MUSEUMS OF THE MOMENT
Art New England visits five special destinations across the region.
By Charles Bonenti, Maureen Canney, Autumn Duke, Kristin Nord, and Rita A. Fucillo
New England is a treasure trove of museums. New modern spaces have opened, including Boston’s WNDR; old guards have completely transformed like The Bruce. The University of New Hampshire Museum of Art is now a gallery and stands as a cautionary tale. The Berkshire Museum, once shrouded in scandal, has redefined itself, while the Hammond Castle Museum is experiencing a renaissance through powerful exhibitions, new programming and leadership. The following pages highlight the current exhibitions and happenings in five of the region’s most intriguing museums in this moment.
Hammond Castle Museum
by Rita A. Fucillo
How fortunate are we as New Englanders to live in such an intriguing part of the country? One never knows what hidden treasure or architectural wonder resides around any bend in the road. One such wonder lies along Route 127 in Gloucester, MA. Regardless of the weather and against the backdrop of waves crashing along the rocks below, Hammond Castle Museum stands tall. Mysterious, formidable and fascinating.
The Castle was built between 1926 and 1929 by inventor John Hays Hammond, Jr. “Despite the fact that he was one of the most prolific inventors in American history, most people haven’t heard of him,” explains Caleb McMurphy, the Museum’s director of visitor services and education and a Hammond savant. McMurphy’s knowledge is astounding; his enthusiasm and love of history and innuendo are perfectly suited for his role. McMurphy shares Hammond’s accomplishments with pride, as if he knew the inventor himself. “Most well-known for his contributions to the field of radio control, the same technology behind today’s drones…Hammond did a lot of work with remotely controlled boats and torpedoes while that technology was in its infancy… In 1914, he pilots a full-size ship called the Natalia from Gloucester to Boston and back using only a system of radio masts on the shore, not a single living soul aboard. This was two years after the Titanic happened so that was a pretty exciting experiment…” Hammond’s patents range from acoustics, audio dynamics, audio preservation, telephonics, television, and the military (bombs, shells, mines, missiles). Hammond is quoted as saying, “At least it can be said that I have contributed means for man to express his nobler passions as well as his baser ones…”
If one were to play six degrees of separation with Hammond (1888–1965), one would be amazed at how many people he knew, how many lives he touched and how many genres he influenced over his life, from science to the literary, from the artistic to the occult. Not to mention the physical structure around which his life revolved.
Why a castle, though? Or “Abbadia Mare,” Latin for Abbey by the Sea, as Hammond referred to his home, where 11th century Norman architecture meets 13th French Gothic meets 15th century French chateau along this stunning shoreline. “Hammond had always wanted to live in a castle, according to existing documentation,” says McMurphy. The castle offered expansive laboratory space, provided a private home for him and his wife Irene, housed the massive pipe organ he constructed over his lifetime, and, most importantly, “Hammond Castle from 1930 on, has always been open as a museum for the public, in some capacity. Hammond had always intended for the Castle to be a museum. He once wrote that its sole excuse for existence is that it be a museum for public education.’”
The Museum is helmed by Linda Harvey, an extraordinary fundraiser with a deep commitment to Cape Ann. Over the past five years under Harvey’s leadership, museum attendance has increased to more than 60,000 a year. Some seek knowledge of Hammond himself, marveling at his ingenuity; history lovers want to experience the stunning collection of authentic artifacts, the massive pipe organ (comprised of nearly 8,400 pipes) that is currently under restoration; or to gaze in awe at the museum’s architectural presentation. “I love my job,” she shares. “Every day there is something new to be inspired by… I can still walk through this building and find things I hadn’t noticed before.” While there are few women in museum leadership positions, Harvey sees growth and is generally encouraged.
Having always carried a reputation as being a fun and curious destination for New England school children and a family visit during a Cape Ann vacation, the Castle had simply gone through “a quiet period.” Under Harvey’s watch, the Museum “went from a sleepy little dark secret museum that really wasn’t in the public’s eye” to one of the most popular destinations on Cape Ann.
