The Smart Museum of Art BULLETIN THE SMART MUSEUM OF ART BULLETIN 1999-2000 The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art The University of Chicago CONTENTS Board and Committee Members 4 Report of the Chairman and Director 5 # Mission Statement 7 Front cover: Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2000.15 (see p. 37) Essays Volume II, 1999-2000 Copyright © 2001 by The David and Alfred Front inside cover: Qui Zhijie, 2000.7 (see p. 33) The Smart Museum in Context: A Brief History of the Visual Arts Back cover: Installation view of the Smart Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, at The University of Chicago 9 5550 South Greenwood Avenue, Chicago, Museum's new Elisabeth and William M. Landes KIMERLY RORSCHACH Illinois, 60637. All rights reserved. Gallery (1999) http://www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Back inside cover: Aristide Maillol, 2000.18 (see p. 28) Abigail's Grandchildren: A Departmental Perspective on the Study of Art ISSN: 1099-2413 LINDA SEIDEL Editor: Stephanie P. Smith Photography and reproduction credits: Pages 8, 10, 13-15, 20, 22, 23, 26-40, 42, 44-47: Design: Joan Sommers Design Activities Printing: Sheffield Press Tom van Eynde Pages 11,12 (fig. 3): courtesy of Department of Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection 27 Special Collections, University of Chicago Library Loans from the Permanent Collection 41 Page 27: courtesy of Peter Saul Page 28, back inside cover: courtesy of Artists Rights Society Exhibitions 45 Page 37 and front cover: courtesy of Sonnabend Gallery Education Programs 49 Pages 59, 66: Matthew Gilson Pages 5, 48, j 1, 53-57, 60, 63, 64: Lloyd de Grane Public Events 5 5 Pages 49, 50, 52, 57, 58, 61: Jim Newberry Front and back covers and inside covers: Support Tom van Eynde Sources of Support 62 Every effort has been made to contact rights holders for all reproductions. Additional rights Operating Statement 68 holders please contact the Smart Museum. Smart Museum Staff 69 Smart Museum Board of Governors Richard Gray, Chairman Joan W. Harris Elizabeth Helsinger, Vice Chair Neil Harris Claudio Aspesi Mary Harvey (ex officio) Mrs. Edwin A. Bergman Randy Holgate Joel E. Bernstein William M. Landes Richard Elden Kimerly Rorschach (ex officio) Robert Feitler Raymond Smart Lorna Ferguson Joel Snyder (ex officio) Alan Fern John N. Stern Stanley M. Freehling Allen Turner (ex officio) Jack Halpern Michael Wyatt The University of Chicago Visiti Committee on the Visual Arts Report of the Chairman and Director Allen M. Turner, Chairman Doris B. Holleb Anne Abrons Marshall M. Holleb Marilynn B. Alsdorf Joel Honigberg Dorothy L. Baumgarten Ruth P. Horwich The Smart Museum's capital improvement Robert H. Bergman Burton W. Kanter project has provided new special exhibition and David L. Blumberg Alan Koppel permanent collection galleries, a new cafe and Julius Lewis Andy Austin Cohen reception area, and more commodious and Phyllis Gordon Cohen Eloise Martin convenient art storage and study spaces. These Marion Wood Covey Mrs. Robert B. Mayer ample new facilities have had a dramatic effect Michael Cunningham Brooks McCormick Jr. on all aspects of the museum's activities. Our Georgette D'Angelo Mary M. McDonald annual attendance has increased by 22%, and Robert G. Donnelley Helen Harvey Mills we have been able to present larger and more Gail M. Elden Muriel Kallis Newman ambitious special exhibitions and garner Sally H. Fairweather Evelyn E. Padorr Joan E. Feitler Marshall J. Padorr increased press coverage and attention. We also Robert Feitler Beatrice Perry have significantly increased the number of Joan S. Freehling Elizabeth Plotnick education programs offered to the university Stanley M. Freehling Margot L. Pritzker community, local school children, and adult Marshall Front Thomas J. Pritzker audiences from metropolitan Chicago and Allan Frumkin Laura Campbell Rhind beyond. We have much to be proud of, and we Irmgard Hess Rosenberger Susanne Ghez It is no exaggeration to say that 1999-2000 thank all our supporters and members who have Adele B. Gidwitz Brenda Shapiro was the most extraordinary year in the Smart helped make this growth possible. This annual Helen F. Goodkin Joseph P. Shure Museum's history. On November 19, 1999, we report documents in detail the notable Michael J. Goodkin Granvil I. Specks celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary by exhibitions and programs presented last season, Richard Gray Marcia G. Specks reopening the museum after seven months of and highlights the growing strength of the Joyce Z. Greenberg John N. Stern extensive renovation and reinstallation, made collection through the acquisition of forty-seven Nathan Grossman Doris F. Sternberg significant new works. Leo S. Guthman Karen G. Wilson possible by our Silver Anniversary Renewal Alice Q. Hargrave James No well Wood Campaign. Led by the Smart's Board of As we write this report, the University of David C. Hilliard Mrs. George B. Young Governors, our friends and supporters Chicago is engaged in new