Nov | Dec 2013 Quarterly
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quarterly quarterlyjan | feb | mar 2014 oct | nov | dec 2013 from the director | Dear Members and Friends: This year we are thrilled to celebrate Art is 100— one hundred years of art on the University of Utah campus. In 1914, the University began in earnest to collect and display great works of art in our campus collection. Some of these remarkable objects made their way into the permanent collection of the UMFA, while others grace the walls of buildings around campus. In 2014, we will highlight the growth of art on campus through a timeline recounting the many UMFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS people, events, and art objects that shaped the U of U’s collections, while exploring current Marcia Price, Chair connections in our community label project, through Cynthia Sue Anderson which friends of the UMFA share personal insights Virginia Barlage on their favorite artworks from our permanent collec- tion. On the Museum’s Highlights Wall we will feature Robert F. Bennett important art objects that help tell our story. Toni Bloomberg Jim Bradley* Even as we look back over all that we’ve accom- Fred Esplin* plished, we are also looking to the future: the UMFA staff and Board of Directors have been hard at Suzanne Ferry* work creating a new four-year strategic plan for the Lynn Fey Museum. Many of you provided feedback, sparking John H. Firmage intense conversations about your dreams and aspira- Jonathan Freedman tions for the UMFA and helping us to envision a smart Clark P. Giles new plan that will help the Museum grow in relevance Wesley G. Howell, Jr. to the people it strives to serve. The UMFA’s new mission is to inspire critical dialogue and illuminate John C. Jarman the role of art in our lives, reflecting our commit- Georgianna Knudson* ment to bring in outstanding works that will generate Al Landon thought and foster conversation in our community. Mihail S. Lari Finally, a note of profound thanks goes to our Jack Livingood colleague Lisa Arnette, who joined the UMFA four Naja Lockwood years ago as our Director of Development and Michele Mattsson* External Relations and worked tirelessly to grow W. Brent Maxfield the UMFA’s fundraising capacity and put us on an Mary S. McCarthey increasingly secure financial path. We will miss her Kathie Miller terribly as she heads off into the world of consulting Nicole Mouskondis for nonprofits, and we wish her the very best. Rashelle Perry Shari Quinney Chris Redgrave Joanne F. Shiebler Diane Stewart Gretchen Dietrich, Executive Director Naoma Tate Elizabeth F. Tozer ON THE COVER | Tacita Dean (British, b. 1965), JG, 2013. Color and black & white anamorphic 35mm film with optical sound, 26.5 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Raymond Frith Street Gallery, London/Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris. Tymas-Jones* Marva Warnock The UMFA gratefully acknowledges the continuing support it receives from the University of Utah, Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts & Parks Program, Utah Arts Ruth Watkins* Council, Salt Lake City Arts Council, C. Comstock Clayton Foundation, Estate of Aurelia B. Cahoon, Anne M. and David S. Dolowitz, Helene Druke Shaw Family, Katherine W. Dumke & Ezekiel R. Dumke, Jr. Foundation, George S. & Dolores Doré * Ex-Officio Eccles Foundation, Marriner S. Eccles Foundation, The William Randolph Hearst Foundations, Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, Wilma T. Gibson Family, Jeanette and O. Ernest Grua, Jr. Family, Estate of John W. and Helen B. Jarman, National Endowment for the Arts, LaReta C. Madsen Family, Ray, Quinney & Nebeker Foundation, John & Marcia Price Family Foundation, S. J. & Jessie E. Quinney Foundation, Joseph and Evelyn Rosenblatt Family Foundation, George Q. Morris Foundation, Estate of E. Frank Sanguinetti, Ms. Suzanne M. Scott, State Office of Education, Utah Division of Arts & Museums, Paul L. & Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, UMFA Board of Directors, Docent Council, Friends of Contemporary Art, Friends of Utah & Western Art and UMFA Members. exhibitions | exhibitions Art is 100: Portrait of Natacha Rambova To kick off the year-long Art is 100 celebration, we’ve chosen to feature first on our Highlights Wall a painting that many visitors list among their favorite works—even without knowing its interesting backstory. The Portrait of Natacha Rambova was presented in 1949 by her mother, Mrs. Richard A. (Winnifred Kimball) Hudnut, as part of the donation that helped create the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. When Rambova learned that this portrait would be on display for the UMFA’s 1951 opening, she immediately wrote to the museum director, asking that her name not be attached to the work. Rambova, who would donate her Egyptian collection to the Museum in 1952, cited concerns that supporting the fledgling Museum would conflict with her funding from the Bollingen Foundation, which was financing her work studying Ramses VI’s tomb art. Family history, however, suggests another reason: While