MOVES LIKE WALTER: NEW CURATORS OPEN THE CORCORAN LEGACY COLLECTION 2 MOVES LIKE WALTER MOVES LIKE WALTER 1 MOVES LIKE WALTER: NEW CURATORS OPEN THE CORCORAN LEGACY COLLECTION American University Museum Collection September 3 – December 15, 2019 Previous page: Bernis von zur Muehlen, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center Marilyn, 1981. Chromogenic color print, mat: 24 x 20 in., sheet: 20 x 16 in. Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington, DC (Gift of the artist), 2018.15.1479. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 9 Abigail Swaringam, MA Student, Art History Boundless: Existing Within Ambiguous Space 15 The Road Home 27 The Selfless Spirit: Nature vs. Nurture and the Effects 35 of Motherhood in the Corcoran Collection American Legacy: Reconsidering Non-Western Subjects 53 in the Corcoran Collection Redefining the Gaze: Shifting the Power 69 Checklist 89 Michael Goldberg, Untitled, 1968. Oil and pastel, unframed: 48 x 48 in. Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Museum Purchase, Director’s Discretionary Fund), 2018.15.30. MOVES LIKE WALTER 5 INTRODUCTION Moves like Walter: New Curators Open the Corcoran scholarly engagement (written by a Corcoran cura- Legacy Collection is a product of director and curator tor) with the history of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Jack Rasmussen’s spring 2019 course on curatorial its support of American art is Sarah Cash’s Corcoran practice. Upon the museum’s receipt of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. She describes Collection, graduate students in art history, arts manage- the catalog as an attempt to fill a gap in its American ment, and studio art have curated a playful and provoc- paintings but also to examine its habits of collecting and ative interpretation of the 9,000-piece gift. The exhibition art patronage.2 By creating this catalog, Cash expresses is inspired by and pays humorous homage to Walter her interest in rendering the “holdings accessible to Hopps (1932-2005), briefly the director of the Corcoran the field of American art and to future generations of from 1970 to mid-1972 and an erratic but seminal Amer- museum visitors.”3 Certainly, Cash’s essay was useful to ican curator of contemporary art. Hopps was known us, the future curators of museums and institutions, as for being unpredictable, challenging, and off schedule. we worked on the first complete exhibition of American However, it has been stated that he always brought a University Museum’s gift. personal and fierce perspective to exhibition-making. He put together shows that put artists on the map, The Corcoran was the first cultural institution to be 4 including Sam Gilliam and others. Our exhibition marks established as only exhibiting art. William Corcoran’s the 50th anniversary of Hopps’s exhibition Gilliam, Krebs, interest in collecting did not first arise from an interest in 5 McGowin at the Corcoran, arguably the most import- art but, as Cash notes, from an interest in philanthropy. ant show of Washington art in the 20th century. In his He first began collecting European art but eventually posthumously published autobiography, The Dream decided to focus on work by Americans. Although not Colony: A Life in Art, (2017) Hopps consistently described bluntly, Cash leads us to believe that the shift to collect- his enthusiasm and lack of fear at putting on risky and ing American art was both a political and self-preserving political shows. By using him as a curatorial model, we decision. Corcoran was a supporter of the South during hope to create an exhibition that takes risks and does the Civil War, and after bad favor with the national gov- 6 not exclude any thoughts. It will not clean up into neat ernment, he fled the United States. After the South was statements. Instead, we hope to break rules, open as defeated and Corcoran returned to the United States, many dialogues as possible, and engage in surprising he proclaimed his new interest in American art. At this conversations about history, art, institutions, and people. time, Corcoran described his investment in American art to display “successful individuals” who “were proud Alongside interrogating the process of curation and of American achievement and deeply mindful of their museum practices, the exhibition engages directly with responsibilities for the country’s social and cultural the history of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Corcoran improvement.”7 By supporting American art, and claiming was founded by William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) in to support the great American people, Corcoran cleverly 1869.1 The museum started out as a private collection, regained public favor. but eventually turned into a museum. The only in-depth George Biddle, Terai Hara, 1922. Oil on canvas, unframed: 22 x 16 in., framed: 29 1/4 x 23 1/4 x 7/8 in. Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of the artist), 2018.15.51. 8 MOVES LIKE WALTER MOVES LIKE WALTER 9 His collection took off in the nation’s capital. His decision Redefining the Gaze: Shifting the Power. All groups in to place the collection in Washington, DC, was clearly the exhibition show how the idea of a total vision of politically motivated. He described his inspiration in American art in the Corcoran’s collection has never the Washington Art Association’s mission, which was existed and never been possible. We have realized the “to advance the fine artists in regard to comprehensive Corcoran Gallery of Art did not end up fostering one national interests.”8 His investment was not just for agenda or interpretation of American genius but set up momentary personal favor and political gain, but to think multiple trajectories through its various directors and about “not only local and temporary interests but of the curators. Some groups reveal the impossibility of totality whole country and the far future.”9 by investigating older paintings and representations of the “other,” while other focus on feminist, post-colonial, or The idea of an everlasting vision of art is expressed abstract contemporary art that by nature is incompatible within the Corcoran’s architecture. The original gallery with a total American experience or vision. was based on wings of the Louvre, which is known to champion a Western universality. By recognizing that the Creating this exhibition has prompted unexpected and architecture is laden with these ideas, Cash notes that challenging situations. As students of art, we have “from the outset, visitors to the Corcoran Gallery were been learning and thinking about museum practices meant to view American paintings and sculpture as a and testing the limits of presentation. Moves Like continuation of the great tradition of Western art.”10 Walter combines the participants’ varied approaches to museum function, art culture, and art historical research. Our exhibition intends to shake up the glorifying narra- It stands as an experiment in institutional critique and tives proposed by William Corcoran. After inspecting the as a collaboration between 20 student curators. As a works received, we have divided into five subgroups that group, we hope that the viewing of this exhibition will have been titled Boundless: Existing Within Ambiguous prompt viewers to take more risks, ask more questions, Space; The Road Home; The Selfless Spirit: Nature vs. and love art feverishly. Nurture and the Effects of Motherhood in the Corcoran Collection; American Legacy: Reconsidering Non- Abigail Swaringam Western Subjects in the Corcoran Collection; and MA Student, Art History 1 Sarah Cash, ed., Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Washington, DC: The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 2011), 6. 2 Cash, 6. Robert Goodnough, The Bug, c. 1958. Oil on canvas, framed: 51 5/8 x 70 1/4 x 1 3/4 in., unframed: 50 x 67 3/16 in. Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art 3 Cash, 11. (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Winston), 2018.15.688. 4 Cash, 15. 5 Cash, 17. 6 Cash, 28. 7 Cash, 18. 8 Cash, 22. 9 Cash, 23. 10 Cash, 25. 10 MOVES LIKE WALTER MOVES LIKE WALTER 11 MOVES LIKE WALTER: NEW CURATORS OPEN THE CORCORAN LEGACY COLLECTION BOUNDLESS: EXISTING WITHIN AMBIGUOUS SPACE Moves Like Walter: New Curators Open the Corcoran Legacy Collection By J’han D. Brady, MFA Student, Studio Art Moves Like Walter honors the Corcoran’s collecting history and the spirit of the late curator and director Walter Hopps. Hopps was famous for his innovative and elaborate exhibitions, but he also valued the relationships he made with artists and helped boost their reputations and careers.1 He was a radical thinker; he saw the world differently and was interested in experimentation, the avant-garde, and edgy artworks.2 The Corcoran Legacy Collection at the American University Museum consists of many works by influential and underrepresented American and European art- ists. In our selection for this exhibition, both abstract and representational works are juxtaposed to explore why it is necessary to break from analyzing critiques of representational artwork and instead direct the viewer’s attention to the inherent value of art. Intention The primary goal of the exhibition is to present great art, from great artists, and demonstrate why the work was important enough to be collected by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Educating and encouraging reflection are important aspects of the Corcoran Legacy Collection, as art is often influenced by, or reflects, both culture and time. Artists’ ideas derive from the experience of their everyday lives, culture, politics, and society. But art is generally read for its composition, construction, and appli- cation of medium. Why a particular piece of art exists should also be taken into consideration.