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he warmer seasons at UMMA refl ect Ann Arbor’s annual demographic shift to fewer faculty and students and an increase in tourists. This wonderful, regular migratory

pattern keeps the area healthy and diverse and allows the Museum to reach out to new audiences throughout the year. For us at the Museum it also signals an opportunity to measure ourselves against our yearly programmatic and visitor experi-ence goals and to rethink and refocus as needed.

UMMA’s collections grow signifi cantly every year; as a result, since our expansion in 2009 it has become clear that in order to balance the cultures, eras, traditions, and media throughout this incredible, nearly 100,000 square-foot facility, we need to expand the visibility and offerings of twentieth- and twenty-fi rst century art, architecture, and design throughout the Museum.

Thanks to the soaring new Joan and Bob Tisch Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, many of the Museum’s glorious twentieth-century works of art now rotate on extended view. In 2011 we opened the New Media Gallery in order to share the captivating work being created through video, fi lm, and digital technologies. Our next phase results in dedicated spaces for both the Museum’s outstanding photography holdings—over 3,000 works that cover the history of the medium, from nineteenth-century archival prints by William Henry Fox Talbot to the contemporary large-format color imagery of Candida Höfer—and its exciting domestic design collection (see story in this issue), which builds on the legacy of our enviable Tiffany and other American and European decorative arts collections.

The UMMA Design Gallery featuring twentieth-century furniture design also signals a renewed commitment to presenting the most progressive thinkers in the fi eld of architecture and design. It is crucial for a university art museum of this size and stature to not overlook this vast and always

innovative fi eld of visual culture. What architects and designers have produced historically informs much of what we experience daily through our built environment, as well as in fashion, technology, and industrial design. These objects also often serve as an accessible entry point for visitors, who once comfortable in the museum space might venture into galleries of less familiar work. The exhilarating exhibition Florencia Pita/

FP mod continues through June 16, and this season we present a focused look at the socially provocative urban design work of N H D M, a collaborative practice for design and research in architecture and urbanism founded by Nahyun Hwang and David Eugin Moon. Later this year we will kick-off a new collaboration with the UM Bentley Historical Library with the fi rst in a series of three exhibitions to highlight domestic architecture from the Midwest.

On the modern exhibitions front, this spring UMMA celebrates a rewarding collaboration with the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, with Isamu Noguchi and Qi

Baishi: Beijing 1930. UMMA’s Associate Curator of Asian Art Natsu Oyobe has pulled together a groundbreaking exhibition detailing the impactful artistic relationship between these two fascinating artists—who were introduced to each other by UM alumnus Sotokichi Katsuizumi. Exhibition and related program-ming details inside.

I look forward to sharing with you all of these new and exciting initiatives and hope they compel you to plan a visit to your Museum very soon!

Warmest regards,

Joseph RosaDirector

from the director

contents

UMMA NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

EXHIBITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

IN FOCUS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

UMMA HAPPENINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

MEMBERSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

UMMA STORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Cover: Isamu Noguchi, Seated Female Nude: Scroll (Kakemono), 1930, hanging scroll, ink on paper, UMMA, Museum purchase, 1948/1.331; Qi Baishi, Crabs, circa 1930, album leaf, ink on paper, UMMA, Gift of Katsuizumi Sotokichi, 1949/1.199

umma news

FRANKELS HONORED WITH NATIONAL AWARDUMMA heartily congratulates Maxine and Stuart Frankel for having received the Distinguished Service Outside the Profession Award from the National Art Education Association (NAEA). This national award, which recognizes outstanding achievement and contribu-tions in previous years by persons or organizations outside the fi eld of art education, was offi cially bestowed at the annual NAEA national convention in early March. This esteemed accolade honors the couple’s tremendous advocacy, philanthropy, and impact on the country’s cultural and educational landscape. At UMMA we are privileged to know fi rsthand how the Frankels have shaped this institution from the ground up, literally; therefore it is particularly gratifying to see them recognized for all that they do for arts education on a national level. Felicitations!

ROBERT MOTHERWELL WATERCOLOR TRAVELS TO VENICE AND NEW YORKOne of nearly a dozen works by legend-ary Abstract Expressionist artist Robert Motherwell in UMMA’s collection, Abstract Figure will be a part of a special

exhibition entitled Robert Motherwell:

Early Collages later this year. The exhibition will be on view at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, from May 26 through September 8, 2013 and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York September 27, 2013 to January 5, 2014. Featuring nearly sixty of Motherwell’s papier collés and related works on paper from the 1940s and early 1950s, the exhibition considers the artist’s early experimentations with collage. The exhibition’s fi rst stop correlates with the June 1 opening of the Venice Biennale, which should result in even more visitors engaging with and admiring UMMA’s contribution to this important examination of Motherwell’s origins and stylistic evolution.