The Museum’s renaissance continues as it begins to focus more on the inventions and their cultural significance, with an emphasis on primary
source documentation about the Castle itself. Harvey’s agenda includes new programming aimed at bringing visitors back more frequently as well as constantly restoring the structure. “One of my biggest goals of the moment is to restore the organ and make sure that we can hear it played again.” Hammond himself could not play it and yet it meant the world to him. Most exciting to Harvey is when the visit is a young person’s first experience inside a museum, sparking their sense of wonder. Introducing a museum as a place of mystery, learning—and fun. “I just look for a healthy, growing, interesting future for this museum—and it’s on the right path.”
And while art exhibitions are challenging to plan due to spatial limitations within the Grand Hall during high season, they occasionally happen in early spring. 2023’s Eric Pape at Hammond Castle Museum and spring 2024’s sequel Gertrude Cawein at Hammond Castle Museum showcased Pape’s extraordinary oils, watercolors and pen and ink drawings—most of which are in the personal collection of Pape expert/biographer Dr. Gregory Conn. Pape and Hammond were close friends and the former gifted the latter a permanent installation in the form of a stunning mural in the Castle’s War Room, detailing The Wireless Naval Battle of Gloucester Bay. The mural’s meticulous restoration was a gift from Conn and his wife Dr. Sagrario Ortega. Opening May 1, in the Inventions Room, is Hammond and the History of Television which explores Hammond’s ahead-of-the-curve impact on the “evolution of television technology from its theoretical beginnings to its digital transformation.” On Fridays throughout June, in honor of Gloucester’s ongoing celebration of Pride month, Hammond Castle Museum will premiere “a curated series of Pride-focused mini-exhibits. Each will highlight or celebrate the life and accomplishments of a different set of significant Queer figures who either visited the museum or were associated with its founder…” as noted on the website.
Hammond had many friends, engaged in many relationships—intimately, spiritually and intellectually—and, in one way or another, with his epic home as epicenter, influenced the currents of literary, artistic and societal evolution. “Hammond wanted to build this castle because he wanted to have something in stone, a foundation for which people would remember him by,” says McMurphy. “He knew his inventions would be improved upon in years to come… he knew his name might not remain as popular in the scientific world yet he wanted to have something that he could share with the community.”
Hammond Castle Museum
80 Hesperus Ave. Gloucester, MA
hammondcastle.org
@hammondcastlemuseum
Berkshire Museum Reimagined
by Charles Bonenti
Six years after selling off the cream of its art collection for $52.3 million in order to stay afloat, the Berkshire Museum is reimagining itself as a storytelling rather than a collecting institution.
A building-needs study has been done with $10.5 million in improvements planned, $3.5 million already made, and a final phase to begin at summer’s end. A vision plan emphasizing the interdisciplinary aspects of art, science and history is being implemented. Penalties threatened for breaking professional taboos on selling art to pay operating costs had negligible effect. Assumptions that gifts of art or money would dry up were unfounded. And a new director is on board and hiring new staff.
That director, Kimberley Bush Tomio, outlined those gains in a recent interview. The third to hold the post since the 2018 art sale, she welcomed challenges to rebuild the institution. “I have a tendency to want to help the underdog,” she said, “I love helping an organization move to the future and making staff more hireable.”
Previously director of museum services at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Tomio expects this post to be her last before retirement. “I have a great staff,” she went on. “This is one of the happiest places I’ve worked.”
It’s also been a revolving door with six directors since 2000 and attendant staffing changes. Tomio attributed some of that turnover to the roiling impact of high local unemployment and a population outflow after the region’s largest employer, GE, departed in the 1990s.
The problem is nationwide, arts writer Robin Pogrebin reported last year: “Museums around the country are undergoing leadership changes at a moment when modern cultural institutions are demanding increasingly complicated skill sets.” Witness leadership at MASS MoCA in March 2024, negotiating with unionized employees on strike for higher pay.
