{"id":1907,"date":"2017-07-13T13:44:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T17:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/?p=1907"},"modified":"2017-08-28T13:14:18","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T17:14:18","slug":"katz-in-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/thelantern\/2017\/07\/13\/katz-in-cleveland\/","title":{"rendered":"Katz in Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2015, the Colby Museum mounted the acclaimed exhibition\u00a0<\/em>Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s,\u00a0the first museum survey of the painter’s formative decade and organized by Katz Curator Diana Tuite. This summer, the exhibition is on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art<\/a> through August 6, 2017 where it has been similarly celebrated. Anne Lunder Leland Curatorial Andrew Gelfand corresponded\u00a0with Mark Cole, Curator of American Painting and Sculpture\u00a0at the Cleveland Museum of Art and venue curator for the exhibition, about the show, its reception in Cleveland, and why Maine audiences might want to make a midwest trip very soon!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s<\/em>, April 30 \u2013 August 6, 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Photo \u00a9 The Cleveland Museum of Art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andrew Gelfand: Congratulations on a terrific opening! How has\u00a0<\/em>Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s\u00a0been received so far in Cleveland?\u00a0What has surprised you about the response to the show?<\/em><\/p>\n

Mark Cole: Thanks so much. It was truly a special event. I\u2019m happy to report that the exhibition has been very well received by our audiences, whose enthusiastic word-of-mouth recommendations to family and friends continue to fuel attendance. One of the biggest surprises so far is the substantial interest the exhibition is generating from the press, both nationally and locally. Even before the show opened, there was an impressively large\u2014and colorful\u2014feature article in the Wall Street Journal.<\/em> And our art critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer<\/em> was effusive in his praise, memorably describing the works on view as \u201cjoy distilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AG: What first attracted you to <\/em>Brand-New & Terrific? <\/em><\/p>\n

MC: Those of us at the Cleveland Museum of Art who review exhibition proposals were struck by the wide variety, top quality, and lasting importance of the work in the show\u2014not to mention its considerable visual and intellectual appeal. We first learned about the exhibition back in 2014, upon receiving a letter from the Colby College Museum of Art requesting the loan of Katz\u2019s Four People<\/em> [for] their forthcoming iteration of the show. We replied favorably, all the while thinking, \u201cThis sounds like a wonderful exhibition. Might it be possible to host it as well?\u201d And here we are, happily, three years later.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alex Katz,\u00a0Four People<\/em>,\u00a01953\u201354.\u00a0\u00a0Oil on Masonite, Unframed: 60.9 x 60.9 cm (23 15\/16 x 23 15\/16 in). Cleveland Museum of Art, Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of the artist, 1991.310.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AG: We loved having Cleveland’s <\/em>Four People (1953\u201354)\u00a0<\/em>at Colby when we first presented\u00a0the exhibit. How do this painting and the show fit into Cleveland\u2019s global collection and its exhibition history? <\/em><\/p>\n

MC: That\u2019s great to hear; indeed, we were honored to lend it to the exhibition, plus it was both illuminating and thrilling for us to see our painting in the framework of many other early paintings by the artist. The Cleveland Museum of Art has, as you say, a global collection, so it\u2019s possible to view Katz\u2019s creations in several different contexts made possible by these holdings\u2014for example, alongside the work of artists who were inspirational for Katz, such as the modern master Henri Matisse, or abstract expressionist contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. It\u2019s also possible to evaluate Katz\u2019s works as precursors to pop art, as in our paintings by Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist.<\/p>\n

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Installation view of later Katz works in Brand-New & Terrific: Alex Katz in the 1950s<\/em>, April 30 \u2013 August 6, 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Photo \u00a9 The Cleveland Museum of Art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AG: The Cleveland presentation ends with a coda, looking to work that Katz would go on to create in subsequent decades, including the Cleveland Museum\u2019s <\/em>Impala (1968). Can you talk about this addition and the goals behind it?<\/em><\/p>\n

MC: The coda refers to all of the post-1960 works by the artist in the Cleveland Museum of Art\u2019s permanent collection. We were eager to showcase this material in order to appreciate the significant extent to which Katz\u2019s work from the 1950s informed his subsequent career. Impala<\/em> ranks among the most popular works in our holdings of contemporary art, and visitors to Brand-New & Terrific<\/em> can see it afresh after encountering the artist\u2019s earlier work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AG: On behalf of our Maine audiences, how might you persuade our visitors who have already seen the show at Colby to make the voyage to Cleveland?<\/em><\/p>\n

MC: Well, on a personal note, I always find it fascinating to see a given exhibition at different venues, because the varied installations invariably prompt additional insights and connections. Also because the roster of exhibited works differs somewhat here in Cleveland\u2019s presentation, Maine audiences will encounter some objects that were added specifically for our venue, including Katz\u2019s very first portrait of his wife and frequent muse, Ada\u2014a work that was discovered only recently after being lost for many years. And, of course, I have to put in a plug for the Cleveland Museum of Art itself. Our slogan is \u201cA world of great art for everyone.\u201d And it\u2019s true!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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