Notes About an Artist

museu mVIEWS A quarterly newsletter for small and mid-sized art museums Summer 2010 PICASSO looks at DEGAS The following is a sampling from the introduc - fame Throughout his life Pablo Picasso was fas - tion and a chapter of this engaging study. increased…. cinated with the life and work of Edgar Degas. “Picasso initially encountered works by “…Never He collected Degas’s pictures, re-interpreted Degas and his peers in black-and-white illus - straightfor - ardly his subject matter, and created scenes that trations, and only began to see their original w included images of Degas himself. “Picasso pastels and paintings when he visited Paris imitative, Looks at Degas,” the summer exhibition at the several times from 1900 onward. Dating from Picasso’s Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in this moment are his first tentative gestures response to Degas was mercurial and competi - Williamstown (MA), brings together more than toward some of Degas’s signature themes: the tive, always involving an element of willful 100 works that shed light on the relationship cabaret singer, the prostitute, and, as Fagus transformation and sometimes bordering on between the two who, in fact, never met. “Yet indicated, racecourses, female nudes, and parody or pastiche. A parallel narrative… the café habitués, stage performers, bathers, dancers. After settling in Montmartre in 1904, concerns the gradually revealed affinity and ballerinas that Degas typically depicted Picasso became acquainted with several people between these two artists as professionals and also appear repeatedly in Picasso’s images, and who knew Degas, including the dealer as human beings, an affinity that Picasso was Degas the man appears in person in a substan - Ambroise Vollard, who briefly represented surely aware of. In their youth, for example, tial series of etchings Picasso made in 1971,” both artists, and Benedetta Canals, who mod - both had experienced a traditional training writes Michael Conforti, director of the Clark. eled for them both. Although the two men dominated by the practice of drawing from the The exhibition explores Picasso’s response seem never to have met, Picasso was well human figure and by reverence for great works to Degas’s work by pairing paintings and aware that Degas lived and worked very close of art from the past. Not coincidentally, Degas groups of works that express the younger to the Bateau Lavoi, the squalid artists’ colony and Picasso subsequently emerged as the finest man’s admiration of the master: Degas’s In a where he painted some of his most important draftsmen of their respective generations— Café (L’Absinthe ) with Picasso’s Portrait of early pictures. Here the young Spaniard some would say of all time—who continued to Sebastià Junyer I Vidal ; Picasso’s the Blue brazenly confronted Degas in his art, portray - place drawing at the center of their creative Room with Degas’s monotype The Tub ; ing laundresses, bohemians in cafés, entertain - endeavors throughout their long careers. The Picasso’s Portrait of Benedetta Canals with ers in mid-performance, and naked women female body, too, remained a persistant and Degas’s Woman with an Umbrella . bathing and combing their hair—all subjects often obsessive concern for both men, ruling This innovative concept for an exhibition that were very publicly associated with Degas. over their oeuvres in all media. For the reput - came to fruition through the efforts and expertise Here, too, Picasso experimented with sculpture edly celibate Degas, this fascination was most of two curators—Elizabeth Cowling and and prints, sometimes with explicit references famously expressed in his scenes of ballet Richard Kendall—whose illuminating essays to works by his French predecessor, activities dancers in their classrooms and in pictures and sculptures of intimate fill the pages of the accompanying catalogue. he would return to over the decades as his continued on page 4 MUSEUM STUDIES: Training the New Professioonals by Annette B. Fromm masters’ degrees. I realized this as I was inter - be in a relevant academic discipline to prepare viewed, but not hired—many times. As fruitless the candidate for intense research in a given How do young people prepare for as the effort seemed at the time, I learned a lot: subject? Or should the degree earned be in careers working in museums these I made some professional connections along the museum studies? If his/her focus is museum days? What can they do and what do they actual - way and saw a gaggle of museums. I never studies, should a candidate pursue a complete ly do in museums? How did they prepare in the explored the educational backgrounds of the degree or a certificate—a concentration of past? And how are we preparing them today? education or exhibits staffs, but I do know that very directed courses? one of the curators with only a bachelor’s