, including The Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon, Portugal and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO. Robert Walden lives and works in Brooklyn, N Y.

They are the founders of Robert Henry Contemporary.

There are bad artist, bad art and bad galleries. Beginning collectors should take the time to visit and get to know the gallerists and understand that the only criteria in being a dealer is paying the rent on the gallery. Find a dealer you trust…actually, find several dealers…buy from more than one gallery. For collectors starting out who know very little about the history of art I recommend reading books…there are many to choose from…The Banquet Years is a good one, or artist’s biographies. Also, joining a museum’s collector’s clubs is a good way to begin. Take chances and challenge yourself and don’t dismiss something because “you don’t like it”…if an artwork is difficult or not easily understood that does not make it bad. Questions are better than answers. Above all be as passionate about what you collect as the artists are about what they make.

Homa Taj – When did you open your first gallery of contemporary art? And, in what year did you move to your present location in Bushwick?
Henry Chung – We first opened our gallery in 2009, and renaming it Robert Henry Contemporary when we moved to Bushwick in 2012.
Robert Walden – [First it was] in a storefront space in South Park Slope and moved to our present location at 56 Bogart St, in June (2012).

HT – How would you define – if that’s possible – emerging art that is coming out of Brooklyn? I think of Brooklyn as the Berlin of the American art market…
HC – I don’t know if I can characterize emerging art that is coming out of Brooklyn. I think there are connotations of “street art” that is associated with Brooklyn and Bushwick, but I don’t think most emerging artists working in Brooklyn come from this tradition. Brooklyn is very, very big with disparate and disconnected artist communities throughout the borough. Like New York in general has always done, Brooklyn is attracting all types of artists from everywhere as a place where artists can find and develop a voice.
RW – Defining what is being made in Brooklyn today is impossible. There is more diversity than words to describe what is being made in Brooklyn. However, there does seem to be a significant amount of painting. Also, art is being made all over the borough of Brooklyn not just in Bushwick

[Tweet “I advise beginning collectors to learn and take their time, don’t be intimidated…and to look.”]
 

HT – Given the dramatically rising real estate prices in Brooklyn, how do you see the artists’ demographics changing? On the one hand, this may be a good thing since there is a growing population of affluent residents who can buy art. And, on the other hand, these developments are pushing artists even further away from NYC, etc…
HC – Rents for apartment and studio spaces are rising astronomically in Brooklyn, and especially in Bushwick. It is no secret that artists have been pushed ever further and further into Brooklyn and even into Queens to seek affordable work space. Whereas artists in the past came to Brooklyn for the less expensive large loft spaces, artists come today for affordable small, shared studio spaces. One effect on the artwork is that it is increasingly difficult to create large-scale projects, since the studios often are merely a semi-private space in a corner of a room shared with a half dozen other artists. I do see also that artists come to Bushwick to be part of the arts community here, which is pretty active and social with plenty of venues and events where artists mingle and meet one another. In the past the pioneering artists who set up studios deep in Brooklyn were generally loners not necessarily interested in community.
RW – [That’s] a constant problem in New York City and have been for generations…this is nothing new. What seems new is the pace at which things are changing. There has been a lot of coverage in the news media about the problem of rising cost of living in NYC and Brooklyn, in particular, but no one seems to have a solution. New York City is increasingly more a market for selling than a center for art making like it became in the 20th Century…that market is a tightly closed society too.

HT – You are both artists how do you find the artists whose work you exhibit? Or, they find you?
HC – There certainly is no shortage of artists in Brooklyn, and one can find just about any kind of artist here. The artists that we show are generally people who we already know, or come from recommendations from people that we already know. Like any field, we rely heavily on networking. As we are both artists, Robert and I have a very large network of artist friends. As we are also gallerists, we have developed a nice social network of like-minded dealers and gallerists. When we have rare slot open for a group exhibition, we tap into our network to find the right fit. Although we had in the past, we currently do not accept unsolicited submissions.
RW – So far, most of the artists we show come from our network of friends and friends of artist friends…there are a few exceptions: Pancho Westendarp for example, came to us through an open call for submissions…which we accept periodically, usually in July and August through our website. We have not accepted submissions lately because we are more than too busy with the artists we are working with now.

HT – Is there a conflict of interest between you being artists, and art dealers?
HC – We keep our artist side separate from our gallerist/dealer side. Not so much because there is a conflict of interest (which there of course may be), but more so because of the perception of the legitimacy of the gallery. There is an unfortunate stigma with “artist-run” spaces in that they are are merely vanity projects. In order to grow our gallery and have it reach its full potential, we had to make the hard decision to keep the two worlds separate.
RW – No. We do not exhibit our own work. So, there is no conflict. I feel being artist gives us particular insights and advantages into what art is and how it is made that we can offer to our clients. Most people don’t go to a proctologist for a root canal, so why would anyone go to someone to buy art when that person doesn’t know anything about what art is?

HT – Your gallery’s program is very strong in representing conceptual art. But, from what I have observed over the years, your idea of conceptualism is balanced with an equally engaging appreciation for aesthetics – rather than concepts and ideas for their own sake with little regard for beauty…
HC – For me, the best artwork tickles both sides of the brain. I feel that strong and successful artwork often offers the viewer multiple levels of interpretation, and can appeal to a range of audiences and moods. I like that one can delve deeply into the conceptual underpinnings of certain artworks one day, and then think about how beautifully the shapes and colors suit the room the next. Conversely, I delight in the seeing the joy of someone who is attracted to a piece because of its aesthetic nature, but discovers an entire world of conceptual reading afterwards.
RW – There is nothing wrong with beauty. I am interested in work that is equally visually and conceptually or intellectually stimulating. This stems directly from Marcel Duchamp’s ideas on what he called ‘retinal art’ and “non-retinal” art…essentially, I am interested in work that is a combination of the two…or at least presenting what we show as both a visual and conceptual experience…work that delights the eye and engages the mind. I try to avoid what I call “I get it art” which is essentially work that is a one-liner…or work that makes statements rather than asking questions. Questions are more engaging than answers.

