Tuesday, December 1, 2009
notes to self
grandmas
My paternal grandmother collected Chanel N05 bottles (she kept them after they went stale, I guess)
my maternal grandmother collected harlequin romances
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-harlequin-books29-2009nov29,0,5491411.story
definitions
* collection: the act of gathering something together
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
* The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting
* collect - roll up: get or gather together; "I am accumulating evidence for the man's unfaithfulness to his wife"; "She is amassing a lot of data for her thesis"; "She rolled up a small fortune"
* collect - call for and obtain payment of; "we collected over a million dollars in outstanding debts"; "he collected the rent"
* collect - gather: assemble or get together; "gather some stones"; "pull your thoughts together"
* collect - get or bring together; "accumulate evidence"
* gather or collect; "You can get the results on Monday"; "She picked up the children at the day care center"; "They pick up our trash twice a week"
* collect - make a telephone call or mail a package so that the recipient pays; "call collect"; "send a package collect"
* collect - a short prayer generally preceding the lesson in the Church of Rome or the Church of England
* collect - payable by the recipient on delivery; "a collect call"; "the letter came collect"; "a COD parcel"
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
* collected - brought together in one place; "the collected works of Milton"; "the gathered folds of the skirt"
* collected - in full control of your faculties; "the witness remained collected throughout the cross-examination"; "perfectly poised and sure of himself"; "more self-contained and more dependable than many of the early frontiersmen"; "strong and self-possessed in the face of trouble"
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
* Collected (aka Seed 1) is a 2005 promotional DVD, freely distributed in limited supply by Nine Inch Nails. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collected_(Nine_Inch_Nails_DVD)
* Collected - Collection is when a horse carries more weight on his hindlegs than his front legs. The horse draws the body in upon itself so that it becomes like a giant spring whose stored energy can be reclaimed for fighting or running from a predator. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collected_(horse)
* Collected is a five disc Black 'N Blue box set, released in 2005, with 4 audio CDs and one DVD.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collected_(Black_'n_Blue_box_set)
researchishness
Thrift Stores:
Unique, Unique Thrift - 3000 S Halsted St
Unique has some really cool stuff, and they have really good value days (Half-Price Mondays). Its in the average thrift store pricing range. A lot of their merch seems a degree more sorted and preselected for the customer. I found a really old copy of the adventures of doctor Doolittle, with the original illustrations. It was $2, which is steeper than what I’m used to in thrift stores.
Village Discount, 2032 N. Milwaukee by the Western Blue Line stop
I wasn’t very impressed with the selection at Village Discount, although it was pretty inexpensive (2-5 dollars for blouses). For me – I think I appreciate finding unusual stuff, and the day I went, it seemed like pretty generic stuff. A lot of mall-brand name clothing. It seemed very preselected to me.
They do have different colored tags, so half-price on a lot of items. But I couldn’t really find anything appealing. I think its probably a good place for practical items, but I rarely go to thrift stores for that reason.
Salvation Army on Salvation Army - 2024 S Western at Western Pink Line Stop
This place is pretty tiny, and seems a little dirty (it smells a little like mildew) but! It can be a treasure trove of unusual and interesting finds! And its mostly dirt cheap! I have found many incredible vintage hats (50c-1.50), very unusual books (hardbacks are 50c each), and just strange things I may be able to incorporate into art (such as large baggies of gold doilies, or stacks of round plastic cups). All for very low prices. It almost pains me to inform anyone about it. It’s the closest thrift store to me, and at my CTA stop, so I have frequently explored it. Sometimes, it feels like an archeological dig. You may have to spend a long time to find something interesting or of value. The clothing are oddly priced – some dresses are priced at $20, others at $3, with no apparent system to the purchaser. Also – after going a few times, you can kind of tell when they get a huge amount donated from one individual or family. Sometimes they get a huge amount of toys in, or boxes and boxes of books and records, obviously belonging to the same library, or suddenly have a large amount of church lady hats. The more unique things are, the lower they seem to be priced (referring to random objects and clothing).
An unrelated note: It functions in rehabilitation process for people in the punitary system. The workers are often working off probation. Most are very friendly.
Goodwill Outlet Store, in Milwaukee, Oregon
Nicknamed “The Bins”.
I visited ‘The Bins” while I was in Portland for a weekend.
This is basically set up like an enormous rummage sale, housed in a warehouse that is full of bins, full of random stuff, all piled together. It is where all of the stuff that wasn’t deemed acceptable by the regular Goodwill stores, or did not sell for whatever reason, go, before they are shipped to other countries (as rags) or sometimes to the landfill. It also functions as donation center. Almost everything at “The Bins” is priced by the pound ($1.39 per pound). Furniture / bicycles are priced separately. It’s another one of those places where you have to invest a lot of time, and get a little dirty, in order to find anything, and its one of those places that you can find unbelievable treasures. The customers range from “pickers”, who are looking for stuff to sell (I have a picker friend who found a paper dress, in its original sealed bag, and sold it for $1000), to people who are curious, to people who go for the fun of the hunt, to people who are definite hoarders. I didn’t have the time, or inclination to really hunt, but I did find a garden gnome for a friend who collects them. It was a couple of bucks. The other thing about Oregon is there is no sales tax!
