Chrysler The Members Magazine | Winter 2015 ASKING QUESTIONS BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2014–2015 Lewis W. Webb III, Esq., Chair It is my true pleasure to write to you as the Thomas L. Stokes, Jr., Vice Chair new Director of the Chrysler Museum of Lelia Graham Webb, Secretary Art. I feel fortunate to have been selected Yvonne T. Allmond for this duty after an extended search, and I Dudley B. Anderson, M.D., F.A.C.P. Tony Atwater, Ph.D. recognize the responsibility that comes with leading an institution of this Shirley C. Baldwin stature. With the staff and Trustees and volunteers and friends, I intend Carolyn K. Barry to make this great Museum even better. We aspire to be a leader among Kathleen Broderick America’s art museums. To that end, I am holding an extended series Deborah H. Butler of discussions: first with our Board of Trustees and staff, and then with Robert W. Carter Susan R. Colpitts community leaders, Members, and visitors. The information I gather from Elizabeth P. Fraim these discussions will become part of our planning process as we set goals Edith G. Grandy for the Chrysler for the coming years. James A. Hixon Marc Jacobson Of course, we are starting from an enviable position with a world-class Linda H. Kaufman collection, a strong history of careful fiscal management, and an outstanding Pamela C. Kloeppel group of people. The building has never looked better (or functioned better) Harry T. Lester than it does today. We are free to all the people of our community. We have Oriana M. McKinnon Peter M. Meredith, Jr. a growing endowment in an improving economy. The leaders of our region Richard D. Roberts recognize the value of the Chrysler as an economic generator and as a key C. Arthur Rutter III component of a full civic life. All of these factors suggest that the future will Bob Sasser be bright for the Museum. We know, however, that there will be challenges Lisa B. Smith Richard Waitzer and uncertainties that will affect all museums, so we will chart a course Joseph T. Waldo with clear goals that are true to our ideals—and with confidence that we are Wayne F. Wilbanks prepared to meet those challenges. CHRYSLER MAGAZINE The questions that I have been asking are open-ended. There are no wrong Brian Wells, Director of Development and answers. I want to learn what people really think about the Chrysler Communications Cheryl Little, Editor/Publications Manager Museum of Art. Where have we been successful and where have we Ed Pollard, Museum Photographer encountered obstacles? What could be changed and where should our Jane Cleary, Graphics Manager priorities be? What are our strengths and weaknesses as an institution? Megan Frost, Development Officer How will we engage with key issues of our time, such as education, Chrysler Magazine is a quarterly publication environmental change, and the rapid expansion of technology? I welcome produced for and mailed to Chrysler your ideas and your support as the Chrysler Museum of Art embarks on a Museum Members as a benefit of their generous support. new journey. I hope you will send your comments, critiques, or kudos to [email protected]. Update or verify your membership information at http://reservations.chrysler.org or contact Database Manager Fleater Allen at: Chrysler Museum of Art One Memorial Place | Norfolk, VA 23510 (757) 333-6287 | [email protected]. © 2014 by The Chrysler Museum of Art, Erik H. Neil all rights reserved Director ON THE COVER Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848) The Voyage of Life: Youth (detail), 1840 Learn more about Erik’s plans for the Chrysler Museum Oil on canvas, 52 1/2 x 78 1/2 in. in our story on pages 12–15. Museum Purchase, 55.106 Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y. Chrysler The Members Magazine | Winter 2014–2015 DIRECtoR’S note Inside Front Cover FeatuRED EXHIBition 3 Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life in THE gaLLERies 6 Exhibitions 9 Charlotte’s Web: Who Are You Wearing? 10 Collection Connections: Face to Face—Marcelle and Pierre Monnin CHRYSLER neWS 12 A New Chrysler Tour with Our New Director 16 Listening to American Art 17 At the Glass Studio: Visiting Artist Series 2015 Larry Clark (American, b. 1943) Untitled, from the series Tulsa, 1971 MEMBER EXCLusiVes Gelatin silver print, printed 1980 Gift of Robert W. Pleasant 18 Worn to Be Wild Members’ Preview Party 19 Major Donor Dinner The Honorable Society of Former Trustees 20 Upcoming Member Events A Legacy of Beauty: Connie and Marc Jacobson Last Look 21 Celebrating Smokey Bear 2 | WINTER 2015 THOMAS COLE’S VOYAGE OF LIFE ecades before the publication of Huck Finn’s adventures on the mighty Mississippi, thousands of Americans Dundertook an epic river journey through Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life. This series of four paintings, created between 1839 and 1840, remains one of the greatest achievements in the history of American art. Now these monumental