NEW ADJUNCT MODERN CURATOR In addition to UMMA’s own respected curators, the Museum is fortunateto have numerous noted guest curators

as well as adjunct curators from the university’s intellectual brian trust, including Raymond Silverman, UMMA’s Adjunct African Curator and UM Professor of History of Art and Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies. In this vein, the Museum is delighted to announce that Maryann Wilkinson has come on board in an advisory role as Adjunct Modern Curator. Maryann brings to UMMA exemplary scholarly credentials and a long-term commitment to the museum fi eld. Prior to her current position as Exhibitions Director at the UM Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Maryann was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Curator

of Modern European Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

2013 DORIS SLOAN MEMORIAL PROGRAMMark your calendars for this year’s Sloan Program on the evening of Friday, May 17, which will offer insights into this spring’s groundbreaking new exhibition Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930

(see full story in this issue). This UMMA Dialogue will feature Jenny Dixon, Director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, UMMA Director Joseph Rosa, and UMMA Associate Curator of Asian Art Natsu Oyobe, who curated the exhibition. The talk begins at 6:30 pm, with a reception and gallery viewing afterwards. The exhibition is the fi rst to explore more fully the impact of the relationship between the two artists and includes works from UMMA, the Noguchi Museum, and other public and private collections. The Sloan Memorial Program is intended to illuminate subjects relating to UMMA’s outstanding collections, and honors one of the Museum’s most ardent friends and supporters, Doris Sloan, a longtime Museum docent. Established through the generosity of Dr. Herbert Sloan, the annual program is a tribute to Dr. and Mrs. Sloan’s shared passion for collecting art and fostering its appreciation.

A FOND FAREWELLThis June Kewei Wang, the Museum’s longtime Senior Conservator, will leave UMMA to become Conservator of East Asian Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Kewei began her work at UMMA in 1996 and not only runs the operations of UMMA’s Robert B. Jacobs Asian Art Conservation Laboratory but is also a nationally known and respected conservator of Japanese and Chinese paintings. Over the years Kewei has worked diligently to market the services of the lab to other institu-tions and private collectors as well as promoted and supervised an internship program here to train new conservators in the fi eld. The revenue from the lab signifi cantly contributes to supporting UMMA’s programs and exhibitions. The Museum is committed to the future success of the lab and has already begun the process of recruiting for a new conservator. Please join us in celebrating this exciting career opportunity for Kewei!

spring/summer 2013

Robert Motherwell, Abstract Figure, 1945, watercolor and ink, UMMA, Bequest of Florence L. Stol, 1968/1.100

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a. alfred taubman gallery i | may 18–september 1, 2013exhibitions

How ashamed I was of my limitations when I visited the painter Qi

Baishi, whom I had adopted as teacher. That autumn he painted

grapes for me and some pale narcissus with the inscription “Who

says that fl owers have no passion.” A painting, he said, is incom-

plete without a poem and without a seal. He fi rst became famous

for his seals, this carpenter who became a great painter. He gave

me mine.

ISAMU NOGUCHI, A Sculptor’s World, 1968

That the art and career of versatile American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was infl uenced by Asian traditions is well established. These Asian associations have long focused on the art of Japan and India. Less widely known, however, is that Noguchi stayed and

studied in China’s old capital Beijing during his formative years, between his apprenticeship with abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi in Paris in the mid 1920s and his immersion into New York’s art circle in the 1930s and beyond. Isamu Noguchi and Qi

Baishi: Beijing 1930 is the fi rst large-scale exhibition to focus on the fruits of Noguchi’s six-month stay in 1930 in Beijing. There, Noguchi met and studied with the Chinese painter Qi Baishi (1864–1957) and had a chance to observe the painting process of Qi, who is considered one of the most infl uential ink painters of the twentieth century in China. The result of Noguchi’s

encounter with Qi is the series of more than one hundred ink-and-brush works later titled the Peking Drawings.

In his Peking Drawings, Isamu Noguchi did not blindly copy Qi Baishi’s style. Rather, with Qi Baishi he began to practice the traditional technique of using ink and brush in order to pursue his own interest in drawing human bodies. Unlike Western drawing tools, the traditional brush used in ink painting can hold a fl owing supply of supple ink, allowing the artist to make expressive lines by the changing pressure of his or her hand. Noguchi’s models—men, women, children, and mothers with babies found on the streets of Beijing—were depicted in a great variety of poses, mostly nude. In Noguchi’s hands the soft brush and malleable ink were able to capture the spontaneous and often quite dynamic movement of these models.

The young Noguchi was initially introduced to Qi Baishi in 1930 by Sotokichi Katsuizumi, a Japanese businessman and collector of Chinese painting, who was a graduate of the University of Michigan. In 1949 Katsuizumi donated ten works by Qi Baishi and one work by Noguchi to the University of Michigan Museum of Art, works which provided the inspiration for this groundbreaking exhibition. The exhibition was organized by UMMA in collaboration with the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and

5 spring/summer 2013

Garden Museum and will travel to the Noguchi Museum in New York and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle after its presentation in Ann Arbor. The exhibition features forty-three works by Isamu Noguchi, and twenty three works by Qi Baishi, in addition to Noguchi’s brushes, the seal made by Qi Baishi for Noguchi, and additional archival material drawn from the collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Noguchi Museum, as well as loans from important public and private collections in the United States. A fully illustrated catalogue with fi ve scholarly essays accompanies the exhibition. As Noguchi’s Peking Drawings and Qi Baishi’s paintings are seen together for the fi rst time, it is hoped that this exhibition also provides insight into the importance of China in Noguchi’s artistic formation.