sitting for the portrait in 1925, Rambova wore a very bohemian outfit, much to her mother’s displeasure. Mrs. Hudnut instructed the painter, Pavle Jovanovic, to substitute what ABOVE | Pavle ”Paja“ was, in her view, a more suitable dress. The result was a Jovanovic (1859-1957), mishmash: Rambova’s distinctive headwear paired with Serbian, Portrait of Natacha Rambova, oil a dress that was more to her mother’s taste. Although on canvas. Gift of Mrs. the painting—with the generic title Portrait of a Lady— Richard A. Hudnut. was popular whenever it was on display, thanks to her mother’s sartorial meddling, Rambova herself could never stand it. Portrait of Natacha Rambova will be on display in spring 2014, the work’s first time on view since the frame was restored in 2012 through a gift from The Joy Kingston Foundation and Chairman/CEO Paul Matthew Layne. exhibitions | CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION: Great Salt Lake Landscan January 24–May 4, 2014 The UMFA commissioned the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI)—a Wendover/Los Angeles-based research organization concerned with how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived—to produce a “landscan” of Great Salt Lake in 2013. Filmed from helicopters, CLUI landscans are dynamic, crystal-clear, gyro-stabilized high-definition videos accompanied by subtle ambient sound. They function as portraits of places, representing major elements of land use and depicting human-affected landscapes so large that the only way to visually capture them is with one long, continuous, aerial shot. With CLUI’s landscan of Great Salt Lake, viewers will explore runic shorelines and glinting waters, factories and brilliantly colored salt concentration ponds as they fly over an otherworldly landscape. Tacita Dean: JG January 24–May 4, 2014 ABOVE | Courtesy CLUI Image Tacita Dean (British, b. 1965, lives Berlin) is esteemed Archive (study for Great Salt Lake landscan). for her drawings, sound works, and artist books but is perhaps best known for her films. Her newest,JG, which she has screened at major institutions world- wide and at the prestigious Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, was shot in Utah’s desert, Great Salt Lake, and Salt Lake City’s Hogle Zoo. It highlights the interplay between the science fiction story “The Voices of Time” (1960) by writer J. G. Ballard and the earthwork Spiral Jetty (1970) by artist Robert Smithson. Employing her patented technique of “aperture gate masking,” in which she uses stencil- like masks to cover up and re-expose her film, Dean transfers images from one place to another, generat- ing visual and conceptual juxtapositions within the space of the individual 35mm frame. Commissioned by Arcadia University Art Gallery and funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. RELATED EVENT Artist Talk: Tacita Dean Salt Lake Film Society (SLFS) and Sundance Institute are community partners Friday, January 24 | 5 pm for this event. | exhibitions salt 9: Jillian Mayer January 17–August 17, 2014 “What’s the point of living offline anymore?” asks Jillian Mayer (American, artist Jillian Mayer in her catchy hip-hop sing-a-long b. 1984), #PostModem, 2013. Video still, 14 music video MegaMega Upload, which premiered in minutes, 38 seconds, her short film#PostModem at the 2014 Sundance Film edition of 5. Courtesy David Castillo Gallery. Festival after receiving acclaim on the artist’s YouTube channel. Likewise, Mayer’s 2011 I Am Your Grandma— a timeless video message for an unborn grandchild— has reached a wide audience, collecting more than 2,445,525 views, 20,895 likes, 1,601 dislikes, and 7,970 viewer comments, and inspiring countless spoofs, including remakes by five-year-olds, Internet trolls, Darth Vader, Wes Borland, and a Cabbage Patch Kid. But what does it mean to upload your soul to the Internet? Cloaked with humor, fast editing, and pop soundtracks, Mayer’s videos are designed for mass appeal but ask big questions about human connec- tion and manufactured realities. Her work lives in, and is activated by, viewer participation: she investigates the (im)possibility of authenticity and the multiplicity of authorship by co-opting the visual language and tools of Google, online chat boards, and viral videos. Indebted to the cultural constructions of the 1980s sitcom—but looking ahead to the infinite implica- tions of the Internet—Mayer uses photography, video, drawing, installation, and performance to explore our increasing integration with the web and to question the distinction between reality and the virtual world. RELATED EVENT Jillian Mayer: Artist in Conversation with the Curator Thursday, January 16 | 5 pm calendar | ONGOING Highlights of the Collection Tour First Wednesday of every month | 6:30 pm Saturdays and Sundays | 1:30 pm Explore the UMFA galleries through a thirty-minute tour with a Museum docent. Chamber Music Series Selected Wednesdays | 7 pm Experience the harmonious and spontaneous convergence of music and art as students from the U of U School of Music gather in the galleries to perform both classical and modern repertoires.