FreeGeek Thrift Store, 1731 SE 10th Avenue, Portland Oregon
FreeGeek is the raddest place on earth if you have any amount of geeky nerdy computer / hardware tinkering personality traits! It’s a non profit, that will reuse old computer hardware, reconstructing and donating materials to schools (they make computers out of busted computers for people in need. You can volunteer / intern with them, and you can learn how to build your own computer while you are there – which you get to take home with you! The thrift store is a geek paradise, (or art and tech, or just artist) with chips, and monitors, all the hardware, keyboards, tvs, – and weeeird stuff! I went a couple of times when I lived in Portland. They are way into promoting the UBUNTU philosophy.
SCRAP Thrift Store Portland Oregon
SCRAP started as a little hole-in-the-wall in Portland – now its branched out to other states! It’s a thrift shop of scraps – art supply thrift store. You can donate there – stuff that as artists we might recognize as valuable materials for reuse, but most people might throw away or recycle but aren’t your run of the mill egg carton (its always different – but examples are weird tubing, beakers, hot air balloon material). Prices vary, but an armful of goodies could be a dollar or two, depending on the materials. The purpose is to promote material reuse, community art, and as a conduit for materials that are collected for donation to schools for art classes. Its really cheap, and fun, and always has new stuff, that in the context allows you to see the potential as material. They also display objects that are made by the products available, to provide a context. I went on a Monday– oops! They were closed L but it was exciting to peak in.
The Rebuilding Center and Hippo Hardware, Portland
Used building and remodeling materials. I may be living on a houseboat someday, and creating an internet radio station (hence the tinkering with gadgets and gizmos at FreeGeek). I’m not kidding – this is my plan – to have a goat and honeybee farm, near to some body of water, upon which I will be living in a houseboat (with a treehouse studio nearby). So my thrifting has become oriented toward the practical, and the D.I.Y. approach. One of the best placesto find THRIFTSTORES that cater to really bizarre needs, and the D.I.Y. approach is Portland. Two such places are the Rebuilding Center, and Hippo Hardware. I used to frame my paintings in old windows I would buy for a couple of bucks a piece at REBUILDING CENTER. The idea is – they harvest scraps from remodeling projects that would otherwise be thrown out, and sell them. Windows, doors, bathtubs, sinks…..you name it. Hippo has a whole floor dedicated to lamps and lighting fixtures. Another one for plumbing….The employees at both places are really informed and helpful. Plust – they are really great places to find stuff for art projects – installations, and scrap for sculpture – I found a bunch of stuff for my welding class a few years ago. Prices are generally more reasonable at REBUILDING – everything is in it’s scrapped form, and you can bargain – especially if you buy a lot of stuff at once. HIPPO is a little higher end, and more specialized.
NOT QUITE THRIFT
Fat Rabbit Halsted in Pilsen, Chicago
My friend Feather runs this place. One of those conduit places – a lot seems acquired from thriftstores, but the pricing is pretty reasonable – so the issue of “feeling ripped off” doesn’t happen. Its kind of fun and funky, with vintage clothes, and thrifted objects – posters, paintings, a few mid-century modern pieces – there’s always hip music, and art shows.
FLEA MARKET
EAGLES Lodge in Portland
Hosts an indoor flea market, TWILIGHT RUMMAGE SALE once a month – on a Saturday, with live DJs. It is in the early evenings, (4pm to 8 pm) and has room for about 20 vendors. They ask for a dollar donation to get in. Prices range considerably. A lot of mid-century knick knacks, jewelry, record albums - some artists and crafters rent a table to sell their wares. Most people doing this flea market seem to be regular vendors – they know what they have, generally, but you can still bargain. They rotate the vendors, because there is so little space, so each month is a new group, which is pretty cool. They also rotate the DJs, so each event is different. The nights tend to be pretty busy - it’s a fun atmosphere – with the live DJing, and the EAGLES bar and restaurant, so you can walk around sipping a beer and listening to music. I didn’t buy anything, but it was fun to walk around. I was interested in a few old photos, but they weren’t catching my fancy enough to splurge (he was asking 3 bucks a piece – for me that’s pricy!)
Monday, November 30, 2009
crispin's collections
vintage ties he rarely wears
clowns
he collects:
robby benson paraphernelia
newspaper clippings
old toothbrushes (???)
facespacemysterfriendbook
networking sites are ways to collect people, especially facebook. i keep ending up in long lists with other people and stuff. odd.
robin kandel artist statements
Here’s a statement I wrote ages ago for story 1 run and story 2 postola. (you might notice there’s beginning thoughts about run-dig and stack in here too.)
