Bi-Annual 2009 - 2011 REPORT R MUSEUM OF ART UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA CELEBRATING 20 YEARS Director’s Message With the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Harn Museum of Art in 2010 we had many occasions to reflect on the remarkable growth of the institution in this relatively short period 1 Director’s Message 16 Financials of time. The building expanded in 2005 with the addition of the 18,000 square foot Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion and has grown once again with the March 2012 opening of the David A. 2 2009 - 2010 Highlighted Acquisitions 18 Support Cofrin Asian Art Wing. The staff has grown from 25 in 1990 to more than 50, of whom 35 are full time. In 2010, the total number of visitors to the museum reached more than one million. 4 2010 - 2011 Highlighted Acquisitions 30 2009 - 2010 Acquisitions Programs for university audiences and the wider community have expanded dramatically, including an internship program, which is a national model and the ever-popular Museum 6 Exhibitions and Corresponding Programs 48 2010 - 2011 Acquisitions Nights program that brings thousands of students and other visitors to the museum each year. Contents 12 Additional Programs 75 People at the Harn Of particular note, the size of the collections doubled from around 3,000 when the museum opened in 1990 to over 7,300 objects by 2010. The years covered by this report saw a burst 14 UF Partnerships of activity in donations and purchases of works of art in all of the museum’s core collecting areas—African, Asian, modern and contemporary art and photography. This phenomenal collections growth will be apparent when readers of this report peruse the list of acquisitions on cover photos: To view important events in pages 30 – 74. Credit lines for gifts of works of art reflect the generosity of many donors. The Dr. David A. Cofrin and Mary Ann Cofrin in 1988 museum’s founding donors, Dr. David and Mrs. Mary Ann Cofrin, continued to have a profound at the Harn Museum of Art groundbreaking. the 20-year history of the impact on growth of the collections. In 2009, the museum received 307 works of Asian art as a Founding Director Budd Harris Bishop with Architect Kha Le-Huu Harn Museum, visit our timeline at bequest from Dr. Cofrin, greatly enriching our holdings of Chinese jade carvings, Chinese glass discussing the original Harn building model. and Japanese baskets. Many additional works were purchased in preparation for the opening www.harn.ufl.edu/timeline.html A Harn docent giving a tour to Alachua County school children. The of the Asian Art Wing, using funds from acquisition endowments established by the Cofrins as Docent program was established one year before the Harn Museum of Art well as the Kathleen M. Axline Acquisition Endowment for Asian art. In addition, gifts were opened. given in memory of Dr. Cofrin, whereas many other gifts came to the museum in honor of the 20th anniversary celebration. A new area of focus for the collections, “works on paper,” saw dramatic growth with the gift of approximately 100 prints and drawings from Dr. August and Mrs. L. Tommie Freundlich and the donation of 352 natural history prints and water colors made possible by Graham Arader and other generous donors. The establishment of the position of Education Curator of Academic Programs and the appointment in 2010 of art historian Dr. Eric Segal to fill this position has enabled the Harn to significantly expand its outreach to faculty and their students in academic programs across the university. With the support of other educators, the collections curators and museum staff from all departments, Segal has introduced students from the colleges of fine arts, liberal arts and sciences, business, medicine, nursing, law, communications and engineering to original works of art that enhance and enrich their varied courses of study. The Harn’s many partnerships and collaborations with academic units across the university are documented in the following pages. At the Harn, we believe in the power of art to educate, inspire and enrich people’s lives. With the remarkable growth of the collections, dramatic expansion of museum facilities, and the contributions of many talented museum professionals, the Harn continues to bring meaningful experiences with great works of art to diverse audiences. photos from the Harn Museum’s 20th Anniversary Celebration top: Budd and Julia Bishop with UF First Lady Chris Machen bottom: Mary Ann and Edie Cofrin with Albert and Alberta Rebecca Martin Nagy, Ph.D. Director 1 2009-2010 Asian Ooka Umpo, Japanese, 1765 –1849 With Crane on Blossoming-plum Stream 1844 Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk Image: 39 5/8 x 14 1/4 in. (100.6 x 36.2 cm) Museum purchase, funds provided by donors in memory of Dr. David A. Cofrin, 2009.53 According to the inscription on the painting’s