On a spring visit, this writer’s first since before the art sale (See Art New England November/December 2017), the museum was physically and programmatically a work in progress. Major infrastructure improvements were made and new pocket galleries, restrooms, and improved lighting and flooring were in place upstairs showcasing a spectrum of historical, scientific and artistic holdings. Still ahead is a major renovation of the first floor.
The improvements are more discreet than those in the “New Vision” advanced in 2017 by former director Van Shields. That plan would have preserved the façade of the building, while creating a glass-roofed atrium at its center as well as a new lobby and performance space.
More concerning to many locals was Shields’s stated intent to “integrate treasured objects with cutting-edge technology and new interpretative techniques. We will transform static museum galleries into active learning laboratories.”
The current plan, developed by StudioHAU in Los Angeles with Bradley Architects of Pittsfield, MA, scraps the atrium/lobby ideas and dials back the high-tech approach.
“If there are lots of screens, people will look at screens rather than the objects,” observed senior curator Jesse Kowalski, who had a hand in rewriting the plan. “I try to be light on tech and focus on objects.” That today’s museumgoers can often be seen viewing exhibits through their cell phones testifies to that concern. Shields retired abruptly months after the sale and is listed on a professional networking site as a museum consultant in McKinleyville, CA. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Jeff Rodgers, provost and chief operating officer of the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, FL, took the helm in January 2019. He saw the museum through its first phase of major infrastructure improvements and the redesign of the second floor with rotating loan exhibitions, objects from the permanent collection, and classroom space. Thirty mobile display units were purchased to advance flexibility.
“We’re really a storytelling museum. We’re not a collecting institution.” Rodgers said at the time. “Everything can move from here to anywhere else, including our tech. Adaptability and mobility—those are the watchwords now.” He, too, left abruptly in 2021; Tomio came on board in 2022.
The museum received about $53.25 million from the sale of deaccessioned works. The first $50 million was unrestricted. Of that, the museum invested $45 million to fund operations, $5 million for capital projects and $3.25 million to support the collection. Those categories currently show investments for endowment up at $54.6 million; collection support down to $722,000 through spending; and $4.6 million left for capital projects.
Tomio supervises twenty-four full-time and seven part-time employees on a $2.9 million FY 2023 operating budget that also covers building operations, programming, and education. Visitors are put at 60,000 a year, mostly local families with children.
Unlike nearby MASS MoCA, the Clark Art Institute or Norman Rockwell Museum, which have far-flung ties with deep pockets, the Berkshire Museum was founded in 1903 by industrialist Zenas Crane as a community institution. Locals consider it their museum, said Kowalski, and reacted with alarm to the sale of familiar artworks.
Formerly a curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Kowalski admitted opposing the sale that removed from the Berkshires two important Rockwell paintings—including Shuffleton’s Barbershop, sold for approximately $25 million. Yet in-house records he studied after joining the Berkshire Museum staff last year showed the Museum was in far more perilous physical and financial straits than was made public and would have closed without a cash rescue.
Despite initial concerns about the sale’s impact on donations, Kowalski said the museum continues to attract gifts of money and art. The American Association of Museum Directors, which encouraged its members before the sale to refrain from lending or borrowing works of art or collaborating with the Berkshire Museum, did an about-face and suspended its sanction policies for two years in 2020 to assist museums struggling financially with pandemic closings.
Of the 40,000 objects held by the museum, only 1,080 are visual artworks, said collections manager Jason Vivori. Among the thirty-eight that left the museum in 2018, he said twenty-two were sold and sixteen returned. Of those, only one by Augustus Saint-Gaudens is currently on view.
Looking ahead, the final renovation will see the basement aquarium, a popular asset and the only one in the region, displace an existing first floor auditorium and double in size. It will be what’s described as ‘’a walk-through immersive environment of aquatic and terrestrial animals and coral reefs” and accommodate lectures, tours and even private-event rentals.
The Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation that spotlights technological innovations of Berkshire residents will remain in place with reinterpretation, as will existing dioramas of wildlife in natural settings.