In 2001 I learned my father had two audiotapes from a 1983 interview. The tapes describe his childhood during the Second World War in Berezno, Ukraine. I asked him to send them to me. By hiding in the woods for nearly two years he, like others, escaped being killed by the Nazis. He was accompanied by his mother, younger brother, his grandfather and two uncles. Other members of his family, including his father, were killed either while in hiding or because they refused to leave their home and enter work camps. We didn’t talk much about my father’s childhood when I was growing up. As I got older he occasionally mentioned some detail, what the shelters in the woods looked like, for instance, or that a raw potato is edible. I believe he thought I knew the actual story, not my vague and fragmented version. I thought I did too.
When I first heard the tapes I was struck by accounts of literally running for one’s life, not once or twice but many times. What could this be like? I have no desire to recreate the experience of running in the woods, wearing makeshift shoes, while people are firing machine guns at me. But I did feel the need to enter the periphery of that world in order to begin to understand it. I went to my local woods and let my imagination assume a role while I ran with a camera in hand. I scared myself a little, but mostly I realized that I might be one of those “people who just couldn’t keep up (and) remained behind.” Of course, remaining behind meant almost certain death.
I continued thinking about the events recounted. The woods provided safety, while simultaneously harboring danger. The woods provided a chance for survival, but not everyone survived. Basic continuums of life - work, finding food and shelter, death - took on extraordinary proportions. Sisyphean tasks of digging and stacking were demanded at the work camp. Winter in the woods meant creating shelters underground to stay dry and warm, always ready to abandon and run if discovered. Food was begged for, foraged and stolen. When members of the family were killed, they were buried in the woods.
Would it be possible to visit the woods where these events took place over sixty years ago? Would there be any sense of the history that took place in those woods? I have relatives buried in those woods. I might walk where they lay without even knowing it. These and other topics surfaced in story 1, run. To further understand the events that my father recounts, it seemed necessary to transcribe what I was hearing on the tapes. In this way I could read bits and pieces slowly and repeatedly and make sense of them. During the process of transcribing I realized I was participating in a literal passing of story from one generation to the next. My father’s words went in my ears and passed out my hand in the form of text, a story.
The completion of story 1, run led to more questions. Details that my father mentioned in the tapes. Did he really remember how to wrap his foot with rags for lack of socks or shoes? When I asked him, he replied sure, though he may need a little practice. In fact he needed no practice. Clearly he had done this so many times that it was ingrained in his memory – simple as buttoning one’s own shirt. He explained how they wove shoes from strips of birch bark and drew a diagram on a scrap of paper, “The shoes were called postolas. The peasants in the area made them beautifully. We just made crude versions.” Thus story 2, postola began.
There aren’t many birch trees where I live, I thought eucalyptus bark that sheds from the tree might work as a substitute. My father was willing to give it a try. I watched as he stood in my studio and began weaving a postola. The last time he had made a postola was over sixty years ago, while on the run for his life.
Benjamin and Julius statement: (not great, but gives you some thoughts)
There are three family myths that caught my attention as a child. Maybe myth isn’t the right word because these things were based in fact, but they felt mythological, they felt as if they separated me from the ordinary kid. First, my dad had hid in a cornfield with his dad who was caught and shot dead by germans. Second, my mom had cousins in Alcatraz, members of the Purple Gang. Finally, my parents were cousins, their respective grandfathers being brothers. I accepted these myths as fully realized in their brevity.
As a child, to say, in one breath, the words relative and Alcatraz to another kid held some cache. As did having a dad who was Russian, it was the cold war after all. When, at an uncertain grade school age, a teacher explained a bit about concentration camps
I was proud to declare that my great grandfather had escaped from one. She said it was very unlikely, it rarely happened, which was confusing because we often visited my great grandfather at his apartment and I was sure he had been in a camp, evidenced by his red purple shins, clearly a result of torture, most likely his legs frozen in ice (or so I thought).
It would take a few decades before I began asking questions and sorting things out. I had waited, unintentionally, simply for lack of interest, until those who could explain things in their own words had died. So it was my mom who recalled that her dad was caught driving a get away car for the Purple Gang. My uncle, a few years older, never heard about the get away car but knows that his dad took a fall for the Purples because he visited him in jail; in exchange the Purple cousins provided for their family through the depression. Neither my mom nor uncle can describe how these Purple Gang are cousins to their father. Both agree that the cousins were nice guys who always arrived with bags of groceries. Nice guys who happened to be gun and liquor runners, extortionists, racketeers, kidnappers, murderers, and arsonists. They did experience Alcatraz.