HT – How would you define the importance of art fairs? 
RW – Art fairs have become the go to sales event for galleries. There are good ones and bad ones just like art, artists and galleries. From a gallery’s perspective the best fairs are as much about sales as they are about quality. Volta is a great example. With it’s focus on single artist presentations collectors get a chance to experience and see more work. This allows for more in depth exploration and discovery. It also allows the collector to see consistency in an artist’s work.
 
HT – You were back at Aqua Art Fair at Art Basel Miami Fair. I have to say Aqua is my favorite satellite fair in Miami since it takes place in a most unique location: it is a distinctly Miami experience which cannot be emulated anywhere else in the world. Well, perhaps somewhere in the Mediterranean region. What was it like to exhibit your artists’ works there?

HC – We love the setting at Aqua! The hotel is unique in that it is one of the few left where the rooms all face the common courtyard. It feels to me as if one were at a town square, and all the shops are art galleries. Unlike fairs that are in large tents or in a convention center, the intimate setting of Aqua affords a certain casualness with our guests and fosters great conversation with potential clients. Unlike other hotel fairs, the rooms open out to the open air, not a hotel hallway, and we get to spend a week in the beautiful Miami weather. The atmosphere is festive and lets the guests experience art in a very “Miami” setting.
RW – That is one of the reasons we like the Aqua Fair…the venue itself. Because the hotel is only 2 floors and centered around an open courtyard with palm trees, etc…so, that it feels a bit like a town square of a small beach-side village but all the stores happen to be art galleries. There are challenges of course, the walls are plaster and not drywall, for example. However, the atmosphere is relaxed and unpretentious. Visitors are less intimidated and conversations about the work happen more readily. It is like no other fair for exactly the reason you suggest in your question.

HT – I understand that you were invited to participate in the Aqua’s first Selection Committee. What was that process like?
HC – We were honored to be part of making Aqua the best that it can be. Aqua already has a great reputation as an independent boutique art fair, and it was good to see that there is an effort to maintain a strong showing of galleries. Both Robert and I tried to consider not only the proposal in the application, but evaluating a gallery’s program as a whole as well as criteria for selection.
RHC – In 2012 Art Miami bought the Aqua art fair from its founders Jac Chartier and Dirk Park and the new director Jennifer Jacobs has gone about a process to grow and change the fair…essentially to make a great fair even better. Part of that process was to establish a selection committee to help expand the quality and geographic diversity of the fair. We were pleased to be invited to help this process as best we could.

HT – Which artists did you showing in Miami, this year?
HC – We are showing a selection of gallery artists curated to represent our narrowly focused programming:
Derek Lerner – ink on paper drawings using thousands of lines to explore the conflicting ideas of his urge to create and its effect on the environment.
Jerry Walden – investigates the nature of the aesthetic experience by combining Formalist compositional elements of color, line, pattern and direction with personal emotions and memories
Liz Jaff – obsessively cuts, folds and sews paper and string with exacting consistency to explore ideas of love, commitment, sacrifice and memory of time and space
Elise Engler – obsessively documents minute details of larger experiences through small, whimsical drawings, lying somewhere between art, taxonomy and natural history
Richard Garrison – analyses ubiquitous materials, objects and places from the suburban, often consumer related, American landscape
Pancho Westendarp – drawings and sculptures that analyze relationships between time, space, memory and movement
Robert Lansden – highly obsessive drawings built upon algorithms, focused on explorations of chance, discovery and time
Sharon Lawless – explores the tension between the planned control of rational thought and the random accidents of chance and irrationality through collage and “ready-made” imagery.

HT – Which artist are you showing at VOLTA, in Basel (June 2015)?

RW –  Liz Jaff’s Foramen:

Liz Jaff at VOLTA11 from GalleryLOG on Vimeo.

 

Homa Taj in Conversation with Jeremy Strick, Director at Nasher Sculpture Center

Late in May, I had the pleasure of meeting with Jeremy Strick, Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. A native of Los Angeles, Strick spent nearly a decade leading Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LA MoCA). Early in 2009, he was appointed Director at the Dallas-based museum which is one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world.

During our long conversation, we spoke about Dallas as a remarkable example of collective patronage; the place of sculpture in today’s digital world; and the First Annual Nasher Prize for Sculpture.

Homa Taj – You were at LA MoCA for a long time, about nine years. What was the transition to Dallas like – aside from the weather?

Jeremy Strick – Well, you know, it has actually been somewhat easy. Dallas is a very welcoming place. Also, physically speaking, the city reminds me of Los Angeles where I grew up.

HT – Dallas like Los Angeles and unlike, say New York, has a lot of breathing room …

JS – That’s right. It has a lot of spatial breathing room and it is a city that is in the midst of transformation. It’s becoming something … and that is very familiar to me. And, it’s a very easy place to arrive where you are welcomed.

HT – Do you work with the Dallas Museum of Art?

JS – The Dallas Museum is right across the street from us. And, so yes we have a very close relationship with them. We are actually a triangle of (three) museums, including the Crow Collection of Asian Art.

So it’s a very nice group of institutions that are in close proximity and create a rich environment.

HT – You are located in the downtown art district. This is somewhat unusual for a sculpture center.. because they’re often created out of town.

JS – I am told that when Ray Nasher wanted to create a sculpture garden – when he approached Renzo Piano – he had initially thought that it doesn’t make sense for a sculpture garden to be downtown and that it needs to be outside the city. Of course, he later came to embrace the idea that the garden can be in the city center. And, I think it is one of the critical features of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s identity. Our building is 55,000 square feet and our garden is about 1 1/2 acres. So, the idea of having this huge garden in the middle of the city that comes to serve as a place of rest, of meditation and, of course, of learning is wonderful.

HT – Yes, that is remarkable because when we think about de Cordova (Massachusetts), Storm King (New York), Kröller-Müller Museum (The Netherlands), Fondation Beyeler (Switzerland), Louisiana Museum (Denmark) … they are all out of town.