First-floor galleries with dated displays of biological, geological, and historical artifacts will be revamped to align objects in ways that emphasize connections. This “Cabinet of Curiosities” approach hearkens back to the museum’s founding years. Among historical highlights of the encyclopedic collection are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing desk, the polar suit and sled of an African-American Arctic explorer and an Egyptian mummy.
In visual art, Kowalski had a loan exhibition of illuminated manuscripts on view and was planning to mount The Wild Indoors: The Animal Art of Julie Bell through September 29, 2024. An American fantasy artist, illustrator, photographer and wildlife painter, Bell’s many crossover disciplines are expected to challenge viewers to connect and unwind what they see.
Berkshire Museum
39 South St, Pittsfield, MA
berkshiremuseum.org
@berkshiremuseum
WNDR
by Maureen Canney
The staff at the WNDR Museum prepare themselves every morning with a kind of countdown as if backstage at one of the Boston playhouses. A five-minute “places everyone” rings out as the museum lights up with anticipation and preparation. A staff member with a headset stands at the ready as if seconds away from the curtain going up. “Everyone take your places, smile and be happy.” This is not a forced happiness either. This museum will test your mind, your imagination and, yes, your sense of wonder.
The WNDR opened in Boston on February 1, 2024 to sell out crowds, amassing almost 2,000 visitors on the weekends alone. Brian Haines, chief experience officer for all three WNDR museums—Chicago, San Diego and Boston—considers everyone who enters the museum an artist. As the curtain draws up and the doors open, guests immediately step up to a table offering magic markers and the freedom to draw whatever image might come to them. On the walls above this simple table is the WNDR Flowers display, a collaborative exhibition drawn by children of the staff and designed by artist Andrew Alford with numerous neon flowers given life from imagination and unconventional thinking. The exhibition inhabits WNDR’s tenet of “wonder is a sixth sense.”
Haines, who comes from a food and hospitality background, expands on the museumgoer-as-artist philosophy. “You are the artist. You matter,” he explains. “We want you to experience wonder as the sixth sense. All of our exhibits have intention and we want to remain an ever-evolving, immersive experience that ignites your curiosity where you, the artist, are foremost in our thoughts. We hope that your senses are not only challenged within these four walls but then as you leave the WNDR Museum as well.”
The WNDR stands apart from other museums insofar as that its main priority is hospitality. The team is constantly thinking about how individuals can interact with the space around them. There’s a Wonder Studio in the Chicago location that serves almost like a test kitchen for trying out new and innovative ideas—exhibitions that could be used in future displays such as the Magnetic Symphony, a play on the rudimentary child’s game of tying two cans together with a string to talk. As the guest places the can up to their ear they can hear little tidbits of information coming from the cables in a kind of scavenger hunt to find whispered information as they walk around the room.
Then there are the centerpieces of Boston’s WNDR: the main attraction being Yayoi Kusama’s marvel Let’s Survive Forever, an infinity room with infinite ways to interpret this mirrored expanse that bends one’s mind to reinterpret the thought of space itself. Or INSIDEOUT, an audio-visual display of lights by Leigh Sachwitz, mirroring a childhood experience of taking refuge in a shack during a Glasgow rain storm. The WNDR uses modern technology, both low and high tech interactive systems, that take the artist on a sensory journey with surprising results, creating scenes that deliver on their promise to create a deep sense of wonder. It is immersive theater and prolific art at its best.
One can see the same energy of child-like excitement in Haines as he walks around the museum, taking note of what can be created, improved or what might exceed traditional museum expectations. “Listening is a vital aspect to what we try to do so that each experience is an individual one. We want people to have fun in their own way, responding with inspiration and imagination. We are always idea hunting. We plan on having a poet in residence to write poems for individuals who stop to engage. We are trying to lean into other ways to interact with the audience, keep them entertained while they are waiting or taking home something that helps them to not just remember but connect to their experience.”
The WNDR Museum wants to infuse this positivity and innovation in other parts of the country as well with its plan to open five new museums over the next two years. WNDR is more than simply a sixth sense, it is a voyage through imagination, a voyage unique to every artist that chooses the experience—it is also as if the experience is choosing you. In whatever way that may materialize.