Natsu OyobeAssociate Curator of Asian Art

Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930 is organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art in collaboration with The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York.

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional generous support is provided by the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute and the Blakemore Foundation.

EXHIBITION RELATED PROGRAMS

DORIS SLOAN MEMORIAL PROGRAM: UMMA DIALOGUEFriday, May 17, 6:30 pmAPSE AND GALLERIES

Join us for a conversation with Jenny Dixon, Director, Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum; UMMA Director Joseph Rosa; and Natsu Oyobe, UMMA Associate Curator of Asian Art, and exhibition curator. Reception follows. Galleries will be open until 9:30 pm, allowing guests to view the exhibition.

SYMPOSIUM: ISAMU NOGUCHI / QI BAISHI: AND OTHER INSPIRING ENCOUNTERS IN AND BEYOND MODERN ASIAN ARTSaturday, May 18, 9 am–5:30 pmHELMUT STERN AUDITORIUM

UMMA will present a one-day symposium to examine the signifi cance and the legacy of the creative relationship between Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi. The international roaster of scholars will explore a diverse range of inventions initiated by modern encounters, including work such as Noguchi’s Peking Drawings. The speakers include David Clarke (University of Hong Kong), Bert Winther-Tamaki (University of California, Irvine) and others. For more information, please check UMMA’s website.

Qi Baishi, Daffodils, circa 1930, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, The Noguchi Museum

OppositeIsamu Noguchi, Peking Drawing (man reclining), 1930, ink on paper, The Noguchi Museum

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irving stenn, jr. family gallery | july 6–november 10, 2013exhibitions

Today’s emerging talents in architecture are redefi ning the profession with global practices—residing in one country and building in another. These practices are also digitally literate, from design concepts to the fabrication and construction of projects, rendering the location of an architect’s studio insignifi cant. This global perspective is also refl ected in the methodologies of studios whose projects operate at multiple scales of design—from small interior spaces to large-scale urban proposals. This liberation of scale has allowed architects to look at issues from interiors to urban planning in new and innovative ways. In fact, it is this scalelessness that is fostering new insight into existing city fabrics, with bold new architectural forms acting as catalysts for both urban renewal as well as smaller interior spaces with civic-sized aspirations.

Emblematic of this thinking is the work of Nahyun Hwang and David Eugin Moon—principals of N H D M, an Ann Arbor and New York City-based studio, and lecturers in architecture at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. From their 2011 award-winning Nam June Paik Library in Yongin, South Korea, to the repurposing of aban-doned modern skyscrapers in their 2012 (No) Stop Marconi proposal for Rotterdam, N H D M is a studio that is constantly exploring micro to macro conditions in architecture. Hwang and Moon believe that design is more than just formal geometry—they question purpose, program, function, and history to create a framework that will infuse the site or space with new possibilities for a sustainable future. This is evident in their

2013 winning proposal for the Chevy-in-the-Hole project—the redevelopment of the 130-acre abandoned manufacturing grounds in Flint, Michigan. They proposed “an alternative use of the site articulating its potential as formal and informal civic spaces, transforming the urban void into the center of the city again. Acknowledging the site’s potential as an effective grounds for experimentation for future urbanism of similar sites, the project explores the productive roles of public vs. private, top-down governance vs. alterative methods of creation, and civic vs. capital, in maintaining the space of the city.”

Comprised of videos, models, and drawings, the exhibition N H D M / Nahyun Hwang + David Eugin Moon will look at a selection of diversely scaled projects from 2001 to the present that refl ect the emerging talents of Hwang and Moon and their global practice and design sensibility.

Joseph RosaDirector, University of Michigan Museum of Art

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment. Additional generous support is provided by Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning.

N H D M / Nahyun Hwang + David Eugin Moon, Nam June Paik Library, 2011, Yongin, South Korea, Courtesy Nam June Paik Art Center

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new media gallery | april 6–august 11, 2013 exhibitions

The following text by artist Laurie Anderson is excerpted from a conversation

between Anderson and guest curator Kathleen Forde. The conversation took

place on the occasion of the upcoming presentation of Anderson’s From the Air

in the UMMA New Media Gallery. From the Air is two small clay fi gures with

video projection and sound that feature what appears to be an almost holographic-

like miniature Laurie Anderson telling us a story, seated with her dog, Lolabelle.

From the Air is a shaggy dog story, a story about my dog. One day I was taking her down to the ocean at a retreat, a daily walk of several hours and suddenly these turkey vultures suddenly swooped down and hovered on top of Lolabelle. She looked up to see that they had decided she was something to eat. They were pausing because it was a miscalculation. From a couple thousand feet up she looked like a bunny. But it was turning out to be that she was too big to lift up and fl y away with, too big and too yappy. But the expression on Lolabelle’s face was unmistakable. She suddenly realized that she was prey and these birds had come to kill her and this was a city dog who had not encountered that ever.