JS – Yes. But on the other hand, when we look at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the same thing obtains in the New Whitney, there are these moments where there are huge windows facing the city and sculpture is placed within those galleries… these moments hold up the idea of sculpture in the urban context.

And, I think that a lot of sculptures are created by artists who are urban creatures and their work reflects modernism and of course, one of the symbols of modernism is the urban environment. And, I think it works.

HT – Remember when it was said that “sculpture is that which you bump into when looking at a painting”? That is no longer the case. And, I think having these types of institutions that put particular focus on sculpture and three dimensionality of sculpture in the digital age have really helped shape the place of this art form.

JS – Certainly. It may be less true today with all the art fairs, and the audience for contemporary art is now quite vast. But it’s also true that people feel intimidated, they feel that they are not getting the art – or the environment of the museum. I find that a garden is a wonderful medium that helps eliminate the sense of distance and alienation that visitors feel in these institutions. People feel very comfortable relating to works … and, they are willing to take the art in its own terms. And, so there is something about the garden setting that really encourages it…

[Tweet “I find that a garden is a wonderful medium that helps eliminate the sense of distance and alienation that visitors feel in these institutions”]

HT – As opposed to a sterile environment or, even one that is systematically intimidating.

JS – I think you are right. Having three-dimensional objects help. And, I think having an environment that is respectful and comforting helps to welcome art audiences.

[Tweet “I think having an environment that is respectful and comforting helps to welcome art audiences. Jeremy Strick #NasherSculptureCenter”]

HT – Yes. I see museums around the world trying to reach out to new audiences by using social media. So, people look at paintings, for example, and think that they have already seen them on their iPads or on the Internet, etc – of course, they haven’t seen them but it’s easy to assume…- Sculpture, however, defies two-dimensionality. Unless, you look at the works in 3D – and, certainly, not even then. So, I think it would be wise if more museums used their sculpture collections to attract people to really dynamically engage with art. It’s better than continuing to promote museum selfies as an engagement tool…

JS – I think one of the reasons Ray Nasher wanted to create a sculpture garden and museum was because sculpture was still a neglected art form. Right now, of course, it is a having a great moment. And, I think it’s because much of our experience with media is two dimensional, as you say…

[Tweet “Ray #NasherSculptureCenter wanted to create a sculpture garden and museum was because sculpture was still a neglected art form”]

HT – When I worked at the fine arts library at Harvard … some scholars would joke that someday we’ll all become fuzzy (ditigized) art historians. We laughed. But, the joke has taken on a very serious face. That’s why I think sculpture is so important. Not just because of its 3-dimensionality but, in case of some, its size which makes it very difficult to ‘collect’. So, again, having these types of works – say monumental sculpture – which even major collectors may not be able to collect and displaying them in an urban environment is quite invaluable.

JS – That’s right. Artists, and sculptors in general, have a special feeling toward the natural environment. Think of Storm King, because it requires space for meditation, these become extraordinary places.

[Tweet “Artists, and sculptors in general, have a special feeling toward the natural environment. Jeremy Strick #NasherSculptureCenter”]

HT – Let’s talk about collecting – well, more like patronage: we talk about monumental sculpture that has a very small collecting base. But, there is also the underwriting of costs for acquisition or installation of works in the public museum context. How would you define Dallas as a community of arts patrons – as opposed to Los Angeles, or even New York? New York, for example, is terribly market-driven…

JS – Well, I would say that Dallas is a very special place. Very particular – like every major city. But, in Dallas, there is a collaborative spirit. For example, in 2007, three major collectors in Dallas donated a large number contemporary art works from their collections to the Dallas Museum of Art.

Other collectors have bought things together for museums. That is quite unique. And, it is one of the things that has delighted me about working in this environment.

The Nasher was founded by a single family but members of the community have reached out to us. Not to diminish the great philanthropy that takes place in other great cities in the country, but there is something very special about Dallas.

HT – Is this Texas Pride?

JS – No, I think this is a Dallas phenomenon.

HT – I was actually thinking of, for example, collectors in Cologne who wouldn’t buy art in Berlin – unless, it’s exhibited at, say, Art Cologne.

JS – I think that people in Dallas want their city to be great. And, they believe that

The arts provide a way to enhance their community. And, they are very deliberate about it. So, again, these are the ideal conditions for an art museum.

HT – That brings us to the International Nasher Prize for Sculpture..

JS – When Ray Nasher decided to create the museum, he wanted to provide an absolute optimal condition for the works on display. But, I think his ambition was that this would become more than a repository for art. He had stated that sculpture is somewhat overlooked. And, that it should be at the center of understanding modernism, via scholarship, etc.

So, three years ago, we were working on the Center’s 10th anniversary so we commissioned ten artists to create works around the city. And, that got us to think that there are so many approaches to sculpture. Not just in terms of style and medium like, sound, photograph, installation and various other media…

HJ – So, you define sculpture in a very broad sense?

JS – That’s right. The anniversary event was a great opportunity for us to reconsider what sculpture is? What are its parameters and so on? What are the great achievements in the field? And we realized that sculpture is so very varied, at this moment in THE history [of art]. And, that there are so many different approaches to it.

We thought that it was an opportune moment to consider these achievements and advances on a regular basis. There has not been a single international prize for sculpture. There are several prizes that include aspects of sculpture but nothing annual that would involve the discussion of the field. And, with what we are doing, the process is as important as the prize. We start with asking 100 nominators from around the world each to nominate a single artist. The goal is to give the prize to a living artist with a significant body of work, who has advanced our understanding of sculpture. Nominations are gathered and presented to a jury of seven distinguished individuals in the field.

I think it is a very strong group of jurors who are going to review the nominations and determine who will receive that award.

HT – So this is the first international Nasher Prize for sculpture. When will it be announced?

JS – It will be announced in the fall of this year. And, we will celebrate the first recipient, on April 2nd, 2016.

