summer 2018the chrysler

This year marks the Chrysler Museum of Art’s eighty-fifth anniversary. Traditionally, we trace our beginning to the inauguration of the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences in 1933. Initiating a cultural institution in the 1930s represented a remarkable sense of optimism during the low point of the Great Depression. It also illustrated faith in the value of learning and culture in the face of rising tyranny across the globe.

The early collection of the Museum was a modest assemblage of taxidermy animals, reproductions, and a few paintings. Over time, the collection grew to be more substantial with various gifts and acquisitions. The Museum’s turning point came in 1971 with a transformational agreement between Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. and the City of Norfolk. Chrysler gifted much of his impressive collection to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, and the institution was renamed in his honor. That incredible donation would not have been conceivable if not for the visionary thinking of those who laid the foundation for the Museum many years before its 1933 opening.

To me, this is truly remarkable. A love for art and an aspiration to bring it to others is the seed that has grown into one of the most distinguished mid-sized museums in America with a wildly popular glass studio. As we reflect on our history, we greatly anticipate new opportunities and innovation. In July, we will open our Wonder Studio, a new space that combines digital technology with artwork from the Chrysler for an interactive experience that will educate and delight visitors of all ages. The Chrysler also continues to make history with an impressive list of upcoming in-house exhibitions as well as new programs that welcome diverse audiences to the Museum. As we celebrate eighty-five years, we look forward to a bright future that will rest on our values of inspiring and transforming lives through art. With creativity and some audacious aspirations, we will continue to transform those values into meaningful and beneficial realities.

Erik H. Neil, Director

Celebrating 85 years

Save the Date | November 16, 2018–April 28, 2019

Chaos and AwePainting for the 21st Century

Ghada Amer (b. 1963, Egyptian; based in New York), Revolution 2.0, 2011

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Highlights

4 ExhibitionsVik Muniz: Photography and the Rebirth of Wonder

12 Our CollectionHome Again: Bernini’s Bust of the SaviorAn Inness Renewed: Conservation of George Inness, Sr.’s The Old VeteranA Refreshing Look at the American CollectionBehind the Art with the Chrysler’s Curators

22 In the CommunityArt MattersPartnerships with a PurposeCollaboration for a Cause

28 Members & PatronsThe Chrysler Classroom: Visits Made Possible by Generous DonationsPreserving History: Traveling the World with Irene Leache and Annie Wood

30 Gatherings2018 Corporate Leadership Alliance LuncheonHighest Heaven Members’ Exhibition Opening PartyGovernor’s School for the Arts Fashion ShowMasterpiece Society Spring ProgramThe Bunny and Perry Morgan Family Day

32 Staff Notes

On View

Now Arriving: New Works from the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio Team at the Norfolk International AirportJune 5, 2018–January 8, 2019

Ezra Wube: Tales of HomeJuly 10–December 30, 2018

Vik Muniz: Photography and the Rebirth of WonderJuly 13–October 14, 2018

Photographs Take Time: Pictures from the Chrysler CollectionClosing August 26, 2018

Piranesi’s Prisons: Legacy and ContextClosing September 9, 2018

Promise and Perception: The Enchanted Landscapes of Sibylle PerettiClosing September 9, 2018

From Ansel Adams to InfinitySeptember 21, 2018–January 27, 2019

Henri Farré and the Birth of Combat AviationSeptember 28, 2018–January 27, 2019

Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence October 18, 2018–February 24, 2019

Looking Back to the Future: Norfolk Renewal in Photographs by Carroll H. Walker at the Willoughby-Baylor HouseClosing March 31, 2019

cover image

Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961)Marat (Sebastião) from the series Pictures of Garbage, 2008–11Digital chromogenic print© Vik Muniz/Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

More than 1,600 people enjoyed The Bunny and Perry Morgan

Family Day in April.

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Local students visit the Chrysler thanks to the generosity of our donors.

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eleise theuer photography

A nineteenth-century photo album chronicles the travels of Irene Leache

and Anna “Annie” Cogswell Wood. Above: Boulak: A suburb of Cairo along the Nile

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The Chrysler unveils a new look at the American Art collection.

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Vik Muniz: Photography and the Rebirth of WonderJuly 13–October 14, 2018 #ChryslerMuniz

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The Wondrous Worlds of Bad Illusions

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At first glance, Vik Muniz’s image of Marlene Dietrich dazzles simply because of its impressive size and striking subject. The sixty-by-forty-inch photographic print

places the beautiful German actress and singer on a jet black background. Her tilted head and heavily-lidded eyes convey her famed glamour, but a closer look reveals that it’s more than Dietrich’s sparkling persona that makes the work shine. It’s the piles of diamonds that were used to compose the portrait.