WNDR
500 Washington St, Boston, MA
wndrmuseum.com
@wndrmuseum
Closure of the University of
New Hampshire Museum of Art
by Autumn Duke
On January 26, just days after the beginning of the spring 2024 semester, museum director Kristina Durocher put out an open letter announcing the immediate closure of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Museum of Art. The news came as a shock not just to the local and collegiate communities, but to Durocher and her team. There were plans underway to install a new HVAC system at the Museum set to begin on December 6, 2023, and the Museum was seeking accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums. Suddenly, these plans were cut short.
The history of the Museum of Art begins, officially, in 1959 with the construction of the Paul Creative Arts Center (PCAC) and the establishment of the Gallery of Art. 1971 saw the establishment of best-practices and the hiring of a professional gallery director and board of advisors. The Gallery of Art continued to operate as such until 2010, when new goals necessitated some changes. In recognition of the stewardship of a growing collection, the Gallery was renamed the Museum of Art and moved from the jurisdiction of the Department of Art and Art History to the College of Liberal Arts (COLA). Under this new structure, the Museum was able to give and receive art loans and work towards accreditation, a process that would result in elevated status and access to new potential avenues of funding.
The Museum did amazing work in its fourteen years of operation. Durocher and her team brought in art from nationally and internationally recognized artists and curated innovative and educational exhibitions. “The Museum was excellent,” said Michele Dillon, dean of COLA. “In the last few years, they’ve done really excellent work bringing in more faculty and students to do classroom projects and doing a lot for DEI, for example.” Faculty at the University were able to schedule tours of exhibitions and workshops for their students and work closely in collaboration with Museum staff. “Academic art institutions are incredibly important, for they are often a student’s first peek behind the curtain, in regard to learning how institutions work and whether
or not these places are for them,” said Kayla G. Coleman, executive director of the New England Museum Association.
The decision to close the Museum of Art was not an easy one. It was part of large-scale cutbacks across the University, including the layoff of seventy-
five employees, in an effort to reduce expenses by $14 million. Declining enrollment was the driving force behind this. Enrollment at UNH has dropped 13.6% since 2019. This decline is part of an ongoing trend across the country, especially in the Northeast, due to a general decline in population. For a university where 70% of everyday operating revenue comes from net undergraduate tuition, this put UNH at serious financial risk.
Dillon had already put in the budget for 2024 when, in August, she heard the news that the University was at financial risk. At the time, word was that this was a future concern, and would not necessitate immediate cuts. However, in October 2023, the command came to cut 3.6% of the COLA budget, a sum of around $1.5 million. Dillon’s immediate thought was to protect the academic programs covered by COLA, which include seventeen departments and thirty-four majors across undergraduate and graduate studies. The Museum was a part of COLA that did not bring in very much revenue yet had a high operating cost. While Dillon’s decision was, perhaps, one of the most public-facing ones, many other colleges in the University cut into academic programming, including eliminating majors.
These financial struggles are not unique to UNH. “The classic funding model for museums and institutions, whether they are academically affiliated or not, is rapidly changing. We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge these changes and the overall effect they are having,” said Coleman. Unlike many other colleges and universities, the Museum of Art at UNH drew funding from COLA rather than being supported by the central administrative body. “I think that if an academic institution [is] reading the trends in the field, they will no longer rely on their academic relationship for access to funding and will ensure their survival through other means, by building donor relationships outside of the academic relationship, and seek to become a part of the national conversation happening with art and the museum field,” said Coleman. This is a sentiment repeated by Dillon when asked if the Museum of Art could one day return. “If there’s some huge donor or a group of rich donors to make it self-sufficient,” she said. Otherwise, the Museum will remain closed.
Many individuals were understandably outraged and upset by the closure. “I think the University fails its students if it doesn’t encourage them to explore the fine arts, not necessarily as a path to employment but as an enhancement that lasts lifelong,” said Patricia Emison, professor of art and art history at UNH. Materials were provided at the entrance of the former Museum for students to express their thoughts and feelings regarding this matter, the results of which are now posted just inside the space. Students expressed sadness, loss, anger, confusion and a sense of betrayal from administration.