[Tweet “Nasher Sculpture Prize will be announced in the fall of this year & we will celebrate the first recipient, on April 2nd, 2016.”]

HT – Are you going to televise it – like the Turner Prize? Or, the Academy Awards?

JS – [Laughs] That’s a great idea. We’ll look into it.

HT – A producer friend – who works predominantly in 3D – told me that since both my films (The Dealer & Rene The Movie) deal with sculpture, I should film them in 3D. I think he may be right [laughs]. So maybe, yours will be the first award to be televised in 3D!

JS – [Laughs.] Well, that would be a first!

Homa Taj in Conversation with Photographer & Filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg

Jerry Schatzberg, James Coburn, 1967

Less than two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Newy York-based photographer and filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg. Prior to that, I met Schatzberg at the inaugural Art Miami New York where his photograph of Edie Sedwick was used as a promotional image for the art fair.

For many in the film and the art world(s), Schatzberg needs no introduction. The remarkably youthful 87 year-old artist has been creating memorable images since circa the early 1950’s. Even those who may not know his name are well familiar with his images – especially, those of fashion photography in the 1950’s, musicians in the 1960’s and movie stars and movie makers through the 1970’s.

The following is a preview of our conversation:

Homa – If you were to do photography now, would you do digital?
Jerry – I like digital. I am not a technical snob. The late Mary Ellen Mark who just passed away, she would never shoot digital. For me, it is the mind and the content that makes the photograh not the film or the technology. I want my films to be beautiful. If I take a photograph on the subway and it is blurred, if I like the content, I don’t care that it was blurred.

I mean look at Blonde on Blonde. It is moving. I only had three images like that. Everyone is trying to say that it was a trip. It was LSD. It wasn’t any of that. We started shooting in the studio. And, we thought, let’s go outside. We’ll find more light outside, somewhere in the meatpacking district. People are always asking me where it was taken, and I have tried to find it. I think they’ve gentrified it.

Homa – [Laughs] You think?
Jerry – Well, there are places that have remained the same, but I think that place is gone. I did take some very beautiful images that I really liked and that I have shown in exhibitions. It was Dylan that chose that blurred photograph for the cover his album. It was cold. We were shaking. So the photo came out blurry. People have always tried to theorize it. But that was it. Though the [Columbia] Record company would have never allowed that. But Dylan could do whatever he wanted.

Homa – So, the quivering anxiety of a new generation wasn’t what you had in mind?

Jerry – We let people interpret their own thoughts. It’s just that no one wants to hear about the technical aspects or how cold it was. It’s really Dylan they’re interested in… blurry or not. [laughs]

Stay Tuned for More…

The First International “Hug A Museum Worker Day” (Monday, June 29 2015) #HAMuseumW

MUSEUM WORKERS have spokend out – here are a few UPDATES:

1) ASK before we approach anyone – museum worker or not – to shake their hands (or hug them)!

2) Special dispensation for those museum workers who have mondays off to receive their hugs throughout the weeknd (June 26-29).

3) WHY Does an International Hug A Museum Worker Day (Mon, June 29) Matter? #HAMuseumW

4) Some Responses to the 1st International Hug A Museum Worker Day (Monday, June 29, 2015)

Museums are the Playhouse of the Muses™. All nine of them, and counting:
Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, Clio, the muse of history, Erato, the muse of lyric poetry, Euterpe, the muse of song, Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, Polyhymnia, the muse of hymns, Terpsichore, the muse of dance, Thalia, the muse of comedy, & Urania, the muse of astronomy.

Not to mention: painting, sculpture… and, our favourite of them all, cinema.

[Tweet “Museums are a main component of the $192B (!) cultural tourism industry. “]

According to the American Association of Museums, museums inject $21 billion into the U.S. economy and employ roughly 400,000 people. They are also a main component of the $192B (!) cultural tourism industry. U.S. government data shows that museum visitors spend more and stay longer than other tourists, boosting local eateries, hotels, and other businesses.

[Tweet “In the US, museums inject $21B into the U.S. economy and employ roughly 400,000 people. “]

Why “HUG A MUSEUM WORKER”?

A few years ago, we were invited to participate in  the International Hug a Medievalist Day that was initiated by Sarah Laseke, an “PhD researcher at Leiden University, working on collaborating scribes in the 15th century.”

Though we are not Medievalists – our Founder/Editor, Homa Taj, is an academically-trained art historian and museologist – we thought it a most noble (and down right entertaining) idea to support our fellow art historians.

And, so, this is how we came up with the idea of HUG A MUSEUM WORKER?

But, why HUG A MUSEUM WORKER?

Last month, museums from around the world celebrated MuseumWeek whose mission was to engage potential and exisiting museum visitors via various social media. Museum visitors were, therefore, the event’s primary target.

As museologists, we believe that without MUSEUM WORKERS – starting with art historians, researchers, scholars and curators – museums would be repositories of old stuff the value of which no one would know. Or, better yet, self-storage spaces for non-profit institutions.

Why HUG A MUSEUM WORKER? 

Because museum workers are the main force behind the engine that injects $21B to the US economy that itself is a critical component of the $192B cultural tourism industry.

And, that’s just in the U.S. alone!

We are delighted if the financial aspect of this late modern era cultural phenomenon doesn’t wholly satisfy your skepticism. In which case, let us consider more serious reasons to love museums and their workers:

  1. Museums are FUN.
  2. Museums are FUN and beautiful.
  3. Museums are FUN learning centers.
  4. Museums are FUN places to bring a date.
  5. (Yes. Seriously.)
  6. Museums provide FUN shopping experiences — ok, the ones with shops.
  7. Museums provide FUN enviroments for the entire family without costing a fortune — IF you become a member!
  8. Museums provide FUN places to meet up with your friends and have a bit to eat — well, all right, not all of them. But when they do…
  9. Museums provide FUN ways to learn about history, science, culture, geography, various cultures…and, art.
  10. Museums WORKERS are much like librarians: they do their job because they really love it. Honestly. The pay is rubbish and the work is half as glamorous as it sounds to … civilians.