initiatives to contributed two million dollars, which made effectively integrate the arts into the core Smart Museum Education Advisory Committee possible a complete renovation and internal mission, campus life, and ongoing community Candida Alvarez Mark Johnson expansion of our physical facilities. We are involvement of the university. Our new Dawoud Bey Sonya Malunda grateful to those whose generosity made this president, Don Michael Randel, advocates an Mary Cobb Michelle Obama physical transformation of the museum possible. increased role for the arts at the University of Eliza Duenow Richard Pettengill They are identified on page 62. Chicago. The Smart Museum already plays a Leif Elsmo Laura Senteno Dr. Marvin Hoffman 5 catalytic role on campus. Through its grows, we look forward to playing a continued collaborations with a range of departments, leadership role. The two essays that follow put other presenting organizations, and a broad our activities in historical context and highlight range of scholars and students, the museum the unique role of the university art museum. brings together the visual arts, the performing arts, and other disciplines, connecting Richard Gray practitioners, theorists, and scholars in both Chairman, Board of Governors historical and contemporary visual arts. As emphasis on the arts at the University of Chicago Kimerly Rorschach Dana Feitler Director Mission Statement The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is ing of the visual arts by means of its exhibitions the art museum of the University of Chicago. and programs. While embracing and serving In support of the University of Chicago's edu­ the University of Chicago audience, the Muse­ cational mission, the Smart Museum collects, um also reaches beyond this audience, serving preserves, exhibits, and interprets works of art general adult visitors, the greater scholarly and for the benefit of the University community, the artistic community, and primary and secondary citizens of greater Chicago and other general school students. By means of its exhibitions, audiences, and the scholarly world at large. programs, and publications, the Museum « By means of both its own collection and loaned makes available the University's unique intellec­ works, the Museum presents exhibitions of tual resources to this wider audience, thus pro­ « scholarly and visual merit, in the belief that viding a public "window" on aspects of the contact with original works of art in a museum University's scholarly discourse. At the same setting is an essential component of a liberal time, the Museum serves as a training ground education, and a key factor in understanding for future teachers, artists, and museum profes­ the world in which we live. To further enrich sionals, involving a wide range of University of understanding of the visual arts, the Museum Chicago students in essential museum activities. produces catalogues and other publications, In doing so, we serve not only the University, and sponsors programs such as lectures, sym­ but also the larger community, by enlarging the posia, readings, and tours to elucidate the pool of individuals committed to increasing works on view and connect them to a wider understanding of the visual arts among a range intellectual, historical, and cultural discourse. of diverse audiences. In view of the University's long-standing com­ mitment to interdisciplinary understanding in In accordance with the museum's ten-year strategic plan, all spheres of study, the Museum especially a new mission statement was adopted in September 1997 seeks to foster a cross-disciplinary understand­ (replacing a 1988 revision of the statement). 7 6 ESSAYS The Smart Museum in Context: A Brief History of the Visual Arts at The University of Chicago In November 1999, the David and Alfred Smart Anniversary Renewal Campaign, which raised two Museum of Art celebrated its twenty-fifth anniver­ million dollars to fund the project. We are extreme­ sary with the reopening of the museum after sig­ ly grateful to our campaign donors, whose names nificant renovations and the reinstallation of the are listed elsewhere in this publication (see page collection (FIGURE 1). The newly reopened muse­ 62), and most especially to our lead donors: Joan um presents our collection in a different way, and Robert Feitler and Ellen S. and Will Oswald emphasizing our strengths. Eschewing our previ­ of the Smart Family Foundation, Elisabeth and ous chronological survey, we decided to present William M. Landes, and Mary L. and Richard our collection thematically, with new galleries Gray. As our board chairman, Richard Gray led devoted to pre- and post-war modernism in the the campaign with great energy and acumen. U.S. and Europe, an expanded Asian gallery, and galleries to showcase our Old Master holdings and The Smart Museum's twenty-fifth anniversary works on paper in a series of thematic exhibitions. marks an important moment for the University of All these displays have been conceived by our Chicago in terms of the role of the arts on campus.