The Museum of Art played a pivotal role in university life for many years. The work of Durocher and her team was invaluable and impeccable during their time at UNH. The closure of the Museum had deeply personal effects on students, faculty and beyond. “Losing access to academic art institutions is damaging for careers, not just for the current student body, but also for alumni,” said Coleman. This loss is felt on an everyday level by students and faculty alike. “I am disappointed that my students no longer have the opportunities to view and explore various professional artists’ creative processes. I also miss my collaboration with the museum staff,” said Szu-Feng Chen, theater and dance department chair.
“Sometimes, the human element is lost in discussions like this, and the people who do this work and the way in which their livelihoods are impacted matter to me more than whatever way the University has decided in the meantime,” said Coleman. Ultimately, the closure of the Museum meant layoffs for Durocher and her team, and the impact on these individuals and their families must remain in the forefront of public thought at this time.
However, the closure of the Museum of Art does not mean the end of public art at UNH.
“While the Museum of Art and its role on campus may be coming to a close, we hope that the appreciation for art and art history and its expression on campus will be reinvigorated and transformed by a new and capable generation,” said Durocher in her open letter. And it seems this hope will come to fruition. The Gallery of Art has returned in the space that once housed the Museum. Once again under the purview of the Department of Art and Art History, efforts quickly began to reinvigorate interest in the wake of the closure of the Museum. “I think that what we are looking to do is to refocus the mission. And I think that one of the roles that could be more vital is really tapping into the sort of vibrant grassroots arts culture here,” said Benjamin Cariens, art and art history department chair. “It really felt like there is a big divide between the mission of the Museum as looking towards a more sort of national position and bringing national artists. And I think that the Gallery of Art will focus on the more immediate community.”
Cariens and the department began looking to collaborate with university and student entities as well as local and regional arts organizations. Unfortunately, the new Gallery does not have the support staff or budget it did in the past. However, with new challenges come new opportunities. “I really feel like yes, there are constraints, based on the new circumstances but those constraints allow the students to have a greater role and responsibility, or any outsider, to really work with us. We’re not just a place to drop things off,” said Cariens. In the case of students and student organizations, this means giving them the opportunity to experience every aspect of curating and installing a gallery exhibition, from painting and arranging walls to designing their own PR.
The collection, which includes over 200 paintings, 400 photographs, 1,000 works on paper and around twenty sculptures, remains intact, and the University has no plans to sell or otherwise offload it. The collection includes important works by Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Max Ernst and more. These pieces can still be pulled by faculty and by scholars, organizations and community members on request.
Moving forward, academic institutions must look to the future and build safeguards to ensure their continuation. As Coleman stated, “We value the arts for what they do to make our daily lives better, but simultaneously expect the arts to thrive with no tangible investment.” Community and individual support are needed at UNH to bolster the efforts of Cariens and the department of art and art history as they continue working to bring accessible public art to the community. This support is also needed across the region as academic and art institutions face uncertainty and strive to create a viable and sustainable future.
The Gallery of Arts at the University of New Hampshire
30 Academic Way, Durham, NH
unh.edu/museum-art
@unh.moa
The Bruce
by Kristin Nord
Now that the new Bruce is up and running, the succession of unfolding exhibitions in its new galleries has proven to be an absolute delight. It was already Connecticut’s all-age nature and science emporium, yet with its expanded emphasis on the arts it is attracting new and repeat additional visitors as well.
The dazzling speed with which the rotating exhibitions have been installed and dismantled in 2023–24 will become less frequent in the future simply to keep the staff from wearing out. So far, the mix has been diverse and stimulating.
The Bruce’s welcoming lobby still gladdens the heart, as it pulls visitors in with sunlight and glassed in views of its evolving terrarium. Gabriel Dawes’ magnificent rendering of the color spectrum (which is built from eight miles of sewing thread) remains a magical way to set the tone for the wonder that lies ahead.