I had a huge amount of guilt because I had taken her all this way to show her fear. She was a terrier who was all about protection and borders, a dog cop in a way. But that was not a direction that she was aware of . . . up. So to realize that they could come from the air was something that blew her dog brain. And when that happened I realized that it was such a shock to her that they could come that way and I was reminded of that same sort of shock on the faces of my neighbors in New York right after 9/11 when they realized the exact same thing for the fi rst time, that they could come from the air.

The idea of being attacked for Americans was a huge turning point that has changed the nature of our lives in incredibly fundamental ways. When I look at how different things are here since then, it’s really staggering to think about. Things like the militarization of our country. It has compelled me to think and work more in that direction. From the Air was part of the develop-ment of wanting to describe how things have changed in our country. It’s such a gigantic cultural shift, so I wanted to write about and make things that were about this shift.

Scale is very important to me in this work. I’ve always loved little fi gurines and Mexican clay fi gures. A moment captured in clay. Originally my fi rst work was as a sculptor so I love to get the chance to make these little objects. But as a person who works with computers a huge amount, I get very sick of having to fi t everything into that little frame. It just doesn’t fi t. I like the feeling that From the Air gives us, of being reminded of how insect-like we really are. Of course if we step back from our own lives, we are tiny, we are specks ourselves. But it doesn’t dominate this thing. What’s really important to me is that one can pay attention to the text in the story. What dominates it is its story and the story of the dog that becomes the story of a city.

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional generous support is provided by the Susan and Richard Gutow Fund.

a. alfred taubman gallery ii | opens june 29, 2013

Even if you know UMMA’s collection well, you may be surprised to learn that the Museum has assembled a choice group of domestic design objects thanks to two recent, generous gifts. Consisting primarily of works of iconic twentieth-century furniture design, these pieces will go on view this summer in the fi rst installation of UMMA’s new dedicated design gallery, the A. Alfred Taubman Gallery II, located on the second fl oor of the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing. The design gallery is an important component of the Museum’s rededication to modern and contemporary visual culture and to making its own twentieth- and twenty-fi rst-century holdings more visible. The UMMA objects will be joined by several works on extended loan from the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The new design gallery has been co-curated by UMMA Director Joseph Rosa and Katherine Brion, UMMA’s Mellon Curatorial Fellow and UM PhD candidate in history of art.

“This gallery is really meant to introduce visitors to advanced twentieth-century design sensibilities by showcasing a variety of works and their material aspects,” explained Rosa. “We are very grateful to Herbert and Susan Johe and to Robert Metcalf for gifting these extraordinary and classic examples of domestic design and for instituting a wonderful new collecting focus for the Museum.”

“As the UMMA Mellon Curatorial Fellow and a specialist in nineteenth-century painting, working on the design gallery project has both allowed me to gain critical curatorial experi-ence and furthered my knowledge of design history and concerns,” shared Brion.

The installation is divided into three sections—early twentieth-century objects forged in metal, which was previously associ-ated with machines, not domestic interiors; mid-century

UMMA INAUGURATES NEW DESIGN GALLERY

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exhibitions

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furniture that integrated modernist form, function, and new materials (including plastic) with mass production; and contemporary work that begins to call into question the parameters of industrial production and the very function of furniture design. Among the objects included in the installation are a table and chairs by Marcel Breuer—the epitome of Bauhaus-inspired European modernism; classic Charles and Ray Eames chairs in fi berglass or molded plywood, examples of quality design accessible to a wide public; a dresser by visionary and futurist designer Norman Bel Geddes; a loveseat by total-design advocate and Michigan native Florence Knoll; and a handcrafted wood hanging wall case by Japanese-American designer George Nakashima. Both design afi cionados and novices may recognize some of the historic work on view since updated versions of the pieces are still being produced today. Juxtaposing these classic pieces with contemporary objects—in-cluding works by Frank Gehry and Hella Jongerius—brings the

gallery into the twenty-fi rst century, demonstrating the ways in which designers have reinterpreted—and sometimes rejected—modernist ideals in the light of current technologies and attitudes, including those of our own digital age.

Clockwise from upper left: Florence Knoll, Settee (model 66), circa 1964; George Nakashima, Hanging Wall Case, 1963; Marcel Breuer, Table (model B10), 1928; Charles and Ray Eames, DSR chair, circa 1952; Norman Bel Geddes, Dresser, 1929

exhibitions

umma.umich.edu 10

I don’t intentionally mean for them to be either

abstract or pictures of houses. It’s sort of a play on

design.

Emilio Sanchez was born into one of Cuba’s most prominent families but lived in Cuba for only a short time. Although he said “I’ve always been a terrible Cuban,” his interest in the light and color of the Caribbean comes from his early connection with that region. Before he settled permanently in New York in 1952, he studied architecture at the University of Virginia, demonstrating an interest in buildings, the subject of many of his paintings. At the time he painted La Fortaleza, Sanchez, who traveled extensively, was often in the Mediterranean, and it is there he found the inspiration for this image of a fortress, likely in Morocco.