My dad has provided me with more details of his war experience then I can recount here. His grandfather did escape a labor camp, as did his father, mother and himself along with many others. They fled to nearby woods where they lived, on the run, until nearly the end of the war. His father was killed during this time, on a day when he and his dad went to a farmhouse to beg for provisions. The farmer had alerted authorities, my dad and his father ran for their lives, my dad heard the shot that killed his own father. My great grandfathers red purple shins were the result of leaping from a slowing train, after liberation. Hot metal on skin.
dad's paper
Ian Everard
Museums of Antiquities and Ethnography
Patronage, Social Progress and Cultural Sensitivities
“The seeing eye is an organ of tradition” – Sally Price.1
The historical formation of many of the institutions we associate with the State, or “establishment”, and take for granted, such as museums, has, in fact, been haphazard. Indeed, one could speculate that, were it not for vanity and as a sense of largesse, on the part of wealthy, privileged, often aristocratic, individuals, from the late 18th to the early 20th century, we might not have the museums we now know. However, notwithstanding the agency of these individuals, there were greater forces at play in society at large, which exerted an influence upon them. The convergence of science, the arts, and a trend toward democratization in the Enlightenment, shifted the practice of collection from the idiosyncrasies of the Wunderkämmer, to an attempt to use exhibition space to contribute to aesthetic appreciation and scientific understanding.
It was, however, a gradual shift; Elias Ashmole gave his name to The Ashmolian Museum in Oxford, in 1683. It was the first university museum of modern times, indeed the first institution to use the term “museum”. His collection reflects his involvement in the occult, freemasonry and alchemy, as much as his interest in the emerging sciences. The formation of The British Museum (1753) and The Louvre, after the French Revolution are more in keeping with The Age of Reason. As Matthew Ramplay has observed, “In particular, a fundamental preoccupation of enlightenment thought, indeed modern culture in general, has been the search for its origins”2 We collect in order to better understand ourselves.
As we view collections, initially amassed by these, often eccentric, individuals, there can be a sense that we are seeing the marvelous through their eyes. We may at the same time have misgivings about the way in which these collections, often stupendously vast, were acquired. Further, as the contents are literally displaced, we might ask, should they - can they - be replaced and what, in their current placement, do they mean in our own time?
Concurrent with the early history of museums, in the world of ideas, there was an interest in classical antiquities. Hegel and Schiller’s Lectures on Aesthetics were concerned with classical ornament, particularly in Ancient Greece. These ideas had an influence on Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Soane, Lord Elgin and others forming collections. There was also, in the geo-politics of the time, an interest in the strategic importance of the Greek territories. The Napoleonic War was raging, Greece was under the dominion of The Ottoman Empire, with whom the British were temporarily allied, and this gave opportunities, for those well placed, to purchase ancient artifacts cheaply, or simply take them, with little consequence.
Sir John Soane was an architect in London. He was a friend and associate of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founder of the Royal Academy. He had a great interest in classical antiquities and had the wherewithal to acquire them. He lived in a terraced town house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. He had such a voracious appetite for classical antiquities, especially sculpture, that, as his collection grew, he was forced to take out several floors of his house to accommodate them. Subsequently, in need of yet more space, he purchased both the adjoining properties and moved his family residence elsewhere. He taught at the Royal Academy and, from 1806 onwards, he made his collection available for study to his students. This, however, was neither broad enough access, nor recognition, and he campaigned to have the collection made into a museum bearing his name. In 1837, he achieved his wish, by Act of Parliament.
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where the Sir John Soane Museum is to be found, is an enclave within the City. It is a quiet, village like area of older buildings, housing mostly lawyer’s offices. It offers a peaceful respite from the city. The effect, upon entry to the museum, is extraordinary; a seemingly typical London town house on the outside – one looks up to see balcony after balcony, floor after floor, laden with classical sculpture. It is everywhere. The Museum is, no doubt, of interest to classical scholars to this day for what it contains. However, for many, the first reaction is a certain awe, followed by a sense of disquiet and, perhaps, vertigo. I found myself thinking of Piranesi’s re-worked etchings of Roman buildings. An extreme interest in classical order is, of course, evident, although it seems indicative, ultimately, of a disorder bordering on the obsessive and, to the contemporary eye, no less interesting for all that.
A fellow classicist of Sir John Soane was Thomas Bruce, better known as Lord Elgin.
A descendant of Robert the Bruce (the King of Scotland, portrayed in the movie Braveheart), Lord Elgin was an aristocrat, scholar and diplomat. He too had an avid interest in classical antiquities. Appointed as ambassador to Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, in 1799, he saw an opportunity to bring cast-makers, artists and architects to study the ruins of the classical world. He hoped he could use his position to bring a greater understanding of classical civilization to the British people. He was issued a decree, or “firman”3, from Constantinople, allowing him access to The Parthenon in Athens. Initially his plans were to make record of the antiquities -“To measure each temple, make elevations and views with the utmost accuracy, mould every block of marble, statue, ornament and inscription”. 4 However, as it became clear how much had already been taken by the French, and with a second “firman”5 allowing him to remove some statuary, Lord Elgin set about the wholesale displacement of the marbles which would bring about his ruin and have born his name ever since.
