Buffalo: The Provincial and the Providential

ISEA2012:Machine Wilderness

Cultivating Culture: the Contemporary Museum as

“Economic Catalyst”

• catalyst [ˈkætəlɪst]n1. (Chemistry) a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself suffering any permanent chemical change Compare inhibitor [2]

• 2. a person or thing that causes a change

A brief history of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (collections and controversy)

Timeline Part 1 (pre-contemporary addition)

• 1862 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy is the 6th public art

institution to be created in America • 1900 John Joseph Albright, a dedicated and generous

supporter offered to provide the funding for a permanent home for the academy

• 1905 The Greek revival building, designed by Edward B.

Green, completed and dedicated on May 31 1905. • 1926 “Fellows for Life” endowment program started by A.

Conger Goodyear (gallery board director) intended to raise funds to “buy the works of such significant modern and contemporary artists” as Matisse Rodin, Gauguin and Cezanne

• 1926 Acquisition of Picasso’s La Toilette, 1906. Purchased by

Academy board director A Conger Goodyear • 1927 “Societé Anonyme” exhibition in Buffalo (the only city

outside of NY to host it. Founded by Katherine Drieir and Marcel Duchamp in 1920 – advocates of modernism

• 1928 Goodyear removed from the board of the Albright (in

part because of dissent over modernist purchases, etc.) to

become the first president of the MOMA in NYC. • 1931-1942 Director Gordon Washburn acquires ancient and

renaissance works • 1937 The Boy Krishna acquired (Bala Krishna) 14-15 century

AD. • 1934 Giovanni del Biondo’s The Annunciation: The Angel and

The Annunciation: The Virgin (1366) acquired. • 1939 Room of Contemporary Art Fund endowment via

Syemour H. Knox and family. • 1945 Knox family “enhanced the collection” (p 9) through

their gift of important 18th century English (mostly of the landscape and genre type) paintings

• 1946 Acquisition of Paul Gauguin’s The Yellow Christ (1889) • 1953 Acquisition of Late Shang Dynasty bronze Ritual Vessel

( 13- 11 century BC).

• 1959 Acquisition of Jasper John’s Numbers in Color (1958-9) through gift from Seymour H. Knox.

New wing, designed 1962 by Gordon Bunshaft – who also designed DC’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and NYC’s Lever House

Timeline Part 2 (post-contemporary addition)

• 1962 New contemporary wing designed by Gordon Bunshaft opens - institutional name changed to the “Albright – Knox Art Gallery”

• A 1962 internal museum publication refers to the

institution’s tradition of collecting “outstanding works of arts from those cultures where human expression and art has appeared to reach its greatest level.”

• 1964 Acquisition of Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912 by Giacomo Balla

• 1965 Acquistion of Spirit of the Dead Watching ,

1892 by Paul Gaugin • 1985 Acquisition of Francesco Clemente’s Son,

1984 • 1986 Acquisition of early American portraits by

Ammi Phillips (Portrait of Mrs. Lewis Northrop and Portrait of Mr. Lewis Northrop, 1833-35)

• 1993 Nam June Paik’s video installation Piano Piece created and acquired.

• 1996 Bill Viola’s video installation The Messenger

created and acquired • 2001 Strategic plan released that refocuses the

museum’s mission on specifically contemporary art.

• 2007 several hundred items from the Albright-Knox’s antiquities collection auctioned off by Sotheby’s

• 2011 Acquisition of Tracy Emin’s Only God Knows I’m Good created 2009

• 2011 Acquisition of Rachel Harrison’s Vampire Wannabes created 2010

• 2012 “Wish You Were Here: the Buffalo Avant-Garde in the 1970s” opens

A few of the more valuable deaccessioned works – the Roman bronze Artemis and the Stag, a 15th century Bronze Krishna statue, and a very ancient Chinese ritual vessel

Bibliography + Other Resources

• Florida, Richard. The flight of the creative class: the new global competition for talent. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2005.

• Florida, Richard. Who’s your city?: how the

creative economy is making where to live the most important decision of your life. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2008.

• Florida, Richard. The rise of the creative

class: and how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2002

• Goldman, Mark. City on the Edge: Buffalo, NY.

Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007. • Spaulding, Karen Lee (Ed.), Masterworks at the

Albright-Knox Art Gallery / New York, NY. : Hudson Hills Press, 1999.

• Eds. Pam Hatley and Pamela Martin. Beyond/in Western New York 2010: Alternating Currents.

Buffalo, NY: Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 2010

• http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2008/03/albright-knox_weve_sold_our_ar.html

• http://www.albrightknox.org/about-ak/history/

• http://www.artsjournal.com/mt4/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=47&tag=Venice%20Biennale&limit=20

• http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n8/war_against_the_albright_knox

• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/arts/design/buffalo-avant-garde-art-scene-revisited-at-albright-knox.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

• Opinion piece on White Paper from NEAhttp://annebusinessnonprofitslibrary.blogspot.com/2009/09/economic-development-and-arts.html

• MASS MOCA documentary trailerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch=JFkhBy9F08k&feature=plcp