Image courtesy of DesignGroup
Minds of the Museum
Honoring local art history was a major priority in the design of CMA’s new wing
Since 2009, Columbus Museum of Art Executive Director Nanette Maciejunes has been looking for a way to present an exhibit on Pace/Columbus gallerist Eva Glimcher.
Six years later, upon the celebration of the museum’s new Margaret M. Walter Wing, Maciejunes thought it only appropriate to honor the legacy of one of the founders of the Columbus art gallery culture.
Glimcher ran Pace/Columbus – the local branch of an international contemporary art gallery that today has locations in New York City, London and Hong Kong, among other places – from 1965 to 1982. Maciejunes heard a great deal about the gallerist once she herself began working at the museum in 1984.
Image courtesy of DesignGroup
Minds of the Museum
“She was a pioneer gallerist here in Columbus,” Maciejunes says.
So it was that since the museum revealed its 50,000-square-foot addition on Oct. 25, the new space has housed two new exhibits that pay tribute to the past. Local history is celebrated in Keeping Pace: Eva Glimcher and Pace/Columbus, while nationally known modernist artist Paul Feeley (1910-1966) will be introduced in Imperfections by Chance.
Circus People by Karl Appel
Minds of the Museum
Keeping Pace
Keeping Pace will be shown through Jan. 17, and Maciejunes says it is a uniquely Columbus show about the impact of a single individual.
Six artists that Glimcher made known in Columbus through her gallery will be showcased: Jim Dine, Jean Dubuffet, Louise Nevelson, Lucas Samaras, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.
A 20-minute documentary, also part of the exhibit, explores Glimcher’s legacy through archival footage and interviews with Glimcher’s peers in Columbus and New York.
Tyler Cann, contemporary curator at the museum, says he prepared for the Keeping Pace exhibit by trying to obtain a range of works that were also representative of the types of art shown at Pace/Columbus.
“We wanted to reconstruct the whole exhibition history for the gallery,” Cann says.
Part of that recreation included an investigation into old newspaper articles, as well as the gallery’s old exhibition announcements, though they didn’t all reveal what particular works were displayed in the shows. Cann was able to identify certain pieces that were purchased from Pace/Columbus that resided in local collections. The museum obtained a number of pieces from local collectors, including Ron Pizzuti, the Glimcher family and David Barker. Exhibition posters donated to the museum will also be on display.
“We wanted to represent a range of different works,” Cann says.
The exhibit features a variety of artists and different media including prints, photographs, collage, sculpture and painting. Some work represented in the show was never shown at Pace/Columbus. Artists to be featured were chosen based on their close relationships to the gallery.
Asellus by Paul Feeley
Minds of the Museum
Imperfections by Chance
The opportunity to put together a retrospective about Feeley came about through a partnership with Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y.
“We wanted people to rediscover Paul Feeley,” Maciejunes says.
The exhibit will be shown through Jan. 10.
Inspired by an exhibition on Feeley at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York a few years back, Cann later found himself considering the prospect of a Feeley show in Columbus. Albright-Knox was also interested in doing an exhibition, so the museum and Albright-Knox decided to work together.
Cann worked alongside Albright-Knox Chief Curator Emeritus Douglas Dreishpoon to create the exhibit, which was shown first at Albright-Knox. They received help from the Feeley estate.
“It’s always good to have a conversation with someone who cares equally about a set of artworks,” Cann says.
The exhibition looks at Feeley’s work from 1954-1966. Feeley’s work is abstract, Cann says, characterized by very bold colors and sinuous lines. The paint soaks into the weave of the canvas.
Feeley’s work is layered with a range of different associations and images, Cann says, including references to the body and games. Many of his works are named after star constellations. There is a sense of joy in his work that one doesn’t always find in post-war American painting. His work also shows an interest in the way lines create space.
“He is trying to hold those two things in tension throughout his work,” Cann says.
Central to the Feeley exhibit is a 21-foot-high, nine-piece sculpture that was shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York a few years after Feeley died at age 56. Just a few months before his death, Feeley he had laid out the plans for the piece, which was fabricated posthumously beginning in 1967, Cann says.
The pieces were originally made of wood, and they eventually fell into disrepair and were destroyed, Maciejunes says. The Feeley family and the estate had always wanted the piece back, though, and offered to have an aluminum sculpture made. This was fitting, since Feeley had originally considered making a metal version.
Through a donation from Jeff and Lisa Edwards, the museum was able to pay for the fabrication. The sculpture, called Karnak, will sit outside on the tip of the museum’s property at the corner of Washington Avenue and Gay Street.
“It will be a signature piece for us,” Maciejunes says.
Sarah Sole is an editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Origins
The new wing’s name recognizes Robert D. and Margaret “Peggy” Walter’s $10 million donation to the Columbus Museum of Art, the largest donation in the Museum’s history. A longtime museum volunteer, Peggy started her service as a CMA docent in 1971, leading museum tours. She joined the museum’s Women’s Board auxiliary later and has been a Board of Trustees member since 1994.
A Year at the Museum
In 2016, CityScene presents A Year at the Museum, a series on art at the newly renovated museum. Stay tuned to learn more.
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