Sanchez came of age as a painter in the 1950s, the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. As you can see here, however, he worked in a minimalist rather than expressionist idiom, reducing his architec-tural subjects to pure blocks of vibrant color. His

Emilio Sanchez, La Fortaleza, 1970–75, oil on canvas, UMMA, Gift of the Emilio Sanchez Foundation, 2011/2.63

NEW ACQUISITION

EMILIO SANCHEZ quiet, spare, oversized details of the built environment have more in common with Georgia O’Keeffe and Charles Sheeler. In the 1990s he turned his attention from the Caribbean and Mediterranean to his adopted home of New York, capturing storefronts and other street scenes reminiscent of the urban photographs of Berenice Abbott and the more monumental architectural abstractions of Judith Turner.

Recently UMMA and several academic museums in the US benefi tted from the generosity of the Emilio Sanchez Foundation when it donated much of Sanchez’s life work. The gift to UMMA of eighty paintings and lithographs, along with other recent acquisitions from Cuba such as two folk paintings given by Dr. James L. Curtis, expand the collection in the direction of the Caribbean, an exciting growth area for the Museum.

Pamela ReisterCurator for Museum Teaching and Learning

This new acquisition will be on view in the fi rst-fl oor connector between the Museum’s historic wing and the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing from April 15 through July 8, 2013.

in focus

spring/summer 2013 11

NEW ACQUISITION

GREGORY HOLMDuring the recent economic downturn, Detroit acquired the reputation as having perhaps the worst rate of home foreclosures of any city in the nation. Offi cials estimated that one third of Detroit’s houses, roughly 80,000, were abandoned. What to do with so many empty homes, considered a symptom of urban blight? Two artists with fi rsthand experience with this dilemma came together in early 2010 to address the situation, photogra-pher Gregory Holm and architect Matthew Radune. Holm has long been active in his native Detroit while Radune had been evicted in 2007 from his New York apartment with only fi ve hours’ notice. The issue of home foreclosure, demolition, and relocation is inherently political in nature. As Radune writes, “It affects the integrity and history of neighborhoods and cities alike.”

Holm and Radune proposed selecting an abandoned house slated for demolition and covering it in ice in the dead of winter. Following the completion of the project, the artists would work with the city and others to recycle as much of the house as possible—wire, glass, cement, etc.—and reclaim the land for urban farming (a positive side of city downsizing and an area in which Detroit is at the forefront). Documenting the

installation, the artists proposed producing a limited edition book, a fi lm (see http://vimeo.com/10573938), and fi ne art digital prints, such as this one.

During the coldest days early in 2010, the house was covered with water. The ice creates a delicate vitreous sheath that obscures the decline of the house, while the extremely long icicles provide delicate vertical accents that knit the house together. Seen in daylight, the Ice House gives little indication of the effect of the site at night. Photographed at night, the transformation is magical: the resultant structure evokes German or Nordic fairy tales set in a wood and illuminated by an ethereal unseen light source. Holm’s photograph asks us to “explore the options” available to urban environments that fall on hard times—and challenges the rest of us to imagine the best possible solutions in the face of diffi cult choices.

Carole McNamaraSenior Curator of Western Art

This new acquisition will be on view in the fi rst-fl oor connector between the Museum’s historic wing and the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing from July 8 through October 7, 2013.

in focus

Gregory Holm, Ice House (detail), 2010, digital print, UMMA, Museum purchase, 2012/2.2

umma.umich.edu 12

programs

“Moving a work of art from a frame on the wall to a frame in a fi lm is an audacious way to interpret one’s experience with that work,” commented Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library. As a participant in UMMA’s Many Voices fi lmmaking workshop, funded by the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and the National Endowment for the Arts, Parker was inspired by Pier Celestino Gilardi’s 1877 work A

Visit to the Gallery, on view in the Thomas H. and Polly W. Bredt Gallery on the second fl oor of the Museum’s historic wing. Fellow participant Ashley Arder, an independent business owner, Program Coordinator at ArtServe Michigan, and UM alum, drew on her personal impressions and experiences as a UM undergraduate to develop a fi lm that explores a twentieth-century African mask originally used by young men in Guinea Bissau in juxtaposition to “the vibrant, masculine energy of young American males.” About her desire to be part of Many Voices, Arder remarked, “Oftentimes, trips to the museum result in looking at art, reading the descriptions, and then returning to our daily lives without further thought on the work or the creative process. “The fi lms produced through Many Voices aim to provide fresh perspectives for UMMA visitors, inviting them to look at works of art in new ways. Visitors to UMMA can now see and hear the Many Voices movies during their own visits to the Museum. Bring your own web-enabled personal

device (such as a smart phone) or check out an iOS device upon arrival at the Museum.