Vik Muniz has devoted his artistic career to creating what he calls “photographic delusions.” He composes playfully innovative sculptural works from an array of unconventional materials like chocolate syrup, tomato sauce, magazine clippings, dust, trash, and diamonds. He then records the assemblages in sharp detail with a camera. The resulting images often resemble familiar scenes from pop culture or historical art masterpieces while drawing attention to our own process of perception. Up close, the photographs display fragmentary arrangements of everyday objects. Viewed from afar, the objects come to order, bearing an uncanny resemblance to recognizable images. See Vik Muniz: Photography and the Rebirth of Wonder July 13–October 14 at the Chrysler Museum. The exhibition explores the full breadth of the imaginative artist’s career with more than one hundred photographs, including many of his most recent works.

Muniz’s pieces are clever and often amusing, but his leveraging of visual puns and metaphors highlights how we see and assess visible information, making the artwork especially incisive. During a TED Talk, Muniz offered one of the best explanations of his work with a witty story about his love of theater. One time he paid sixty dollars to see a famous actor incarnate the role of King Lear. Not long after the performance began, Muniz realized he had wasted his money. “I felt really robbed because by the time the actor started being King Lear, he stopped being the great actor that I had paid money to see,” Muniz said.

Muniz enjoyed a more entertaining theatrical experience when he paid three dollars to see an amateur rendition of Othello. The star of the show was a plumber who performed at a community theater on the weekends. “It was quite fascinating. This guy impersonated the Moorish general, and for the first three minutes he was really that general, and then

he went back into plumber. He worked as a plumber so—plumber, general, plumber, general; so for three dollars, I saw two tragedies for the price of one,” Muniz said.

As with Muniz’s photographs, his stories are funny, but the humor delivers an insightful point. A bad actor convinces audiences to follow the story while simultaneously making viewers aware of the performance itself. Although Muniz had the opportunity to see a great actor perform, the amateur actor offered a much richer experience of theater because, as Muniz explains, his “alternating metamorphosis punctuated persistently the fragments of time when something becomes something else.”

Muniz likens his work to the bad actors and the resulting performances. “I think of my photographs as very short plays, a fraction of a second long, in which a bad actor—say, cotton, clay, or molasses—performs the role of an object, a person, or a landscape before the end of a camera,” Muniz said. “I cast ‘bad actors’ because I don’t want people simply to see a representation of something; I want them to know how it happens. I consider that moment of consciousness the embodiment of a spiritual experience.”

This spiritual experience often has political implications. Born in São Paulo in 1961, Muniz was raised during the military dictatorship that governed Brazil until the mid-1980s. The political situation offered lessons in the power of metaphorical thinking and language. While government officials undermined widely-accepted truths by orchestrating ambiguity and denying common beliefs, many people resisted by learning to doubt the facts that were presented. Instead, they became fluent in metaphors that got at the truth indirectly. “Our political reality was defined and traded on a kind of semiotic black market. You couldn’t really say what you wanted to say; you had to invent ways of doing it. You didn’t trust information very much,” Muniz said.

After exploring the power of metaphors and meaning through a career in advertising, Muniz moved to the United States and became an artist with a series of sculptural works that blended found objects with product design. Muniz called these works “relics.” The sculptural art used puns and irony to play with accepted and expected meanings. They included Clown Skull, a human skull replete with an ossified clown nose,

above Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Marlene Dietrich, from the series Pictures of Diamonds, 2004

pages 4–5 Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Double Mona Lisa (Peanut butter and Jelly), from the series After Warhol, 1999

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and The Big Book, an entire set of the Encyclopedia Britannica bound into a single, impossibly enormous volume, “for travel purposes,” Muniz quips. These works led the artist to explore materials that had specific but often contradictory associations.

The artist’s play on images, materials, and their politicized meanings reached new heights when Muniz traveled to Saint Kitts in 1996 and became acquainted with families who worked on the island’s sugar plantations. Drawn to the luminous energy of the children and dismayed by their parents’ worn exhaustion, he concluded that the difference between the generations was a lifetime spent harvesting and processing sugarcane. Muniz created a series of portraits of the children by drawing with sugar on black paper and then photographing the designs. The resulting work makes use of the material’s visual and symbolic qualities. Sparklingly vibrant, the sugar is a source of buoyant energy but also the product of an industry that saps workers of their vitality, even while providing their livelihoods. The exhibition at the Chrysler opens with the Sugar Children series along with other early works that engage the relationship between form and content. These include Hollywood divas made from diamonds, a portrait of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara made from black beans, images of Jackson Pollock and Sigmund Freud made from messy drabs of chocolate syrup, and the Mona Lisa made from peanut butter and jelly.

