Week 7: Art Gallery Visit #2

This weeks assignment was to visit an art gallery and critique the exhibit itself instead of the artwork.  Because I was out of town for work, I wasn't able to visit the Albright-Knox, but it turned out to be a good thing because I visited a "gem" of a museum in Cooperstown called the Fenimore Art Museum (http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/).  There were two reasons that I was really excited to visit.  First, the Fenimore houses the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection which is one of the nation's premier collections of American Indian Art.  This is an 18,000 square foot area.  I did take some pictures of the layout however, because of the lighting, they didn't look good and so really are of no use.  You are able to see the items from the exhibit at this link http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/files/fenimore/collections/thaw/exhibit1/vexmain1.htm

The reason I was so excited though was the traveling exhibit called: Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nikolas Muray. Nearly 50 photographic portraits taken of Kahlo comprise the exhibit.  The photographs date from 1937 to 1941 and explore Muray's perspective.  During this time he was Kahlo's friend, lover and confident. Muray never displayed the pictures.  They were found in 1993 when Muray's daughter found the negatives and decided to have the negatives printed.

I loved the way the exhibit was set up.  You enter through glass doors and the walls are a pale blue.   As you entered the area, the first few photographs were of Freda and Diego.  These allow the viewer into their private lives.

The exhibit continues to the right and photographs are individually lit.  A temporary wall has been placed to the left to as to be walking down a corridor.  Pictures are on both sides of the wall in sets of 3 with descriptions and time period.  There are even copies of love letters that Kahlo had sent to Muray. All the photographs are framed. No other materials were used in the exhibit.  It was as if looking at photographs hanging on a wall in a home.

As I continued through the pictures, I can see that Muray captured his love for Kahlo through the lens.  I also see a very beautiful women.  Kahlo's self-portraits are very deceiving and if this is truly how she saw herself, she was way off base. 

The collection ends as his affair with Frida ends. 

I was very impressed with how the gallery set up the exhibit.  I asked if the curator was available to talk with however they were actually have a gala that evening and they were tied up with that.  I did speak with a docent however she could give me awesome information about the permanent collections but not this one.  What I wanted to find out was if the museum has creative rights to set up the collection or if it had to be set up a specific way.  Since this is a traveling exhibit, if I were to view it at a different museum, would it be set up the same.

If anyone is every in Cooperstown, I highly recommend going to this museum.  What I really liked was that it was in a former home and so there was warmth to begin with.