Many Voices was designed to be a participatory workshop that would provide a collaborative learning environment to develop and explore ideas and learn new skills. Together with indepen-dent fi lmmakers Donald Harrison and Sharad Patel, who led the fi lmmaking workshop, UMMA staff project leaders Lisa Borgsdorf and Ruth Slavin selected thirteen participants through a competitive application process. Those selected range in age from fourteen to fi fty-nine and include high school and undergraduate UM students, recent UM graduates, musicians, teachers, and community leaders. Some came to the workshops with no fi lmmaking or artistic background, others came with quite a bit, and the majority of participants fell somewhere in the middle. UM student Paula Friedrich remarked on how surprising it was to fi nd herself a part of such a diverse group, saying “For some reason, I did not expect this much diversity, even though the project was called Many Voices. It’s really cool to literally have many voices contribute to your project.” Her thoughts were echoed by Ann Arbor Community High School student Ada Banks, who added, “I really liked going over everyone’s projects. I’ve never done anything like that before, and it was really helpful.” To effectively support such a spectrum of

MAKING MOVIES WITH UMMA

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programs

experience, Harrison and Patel employed a mentored learning model that balanced group workshop time with individual one-on-one coaching. To do this, they recruited two more experienced artists and fi lmmakers to serve as mentors, Emilia Javanica and Martin Thoburn. All four created their own movies as well. “I’ve been particularly struck—and pleased—by how many participants pushed their boundaries and used this workshop as an excuse to develop new skills,” remarked Harrison. For example, Papillon, a French-born musician and actor, used the opportunity to refl ect on museum culture as well as to learn a stop-motion technique new to him in his movie about an African sculpture creating his own museum, who whimsically ponders questions about art collection and display. He noted, “one of my favorite aspects of this program is that I was able to assist on a multitude of other pieces in the making—observing the individual styles, points of view, and techniques of the different participants. This has also taught me to open up and expose my creative laboratory to others that may share this same curiosity.”

We hope you’ll take the opportunity to experience the resulting videos, which span a remarkable range of topics and styles and include a statement from each fi lmmaker. Please make a point to experience these incredibly personal, creative fi lms when you next visit UMMA.

This project is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

LATIFA AL-MOHDARStudent, Ann Arbor Skyline High School

Pablo Picasso, The Bullfi ght, 1934

SUDANDYO APRILIANTOVisual Artist, Musician

Auguste Rodin, Dance Movement A, B, C, E, modeled 1911, cast 1956

ASHLEE ARDERUM Alumna, Business Owner www.thedirtywolverine.com, Program Coordinator at ArtServe Michigan

African, Bijogo Peoples, Guinea Bissau, Bovine mask, 1925–75

ADA BANKSStudent, Ann Arbor Community High School

Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Figure of a Girl in Blue, circa 1892

PAULA FRIEDRICHUndergraduate Student, University of Michigan

Donald Maxwell Robiner Inkwell collection, 1875–1975

DAVID GAINSLEYSenior Supervisor, Shipping and Receiving, University of Michigan Medical School

Ouk Chim Vichet, Apsara Warrior, circa 2004

DONALD HARRISONIndependent Filmmaker, 7 Cylinders Studio

Tyree Guyton, Ups and Downs, 1994

EMILIA JAVANICAIndependent Artist, Student Affairs Program Manager at North Quad, Lecturer at Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

Max Beckmann, Begin the Beguine, 1946

JAMES LEIJADirector of Education and Community Engagement, University Musical Society

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, ‘Untitled’ (March 5th) #2, 1991

COLLIN MCRAEUM Alumna, Independent Artist

Tibet or Nepal, Conch Trumpet, 800–1900

PAPILLONMusician, Audio/Visual Producer,Butter Side Art for Education

African, Chokwe Peoples Angola, Chief’s caryatid stool (citwamo ka kaponya), 1850–99

JOSIE PARKERDirector, Ann Arbor District Library

Pier Celestino Gilardi, A Visit to the Gallery, 1877

SHARAD PATELIndependent Filmmaker

Man Ray, What We All Lack (Ce qui manque à nous tous), 1962

KESHAV PRASADUndergraduate Student, University of Michigan

Joan Mitchell, White Territory, 1970–71

RAFE SCOBEY-THALFilmmaker, Fish and Meat Smoker, Video Instructor at Neutral Zone

Alberto Giacometti, Standing Figure, 1957

TOKO SHIIKIPhotographer, Musician

Shibata Zeshin, Plate with Floral Design, circa 1879–90

MARTIN THOBURNIndependent Artist and Filmmaker, Instructor at Washtenaw Community College

Jenny Holzer, Selections from Truisms, 1983

MARTIN THOBURN AND DONALD HARRISON collaborative pieceJosef Albers, White Front, 1958

MANY VOICES FILMMAKERS

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programs

A week-long residency in early February by renowned Ghanaian-born artist El Anatsui was a highlight of programming organized by the UMMA Education Department along with campus and community partners. As Ruth Slavin, Deputy Director, Education and Curatorial, remarked, “An artist like El Anatsui allows UMMA to fulfi ll its mission to spark learning in many environments and across the full range of UMMA audiences. The richness and complexity of his accomplishment in creating sophisticated works of art, which are nonetheless immediately appealing, makes this possible.”

