Quick update and Pollock Fodder

Sorry guys, I've had a long hiatus from the blog on late...working 40-45 hours a week, and weekends filled with weddings and a beer festival and some soccer games have made this the case...plus my town flooded, which means I've moved out of an apartment, into my parent's basement, and then into a NEW apartment, (because the old building was condemned) all with in the last few months. There are thank you notes that have gone unwritten and many other scribblings to attend to before a proper update to this blog can be made. But, for the gist, I'm allright, and getting settled in the new place, and working, and squeezing in the fun where I can in between.

Also, I'm very intrigued by the discussion of the potential sale of our Jackson Pollock Mural to a "museum institution" and in fact, intrigued is only the beginning and I have just now read one of the more insulting varieties of the elitist art critics who shovel their drivel and insult University collections.


Felix Salmon - a critic says:

All the same, some paintings belong not to "the people of Iowa" so much as to the people of the world, and belong in a world-class collection. Which, frankly, the University of Iowa Museum of Art isn't.

One of the reasons that contemporary art goes for such huge sums at auction is that nearly all the major art of the past is now in museums and therefore can't be bought for any sum. But there's a corollary to that well-known fact, which is that some of the greatest paintings of all time have washed up in relative backwaters which don't and can't do them justice.

All of which is to say that if Mural had ended up in MoMA rather than UIMA, it would probably at this point be generally considered to be the greatest American painting of all time. As it is, it's described as being worth an "estimated $100 million" (which wouldn't even get you an opening bid on such a work in today's market) and as "one of the half-dozen greatest Pollocks". Nothing to be ashamed of there, but I do get the impression that being hidden away in Iowa has not done Mural any art-historical favors.

Indiana Jones, when he sees a priceless treasure, always says that it belongs in a museum. But not all museums are equal, and there's surely a case to be made that the greatest of the great masterworks belong in museums which are worthy of them, rather than in small university collections.

So, I'll break this down for my readers. I've been to many a museum in my day, both here and abroad, and from small art museum collections to places like MOMA and the Louvre, so I think this man has a lot of explaining to do by saying Iowa has done 1) nothing to promote the Pollock painting and 2) the belief that it would stand in some greater pantheon of modern art if it were in a place like the MOMA...part of the draw to a small art museum to see a "masterpiece" is just that, it is a standout in a collection, the collection doesn't overshadow a masterpiece. I'm sorry but when I walk through the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and see how many of the same style and scheme? Do I think any of them are less valuable than the others...no, but do I take a particular interest in them? not really. The point deer friends, is that the Pollock is an imposing piece at the UIMA because it is a large canvas and an important piece to the development of the artist's style. It is hung next to other works by modern artists...perhaps not "masterpieces" in the traditional sense, but still also, works by important artists...Miro, Gris, Feininger and Picasso...but you don't see us complaining that our museum collection was based on some art market issues. No...most of our collection of modern European and American masters came from one family, the Elliots, who traveled and collected. So yes, Peggy Guggenheim herself donated the Pollock to the U of I...and yes in the 1940's a museum didn't exist. But the art school did...and it was well-known and had a reputation for being the "Geenwich Village of the West" at that time.

I also take issue with him calling our collection small or "backwater" are you kidding me? Who is sophisticated society uses such language to describe UNIVERSITY collections? Seriously, has he not seen that most of the images of AFRICAN ART that exist in slide rooms and books and articles come from our very own Stanley collection? Outside of Indiana University (my other alma matter) we have one of the best African collections in the country...but should we discuss selling an Ibeji twin figure no one in the larger art community would bat an eyelash.

It is precisely the famousness of that Pollock piece and BECAUSE it is in a University museum that it gets this kind of attention in the first place. Hello, the MOMA decides to sell a Braque...big deal - would probably barely make it into the papers, they've got others. But a few months ago a similar case was in the news;'

From Wikipedia about Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic
After its purchase for $200 at the time of the Centennial Exhibition, the painting was housed in the College Building of Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia until it was moved in the mid-1980s to Jefferson Alumni Hall. On November 11, 2006, the Thomas Jefferson University Board voted to sell the painting for $68 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, now under construction in Bentonville, Arkansas. The sale would represent a record price for an artwork made in the United States prior to World War II.[3]

The proposed sale was seen as a secretive act[4] that many from Philadelphia believed betrayed the city's cultural legacy.[5] In late November 2006, efforts began to keep the painting in Philadelphia, including a fund with a December 26 deadline to raise money to purchase it and a plan to invoke a clause regarding "historic objects" in the city's historic preservation code. In a matter of weeks the fund raised $30 million, and on December 21, 2006, Wachovia Bank agreed to loan the difference until the rest of the money has been raised, keeping the painting in town at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

So here you have a painting kept in its native city - a masterwork by all accounts - in the cannon of art historical research - that was still in jeopardy until the people of the city rallied around it.

I do not think this Felix should be so quick to judge a painting like Pollock's Mural so simply, and nor the people of Iowa or our artistic merits either. And frankly, I'd love to write a more eloquent diatribe to post on the comments page of his article...but alas, perhaps I, in the "backwater" "small collection" vein in which I seem to live, would not do such an argument justice.

Waiting for a Recession of a Different Kind

Flood of 2008

Someone in one of the papers said today "If the flood of 1993 was the flood of the century, it was LAST century" because 2008 with not only rival it, but surpass it...
I talked to one of the facilities guys that was trying to stave off the invasion of water into the theater lot monday morning, and in essence he told me this...

"If your place flooded in 1993, it will most likely flood again, and more so this time around."

That was enough for me...I called Cas and she came back to Iowa City and we spent Monday evening (after I worked for 6.5 hours at the CPL) moving all of our belongings into my parents spare bedroom, new basement addition, and one of the stalls of the garage...it's seriously an amazing site to see all of our crap shoved into the garage and basement...(Thanks mom and dad for putting up with your daughter returning for two months at the age of 27! and bringing a roommate and all of her belongings with her.)

We are doing this to be pro-active and as a precaution. The river has not yet spilled on to th earts campus, but they evacuated all of t ebuildings around our apartment...theater, and art building west, and two of the main routes we'd take to access our road (Dubuque Street/Park Road bridge, and Rocky Shore Drive are closed)

Thanks to everyone for the concern...cas and i are stressed, looking for a new apartment, but also, making th emost of it...I'm keeping good spirits, as I consider that now we can have sleepovers with a projection screen for movie watching I suppose.
I"ll post pictures eventually when my memory stick decides to actually work in the card reader I have...or i have another posting option...

but thanks to those who helped us move out...we do indeed still owe you a round of drinks!

update

Finished the class in Nazi and Stalinist Art at the U of Iowa...the paper kept me busy for a bit there.

Went to Denver for the ARLIS/NA annual meeting, which was alot of fun and a chance to see some fellow IU alums and other new and continuing friends.

Spring Break in Seattle rocked. Pete was a very lovely host for our week there, and it was good times. And I met Rick Steves!

Saw Eddie Izzard last weekend at the Chicago theater. That man is hysterical. It was well worth the money and effort to go.

Spent my "Bush Money" (i.e. Congress tax refund) on new glasses, because I left my other glasses in the hotel in Denver at ARLIS...

Helping move the public library into our renewed space, and yesterday I pulled my hamstring playing softball with the CPL team...it's better today, though I'm still in bed, which is why I actually have time to update this blog, at least a little.

No title left behind except this one

Like most folks, I am ready for Spring, and I associate the month of March with this changing of the seasons, so lets go! Today showed true qualities of 50 degree weather and a nice thaw of the inches upon inches of snow here in Iowa City. The parking lot of my apartment remains, as I have described to a few folks, a lot like a disneyworld ride that seems to be on track, but you aren't quite sure it'll withstand the test of time and jostles you around alot. My poor shocks. I'm sure Bessie's gotten her fair share of the brunt of the parking lot's ill managed snow/ice removal. At least, now, she's parked across the street in the theater lot.

I haven't written in awhile because I"m suffering from another wonder of winter, that dreaded cold and flu season. Another good reason to wish for Spring thaw. Luckily in my case this second round (I was first sick for new years eve) is a cold...though weirdly I've spent the first three days of it alternating between a really hot neck (usually on me that translates into fever) and cold sweats..all which mostly meant lots and lots of goosebumps that dont want to go away. Today I've actually felt a bit better, and finally was able to tackle some household duties, including picking up all those tissues that didn't quite make it to the wastebasket in the last few days. I always hate having a whole day off from work or three for that matter, in which I do nothing but stay in bed. I feel so unproductive then. With this particular cold though, it's knocked me on my a** completely and even getting out of bed seems to take the energy right out of me. Anyways, enough about the complaining side.

Random Notes of Updates:

1. Janet Evanovich One for the Money - hilarious and finished. I've discovered audio books are my friends! Since I spend a good portion of my week driving in my car on various errands to and from work or to and from one job to another, I've actually been able to finish this book and Alexander McCall Smith's Finer Points of Sausage Dogs. Did I miss the gloriousness of audio books in high school where I could have been reading all those classics? Probably, but no time like the present to catch up...

2. Erik and I are going to Seattle for Spring Break to visit my friend pete (and mooch off him for a free place to stay for a week) Thanks to all of my friends who live cool places that I stay with...you guys rawk my world, especially on a three part time job budget :) :)

***Someday I hope to be able to repay the favor...any one heard about librarian prospects in the Bahamas? I was talking to my boss the other day and we both decided that cruise ships MUST have libraries where the patrons on the ship could check out materials, that way they don't have to haul books back and forth on planes, etc and who better to do collection development of trashy romance novels, or hard hitting exposes like me? Carnival...I'm telling I'm the right woman for the job. I don't get seasick, and we could have books insured on a "lost at sea" option, whereby if they accidentally go overboard, they could be replaced easily. I bet Amazon.com will ship to a number of ports like Nassau.

3. My brother's wedding in May. Erik and I will again be embarking on a plane flight for this one, out to California and the Palo Alto area. ;)

4. Earlier in May I'll be on a plane to Denver for ARLIS NA. yay for seeing and staying with fellow IU Art Librarianship kids! Love keeping those costs down. And for seeing other conference attendee friends and colleagues from last year. I will also be presenting this year (the first time at a conference...might as well make it the annual national one...so wish me luck...public speaking is not something I"m very good at --see previous posts heh) I'm helping with the Tech Kiosk, where members that know newer technologies (web 2.0 and the like) help teach other ARlis members how libraries can use the software in interesting ways. I'm doing facebook and rss readers. So if anybody has suggestions for inclusions in the discussion, don't hesitate to comment here or shoot me an email.

5. Alot of other weddings this summer! Actually Erik and I will only have 4 non-busy summer weekends left when the weddings and family reunions are over. :) Congrats to you all and I"m looking forward to them. Individual shout-outs etc will be closer to each wedding date!

6. Trying to spend less money on unnec. things. I've developed a very lovely bad habit of buying good movies when they are 10 dollars or less. Now that bluray appears to be winning the war, I'm sure they'll go down in price more, and I'll hold off for 5 dollars instead.

7. Erik's moving to Iowa City in August. With this comes squeezing in moving him out of Ames and into the IC area on some weekend...probably the weekend before my birthday, and of another of the weddings...hmm...

Allright that is all for now..there is rain outside (yay for not snow!) and I must get some rest, even posting has tired me out a bit.