On that note, don’t you think that Museum WORKERS deserve a hug?

Yes. Seriously.

You can also extend the “Hug A Museum Worker Day” to a year-round celebration:

  1. Join your local museum as a(n individual or family) membership – whereby you’ll save a fortune in entry fees;
  2. Shop at your local museum – where you’ll find highly unique gifts for friends and family;
  3. Volunteer at your local museum – they’ll really appreciate your time and dedication (if you qualify);
  4. Follow your favorite local or international museums on your favorite social media – yes, it makes a big difference to them;
  5. Whilst you are at it, voice your support by liking, retweeting & commenting on their profiles;
  6. Subscribe to your favorite museum’s newsletter to stay abreast of their;
  7. Subscribe to some of the regional, national or even international museum museums associations;
  8. Simply, show up!

* Of course, we are generalizing about educational services, and basic facilites that most museums (including in the U.S.) offer their visitors. For example, some – though not nearly half as many as should be… – are FREE. And, great number of their cafe provide food that may be “FUN” but they sure aren’t cheap. E.g. The New Whitney.

 

 

From the Archives: Homa Taj in Conversation with Iranian Sculptor Parviz Tanavoli (c. 2005)

Parviz Tanavoli, Heech, 1972, Bronze on wood base, courtesy Grey Art Gallery, NYU Art Collection

It’s been a decade already?!

A decade ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Parviz Tanavoli for the first time at the University of Oxford. I had begun my second year of researching my doctoral thesis on the foundational history of museums in developing markets with emphasis on Iran (1870’s-1930’s).

Tanavoli has been hailed one of the leading living artists to come of the Middle East. The 78 year-old sculptor has produced a fascinating body of work which has been collected by leading institutions around the world, including the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and Walker Art Center.

Most recently, the Davis Museum at the Wellesly College has organized an exhibition of Tanavoli’s work which promises to be, “the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work to be mounted by a U.S museum.”

HERE you can read my Conversation with Tanavoli from … 2005. Copyright courtesy EAR

Homa Taj in Conversation with Dakin Hart, Senior Curator at The Noguchi Museum

Courtesty The Noguchi Museum, Nicholas Knight

Homa Taj in Conversation with Dakin Hart, Senior Curator at The Noguchi Museum, Long Island City

Homa Taj – When did you start your position as a curator at the Noguchi Museum?
Dakin Hart – February of 2013.

HT – How has your academic background informed your work as a museum curator?
DH – My academic career is pretty checkered. I still haven’t finished my PhD, although I have a pretty decent collection of excuses. My advisor Robert Rosenblum died just before I took my orals; he hooked me up with Picasso’s biographer John Richardson just before he died, and I spent three busy, wonderful years working with John, which led directly and indirectly to some fun writing and independent curatorial projects; meanwhile, my short, straight degree vector at the IFA (Institute of Fine Arts) became labyrinthine; we had a baby; I took this job; we had another baby. Some day I will finish. My mother did three degrees after she turned forty, so I don’t feel too rushed. The only worry is getting gazumped in my area of research…
Mostly, being buried in books, journals, Xeroxed packets, and two-image PowerPoint presentations made me desperate to get back to working with objects.

HT – I ask, because there is a trend among American modern and contemporary art museums to hire curators and directors without academic qualifications. And, by that, I don’t mean anyone who simply holds an advanced university degree but, really, anyone who has spent extensive periods of time pursuing scholarly research which is slow & time-consuming, and which influence one’s approach to curatorial work … Your thoughts.
DH – I can produce passable scholarship when necessary, but I’m happier recognizing, believing in, relying on, commissioning, and promoting the great scholarship of others. Which I like to think is a worthwhile skill in and of itself in these days of diminishing seriousness on the (still nominally) not for profit side of the art world. But generally speaking I agree that curatorial work informed by deep study is important, and in the aggregate I find it more satisfying than the purely formal, or art fair and gallery leveraged varieties. (How’s that for a couple of straw men.)
The real point for me is that the artworks I tend to be interested in are capable of sustaining, and deserve, the attentions of people with a wide range of skills and approaches. To make the most of art takes a village. I’m just happy to be in the mix.

HT – What are the benefits & challenges of working in a museum whose mission is the preservation of a single artist – albeit a great one like Noguchi?
DH – It’s that great old debate about whether it’s more intellectually desirable to have complete command of one great book or a more superficial understanding of a hundred. From the outside The Noguchi Museum looks like the one book model. Our subject seems an inch wide; but it’s almost infinitely deep. I like to think of the Museum, which as the artist’s estate contains everything he left when he died (including more than 4,000 objects, 200,000 pages of documents and photographs, and a Slip and Slide), as that mythical lake deep in the jungle that may go all the way through the planet and feels like it might connect to another dimension. But the reality is that our scope is not that narrow. There’s almost nowhere you can’t go, at least in the twentieth century, via Noguchi. His social network was a magnificently expansive object in and of itself. Few human beings have ever been more creatively, or broadly, connected.

[Tweet “I like to think of @NoguchiMuseum…as that mythical lake deep in the jungle … “]

HT – What is your favorite museum – that you have visited?
DH – I’m not good at favorites. My favorite work of art is whichever one someone has just asked me to talk about. But a Museum that comes to mind immediately in the context of Noguchi is the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. It teems with magical things in metal, stone, ceramic, and wood: pedimental sculpture, including the great Apollo, votives by the hundreds, bronze battle helmets and a gorgeous battering ram, dozens of gryphon heads (broken off tripods)–a complete material culture representing what Barnett Newman called, forgiving the loaded language and the unreconstructed attitude towards ‘primitive’ cultures, “a plastic language…directed by a ritualistic will towards metaphysical understanding.” Yes, please! Noguchi said that he associated himself with sculpture since the beginning of time. Much of the work feels that way. And his Museum feels that way; there’s an Acropolis sort of vibe here, a sense that human civilization is at stake, which is probably why my mind went to an archaeological museum representing Ancient Greece at its most cosmopolitan.