On February 5 curious listeners from across campus and the wider community attended “What is African Art?”, an explora-tion of perceptions and misconceptions about art from Africa as they relate to the work and reception of contemporary African artists in the global art world. This lively roundtable discussion was offered in collaboration with the Africa Workshop series of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS), and brought together by David Doris, UM Associate Professor of History of Art and DAAS; Nii Quarcoopome, Detroit Institute of Arts Curator of African Art and Head of the Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Indigenous Americas; and Elizabeth Harney, University of Toronto Professor of Art History. Many attendees visited the exhibition prior to the roundtable in order to experience the multifaceted work of this exciting artist for the fi rst time.

On February 7 Michigan Theater was fi lled with UM students, faculty, and community members for the Penny W. Stamps

Speaker Series at which El Anatsui was interviewed by Elizabeth Harney. UMMA ‘s collaboration with this illustrious speaker series allowed the Museum to engage with many UM students and included UM Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design student studio visits by the artist the following day.

Several dozen K–12 teachers explored the work of El Anatsui at an all-day teacher workshop jointly organized with Art21, well known for its fi lm series on contemporary artists. Joe Fusaro, Senior Educator for Art21, discussed El Anatsui’s work and the use of fi lm in the classroom. Teachers also enjoyed a private gallery tour and experienced a hands-on activity devised by Christy Kelly-Bentgen and presented by Julia Jickling, both UMMA docents and former art teachers.

The UM Center for World Performance Studies presented Afropop sensation Dobet Gnahoré and Acoustic Africa, a trio of west African performers whose music and dance compositions call to mind the layered and transnational nature of Anatsui’s work. In addition, hands-on artmaking offered onsite by the Ann Arbor Art Center, fi lms of the artist at work, gallery conversations and docent tours all provided active means of engagement for audiences.

Visit UMMA’s student blog, The Annex, to read an interview with El Anatsui conducted during his recent visit to Ann Arbor by UMMA Student Programming and Advisory Council member Mylan Kimbrough. http://annex.umma.umich.edu/.

EL ANATSUI ACROSS AUDIENCES

umma.umich.edu

El Anatsui visits with UMMA docents

El Anatsui with artist Tyree Guyton in his Detroit studio

15 spring/summer 2013

Ángela Pérez-Villa

programs

Amid the exposed drywall, power tools, and construction dust of 2008 at UMMA, the vision for a partnership with the UM School of Music, Theatre, and Dance was also taking shape. Now, four years in, the annual installation concert is one of the undisputed highlights of each SMTD@UMMA concert season of eight to twelve performances. Exploring genres and ideas from the SMTD percussion studio, opera program, and jazz department during the fi rst three years, the installation concert—co-led by myself and UMMA Manager of Public Programs and Campus Engagement Lisa Borgsdorf—invites student composers to move outside the usual confi nes of their creative framework and provides an unusual, engaging milieu for their premieres. This year’s project, Nomenclature, responded to the transparency we sometimes misguidedly attribute to terminology within a single discipline. Graduate student composers created new works, each of which refl ected the implications of one of seven terms shared by the discourses of music and visual art: color, texture, line, shape, volume, contrast, and tone. These works were premiered by SMTD performance students, drawing visitors into spaces throughout the Museum over the course of a Saturday afternoon in January.

Some student composers drew direct inspiration from works in UMMA’s permanent collection. Greg Simon, a fi rst year doctoral student in composi-tion and jazz trumpeter, described the impact of David Salle’s untitled painting on his own piece, Blues in Red: “I was immediately drawn in by the cool, grey foreground against the vibrant discomfort of the violent red background…. I came to understand that the artist’s primary tool for this schizophrenic duality isn’t an object or any tangible signifi er, but purely the use of color.” UMMA student docents, guided by Curator for Museum Teaching and Learning Pamela Reister, provided suggestions of works on view that, for them, call each term to mind. For visitors, the result was both a vivid dialogue between two disciplines and a creative Museum-wide scavenger hunt.

Advising the composers for the second time was SMTD Assistant Professor of Composition Kristin Kuster, whose own compositions are widely lauded for the depth with which they respond to architecture and design. For Kuster, the SMTD@UMMA installation concert invites her to engage with the Museum’s spaces. “This spot is my favorite, hands down,” she declared, peering down from the top fl oor into the Vertical Gallery in the last minutes before this year’s concert began. “You can see everywhere from here.” It’s true: from that vantage point, you can catch glimpses of African art, Chinese art, modern and contemporary art, and Asian art, and down to the DialogTable at the base of the Vertical Gallery. The sound of violinist Eun-Jeong Choi premiering graduate student Edward Ryan’s haunting raison

d’être fl oated through these galleries, inviting visitors of all ages to seek out the source from the furthest reaches of the Museum.

Jennifer Goltz SMTD@UMMA Series Liaison

CREATING MUSIC WITH ART IN MIND

16 umma.umich.edu

umma happenings

Below: On March 19 Arjia Rinpoche, former abbot of one of Tibet’s most important monasteries and a frequent lecturer on Tibetan art, participated in a brief ceremony in the Museum’s Apse prior to his talk held in conjunction with the special exhibition Buddhist Thangkas and Treasures: The Walter Koelz Collection, Museum of Anthropology.

More than 1,000 attendees enjoyed the spring installment of UMMA After Hours, the Museum’s community open house that spotlights the season’s special exhibitions; features live music, curators’ talks, and creative refreshments; and fosters meaningful social engagement around art.