Reading correspondence by him, his wife and contemporaries from the time, one has a sense of excitement, even giddiness, at the coup they were pulling off and the fame which they felt sure would ensue .6
From the outset, Lord Elgin’s marbles were controversial in Britain. Many people associated the acquisition with plunder and desecration; most notably the poet Lord Byron .7 Typical of Elgin’s defense is the remark “The Greeks of today do not deserve such wonderful works of antiquity. Moreover, they consider them worthless. Indeed, it is my divine calling to preserve these treasures unto the ages”. Elgin spent ten years lobbying to sell the collection to the nation and then sold them for about half his asking price. They are now housed in the British Museum. The Greek government has been trying to negotiate their return for over 100 years. They have almost become a symbol to the world of the displacement of treasures. The British Government has consistently refused to return them or even to “loan” them back to Greece for the 2004 Olympics but, as an indication of their sensitivity, has re-named them “The Parthenon Marbles”. Neal McGregor, the director of the British Museum offered his opinion that “The British Museum is the best place for the Parthenon sculptures in its collections to be on display" (sic). Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, designed by Bernard Tschumi, is underway. It is scheduled to open in 2006 and will exhibit the remaining sculptures held by the Greeks, with absent spaces for Elgin’s “Parthenon Marbles”. The current Lord Elgin has said that he dare not visit Greece under his real name and is “sorry his great-great grandfather (had) ever (seen) the bloody stones”. 8
In Britain, as the 19th century progressed, with Napoleon defeated and dominion over much of the world acknowledged as The British Empire, the emphasis in the world of ideas shifted from an interest in classical origins, to the origins, in Darwin’s phrase, of species. There was, therefore, a search for the “primitive”. The types of collections formed by mid century reflect this change. One voracious collector was Augustus Henry Lane Fox, better known as General Pitt Rivers. Although another aristocrat, he was a second son of a second son and was, thus, obliged to take a military career. Given the assignment of testing a new rifle, he became fascinated with firearms and began collecting them. By all accounts, his appetite for the acquisition of rifles began to rule his life. However, it is the influence of Darwin which makes his collection so unique. Pitt Rivers came to believe that objects could be classified like biological species and grouping them together by type, regardless of origin, would help illuminate the evolution of ideas; one would observe “progress” over time in the form of a spoon, for instance. He coined the term “typology” to describe this form of classification. To demonstrate his theories, he had to obtain vast quantities of objects from as many different cultures as possible. As a British General, in time of Empire, he was very well placed to do so. Many of his colleagues were stationed in far-flung parts of the world and he counted Darwin, the Huxleys, Sir Richard Burton and other luminaries as his friends. In their travels, if they found something they thought would be of interest to the General, they would send it to him for inclusion in his collection. Eventually, he had accumulated so much that he felt the need to donate it to the nation. The nation, however, in the form of the British Museum, did not want it and he had to settle for Oxford University. The conditions were that a chair be endowed at Oxford University to teach the new science of anthropology, which he had helped devise, and that, of course, the museum should be named after him.
The Pitt Rivers Museum is in Oxford. To get to it, one passes through the well-lit halls of The Natural History Museum's with its dinosaur and mastodon skeletons and a stuffed mammoth (missing its tail). One might easily overlook the General’s museum, for the entrance is dark. Inside, and adjusted to the dim light, one finds oneself in a cavernous building, three stories high, much like a railway station, full to bursting with glass cases, laden with artifacts. The General’s contribution consisted of 18,000 objects but, over time, the collection has swelled to over half a million. The classification is, as I have described, eccentric, but so is the presentation, for the objects are shown just as they arrived, with hand-written labels, often by famous explorers (Stanley, Livingston, Burton, even Lawrence of Arabia). It is like stepping back in time. As with the Soane Museum, there is a sense of awe and fascination. Then, again, disquiet. Indeed there are spoons but also sacred items, totem poles, skull racks and shrunken heads.