HT – What museum would you like to visit but haven’t yet had the opportunity to do so?
DH – The new Whitney, right here in our backyard. Very excited by the prospect that one of the Manhattan majors may be reorienting itself away from the market and back towards what matters: the serious, beautiful presentation of meaningful objects–regardless who made them, who gave them, who thinks they can get famous by exhibiting them, and, most importantly, their value in status or dollars.

Exhibition: The Noguchi Museum at Collective Design NY, Photo courtesy Homa Taj for MUSEUMVIEWS
Exhibition: The Noguchi Museum at Collective Design NY, Photo courtesy Homa Taj for MUSEUMVIEWS

HT – You worked at Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. This year they are introducing the Nasher Sculpture Prize – the first of its kind – … Are you aware of it? If so, what are your thought?
DH – I did. A magical place. And I am. They kindly asked me to be a nominator. Honestly, I’m skeptical of awards, which often seem designed for the aggrandizement of people whose privilege has already rendered them all but superhuman–those giving and those receiving. I hope this one builds a reputation for going to artists for whom the recognition and the money are meaningful, and whose selection somehow contributes to the betterment of the field. I’m thinking of someone like Dan Graham (I did not nominate him), who has made huge contributions to the practice of sculpture but who, because he doesn’t make art world Doritos, hasn’t received the recognition and remuneration he probably deserves. But of course it’s good to raise awareness, recognize achievement, and support artists directly, however it’s done.

(Full disclosure: two years ago The Noguchi Museum inaugurated an Isamu Noguchi Award, non-monetary, given to “kindred spirits in innovation, global consciousness and Japanese/American exchange.” The first four honorees have been Norman Foster, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Yoshio Taniguchi, and Jasper Morrison. I have been skeptical of ours too. But the depth and genuineness of the connections it has made and reinforced is indisputably meaningful.)

HT – I saw the Noguchi Museum’s Secret Garden at Collective Design Fair, last weekend. It was a marvelous use of an interior / urban-concrete space. How did that project come about?
DH – Thanks. Our mission here is making Noguchi feel vital and vibrant. I think of Noguchi as a language, our job being to make sure it’s a living language. Which means using it. And not just for talking about talking about Noguchi. Esperanto, in other words, is not the model. Something like Latin, specialized and clique-y but essential, is more like it. That installation was a niche project designed to speak to those who speak the language–whoever they may be.

Noguchi’s work loves a challenge, and as you can see out here at the Museum, it thrives against a rough industrial backdrop. Clement Greenberg took Noguchi seriously and rated him highly, but he criticized him for being sometimes over-refined, which is legitimate. Noguchi knew it, and part of his response was to install refined things in unrefined environments and vice versa. And it works. His reclaimed pine bases–which, ala his teacher Brancusi’s, often end up mind-melding with the works they support–are often the perfect counterweight to the meticulously calculated contrasts in many of his stone sculptures in particular. Likewise, polished Carrara statuario looks great against concrete; basalt loves cinderblock; and ceramics come to life against distressed wood and rough brick.

When we toured Skylight Clarkson Square, Collective Design’s venue this year, that distressed loading dock felt like the perfect place to create a physical analogy for the Museum, an oasis of serene attention, seemingly outside time and space. When you give yourself up to Noguchi, it almost always feels like an airlock has closed behind you. I think of this as the middle gate magic, after the mental shift that’s supposed to happen in a Japanese tea garden when you pass from one zone into another. Specific content aside (the three interlocking rock gardens), that was our sole aim: to make that space–so neglected it appeared that no one could even be othered to demolish it properly–feel like a far-flung outpost in a Noguchi universe.

HT – Tell us a bit about your Offsite Exhibitions program…
DH – The Museum is home base for Noguchi world-wide. Organizing off-site shows and loaning works is a major part of our program. Valerie Fletcher’s Surrealism show for the Hirshhorn in Washington, a exhibition on sublimity at the Centre-Pompidou Metz, and Detroit Institute of Arts’ Art of American Dance are a few of the Museum shows to which we’ll make loans over the course of the next year. We also loan to ‘museum quality’ shows in commercial galleries–most recently Mnuchin, Paul Kasmin, and Joni Weyl-Gemini (this summer). As well as the major retrospective we co-organized this past spring with Pace Gallery called Noguchi Variations, in which all 50+ objects came from the Museum. We also organize travelling exhibitions and site specific installations for institutions all over the world. Noguchi is an international phenomenon as much as an American, or local, one.

In addition to the exhibition program, we regularly make long-term loans of single objects, and groups of objects, to institutions (mostly Museums) here and abroad. Nearly every object on view at the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, Japan, based in Noguchi’s former studio in Mure on the island of Shikoku, for example, belongs to us. A number of loans have just returned from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Clark Art Institute. And more are on the way out.

[Tweet “Noguchi’s work loves a challenge…it thrives against a rough industrial backdrop. @NoguchiMuseum”]

HT – What is your next big project/exhibition?
DH – We have three big projects coming up in New York between now and the middle of 2016. (Our 30th anniversary runs from May 2015 to May 2016.) The first to open (September 8th) is an exhibition of sixteen Noguchis at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Centered on the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden (celebrating its 100th anniversary this year), the idea is to engage the different timescales (e.g. botanic, human, and geologic) and cultural assumptions latent in the Garden in its role as a microcosmic Earth. The second is Museum of Stones (opening October 7), a major temporary exhibition here at The Noguchi Museum that explores rock and stone as indices of culture. The show grew out of the artist Jimmie Durham’s critique of sculpture and architecture as stone denaturing regimes that advance the Western European notion that the purpose of stone is to help us establish impenetrable bulwarks against time, nature, and each other. For the first time, we will be introducing the work of other contemporary artists into the Museum’s main (original, Noguchi-installed) galleries. Which goes back to the point I made earlier that to be vibrant, Noguchi’s world needs other creative minds dinging around in it. The prospect of altering how the Museum feels, even for a limited time, is daunting–but exciting. Life and change are inextricable! The third show, Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony (opening March 2016), takes things one step further. It will be the first exhibition at The Noguchi Museum dedicated to a single artist other than Noguchi. Again, slightly terrifying. But we couldn’t have a better partner; Tom’s engagement with Noguchi is long, rich, and deep.The exhibition–site-specific and being developed as a collaboration between Tom and the Museum–will consist of a complete immersive environment, a tea house and tea garden, Tom’s performance of tea ceremonies, a book and a movie. It will also travel, although I can’t say where because contracts are yet to be signed.