17

Below: Columbia University Associate Professor Mabel O. Wilson discussed her recent book Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums on March 21 with UM Professors Kevin K. Gaines of the Departments of History and Afroamerican and African Studies and Magdalena J. Zaborowska of American Culture and Afroamerican and African Studies.

Above: Visitors were led in discussion by a group of renowned scholars in the UMMA workshop What is African Art? on February 5. Below left: UMMA Director Joseph Rosa speaks with UMMA supporters at the Curators’ Circle event on February 3. Below middle: On November 14 Prita Meier, Assistant Professor of African Art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-curator of the recent UMMA exhibition African Art and the Shape of Time, presented a talk entitled It’s About Time: Reconsidering Temporality in African Art History. Below right: El Anatsui in conversation with the University of Toronto’s Elizabeth Harney as part of the Penny W. Stamps Speakers Series on February 7.

Did you know that an UMMA membership opens the door to thousands of exciting museums across the country?

UMMA Members at the $125 Donor Circle level and above receive privileges at more than 460 museums in the United States and Canada through the Museum’s participation in the North American Reciprocal Membership Benefi ts Program. UMMA Donor Circle Members can receive: free/member admission during regular museum hours, member discounts at museum shops, and discounts on concert/lecture tickets.*

Want to check out some of El Anatsui’s other works? You can fi nd them in the permanent collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin—and your membership card is your ticket for admission to all of these museums.

Interested in getting up close and personal with Vermeer’s Girl

with the Pearl Earring? Use your reciprocal membership to visit the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the High Museum of Art

in Atlanta, or the Frick Collection in New York—all of which will host the celebrated Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis exhibition.

Looking for some staycation destinations? UMMA members at the $75 Supporter level and above receive reciprocal member-ship at twelve museums across Michigan, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Cranbrook Art Museum, Grand Rapids Art Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Seeking a lovely place to explore indoors when rain or heat dampen your outdoor plans? Members at UMMA’s $50 level and above receive free admission to select academic art museums, including: the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Hammer Museum at UCLA, Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, and Yale University Art Gallery.

More information about UMMA member benefi ts and links to the reciprocal museum lists can be found at umma.umich.edu/member/index.html. For membership inquiries, please call 734.764.1983 or email umma-giving@umich.edu.

TAKE YOUR UMMA MEMBERSHIP ON VACATION THIS SUMMER

membership

18 umma.umich.edu

19 spring/summer 2013

*As each museum has unique membership benefi ts and restrictions, please be sure to check with your destination museum to clarify any additional charges for special exhibitions or fees not covered by your reciprocal membership.

umma store

COMING SOON!

VISIT THE UMMA STORE AT THE MUSEUM AND ONLINE!We are preparing to launch our new online UMMA Store, so please keep an eye out for the grand opening! We know you will continue to visit us in person, but the UMMA Store online will provide a great opportunity to purchase some of our items even when you cannot make a trip to the Museum. We are so excited to offer this online access to serve you, our loyal patrons—as usual, members receive 10% off all purchases—as well as to broaden our customer base. In the meantime, please visit the Store next time you are at the Museum and pick up a copy of the latest UMMA Books series publication, Florencia Pita/FPmod, the companion volume to the special exhibition on view through June 16.

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Flor

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FPm

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University of Michigan Board of Regents: Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor; Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor; Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfi eld Hills; Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe; Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms; Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor; Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park; Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor; Mary Sue Coleman, ex offi cio

Contributors: Lisa Borgsdorf, David Choberka, Courtney Lacy, Stephanie Rieke Miller, Pamela Reister, Ruth Slavin, Leisa Thompson

Editor: Stephanie Rieke MillerDesigner: Susan E. Thompson

Non-Profi tOrganizationU.S. PostagepaidAnn Arbor, MIPermit No. 144

through may 5, 2013

El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africathrough june 9, 2013

Buddhist Thangkas and Treasures: The Walter Koelz Collection, Museum of Anthropologythrough june 16, 2013

Florencia Pita/FP modapril 6–august 11, 2013

Laurie Anderson: From the Airmay 18–september 1, 2013

Isamu Noguchi / Qi Baishi / Beijing 1930july 6–november 10, 2013

N H D M / Nahyun Hwang + David Eugin Moonaugust 17–december 1, 2013

Brett Weston Landscapesopens june 29, 2013

UMMA Design Gallery

For up-to-date details on UMMA exhibitions and programs, visit

umma.umich.edu or follow UMMA on Facebook or Twitter!

university of michigan museum of art525 South State StreetAnn Arbor, Michigan 48109-1354734.763.UMMAumma.umich.edu

connect onlinefacebook.com/ummamuseumtwitter.com/ummamuseumyoutube.com/ummamuseum

become a memberumma.umich.edu or umma-giving@umich.edu

gallery hours (May–August)

Tuesday through Saturday 11 am–5 pmSunday 12–5 pmClosed Mondays

building hours (May–August)

The Forum, Commons, and selected public spaces in the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing are open daily 8 am–6 pm.

Admission to the Museum is always free.$5 suggested donation appreciated.