Cleveland Art, Fall 2020
- Member Magazine
In this issue of the members magazine: Bruce Davidson; Second Careers; Fashioning Identity; The English Country Home; Simone Leigh; Raj and Karen Aggarwal; Rashid Johnso; Ana Mendieta
Bruce Davidson
A hot topic in the 1950s, gangs were avidly analyzed by sociologists, the press, and artists. Gordon Parks’s photographs of a young black Harlem gang leader were published in Life magazine in 1948. The musical West Side Story, which pitted a Polish gang against a Puerto Rican one, debuted on Broadwa...
Second Careers
When I arrived at the Cleveland Museum of Art in August 2017, I was under no illusion that it was important to expand the scope of the African collection to include contemporary works by African artists. Three objects were acquired to inaugurate this new direction: Totem 01/01-18 (Baga-Batcham-Alung...
Fashioning Identity
The indigenous Guna live on sovereign territory, the Gunayala Comarca (Gunaland Province), in the Republic of Panamá. Guna women spend hours every day hand sewing intricate designs into fabric panels destined to form the fronts and backs of blouses known as molas, a principal element of traditional...
Rampant Lions Mola Panel c. 1950–70. Republic of Panamá, Gunayala Comarca, Guna people, Gardi Coiba community. Cotton; reverse appliqué, appliqué, embroidery; 37.5 x 46 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. F. Louis Hoover, 1971.197l
The English Country Home
It is now the brightest wall color in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Larchmere is the contemporary name of the hue in the reinstalled British galleries; in the 18th century, for you trivia buffs, it was called Verditer.
“The new color literally changes the view of some of the most famous works on displ...
Simone Leigh
At six feet high, Simone Leigh’s sculpture Las Meninas (2019) strikes an imposing presence in the museum’s contemporary galleries. The female figure is nude from the waist up and stands with hands positioned at the sides. The raffia skirt that extends from her waist is almost as wide as she is tall,...
Raj and Karen Aggarwal
You have both been visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art since the 1960s. Raj, how has the CMA experience changed for you over time?
We were students then, so what brought us in was that the museum was free. I’m still impressed with that policy today. It makes the museum accessible to a much wider aud...
Dr. Raj and Karen Aggarwal (above, with daughter Sonia) discuss their connection to the museum, starting nearly 60 years ago, and what inspired Raj to make a generous gift to the CMA in honor of his wife.
Rashid Johnson
A series of three etchings by the Chicago-based artist Rashid Johnson, Untitled Anxious Man (2018), Untitled Anxious Crowd (2018), and Run (2018), recently entered the CMA’s collection. Meant to be viewed together, the prints present deeply personal subject matter that builds on the artist’s express...
Ana Mendieta
Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta (1948–1985) began her eight-minute color video Ochún with a view of the ocean horizon on a sunny day. Seagulls and waves can be heard in the background. The setting is Key Biscayne, Florida, off the coast of Miami. In the opening moments, the camera pans to a formation...
Ochún, 1981. Ana Mendieta (Cuban, 1948–1985). ¾-inch U-matic color video, sound; 8:30 min. © 2020 The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York