Cleveland Art, Spring 2021
- Member Magazine
In this issue of the members magazine: New Take on the New; The Gentileschi Variations; New Histories, New Futures; Curating Private Lives; Installing Sarah Sze’s Plywood Sunset Leaning; Curator Picks: Books, Films, and Documentaries to Enhance Your Experience; The Conservation of Al Loving’s Blue Rational/Irrational; Transformation by Digitization; Coming Soon: The CMA’s Community Arts Center on the Near West Side
New Take on the New
The Cleveland Museum of Art is telling the story of contemporary art in a bold new way through a reinstallation with fresh viewpoints to create new experiences.
The Betty and Max Ratner Gallery (224A), Toby’s Gallery for Contemporary Art (229A, 229C), and the Paula and Eugene Stevens Gallery (229B) a...
El manto negro / The black shroud 2020. Teresa Margolles (Mexican, b. 1963). 1,600 burnished ceramic pieces; each, approximately: 10.5 x 11 x 3.5 cm. Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller, 2020.64
Installing a Unique Sculpture
Of all the artworks we prepared for display in Stories from Storage, Sarah Sze’s Plywood Sunset Leaning loomed largest in my mind. I had heard about it from colleagues and seen parts of it arranged and carefully labeled in our storage area, but this was the first time it would be installed at the mu...
Plywood Sunset Leaning (Fragment Series) 2015. Sarah Sze (American, b. 1969). Acrylic paint, wood, archival prints, ladder, mirror, paper cups, stone, lamp, tools, pen, tape, paint brush, newspaper; overall: 350.5 x 292.1 x 190.5 cm. Gift of Agnes Gund, 2015.145.
© Sarah Sze
The Gentileschi Variations
Visitors can explore how both artists returned to and reworked certain themes and compositions throughout their careers. Here, curator Cory Korkow reflects on the works on view.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells how King Acrisius of Argos locked away his daughter, Danaë, to thwart a prophecy that her future...
New Histories, New Futures
A new exhibition centers on three contemporary artists—two of them based in Ohio—whose engagement with time and historical revisionism is rooted in the past (Johnny Coleman), present (Antwoine Washington), and future (Kambui Olujimi).
Based in Oberlin, Johnny Coleman (born 1958) revitalizes the margi...
Black Family: The Myth of the Missing Black Father 2019. Antwoine Washington (American, b. 1980). Acrylic on canvas; 24 x 30 in. Collection of the artist. Image © Antwoine Washington
Curating Private Lives
In the spring of 2016, co-curator Mary Weaver Chapin and I first began brainstorming the exhibition that would become Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, Paris, 1889–1900. We were attending an annual conference of the Print Council of America, a professional organization of curat...
Woman in a Striped Dress 1895. Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940). Oil on canvas; 65.7 x 58.7 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.38. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
A New York Minute
“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them,” solemnly intoned the narrator at the end of a television police drama that first aired in the late 1950s. I think of his words whenever I look at early 20th-century street photography. That genre, which involves taking s...
Friends, East 105th Street, East Harlem, NY 1952, printed later. Walter Rosenblum (American, 1919–2006). Gelatin silver print, gold-toned; 23.1 x 16.9 cm. Gift of the Rosenblum Family, 2017.87. © Walter Rosenblum
People Watching
The past year has been a series of cancellations, postponed plans, and suppressed wanderlust. Personally, I have missed the experience of participating in one of my favorite urban activities: people watching. This is why I was drawn to the crowded streets, theaters, beaches, parks, and subways found...
Fun, One Cent 1905. John Sloan (American, 1871–1951). Etching; 17.8 x 25.4 cm. Collection of Stephen Dull
Supporter Story: Peter Leicht and Derrick Strobl
In December 2020, Peter Leicht and Derrick Strobl of Columbus fulfilled a lifelong dream by donating five prints by Stanley William Hayter, Nina Negri, and Allan D’Arcangelo to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
What was your first experience with the Cleveland Museum of Art?
Peter: The summer before colleg...
Peter Leicht and Derrick Strobl
Hidden Complexities
When Al Loving’s Blue Rational/Irrational from 1969 entered the paintings conservation lab, we thought it would be a relatively straightforward cleaning. The bigger challenge appeared to be retouching some dark scuffs and abrasions on the pale monochromatic paint surface. But once we started the cle...
Transformation by Digitization
Over the past year, the museum has been unwavering in its commitment to creating new digital content and programs. Our ability to innovate through challenging times reflects the steps we’ve taken to bring our mission to “create transformative experiences, for the benefit of all the people forever” i...
Copy Cats AI finds friends in the collection
Internships Pave Career Paths
Danielle Hill didn’t visit the Cleveland Museum of Art until she was 17, but the institution has played a transformative role in the Maple Heights native’s life. Hill, 23, graduated from Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University in December with a master’s degree in arts management...
Danielle Hill, Lauren Lew
A Home for Community Arts
When I walk into the space each morning and turn on the lights, I see endless possibilities. Walls filled with color and energy. Spaces alive with people and activity. Artists and communities working together. Opening this spring, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Community Arts Center on the near west...
Under Construction A former awning factory is transformed into a brandnew community arts center.