The Museum’s publications reflect this sense of disquiet; “sensitivity to what is collected and, indeed publicly displayed, has changed considerably since the 1880s”. They describe outreach to the peoples from whom much of this collection was taken, such as Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, Maoris, the peoples of New Guinea etc. “Nowadays, for instance, at the request of Maori visitors, the Maori tattooed heads have been taken off display and other skeletal material, not properly held by this museum, has been returned via the Australian high Commission to the Aboriginal groups from whence it came.”9
By the early 20th century, things were changing. The forces, which gave rise to the phenomenon of the unrestrained aristocratic collector, were no longer in play. The British Empire was in decline. The dominion, which had enabled these individuals to acquire their enormous collections at little cost from much of the globe, had ended. The concentration of power and wealth shifted across the Atlantic. The Industrial Revolution, although it began in Britain, propelled economic expansion in the United States and gave rise to the wealthy industrialist collectors. Many of these, such as Carnegie, Whitney and Freer, eventually had museums bearing their names. While Lord Elgin may have believed he had a “divine calling” to remove objects to London, the industrialist collector used the power of purchase. (It is interesting to consider what the good Lord would have made of the purchase and removal of London Bridge to Texas…). By and large, the collectors of The Gilded Age in the U.S. were interested in acquiring antiquities and art of European heritage. Toward the middle of the century, however, the forms of wealth and the strategic interests of The United States changed considerably. America was looking outward. It became possible for those of more modest resources than Carnegie to form collections.
Avery Brundage was one such collector. Brundage was from an upper middle class background in Chicago. He was successful in business and sports. In 1936, as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, he visited Europe and, in London, saw an exhibit of Chinese art.10 He resolved then to become a serious collector of Asian art. He studied avidly for six years before he began purchasing in earnest. Keenly aware of world events, according to Clarence Shangraw, he took advantage of upheavals in China to add to his collection.11 Also, as Shangraw indicates, he took advantage of the Alien Property Confiscation Act of 1943, which forced Japanese nationals to sell their holdings. Indeed, it seems that some of the most important pieces in his collection come from this period. By all accounts he was careful in his acquisitions, in terms of cost and scholarship, but the embargo on Chinese goods from the 50’s to the 70’s, meant that he also had to be careful in terms of provenance. It should be stressed that there has never been any question that his collection was legally acquired. He collected voraciously, however, and by the time he died he had accumulated many, many thousands of objects. Over 10,000 of these he donated to the City of San Francisco. They still form a large percentage of The Asian Art Museum.
Many others, of course, contributed to the Asian Art Museum collections. Some, like Brundage, were able take advantage of the opportunities for low prices presented by conflict. Harry Packard, for instance, acquired significant works while stationed in Tokyo as part of the U.S. Occupation Forces.12
San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, where the Avery Brundage Collection now resides, makes an interesting comparison to the Pitt Rivers and Soane Museums. One might note that it is not called The Avery Brundage Museum, although his name and reputation are very much secured for posterity by his gift.13 Housed, one has to assume, for convenience in a Beaux Arts building, formerly a library, in the Civic Center area, the artifacts are presented by region, so that one, as it were, travels through the Asian regions in time and space. Although aesthetic considerations are taken into account, they do not predominate, as at the Soane; nor are the artifacts classified by type, irrespective of culture, as at the Pitt Rivers. There is, as far as I can tell from the mission statement of the museum, no attempt to present Mr. Brundage’s collection intact, as he would have shown it. Rather, there is a commendable goal of making the achievements of Asian art and culture available to “a diverse global audience.” It is emphasized that it is a “public institution”. 14 Thus, it is answerable to the vox populi, and must be sensitive to changing mores. It seems that, as the collection is so weighted to the collection of one individual, The Asian Art Museum is fortunate that, as Clarence Shangrow puts it, “Mr.Brundage had been a methodical, timely and wise collector”. Most of his collection is from China, ‘though he only went there once. For his purchases, he relied on agents and international vendors. Nowadays, the museum relies on numerous experts and scholars to explain the collection, a large percentage of which was bought by him. Ultimately, he was one person with a good eye.
Over time, the pre-eminence of the singular individual in the formation of ethnographic collections has diminished. People such as Avery Brundage had an historical opportunity. There are still collectors and they are still donating their acquisitions and gaining, thereby, recognition of their names. However, the market for both antiquities and, as Shelley Errington notes, ethnographic artifacts has diminished and become somewhat more regulated.15 Moreover, there is much evidence in the written statements from museums, of their need to indicate an awareness of changing sensibilities. In the present time many museums use language which is indicative of a high purpose and lofty ideals. “The New de Young Museum aspires to provide a cultural common ground – a fertile gathering place for art, people and ideas with roots in history, flourishing in the present, thus sustaining the resonance and relevance of the collections.”16
I began this paper with the hope, despite my true feelings of ambivalence about these museums, that, in the present era, the rampant plunder which so characterized their beginnings, was something of the past, that progress was being made. Nobody, one hopes, could conduct himself or herself in the manner of Lord Elgin. However, recent events shed light on some current dubious practices, the continued existence of plunder and the probable need for more oversight.