Homa Taj in Conversation with Peter Kjeldgaard of Bruun Rasmussen Auction House (Denmark)

Homa Taj in conversation with Peter Kjelgaard,  Head of Design at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, Scandinavia’s leading auction house. Rasmussen recently exhibited their stunning Le Corbusier tapestry from the collection of famed architect Jørn Oberg Utzon (1918-2008), at Collective Design Fair, in New York City.

Homa Taj – For those who may not be familiar with Bruun Rasmussen, can you tell us about your firm?
We are one of the leading auction houses in Scandinavia based in Copenhagen and we are a leader in primarily Nordic design and art. Knowledge and passion is the driving force behind everything we do.

HT – When was your Auction house founded?
Our auction house was established in 1948 in Copenhagen, Denmark by Arne Bruun Rasmussen.

HT- How do you select which artists, periods, etc to represent?
Many objects are presented to us daily, and we select those suitable for our international sales based on our knowledge and our interpretation of what is happening in the market – sometimes trying to point to something new or different.

HT – How do you see the dramatic rise in real estate prices (in New York) affecting the art and design market?
Growth in real estate is actually good for us. We see a growing interest from clients in the New York area specially from discerning clients looking to buy Nordic design from the country of origin.

HT – How do you define the New York art market – in comparison to other art centers around the world?
New York is a giant magnet for all items of exceptional quality. That certainly is the case for the increasing interest in vintage design of which Danish midcentury design is a critical component.

HT – What trend(s) do you anticipate in the art/ design market in the coming 5 or 15 years?
Mid-century vintage is a relatively new field of collecting. We think that the difference in prices between what is simply a good piece and what is an exceptional piece will increase dramatically as buyers become more knowledgeable.

HT – What are your thoughts about the trend toward purchasing art and design online?
We see online purchasing as a great opportunity and believe that this is an unstoppable trend. We offer online auctions on a daily basis and have done so for 12 years. This is part of our business model and we seek to expand this area. Selling expensive, high quality pieces online does however require sellers to meet very high standards of description, photos and service associated with the buying of such pieces. We believe that a gradual process toward this will happen everywhere.

HT – How would you define the importance of art fairs?
Art fairs offer clients the opportunity to see pieces displayed in curated context. They play an important role in moving the interest in new directions.

HT – What has been your most memorable encounter with an art collector?
Our company have had the privilege of countless memorable and eccentric clients over the past 6 decades so to name anyone particular would be unjust to far too many.

HT – What is your next big project? 
We are constantly trying to expand the knowledge and understanding of Nordic Design through our international sales. In our international sales we aim for a special focus that can offer a new perspective on both unknown and well established designers. These “stories” are presented with an array of other well known pieces. Our next sale will focus on Danish Designer Poul Kjaerholm following up on an affair with him that took of with our seminal 2006 special Poul Kjaerholm sale.

HT – What upcoming auctions should collectors get excited about?
This idea of trying to bring something new and fresh out about iconic designers has also been the underlying reason for our presentation of the wonderful Le Corbusier tapestry that came from the Home of world famous architect Jørn Utzon. This tapestry was made in 1960 and intended as the starting point for Le Corbusiers involvement in the decoration of the interior of the Sydney Opera House. A project never fulfilled that now seems a loss to us all.

Utzon was the first Dane to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, in 2003. A year later, his design for the Sydney Opera House was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Later in June (9-11), Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen will present Jørn Utzon’s private art and furniture collection. The preview runs from May 28 to June 1.

MUSEUMVIEWS to Cease Publication on Blouin ARTINFO

 

In Autumn 2010, we were invited by ARTINFO’s former Editor to join their growing program of international bloggers. Throughout this period (2010-2015), we retained complete independent editorial right to all our publications, entries and interview series.

As of today, we have chosen to cease publication of our MUSEUMVIEWS blog under HOMA TAJ’s editorship.

MUSEUMVIEWS Productions and Homa Taj Nasab reserve all rights to every article, photograph and entry that has been published on the MUSEUMVIEWS Blog, on Blouin/Artinfo. No part of any of these publications may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of MUSEUMVIEWS Production.

We invite you to join us and the great number of cultural creatives with whom we continue our CONVERSATION WITH… series, during the coming months.

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Homa Taj in Conversation with Photography Curator François Hebel

Le directeur des Rencontres d’Arles, François Hébel, NICCOLO HÉBEL

François Hebel is one of the most influential figures in the world of photography. He has led such powerful organizations as Les Rencontres de la photographie Arles (1985-87 and 2001-2014) and Magnum Photos (1987-2000). Since leaving his position at Rencontres in Arles, Hebel continues to curate exhibitions at various museums, cultural organizations and festivals from New York to Paris, to Bologna and Changjiang (China).

Hebel’s latest curatorial project, Grégoire Alexandre, in New York City can be seen at French Institute Alliance Française FIAFNY. Also, stay tuned for our Conversation with Grégoire Alexandre, to be published, early next week.

Homa Taj – Were you trained as a photographer? Or, how did you began your work as a curator of photography?

François Hebel – No, not at all. I trained myself to travel which funny enough got me into photography as a reason. However, since 1980, I have been working with photographers at various capacities.

HT – You have been based in france for most of your career…

FH – When I worked for Magnum Photos in Paris (1987-2000), I had to go to New York a lot. So, I am very familiar with working in NY. And, of course, I do a lot of curatorial work around the world.