The Bruce has been a family destination since it opened many years ago, yet in this new incarnation, it’s as if its inherent strengths and the gifts of its staff have truly come into focus. While many of the museum’s boosters are adults who first walked through its doors as children, they join with new generations who are coming to learn what’s happening in the Museum’s new art and science galleries.
First up is Arms and Armor: Evolution and Innovation, an exhibition that highlights parallels between combat in the human and natural worlds. This is a fascinating look at the ways in which natural selection and human innovation over time have influenced the shape, composition, and function of defensive structures—from the turtle’s shell to chain mail. A great example of this is the segmented armor which recurs in various forms throughout the years, from the boney plate armor of the giant extinct fish Dunkleosteus, to the steel suits of armor worn by the knights during the Middle Ages. Specimens and objects have been drawn from the Bruce’s collection as well as loans from the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium, Stamford Museum & Nature Center, Worcester Art Museum, and Yale Peabody Museum.
The Museum is blessed with generous supporters, and the exhibition of early Hockney works on loan from the Roy B. and Edith J. Simpson collection, date from Hockney’s years as a student at the Royal College of Art. It’s a small yet disarming collection extending from 1960s into the 1970s, and includes the surprising painting, A Grand Procession of Dignitaries in the Semi-Egyptian Style (1961), which takes its inspiration from the work of the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy’s painting, Waiting for the Barbarians. Hockney executed the work in a style inspired by ancient Egyptian art and Pablo Picasso, whose retrospective Hockney had seen at the Tate Gallery. As Hockney noted, “I deliberately set out to prove I could do four entirely different sorts of pictures like Picasso. They all had a subtitle, and each was in a different style, Egyptian, illusionistic, flat . . . ” Hockney exhibited this painting and three others, collectively titled Demonstrations of Versatility, at the 1962 Young Contemporaries exhibition at the Royal Society of British Artists Galleries in London, where he won a gold medal. He later expressed its significance to his own growing identity and self-awareness as an artist.
Andy Warhol takes center stage at The Bruce in the show Andy Warhol: Small Is Beautiful, which zeroes in on approximately 100 small works by this leading figure of the Pop Art movement.
Warhol was the master of allusion and illusion, though he also was prescient about our human need to take comfort in the iconography of our times. Much as post-World War II America was a time of prosperity, optimism, and conspicuous consumption, Americans hungered for new products and worshipped Hollywood starlets and celebrities of all persuasions. Warhol, who had grown up in a Slovakian immigrant family in Pittsburgh, would draw upon an awareness of the importance of iconography and ritual in his family’s Byzantine Catholic observances; he made a leap in the ways in which we express our values within a capitalistic lexicon. His Campbell Soup Cans and Coca Cola Bottles, and his recurring hand-screened portraits seem to shimmer internally if one stands before them, as if daring us to pierce these images that might otherwise pass by us in the blink of an eye.
“His embrace of celebrity, consumer culture, everyday life, and the commodification of art and fame was a precursor to the influencer era of today,” explains Margaria Karasoulas, The Bruce’s curator of art.
There is not enough time to take in all that this peppy museum has to offer, though summer is a terrific time to plan a few visits. People continue to be blown away by the astonishing beauty to be found in the R. Wiener Mineral Gallery. It’s a gallery-as-jewel-box, full of jaw-dropping crystals found around the world. Take the tour a bit deeper and explore the key aspects of mineralogy and the role of minerals in everything from nutrition to smart phones.
And don’t forget that nature and evolving natural history is just outside the museum’s doors as well. By the summer The Bruce’s winding paths and plantings will have been completed, and the paths will connect the Museum’s descending levels to Bruce Park just below. This dream has been long in coming, and opens up our views of the Connecticut shore.
One fan of this place is a highly energetic six-year-old in this writer’s family who has pronounced the playground at Bruce Park among the best of what Connecticut has to offer. (Rest assured—she has sampled quite a few.) Family picnics, hours for outdoor play and exploration, and a visit to The Bruce all make for a winning combination.
The Bruce
1 Museum Dr, Greenwich, CT
brucemuseum.org
@brucemuseum