Ironically, at the time of writing, one of the people who is often cited as a voice for responsibility and reform in museum practice, Marion True, is on trial for purchasing looted Roman and Etruscan artifacts.17 She is the former antiquities curator at the Getty Museum. In 1995, she devised a policy for buying only well-documented pieces, “now we would only consider buying from an established collection that is known to the world, so that we do not have the issue of undocumented provenance”. 18 The Getty had often been associated with illegal deals; it had received looted sculptures from the improbably named Giacomo Medici, for instance, so she set about reform.19 However, she is now accused of acquiring 42 objects illegally, on behalf of the Getty, as well as other acts of corruption. It is generally held that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As Maxwell Anderson recently remarked, “what was adventurous in the 1980s is now criminal”. 20
He sites the case of Fred Schultz, who was convicted of smuggling and conspiracy charges in relation to Egyptian artifacts in 2002. Among other things, Schultz was apparently “doctoring” provenances. The conviction signifies a major change in U.S. law for, in a sign of globalization, the prosecution was based on a foreign statute. This precedent makes it all the more imperative for the museums to reform. However, it presents the obvious question of how far back one should go in pursuit of the loot. In 2000, Christopher Chippendale 21 and David Gill surveyed seven museum collections in the U.S., for the American Journal of Archaeology, and found that 75% of 1,396 antiquities were of unknown origin. There will probably be a bizarre international form of the statute of limitations, which will take into account recently unearthed objects, Nazi plunder etc. but fall short of requiring the British Museum to return its Marbles to the Parthenon.22
Angela Schuster observes that the trade in illegal antiquities is third in rank behind drug and arms smuggling.23 As in the history I have described, the upheavals of the present military conflict provide ample opportunities for those who would wish to purchase and those who would wish to profit.
As chronicled in the book “The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad”, a staggering number of objects have been taken from all the museums in Iraq as they were left unprotected by the U.S. invasion forces.24 However, this is nothing compared to the continuing industrial scale excavations taking place illegally in Southern Iraq. “We made several visits to Umma…flying by helicopter over the scene reveals an unimaginably grim reality, a scene of complete destruction that unfolds before you as a sea of holes in the desert…a pockmarked landscape with craters up to 5 meters deep. A landscape as desolate as the surface of the moon during the day, springs to life after sunset with generators, light bulbs trucks and shovels, as hundreds of looters dig ‘til dawn”. 25 For the people of the catastrophically impoverished South, the trade provides much needed income; they even refer to it as “farming”. 26 They can hardly be blamed for seizing an opportunity to put food on the table. As Brecht said, “food is the first thing…”. As in the drug trade, there are “kingpins” and they do not magnanimously share the profits with the “farmers”, nor do they have cultural stewardship in mind; Patty Gerstonblith observes, “Of the two to three hundred thousand objects removed from Southern Iraq, only the saleable items are saved”. 27
A loophole in current UNESCO legal guidelines places the burden on the country where plunder has occurred to report the theft, with an accurate description of each artifact – a task described by Angela Schuster as “impossible”, in the case of Iraq.28 There is urgent need for reform. As in the confluence of the world of ideas with the forms of collection and display in the past, perhaps societies will look to those who are giving thought to the workings of culture in the present time. One might detect the influence of the ideas of Susan Stewart and James Clifford, for instance, in Patty Gerstonblith’s advocacy that exhibitions of antiquities attempt to provide a correlation of context. 29 She says that association is only possible when objects are “in site together”. She argues that antiquities should be loaned for extended periods and that only “multiples” be made available. Although, like Clifford, she is concerned with issues of displacement, she is focused on reform, both domestically and internationally, describing the current UNESCO convention as haphazard and contradictory. In her advisory capacity, one hopes that she will be heard.
Museums are under much scrutiny. They are clearly problematic institutions. However, compared to the era of Soane and Pitt Rivers, not to mention Lord Elgin, there has clearly been an improvement. It is encouraging that some of the loot is being returned, although it’s interesting to note that items are being returned to the Maoris, for instance, but not the Greeks. It is fair to generalize that 50 years ago, the presentation of objects from “other” cultures and histories was less sensitive; 100 years ago, even less. One does wonder what an Occidental Art Museum in, say, Beijing, would be like and how an American visitor would feel seeing artifacts from their culture – a Shaker chair, a Remington or Rockwell painting, The Gettysburg Address, the head from The Lincoln Memorial – in that setting.
However, for all that, I confess, I’m glad that I, and others, can visit these places.
The Soane and Pitt Rivers Museums, because they have largely been kept intact, as their founders conceived them, offer us a chance to see with our own eyes into another era. Furthermore, I believe the “pure” aesthetic reaction to these places should not be denied. To imagine that we could not go to see a permanent collection of Asian art in San Francisco is to feel a sense of loss. I want it to be there. I think I would say the same of Sir John Soane’s museum and General Pitt Rivers’. At any rate, I’m glad I’ve seen them. I’m not so sure about Lord Elgin and his marbles, though. The sense of loss is rightfully with The Greeks.