Not all those engaged in the field of training A Personal Narrative degree still works there doing what I’m future museum professionals share the same When I started in my first museum job, I had sure is a great job. answers to these questions. Work in museums just earned a master’s degree in folklore from requires individuals who have successfully Indiana University. Knowing I wanted to go into The Big Picture completed a multidisciplinary academic pro - museum work I enrolled in all of the museum So how do today’s muse - gram. This point is agreed upon by most in studies courses offered as electives. In fulfillment ums recruit and hire staff? the training end of the profession. A review of of the requirements, I even completed an intern - How do emerging profes - the literature of the Museum Studies industry— ship in the campus anthropology museum. Then, sionals acquire at least the the academic preparation of museum workers— I landed a job at a large, well established basic training to cut their from the 70s, when I entered the profession, Midwestern museum. I was thrown feet first into teeth as I did in the formative to the present shows a curious repetition of certain themes. collections work with the responsibility of cata - and memorable first job experi - loging a huge backlog of donations. Two of the ence? I prefer to pose some ques - There is basic agreement about the nature of long-time curators working there had earned tions here and invite readers, based museum studies programs and coursework. The most desirable program should be at an accred - bachelor’s degrees in history some years earlier, on their experience and knowledge, found museum jobs, and there they stayed. They to reach their own conclusions. ited university that’s close to an accredited taught me a lot about the job and the profession. Should the most qualified candidate museum. Students at a well-rounded college or It didn’t take long for me to realize that one have an undergraduate or a gradu - university benefit from access to the widest goal of a head of collections is to bring individu - ate education? Should that degree range of courses in preparing for their careers. als into the department who had completed their At the museum, students can continued on page 4 Top: Pablo Picasso, Crazy Woman with Cats , 1901. Oil on pulp board./Edgar Degas, The Tub , 1885. Pastel. Both in “Picasso Looks at Degas,” Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, MA Above: Emile-Louis Picault, Le Pensée , c. 1890. Bronze. In “Wonderful & Curious,” Cornell Fine Arts Museum, FL MUSEUM ADVOCACY: [The following talks were given on Museum how you can be helpful is a natural outgrowth keep your museum on their minds (send press Advocacy Day and were reprinted in the of developing relationships with your legisla - releases, emails, newsletters); where appropri - Newsletter of the Association of Midwest tors and with staff members. For example, con - ate, draw a connection between the legislator’s Museums] sider opportunities that will put your legislators work and your initiatives, stay open-minded in the spotlight, especially conscious of sharing about your museum’s impact, remembering that Five Good Habits time-sensitive or breaking news, whenever pos - it is more than just art for art’s sake. sible and as appropriate. For example, legisla - for Effective Advocacy tors shouldn’t read important news about your Invite: Invite legislators to your museum and not by Kathy Kelsey Foley institution in the newspaper; you want to be the one to provide a heads-up. only to opening events (teacher professional development workshops, family classes, public Good Habit #1: Good Habit #4: lectures, behind the scenes tour); be sure you Say thank you. Say it as often as possible Say thank you again! Remember to say put them in touch with real staff and real people and mean it. Say thank you not only when you please, too. Hand-written notes are still mean - (notify your staff first; don’t surprise them). get something you want, but just because your ingful, perhaps even more so today with our legislator or a staff member has taken the time reliance on electronic communication. Network: to talk, listen, etc. Don’t take legislators or staff Courtesies do count. Always be sincere. You never know who you’re going to see or members for granted. Say thank you! where you’re going to see them, so get yourself [Kathy Kelsey Foley is director of the Woodson out into your community, politcal/policy/social Good Habit #2: Art Museum, Wausau, WI] —lunch at the Capitol cafeteria, welcome-back- Develop relationships. People do things for legislator events, policy briefings, breakfast people. Get to know your legislators at the series, relevant lectures at the local university, local, state, and federal levels as well as their Five Good Tips to etc.

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