12" x 16", oil on panel
Big news at the MFA Boston!
Reframing “American” Art was the topic of the National Public Radio show, OnPoint, this past Tuesday. Hosted by Tom Ashbrook, the guests were Elliot Bostwick Davis, chair of the Art of America’s Department at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Andrew McClellan, dean of Academic Affairs for Arts & Sciences and Professor of Art History at Tufts University. The occasion was the opening of the MFA Boston's new "Arts of the Americas" wing. Five hundred million dollars in the making, it houses approximately fifteen thousand works of art.
Some of the discussion involved how the exhibit reflects the United States' changing demographics and global awareness. Juxtaposing art from the U.S. with our neighbors can inform our identity. What is similar or dissimilar in the art and how does that speak to who we are? It can broaden our self concept, not unlike a child going to preschool to be socialized. The child learns about others, finds his/her place in the group and goes home to bring the new knowledge to the family (sometimes for better sometimes for worse!). The Internet sends us all to a virtual "pre-school" experience, allowing us to learn from one another well beyond the one-room school house. Maybe computers can't do it all. I believe it is short-sighted that geography is rarely taught in American public schools anymore. Our lack of education about other cultures is compounded by the physical location of the U.S.; disconnected from the other continents. We began by separating from Britain and turning away from the layers of European history ever present in the architecture of those places. The pioneers had a clean slate, a wilderness they felt compelled to claim and tame. Out with the old, in with the new. The new wing and the curators way of presenting the art is an opportunity to poke our heads up and see what was going on while we worked so hard. If we begin to consider the art of others as equal, we can increase our understanding and value of the people behind it.
Many American artists were viewed as pioneers. The first landscape painters were out to show Europe that although we didn't have its cathedrals we had something better - God's unspoiled creation. Alfred Steiglitz's 291 Gallery bridged the gap, showcasing American and European artists. Jackson Pollock and the Abstract-Expressionists put New York City on the map as the art capital of the world, pushing Paris to the side. A lot has happened.
I worked as a security guard at the MFA in college and had a lot of time to think about the collection. My husband and I met at the West Wing Entrance where I was selling admission tickets (May 1992). He was a visitor, a total stranger. A lot has happened. I just had to call in.
I was on hold when Ashbrook asked if there is any point in looking for commonalities between the art. He took my call. I said that certainly each artwork is it's own thing but the impulse for art-making is human and connects us. I said that Joseph Campbell made his life's work be the study of mythology of all cultures throughout the world and throughout history, including how those myths are represented in art. He found reoccurring symbolism on many levels. The collection lends itself to this exciting approach. For example, what does a portrait of Paul Revere, a Jackson Pollock painting, and a teenage museum visitor have in common (I promise I'm not setting you up for a joke)? Rebellion. The passion to challenge the rules. The will to make one's mark and envision a different world. There is great strength, determination, and perhaps some necessary pig-headed-ness mixed in as well.
So there you go. I'm going with my old art school buddy and I'll take my husband and son. We can think about who we were and who we are as we look.