upper left, Ooka Umpo painted it when he was 80 years old. The artist’s inscription, therefore, offers some clues to the overall inspiration and compositional content. Arguably, the work Prints and Modern suggests the life and poetic writings of the Drawings Herman Herzog, American, born Germany, 1831–1932 Chinese writer Lin Bu (965-1026), a reclusive poet Untitled (Mountain Landscape) who lived on an isolated island known as Lone Before 1850 n.d. Mountain in the West Lake region of Hangzhou, Georg Dionysius Ehret, German, 1708–1770 Oil on canvas Highlighted Acquisitions Zhejiang province. African Pancratium 40 x 52 in. (101.6 x 132.1 cm) 1768 Gift of Dorit B. and Martin A. Uman, 2010.3 Asante people, Ghana, Umpo captures Lin’s writings on how to enjoy Engraving, hand-colored the simple natural wonders one encounters on Royal Chair (akonkromfi) 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm) Herman Herzog was born in Bremen, Germany, and studied at the excursions into nature. The crane aloft in the sky Early 20th century Museum purchase, funds provided by Düsseldorf Academy under famed Norwegian landscape painter Hans as well as the crane sampling morsels on the boat Wood, leather, metal Lawrence Reed Miller, 2010.11.7 Frederick Gude (1825–1903). Herzog’s 1855 visit to Norway, encouraged suggests harmony in and with nature. The trees, 40 x 24 x 20 in. (101.6 x 61 x 50.8 cm) by his teacher, had a lasting impact on the young artist. This experience lake, mountains and shorelines cradle the boat, Gift of Rodney D. McGalliard Georg Dionysius Ehret was the foremost botanical illustrator awakened his lifelong interest in depicting grand mountain and lake with the scholar adrift in amazement. Umpo’s in honor of Herbert Cole, 2009.51 in Germany in the mid-18th century. He originally worked as a vistas and scenes of rugged, untamed nature. Herzog’s majestic views of inscription of his age against the ageless wonders gardener and practiced drawing in his spare time. As a result of Western Europe and Norway attracted the patronage of the European and of nature reminds the viewer to engage and to This is an example of one of three types of family and professional connections with the Chelsea Botanical Russian nobility. Herzog emigrated from Germany to the United States learn from nature during one’s lifetime. European-inspired chairs used by Asante royals Garden in London, Ehret had access to many newly imported in the late 1860s or early 1870s and settled in Philadelphia. This untitled of Ghana. It mimics the folding camp chairs exotic plants. His drawings caught the attention of Christoph landscape most likely depicts a European locale however, its date is less used by British colonial officials in the late Jakob Trew (German, 1695-1769), a wealthy Nuremberg certain. Herzog often referred to his early travel sketches, including his 19th century in Ghana. The Asante version physician who became Ehret’s friend and lifelong patron. Ehret European ones, throughout his career, making it difficult to date some of is a leather chair with a wooden frame and painted a number of watercolor studies to be engraved by other his paintings. large brass upholstery tacks and finials. It was artists for Trew’s Hortus Nitidissimus, a work published in adapted by the Asante royals as an informal three volumes between 1750 and 1786 celebrates the beauty of furnishing and nicknamed akonkromfi, cultivated plants. This engraving illustrating Pancratium, a genus meaning grasshopper, because of its folded of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, appeared as legs. The chair is an important addition to Plate 32 in Trew’s book. the African collection, as it enhances the growing body of works from the colonial era that shed light on how Africans assimilated foreign influences and particularly how they appropriated symbols of power through various art media. Photography Roy DeCarava, American, 1919 – 2009 Graduation 1949 (negative), 1960s – early 1970s (print) Francisco Javier Morales Dufour was born in Mexico City in 1958. He studied Gelatin silver print Contemporary architecture and worked on the restoration of buildings in the historic center of 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (24.1 x 34.3 cm) Francisco Javier Morales Dufour, Mexican, born 1958 Mexico City. His studies and work also took him to Europe and ultimately led to his Museum purchase with funds provided by the Melvin De la Serie Mantos eólicos concavos y convexos participation as a painter in a number of one-person, group shows and biennials in and Lorna Rubin Endowment, 2009.30 (From the series Convex Europe, the United States and Latin America. Morales’ work embraces the quotidian and Concave Wraps of Wind) objects of daily life, embracing the rhythms of nature on a both cosmic and intimate Roy DeCarava is among the great masters of the second half of the 20th century.