ENDNOTES
1. Sally Price, Primitive Art in Civilized Places (University of Chicago Press, 1989), p.22.
- Matthew Ramplay, Site Specificity: The Ethnographic Turn. Ed. Alex Coles, p.140 - Anthropology and the Ruins of Art History.
- Theodore Vrettos, The Elgin Affair (Arcade Publishing,1997), p.47.
- Vrettos, p.56.
- Vrettos, p.50.
- Vrettos, pp.64, 65, 66.
- Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
“Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved
To guard those relics ne’er to be restored”
- Vrettos, p.212
- Julia Cousins, The Pitt Rivers Museum – A Souvenir Guide to the Collections
(Pitt Rivers Museum, 1993), p.28.
- Clarence F. Shangraw, The Asian Art Museum
(Orientations Magazine Ltd. / Asian Art Museum, n.d.), p.4.
- Shangraw, p.5.
- Yoko Woodson, The Asian Art Museum
(Orientations Magazine Ltd. / Asian Art Museum, n.d.), p.124.
- Wikipedia, “Avery Brundage”, <www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
avery-brundage. > (11.28.05) - Tim Hallman, “Fact Sheet: General Information Asian Art Museum at Civic Center”, 2005.
- Shelley Errington, The Death of Authentic Primitive Art and Other Tales of Progress
(University of California Press, 1998), p.268.
- Statement in situ at de Young Museum, 2005.
- James Poniewozik, “Case of the Looted Relics” Time, October, 17,2005, p.80.
- Mark Rose, “The Getty’s mea culpa” The Courier – Unesco, April 2001,
<www.unesco.org/courier2001-
- Andrew L Slayman, “Geneva Siezure”, Archeology, Sept. 14, 1998, <www.archeology.org/online/
features/geneva/ > (11.28.05).
20. “American Museums under Fire over Antiquities” To The Point, Nov.23, 2005,
<www.moretothepoint.com> (11.23.05).
21. His real name! I just have to note – Chippendale, True, Giacomo de Medici…!
- In my opinion, the obstinacy of the British Museum in this matter can only be explained by a fear of the precedent a return of the marbles would present.
- Milbry Polk & Angela M.H. Schuster, The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad,
(Harry Abrams, 2005), p.
- Polk & Schuster, p.
- Polk & Schuster, p.
- Polk & Schuster, p
- “American Museums under Fire over Antiquities” To The Point, Nov.23,2005,
<www.moretothepoint.com> (11.23.05)
- Polk & Schuster, p
- Patty Gerstonblith is Professor of law at De Paul University and a member of the President's Cultural Property Advisory Committee.
rubaiyat
a note from a conversation
early semester not to self
Its a studio and theory course - so part of the day is lectures, discussions and presentations, and part is work time. Anthropological perspectives of collecting (amassing, hoarding.....) material objects, thoughts, etc. as well as theories on the practice of "legitimate" collecting, (methodologies of organization) and how these perspectives and practices can be applied to our studio practice - with tons of field trips to flea markets and artist collections and hoarders homes etc! sooooo excited!!!!!!
presentation
The artists who I am focusing on are new media artist Jonathan Harris, Bay Area artist Robin Kandel, and David Lynch’s new Interview Project. Harris considers himself a “collector of stories”. He uses new media (websites and programs) to organize fragments of personal narratives. David Lynch’s Interview Project is a series of short impromptu interviews of randomly selected people in small towns across the U.S. “A roadtrip where people have been found, and interviewed.” Reconstructing Memories, Robin Kandel uses the personal narratives of her parents to create video installations, using reenactment and abstracted video.
Rachel's collection
Hi Pippa!
thought
i find writing in journals difficult
Sunday, November 29, 2009
notes on oriental institute
"PARTAGE SYSTEM"
coined term "fertile Crescent"
relief: parthenon / state capital building of nebraska
spec exhibits gallery>
excavation vs. purchase
egypt / ancient nubia (1960s)
collecting "A GOOD DEAL"
lawsuit - rightfully (rightful ownership - v.v.interesting legal battle w/ instit. in middle)
ernst hertzfeldt
eclectic collection of ivories (MEGGIDO)
OSSUARY (boz for bones)
objects with value /
normal museum / collectors as financial suppoerters - here researchers
mesapotamea
6-sided clay prism / cunaiform writing
sennacherib prism
meant for gods not people
**
yelda khorsabad court
open mouth rituals
looting of baghdad museum
object ownership
the value of an object one collects ( )in terms of it's cultural / financial value as well as its emotional value as well as its lifelong cost to one in terms of space (we pay for space it takes up - on our shelf, for instance), and duration of time we have it (spend taking care of it, spend working to afford to acquire it, and to store it in space over the amount of benefit to the body, or cost to the body equals its value.
