Note: For a short history of the University of Arizona in Tucson, please refer to the previous post.
When I travel, I research local cultural heritage institutions to visit. It is my great fortune to tour some of them specifically for this blog. Still others remain lovely memories of a visit to a unique place. For example, I recently visited two spectacular museums in Phoenix -- the Musical Instrument Museum and Heard Museum, as well as the Desert Botanical Gardens. If you are interested in seeing some of my photos of those great institutions, visit my Picasa site.
In Tucson, I already knew that I would be visiting the University of Arizona because it is home to many cultural heritage institutions. But when I began to dig a bit deeper, I found that the school’s Museum of Art was about to begin construction on its Archive of Visual Arts. This I had to see!
I contacted the Museum’s Executive Director, Charles Guerin, who graciously invited me to visit and tour their collections and new facility (previously the home of a local blood bank). He gave me an excellent guided tour of the museum’s current exhibits and drove me to the site of the archive-to-be. When we visited the archive building, I could see its potential for long-term storage of valuable holdings and a sizable reading room.
The construction workers were taking a break from demolishing the interior walls and repairing portions of the building as Guerin and I walked the length of the building from the back to the front. I saw immediately the appeal of using a former blood bank for the archive – a big cold storage vault for photos and other preservation needs. The team has a big job ahead of it to modernize the building and its HVAC system to protect the art archive, but they are definitely on their way. I decided not to photograph the building during its construction, but promised to return after the archive was up and running to take another tour.
About the Museum's Executive Director
Charles Guerin’s background in printmaking and painting no doubt informs his work at the Museum. Prior to becoming Executive Director of the Museum, he was Acting Director of the Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona (located more or less across the street from the Museum). He also served as Director of the University of Wyoming Art Museum, and consulted on the design of the American Heritage Center at the U of W as he built the Art Museum.
During my visit, Guerin was very generous with his time and spoke with me at length about why the museum created the archive.
He also talked with me about how he obtained the Museum’s first record collection, the papers of Robert T. McCall, arguably one of America’s most important illustrators. He is best known for illustrating and documenting much of the American space program. One of McCall’s most famous works hangs in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington , D.C., where a collection of his drawings also can be seen online.
McCall, an Arizona resident, passed away in March 2010, but before he died he had served on the board of the University’s Department of Astronomy. Guerin mentioned that he had been looking for a place to house many of his illustrations because although he had been selling the copyrights to use the works on postage stamps, etc., he did not sell those actual pieces. Guerin was very happy to accept the donation of McCall’s illustrations because illustration is an important field of study at the University’s area of Visual Communications. He also had the foresight to ask McCall for his archive of correspondence. Now, 20 cubic feet of McCall’s papers are waiting patiently for the new archive to take shape.
Guerin’s long-term vision is to target major artists, mainly in Western states, for inclusion in the Museum’s collections. He also wants to avoid circumstances where an artist passes away, and his/her children have all the artist’s boxes, which they might not want to keep and simply bring to the dump. Presently, Guerin has convinced several artists to leave their records and/or art to the Museum.
About the Collections
The best part of having a guided tour of a collection (especially by the institution’s Director) is having an expert on hand to answer all kinds of questions. But, when a cultural heritage institution uses archival records, such as letters, postcards, prints, and sketches, it helps put that artist into context and helps explain why these people are important. For example, in the series of photos below, you can see the exquisite photorealism of Audrey Flack’s work, Marilyn (Vanitas) II. The original transparency for the work was made in 1976, but Flack recently uncovered the study in her archives and made a Cibachrome print of it. The first image shows how the museum mounted the print on the railing above the painting hung in the main staircase. The second image shows the painting, and the third shows the print. All photos are displayed with permission of the Museum.
 |
| From University of Arizona |
 |
| From University of Arizona |
 |
| From University of Arizona |
At the time of my visit, the Museum also exhibited a collection of works by Arthur Diehl, a late 19th/early 20th century “speed” painter who happened to be the grandfather of a Museum board member. The collection is on loan from a private family collection. Guerin pointed out how the Museum uses the family’s archive to further shape the exhibit. Below, the series of photos show the archival displays accompanying the Diehl exhibit.
 |
| From University of Arizona |
 |
| From University of Arizona |
 |
| From University of Arizona |
I especially enjoyed seeing Diehl’s sketches for his paintings and the ephemera associated with the collection (shown below).
 |
| From University of Arizona |
 |
| From University of Arizona |
Conclusion
The University of Arizona Museum of Art has many claims to fame, including the remarkable Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo exhibit. Arizona Public Media produced a great documentary on the conservation of the work. However, my favorite part of the Museum is its curators’ use of archival materials to better tell the story of the artist and his/her work. I look forward to returning when the Archive of Visual Arts has been completed and populated with artists’ archives.
Contact Information
Charles Guerin
Executive Director
The University of Arizona Museum of Art
1031 N. Olive Road
P.O. Box 210002
Tucson, AZ 85721-0002
(520) 621-7567
caguerin@u.arizona.edu
http://artmuseum.arizona.edu/archive/index.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment