The Illustrious Mr. X: Museum Collection as Character Study
Curated by Karlos Carcamo and Greg Slick
August 18 – December 12, 2010, January 26 – July 17, 2011
Morgan Anderson Gallery, Howard Greenberg Family Gallery, Corridor Gallery
>> Read Paul Smart's review of this exhibition in the Almanac!
Grace Hartigan, Impresario, oil on canvas, 1955.012
Of what do art objects speak beyond their obvious representation or documented intent? If we could string even a few their “voices” into a narrative, what might it relate? The Illustrious Mr. X: Museum Collection as Character Study tells a story in such a way. Aiming a narrative lens at the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition offers visitors a chance to spend time with a portrait of a bigger-than-life personage. Connoisseur, traveler, bibliophile, lover of good music and food, Mr. X seems to have consumed life with both outsized appetite and discerning taste.
Visitors meet Mr. X through successive thematic groupings in the museum’s Morgan Anderson and Corridor galleries, chapter-like inventories of interests and obsessions that flesh out a personality. The “chapter” excerpts that follow this introduction serve both to organize the exhibition’s objects into a cohesive gallery visit and provide a glimpse into the imagined autobiography of Mr. X. As Mr. X is revealed through the evidence of objects such as paintings, works on paper, photographs, and sculptures, visitors are prompted to dialogue with the museum’s collection in an alternative way: a reshuffling of experience in which art objects have the potential to tell a story beyond that of their own history and cultural context. Although Mr. X remains anonymous, the exhibition’s portrayal of his life is intended to resonate as deeply and poignantly as a frank memoir or a well-researched biography.
From The Autobiography of Mr. X:
Chapter 1: Origins
Unknown, Untitled (Man with Cane), ca.1855, Ambrotype, Gift of Dr. Hugo Munsterberg
“ ‘You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.’ So said my long-deceased bachelor uncle, whose photograph provides a hint of a life lived beyond the reach of family ties. Over the years my relatives had dyed his wool black and (kindly) several shades lighter; but for him the many flocks of friends he fell in with provided a sort of family life based on earned respect, not obligation. Respect withers, however, if not well tended. In the end he was, as the saying goes, a fallen tree from which his friends took no time to greedily make their firewood.”
Chapter 2: Food
John Baeder, Lisi’s Pittsfield Diner, 1980, screenprint, gift of Joseph Schuster
“Getting by on mediocre meals and an indifference to delicate flavors—is this not a life half lived? A good meal should always be sought out, sometimes at any cost; for there have been times when food was all I had to live for. Tuscan, Thai, Basque, Ethiopian. Always adding to my gastronomical repertoire. In case you didn’t know, there is, indeed, an art of eating. Just c onsult M.F.K. Fisher…”
Chapter 3: Books
Gretchen Gasterland, Untitled, 1992, etching, engraving, gift of the Printmaking Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art
“Choose your books wisely: they are like friends whose virtues and flaws can build you up or tear you down. I’m a slow reader, so what books I do read and finish have to count for much. For me, content is king. It’s tempting these days to fetishize the delivery method: e-book, graphic novel, handmade artist book, etc. There are so many ways to read, but only one way to read well.”
Chapter 4: Music
Controroa Meléndez, Programa de Navidad, 1977, screenprint. gift of James G. Shine in honor of Latin American Studies at SUNY New Paltz and students of Spanish, past, present, and future
“I am self-taught in matters of music. A tricky path to tread because, on the one hand, you tend to hear things with fresh ears, but, on the other hand, you risk developing limited tastes and listening to too much ear candy. Some years ago, in an effort to expand my tastes, I left my comfort zone and started listening to hip-hop and early folk recordings, minimalist composition and Latin jazz…”
Chapter 5: Sports
Ron Kleeman, A.J. Foyt Cartwheel Series, 1977, screenprint on paper, gift of Louis K. Meisel and Susan P. Meisel
“I cannot watch sports without thinking about how they are integrated with political and business interests, or about the role of the sports figure in constructing gender identity across cultural boundaries. Never a team player, I am more drawn to those sports in which individuals compete against each other, such as tennis and auto racing, and where the cult of the personality becomes almost more important than who actually wins or loses.”
Chapter 6: Shopping
Tom Blackwell, B. Altman’s, 1990, oil on board, gift of Aaron J. Miller, New York
“Life is theater; sometimes you have to dress for the part. Therefore, every outfit I wear is deliberate, never chosen at random, and designed for maximum effect. It helps that I have a tailor who makes clever use of vintage clothing. On my strangely proportioned body these repurposed duds look perfect and appropriate to the drama of the day...”
Chapter 7: Fantasies & Dreams
Jack Tworkov, Green Landscape #4, 1949, oil on canvas, gift of Baroness B. de Rothschild
“I consider myself a rational being. However, science tells me otherwise: when I make a ‘rational’ conscious decision it is actually influenced by variables that independently operate on an unconscious level. So, it’s in my best interest to go deep and find the sources of my fantasies—often by fulfilling them—and figure out the stuff my dreams are made of. This is only a starting point.”
Chapter 8: Relationships
George Wesley Bellows, Roumanian Girl, 1921. oil on canvas, bequest of Edward Coykendal
“There was once a foreign graduate student who worked in a community bookstore where I volunteered one day a week. After a few months of dating, we found that we had forged a special bond. Because of some visa problems she had to return to her country, but only for a brief time. I knew that she was separated from her husband. She phoned me to say she had arrived safely. In the letter that followed some weeks later, she said she had reconciled with her husband and would not return to the States. I’ve had longer relationships, and even tried being married once, but the foreign graduate student still haunts my thoughts…”
The Illustrious Mr. X: Museum Collection as Character Study is presented in 2 volumes. Volume one is on display from August 18 through December 12, 2010. Volume two of this exhibition, which will include several new chapters from The Autobiography of Mr. X, will open early 2011.
The Friends of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and the State University of New York at New Paltz provide ongoing support for museum exhibitions and programs.