HT – What was working at Magnum Photo like?

FH – When I was hired to work at Magnum’s office in Paris, the company was in a bad shape, financially speaking. I was their first director in many years since it was run like a photographers’ cooperative. I quickly told them that the world is going to become digital sooner than they thought. That was around 1987-89. And, I remember at a meeting, many photographers laughed. They said, “We’ll, will be there with our white gloves on … ” I said, “No. You’ll be dead.”

Back then, archives had begun to digitize their images only to expedite their delivery, at Magnum we did it in order to maintain the best of our memory. We began to organize traveling exhibitions which brought in a lot of money for the organization in order to finance this digitalization and do our PR at the same time. …

HT – You have talked about photography as an elastic art form, using examples of projections, or slide shows. Can you say a bit about this concept…

FH – Well, back in 1986, I saw Nan Goldin’s slide projection of her The Ballad of Sexual Dependency which ran for one hour and thirty minutes. I told her that I loved what she was doing. At that time, everyone was doing – as some still are now – black and white photography in frames hung on walls, etc. So, I told Nan that you are using this low-value medium which is terrific. I, then, invited her to exhibit at Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles – where I was a director – 1985-87, and later 2001-2014. There we had a great Théâtre Antique where she projected her work.

I did suggest that the show was too long and that 45 minutes may be better but that it was ultimately her decision as an artist as to what she wanted to do with it. So Nan made The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, the Arles version.

At that time, for me, this was a great revelation in the way artists can use photography. Of course, back then, Nan told me that she didn’t like prints. But, now prints are her signature – livelihood, I suppose, slide shows are harder to sell.

HT – What other examples of unconventional uses of (the medium of) photography have you encountered?

FH – Several years ago, I was in a french suburb, after the riots in France in 2005 which were covered by the international media. I saw a guy gluing photos on the wall. He said, “Hi, my name JR.” So, I invited him to Arles and there, in 2007 he did Face 2 Face which included huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities, and on the both sides of the Security fence / Separation wall.

Meeting these types of artists really excites me. It doesn’t mean that I am against selling works. I think that photography is an important market. You can do a lot with it, you can print books, etc. There are all kinds of languages in photography. My fun, my interest, is when photographers try new things. The market for these types of photographers is, of course, difficult but it doesn’t mean they cannot do it.

Look at JR. He is now a big star in New York.

HT – What projects are you working on now?

FH – Last year, I was invited by Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris to curate an exhibition of works by Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert. The exhibition was opened on April 14th and will remain on view until June 14.

This was an interesting project for me since what we also decided to do was to curate, if you will, a parallel exhibition at 16 different metro stations throughout Paris. We chose entirely different photos by the artists than those shown at MEP. Also, each of these pictures is 4 meters long which is much larger than we could fit in the museum’s galleries. In other words, we turned the Paris metro stations into an art gallery – in a different way than we treated the museum exhibition.

HT – So you expanded the space of the museum, or the gallery, unto the public space.

FH – I had done similar projects – mixing different art forms and spaces with photography – before. For example, through the years, I invited musicians to perform at the shows of photography that we had organized at Théâtre Antique Arles.

I once invited Anoushka Shankar (Ravi Shankar’s daughter) to perform on Cartier-Bresson indian pictures. And, in 2006, Patti Smith performed a concert for the 20th anniversary of Agence Vu which is a French agency for photographers.

HT – You were invited by FIAF / French Institute Alliance Française, New York to organize an exhibition of photography… and you chose Grégoire Alexanre. Why him?

FH – First, the general public’s idea of French photography is what took place in the 1950’s – Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doineau and others. But contemporary photography has evolved quite a lot.
So my aim for the show at FIAF was to set a principal about what is going on with French photographers today. What are their protocals? I like Grégoire’s work because his studio is ‘in dialogue’ with the subject matters that he captures. The background, the behind-the-scene, is part of the scene… It is as important as the models or objects that he photographs.

Also, the theme of this season’s exhibition at FIAF is to introduce photographers from France that deal with fashion. And, Grégoire was the perfect candidate.

HT – Grégoire told me a little bit about the process of ‘hanging’ – or, more like not hanging – this exhibition…

FH – Yes, well, we chose not to frame the images – except for what is in print – and not to hang them either. So, instead, we used this special type of glue that photographers apply to stick their pictures to the wall. of wall paper of a great quality that glues to the wall. And, then, when we are done – when the show closes on June 13 – we’ll just tear them off from the wall.

HT – This is your first curatorial work with FIAF New York. Will you be working with them again?

FH – Yes, of course. This is the first in a series of exhibitions on French photography which we’ll be organizing.

I am excited because I like working with living artists. I trust artists. A lot of curators prefer working with dead artists… Not me.

HT – What is your next project? Beside the one(s) at FIAF?

FH – In 2013, I was invited to create a festival of photography in Bologna – such as the one I had directed in Arles, for more than 15 years.

The focus of the exhibition was is on industrial, corporate or work photography and was is hence named FOTO/INDUSTRIA. The second edition of the festival will take place this autumn (October 2 – November 1) which makes it a Biennale.

This is a very interesting event since Bologna is such a beautiful area and there are 14 venues throughout the historic city which we will be using for the festival.

HT – You are a very busy man.

FH – Did I mention that I just organized TEN shows at the inaugural Changjiang International Photography & Video Biennale – which runs through July 26, 2015 at the Chongqing Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art (CMCA)?

Agnès Varda in her My Shack of Cinema with Bernardo Bertolucci by Homa Taj for MUSEUMVIEWS

The video was film by Homa Taj following her Conversation with the great French filmmaker and artist, Agnès Vard at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on November 10, 2013.

The marvelously talented French filmmaker, artist, producer and screenwriter Agnès Varda will (finally!) receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the 68th Cannes Film Festival, which start today. Varda’s predecessors who have received honorary recognition at Cannes include Woody Allen (2002), Clint Eastwood (2009) and Bernardo Bertolucci (2011)…