Muniz began working with much larger objects for his series Pictures of Junk in which he recreated many of art history’s most recognizable masterworks from reclaimed garbage. Arranging the materials on a warehouse floor, he made photographs from a crane elevated high above, capturing the scene while playing on the literal and symbolic distance between

masterpieces and pieces of trash. The series went hand in hand with Pictures of Garbage, a series that was explored in the acclaimed documentary film Waste Land, which will be shown at the Museum during a CMA on Screen program. The award-winning documentary was filmed over nearly three years and follows Muniz as he works with the catadores, or trash pickers, of Jardim Gramacho, a 321-acre dump near Rio de Janeiro that closed in 2012. The catadores made a living by sorting through the garbage in the enormous, open-air landfill. After spending time working with the catadores and

getting to know them, Muniz collaborated with the lively group to create seven large-scale photographic portraits of the workers, often posed as works of art that have great historical significance. The portraits were then recreated with assembled trash and photographed. Tião Santos, the president of the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho, was transformed into Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Marat. The images were sold at the prestigious Phillips auction house in London. The auction produced $250,000 and much of the money went to the catadores union to build a library, retrain workers when the landfill closed, and more.

Muniz’s interest in how photography alters and informs the way we see inspired him to make enormous reproductions of recognizable photographic works. In his series The Best of Life, Muniz made drawings of iconic press photos from memory, including Joe Rosenthal’s photograph of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and Stan Stearns’s photograph of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting at his father’s funeral. Created without looking at the originals, the drawings stray from the source, suggesting the fuzziness of memory. Muniz enhanced this quality by photographing his drawings and then printing them as halftones,

“I usually work at

the lowest threshold

of visual illusion,

because it’s not

about fooling

somebody. It’s

actually giving

somebody a

measure of their

own belief—

how much you

want to be fooled.”

—Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961) Valentina, The Fastest, from the series Sugar Children, 1996

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a process that replicates how the original photographs would have appeared in the popular press. Similarly, Muniz used paper and pools of ink to recreate works by famed photographers like Dorothea Lange, Garry Winogrand, and Weegee. The assemblages are handcrafted creations that use the materials of mechanical photo-reproduction.

Muniz has also focused on scale, alternatively making enormous subjects appear small and making objects that are normally invisible to the naked eye easily visible. In a series called Earthworks, Muniz used bulldozers to create drawings that he photographed from the air. He also made small-scale models of land art in his studio, though the difference between model and reality is almost impossible to decipher. More recently, Muniz worked with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to grow various types of cells in specific, repeatable patterns. He also carved images of castles into single grains of sand. Both the cells and sand were photographed with specialized microscopes. The exhibition at the Chrysler includes examples of all of these works as well as works that defy our expectations of scale. For the sculptural work Mnemonic Vehicle (Jaguar E-type), Muniz enlarged a toy matchbox car to a larger scale, highlighting the unusual proportions of objects in children’s worlds.

The most recent work in the exhibition comes from the Postcards from Nowhere series and the Album series, both of

which focus on the relationship between vision and memory. In Postcards from Nowhere, Muniz cut and assembled thousands of postcards that were thrown away into collages that resemble postcard views of tourist destinations. Works in the Album series feature clippings from thousands of discarded snapshots to recreate images found in family albums. The layering of discarded image fragments is a meditation on the common human drive to memorialize accomplishments and moments of joy, as well as the all too human tendency to forget these memories as their images fade and disappear over generations.

What unifies Muniz’s work is his commitment to creating illusions that give themselves away. Muniz says his works are deliberately the “worst possible illusions.” He believes that illusions as bad as his “make people aware of the fallacies of visual information and the pleasure to be derived from such fallacies. These illusions are made to reveal the architecture of our concept of truth.”

—Seth Feman, PhD, Curator of Photography and Curator of Exhibitions

This exhibition has been co-organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/New York/Paris/Lausanne, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta

above Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Action Photo after Hans Namuth, from the series Pictures of Chocolate, 1998

at right Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961),

Jerusalem, from the series Postcards from Nowhere, 2015

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Bust of the Savior, attributed to the great Italian Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is one of the most inspiring sculptures in the Chrysler Museum of Art’s collection. Near

the end of his life, Bernini and his workshop carved a devotional bust of Jesus for Queen Christina of Sweden, who lived in Rome. Two busts of Christ survive that correspond to this description. It remains unclear which one belonged to Queen Christina and how much Bernini participated in the creation of each one, but an exhibition at Rome’s Borghese Gallery in the fall of 2017 uncovered several unique qualities in the Chrysler’s sculpture.