canvases—Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age—are at the Chrysler Museum for a stunning celebration of nature, imagination, and spirit. The Voyage of Life is on loan, along with related studies and early prints, from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art, in Utica, N.Y. Cole re-painted the popular series in 1842, and the second version now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His original formulation, however, has left Utica only twice since its purchase by the Munson-Williams-Proctor in 1955. This historic third tour includes museums in Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Memphis, in addition to the Chrysler. “We’ve placed these extraordinary paintings right in the heart of our American galleries so that they can be in conversation with our own remarkable collection,” says Alex Mann, Brock Curator of American Art. “Visitors follow the same art historical timeline, from John Singleton Copley to Winslow Homer, with a grand surprise in between. Our Meredith Gallery has never looked more stunning!” Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848) The Voyage of Life: Childhood (detail), 1839–40 Oil on canvas, 52 x 78 in. Museum Purchase, 55.105 Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, FEATURED EXHIBITION | 3 Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y. Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848) The Voyage of Life: Youth (detail), 1840 Oil on canvas, 52 1/2 x 78 1/2 in. Museum Purchase, 55.106 Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, N.Y. Attributed to Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. American, 1826–1888 Whale-oil Lamp, ca. 1830 Pressed glass and blown opal glass, 7 5/8 in. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. scenes. The Chrysler’s own Cole painting, The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds (1833–34), is a perfect example of his skill at storytelling within a beautiful, imaginary landscape. Cole, a lifelong Episcopalian, hoped that such religious subjects would inspire and educate his viewers. “I am not a mere leaf painter,” he wrote in his diary in 1838. “I have higher conceptions.” In The Voyage of Life, Cole tackled an even more complex subject, summarizing the ups and downs of human existence in four grand scenes. “Cole saw this series as a poem,” Mann explains. “He dabbled in poetry writing, but art was his real genius. Think of his light and shadows as adjectives, shapes as rhymes, color as punctuation. That’s how Cole understood these elements, and that’s why it took him almost two The Hudson River and Beyond years to make—no, to invent—this series.” Thomas Cole (1801–1848) is one of founding fathers An Assembly of Angels of American art, best remembered for inventing the Both The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds and The Hudson River School of landscape painting. Voyage of Life are milestones in Cole’s career, Mann After trekking amid the hills and lakes of says, and this exhibition marks the first time ever that upstate New York, Cole launched his career “his early ambitious masterpiece and his crowning by capturing on canvas the brilliant achievement have ever been presented in the same fall colors of the Catskill Mountains. building.” Visitors will spot dozens of similarities in Regular steamboat service between the composition and figures inThe Angel Appearing, New York City and Albany (in the largest canvas that Cole ever painted, and Old Age, operation since 1807) gave him easy his finalVoyage of Life painting. “Cole clearly copied access to this gorgeous scenery. Cole himself,” says Mann. “The celestial vision in Old Age, also benefitted from the opening of the with the heavens opening and angels descending, is an Erie Canal in 1825. His most generous encore for Cole, repeated from the Chrysler’s massive patrons were bankers and merchants who masterwork. Scholars have written about this, and now owed their wealth to the canal and the we can study it firsthand.” subsequent explosion of boat trade around New York. This reprisal of older ideas may result from Cole’s lack of confidence in painting the human figure. Cole later traveled beyond the “The Angel’s face has given me a great deal of trouble,” Hudson River region, painting views Cole wrote in 1840 to a friend. “Angels’ visits to me of Pennsylvania, the White Mountains are really so few and far between that I forget their of New Hampshire, and Italy. He features,” he joked. Sketchbooks from Cole’s travels in also dreamed up idealized landscape Italy were a reference point for his later paintings and compositions and used these as may be the link between these two projects. “These settings for biblical and literary are the great bookends of his career,”says Mann, “but 4 | WINTER 2015 Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848) of course Cole never expected The Voyage of Life to be The Voyage of Life: Old Age, 1840 Oil on canvas, 51 3/4 x 78 1/4 in.