Florida International University FIU Digital Commons Frost Art Museum Catalogs Frost Art Museum 11-29-2008 The iF gure Past and Present: Selections from the Permanent Collection The aP tricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/frostcatalogs Recommended Citation Frost Art Museum, The aP tricia and Phillip, "The iF gure Past and Present: Selections from the Permanent Collection" (2008). Frost Art Museum Catalogs. 4. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/frostcatalogs/4 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Frost Art Museum at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Frost Art Museum Catalogs by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE FIGURE PAST AND PRESENT SELECTION S F R O M T H E P E R M A N E N T C OLLECTION THE PATRICIA & PHIL LIP FROST ART MUSEUM THE FIGURE PAST AND PRESENT SELECTION S F R O M T H E P E R M A N E N T C OLLECTION CAROL DAMIAN, CURATOR PATRICIA AND PHIllIP FROST ART MUSEUM flORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD he first presentation of the permanent Over the years, only a few of the 6000 works Tcollection of the new Patricia and in the permanent collection have been Phillip Frost Art Museum marks an historic exhibited. In the impressive new spaces of moment for the 30 year-old exhibition space. The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, It represents a coming-of-age from its early there is finally the opportunity to look at beginnings as a gallery created to give student the collection, curate from its holdings and artists an opportunity to not only see their continue to create exhibitions and programs. own work, but also that of other artists. It was How does one create a cohesive exhibition established by Professor James Couper as an with so much to choose from? The decision educational venture dedicated to enhancing was difficult. From the many media, countries, the art programs of the university. Then and periods of Art History represented in under the visionary leadership of Dahlia the collection, the figure emerged. Figures Morgan, the Art Museum became a leader in have always been a vital part of the art the South Florida community with quality historical record. This exhibition provides an exhibitions and programs. Today it is a opportunity to showcase the similarities and grown-up museum that is an extraordinary differences among the traditional cultures building with nine gallery spaces. Finally it of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, has room to display the works that have been and to honor the achievements of the men acquired over many, many years. Certainly and women we now call artists, many of the most significant part of the collection is whom were not artists in the contemporary that of a gift to FIU in 1989 from what was sense, but magicians, shamans, priests and then the Metropolitan Museum of Miami. anonymous servitors of a higher authority. The Metropolitan gift of over 2500 objects forms the basis of the permanent collection and includes some of its most significant Carol Damian works. Director and Chief Curator ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For over 30 years, The Patricia and Phil- I would like to thank Debbye Kirschtel-Tay- lip Frost Art Museum at FIU has brought lor, Sherry Zambrano and Klaudio Rodri- exhibitions and programs to Miami that guez, the collection management team, with have represented the highest in quality and Doris Alvarez, the museum studies’ intern, educational achievement. What is not as for their diligence in cataloging, photograph- well known is that the museum has been ing and moving the collection to its new a collecting institution for many years and home, and helping me every step of the way has amassed more than 6000 works of art, to identify the very best. The works of art including 2500 objects from the Coral Gables also required significant research to assure Metropolitan Museum and Art Center in the highest academic standards in labeling 1989. There have been hundreds of gifts from and text for the catalog. A university provides collectors in the South Florida community the wonderful opportunity to work with that have never been shown before. For the students and scholars that is not always pos- past three years, I have had the privilege of sible in independent institutions. I have been looking at every one of these objects in order fortunate to have a group of student interns to put together an opening exhibition for the and assistants who have been tasked with the new Frost Art Museum. The curatorial deci- challenge of doing research on objects from sions involved in choosing a small selection all over the world and they have provided me to highlight this vast collection have not been with the excellent information used to write easy and could not have been accomplished the catalog, labels and wall texts. I am grateful without the assistance of many. The entire to Catalina Jaramillo, my curatorial assistant; staff of the museum has been involved in this Ana Estrada, Judith Blumenthal, Cookie daunting task, from the organization of the Gazitua, Miriam Machado, Stephanie Guasp, data and archives, to the research, and finally and Nicole Espaillat, my research team of to the installation. students, interns and volunteers; Ana Quiroz, our Smithsonian Affiliation Intern who was seum to make all this possible. To Jim Couper able to research in the Archives of American and Dahlia Morgan, special recognition and Art in Washington, and my professional col- gratitude for dreaming of this day many years leagues Brian Dursum, Manuel Jordan, Mark ago. I must also recognize the continued sup- Ormand, Tara Finley, Julia Herzberg, and the port of the Florida Division of Cultural many others I have consulted with over the Affairs; the Miami-Dade County years. I would also like to thank my editor, Department of Cultural Affairs; the Mayor Carmela Pinto McIntire, another FIU col- and Miami-Dade County Board of Country league, for helping me put it all together. The Commissioners; the Funding Arts Network; final step in this long process has been the Dade Community Foundation; Citigroup installation of the work, and Chip Steeler has Foundation; CitiPrivate Bank; the Steven and understood my vision for the exhibition and Dorothea Green Foundation, Target, UBS and created it perfectly. the Friends of the Frost Art Museum. I hope this exhibition will open the doors to many Finally, I wish to thank the many organiza- more exhibitions and programs for the benefit tions and individuals whose commitment to of our students and community. Thank you. the arts makes our endeavors possible. I would especially like to salute Patricia and Phillip Frost; the Fishman Family; the Orr Family; B. and Don Carlin; William R. Kenan, Jr Chari- table Trust; Teresa and Alfred Estrada; Carol Weldon; Betty Laird Perry; Francien Ruwitch; Wilma Bulkin Siegel; Steven and Dorothea Green; the Cowles Family and Amancio V. Carol Damian Suarez, who dedicated spaces in the new mu- Director and Chief Curator THE day reveals as many commonalities in image making as it does wide discrepancies (see Appendix 1). This exhibition showcases the similarities and differences among the traditional cultures of Asia, FIGURE Africa, Europe and the Americas, and honors PAST AND PRESENT the achievements of the men and women we SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COllECTION now call artists. Many of them were not artists in the contemporary sense, but rather magicians, shamans, priests and anonymous servitors of a C A R O L D AMIAN higher authority. rom the beginnings of representation, the Fhuman form has been given memorable This selection of works will introduce the public to shapes by the wishes of men and women to the rich traditions associated with the human figure. communicate to a higher entity and to each It will also explore the many variants of the genre other. Before the fascinating imagery in the through time and place. By casting wide temporal caves, female figures were created in many parts and geographic nets, we hope not only to highlight of the world, perhaps as an offering to a fertility the works themselves, but also to highlight the deity. For thousands of years, every cultural area cross-cultural influences so relevant today, especially across the world has paid homage to the human in the Miami area, where people from lands far body – real or fantastic. Today, in a world of vastly and wide have arrived, and keep arriving, making expanded knowledge of physical life, artists go this location one of the most vibrant, diverse, and beyond the simple representation of the human exciting cities of a truly “new world.” body by relating it, by analogy, to all structures that have become part of our imaginative and The figure as a subject of art and the FIGURE 1 intellectual experience. Artists are now informed focus of image-making has existed for Keokuk, Chief of The 1 Sacs and Foxes, 1838 by a more complete knowledge of anatomy; more over 500,000 years, as far back as the Hand-colored lithograph on paper elaborate symbols; more advanced understanding Lower Paleolithic on the Eurasian printed by J.T. Bowen for McKenney of the past; more fascination with ritual and continents.2 There are few places and Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of religion. Artists are also more adept at articulating North America, 1837-44 on earth that have not used it visually and conceptually through new media as a source of visual reference, and technology.