In Remembrance GENEVIÈVE McMILLAN Timeline 1922 Born Geneviève Lalanne on December 23, 1922 in Orthez, Pyrénées, France. 1996 Endowment of the McMillan-Stewart Lectures at W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. 1943 Earned a baccalaureate degree in English from the University of Bordeaux, and was one of the first women to graduate from the École des Sciences Politiques, the 1997 Establishment of the McMillan-Stewart Fellowship in Distinguished Filmmaking at leading French university for public administration in Paris. the Film Study Center at Harvard University. 1944 Met Robert McMillan, an American officer and architect by training, after the 1999 In honor of her friend Dr. Harold Amos, the first African American professor at liberation of Paris. Harvard Medical School established the Geneviève McMillan – Harold Amos Endowed Scholarship Fund for African Americans at Harvard Medical School. 1944 Met Madeleine Rousseau, a collector of African and Oceanic Art, who became her mentor and sparked her interest in collecting and learning about diverse cultures. 2007 Establishment of the Geneviève McMillan - Reba Stewart Chair in Painting at the By 1946, she had married Robert McMillan and settled in the U.S. Maryland Institute College of Art. 1950 After her divorce, opened Henri IV, a restaurant with a pastry shop and nightclub 2007 The first Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Traveling Fellowship awarded at the in the heart of Harvard Square, Cambridge. Massachusetts College of Art nd Design. From the 1950s on, summers were devoted to her passion of understanding diverse cultures and people. Traveled the world extensively: throughout Africa, Eastern and 2007 “Material Journeys,” a temporary exhibit of part of her collection featured at the Western Europe and the former Soviet Union, the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston. Middle East. 2008 Collection to be featured at the Baltimore Museum of Art. 1980 Establishment of the Reba Stewart Memorial Scholarship at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). 2008 Died April 18, 2008 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery on Azalea Path. 1995-6 Establishment of the Geneviève McMillan- Reba Stewart Professorship in the Study of Women in the Developing World at MIT. Table of Contents Taking a Path Less Traveled Cate McQuaid (reprint from The Boston Globe).................... 2 Ginou’s “Favorite Place” John Gianvito............................................................................. 28 Aunt Ginou Catherine Lalanne-Gobet and Virgine Lalanne.............................................. 4 Ginou and Harvard Lucien Castaing-Taylor......................................................................30 Bonding with Ginou McMillan Carole Bertonèche............................................................ 6 Ginou Had the Secret Gaston Kabore............................................................................... 32 Henri IV In Ginou’s Voice................................................................................................ 8 Memories of a Remarkable Woman Fred Lazarus.............................................................. 34 In Ginou’s Orbit Larry Joseph...........................................................................................10 Encountering the World Kay Sloan.................................................................................. 36 A Life Shaping Friendship Kibebe Gizaw.......................................................................... 12 Students In Ginou’s Voice............................................................................................... 37 Club Henri IV Michael O. Finkelstein (reprint from The Harvard Crimson).................... 14 Advancing African Studies Henry Louis Gates, Jr............................................................. 38 Gabrielle In Ginou’s Voice............................................................................................... 16 A Unique Personality Philip S. Khoury............................................................................. 39 A Powerful Woman Jacob Olupona.................................................................................... 18 A Passion for Justice Nancy Murray..................................................................................40 The Breadth of Her Interests Norman Hurst.................................................................... 20 Ginou’s Multiculturalism Anne Marie Stein.................................................................... 42 Learning from Ginou Alan Helms.................................................................................... 22 A Love of Life—and the World Marisa Escribano............................................................... 44 Our Shared Passion William E. Teel................................................................................. 23 Visiting Geneviève Odile Cazenave................................................................................. 45 An Enduring Legacy Malcolm Rogers................................................................................24 She Showed Me Her World Jessica Pendleton................................................................... 46 An Art Lover Who Cared for People Stephanie Xatart........................................................ 25 She Knew the Gold from the Brass Fatma Albaiti.............................................................. 47 Life Histories Christraud Geary....................................................................................... 26 The Sphinx at 40 Bow Street Donald C. Kelley..................................................................48 African Art In Ginou’s Voice............................................................................................ 27 A Letter to Ginou Jamie Cope.......................................................................................... 49 The Boston Globe Taking a path less traveled A collector’s treasure of African, Oceanic objects lands at MFA If you map the trips Genevieve McMillan has taken in her life, the lines dart around the globe. Then chart the paths traveled by the magnificent objects in her collection of African and Oceanic art. All the trails meet in the two-family house McMillan owns in Cambridge. “Material Journeys: Collecting African and Oceanic Art, 1945-2000. Selections From the Genevieve McMillan Collection,” at the Museum of Fine Arts through Sept. 2, highlights close to 100 pieces from McMillan’s storehouse, more than 1,500 strong. Most exhibitions of such collections are put together around themes or chronologies. MFA organizers Christraud M. Geary , curator of African and Oceanic art, and research assistant Stephanie Xatart took an original tack and built this show around the paths traveled by the collector and the objects she acquired. The setup throws into vivid relief the evolving market for African and Oceanic art and the market’s role in assessing originality and value. McMillan was born in the French Pyrenees and studied in Paris during World War II. African art had, early in the century, caught the imagination of artists such as Picasso and Braque who were captivated by its forms. By the time McMillan came on the scene in the 1940s, curators and collectors were cultivating interest in provenance, culture, and history as well as design. 2 The young collector’s first acquisition kicks off “Material Journeys”: a stunning reliquary Oceanic art is often grouped with African art in part because Westerners have approached figure from the Kota peoples in Gabon. McMillan bought it in Paris in 1945 from her them from the same perspective. The pathways of the objects from their places of origin mentor, the collector Madeleine Rousseau . This is the kind of work the Cubists relished, have also been similar, filtered through cities in areas once colonized by Western nations. with a bold, brassy face over a wooden diamond that could represent shoulders or legs, One such city is Rabaul, New Britain, Papua New Guinea, where in 1954 McMillan came knees cocked. Such figures were found on top of baskets in shrines. The Kota converted to across a delightful bark cloth mask. Its eyes splay out like airplane wings; its tongue lolls Christianity around the turn of the 20th century, and the reliquaries were given away or from a beaky, smiling mouth. The concentric eyes are made of bamboo twigs and colored sold. Today, African carvers make them for money . with red and black pigments. The mask, made by the Uramot Baining peoples, was used in A war bride, McMillan came to the United States by ship and would relax on deck on a ceremonies to summon benevolent spirits and ancestors. beautifully carved wooden stool from the Nuna peoples of Burkina Faso. Made for a man, Like the bark cloth mask, many of the objects in “Material Journeys” exude a sense of the stool had the beveled ribbon of a spine sweeping up its back. Already, she was ahead in authenticity. But what is truly authentic in a constantly changing world, where porous the collecting game, acquiring utilitarian objects before the market for them caught fire. indigenous societies respond not only to the market, but to what comes to hand, is up The marriage, to an architect, didn’t last, and McMillan moved from the Lexington home for debate. she had shared with her husband to Cambridge. She opened the Henri IV restaurant in It took a daring and original eye for McMillan to purchase a necklace