The Borghese Gallery holds some of Bernini’s most innovative and well-known sculptures. To mark the twentieth anniversary of its reopening, the museum gathered Bernini works from institutions across the world and showcased them alongside Bernini works in the Borghese collection. Simply titled Bernini, the exhibition offered the rare opportunity to compare the Chrysler’s Bust of the Savior to the other version, which was recently rediscovered in San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, one of the oldest churches in Rome. While nearly identical, the Chrysler’s bust is not completely finished, unlike the other bust. The many parallel rows of drilled holes in the curls would normally be carved into smooth lines that would then be polished to a gleaming, reflective white surface. Visible tool marks give the Chrysler’s sculpture a suggestive quality and show the artist’s hand at work. The beard and locks of hair in the Chrysler’s version have been drilled through, unlike those of its twin, giving the hair a marvelously dynamic open structure.

Only a sculptor with supreme ability and confidence could attempt to sculpt brittle marble in this manner. Bernini was an architect and painter as well, but his dramatic and theatrical marble sculptures were his most innovative and daring achievements. He made the stone suggest movement and defy gravity, challenging the very nature of stone as heavy, solid, and brittle. The differences in the busts featured in the Borghese Gallery’s exhibition do not prove or disprove authorship, but rather tell a story about the process by which great works of art are made.

—Lloyd DeWitt, PhD, Chief Curator and Irene Leache Curator of European Art

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Attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680), Bust of the Savior, ca. 1679

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The WorkSoon after joining the Chrysler Museum’s curatorial team last fall, I combed through storage to get acquainted with the Museum’s incredible holdings. I was thrilled to find a George Inness, Sr. painting hiding in plain sight. The work was immediately familiar, bearing hallmarks of Inness’s signature style, but the subject matter was strange and mysterious. Inness, a Hudson River School artist, is widely regarded as one of the most important American landscape painters, but The Old Veteran is a grand, figurative work, a genre that Inness turned to later in his career to invigorate his practice and counter the sagging market for landscapes. The principal figure in the painting is Lyman Beam, Inness’s neighbor and a veteran of the Civil War who had been wounded in his feet. The verdant setting and frolicking children that surround the elderly Beam offer a hopeful vision of renewal from the country’s recent turbulent history. Inness’s paint box and easel, placed prominently in the foreground, suggest a renewal of his art through his commitment to painting outdoors. After better understanding the painting’s important history, conservation treatment revealed the artist’s original brilliance.

—Corey Piper, PhD, Brock Curator of American Art

The RenewalThe impetus for the treatment of The Old Veteran was a substantial layer of soil and a yellowed natural resin varnish on the work. The layers of dirt and deteriorated varnish disfigured the surface and inhibited appreciation of the composition and nuances of Inness’s tonal values. Examinations of later works by Inness and archival research revealed that these paintings often relied on localized applications of transparent paint layers to create juxtapositions of low tones and brighter colors. Keeping this in mind during the treatment, I approached the surface conservatively, first cleaning the painting of dust and dirt with an adjusted water solution and then using mild solvents on cotton swabs to thin the varnish locally. This process reduced the discoloration caused by the old application of natural resin while preserving toned glazes on selected areas applied by Inness. After locally thinning the old varnish, a new coat of non-yellowing synthetic resin varnish re-saturated the painting’s surface and invigorated the tonal balance and depth of the composition. Finally, a period frame was acquired in order to return the painting to its rightful place in the Chrysler’s galleries.

—Alexa Beller, NEH Conservation Fellow

An Inness Renewed

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George Inness, Sr.’s The Old Veteran is new to the Chrysler Museum’s Joan P. Brock

Galleries, but it is not new to the collection. The 1881 oil on canvas painting has

been in storage for many years. Thanks to the collaborative effort of the Chrysler’s

curatorial and conservation teams, this work is now on view. Brock Curator of

American Art Corey Piper, PhD and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

Conservation Fellow Alexa Beller discuss the work’s history and the conservation

efforts that brought it back to the walls of the Chrysler.

George Inness, Sr. (American, 1825–1894), The Old Veteran, 1881

This spring, the Chrysler Museum unveiled a new look in the Joan P. Brock Galleries. The changes have presented the opportunity

to bring major works of American art out of storage, introduce new acquisitions, highlight recent conservation work, and feature key loans to tell compelling new stories and activate the permanent collection in exciting ways. The shuffling commenced with the installation of more than a dozen delightful works from the Chrysler’s extensive collection of American folk art. Many of these painters’ identities are now lost to us, but their work shows how artists working in the folk tradition embraced a broad range of complex subject matter and developed innovative styles.

Other works have returned to view after long absences, such as Richard La Barre Goodwin’s monumental trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) still life, Teddy Roosevelt’s Door, and Robert Weir’s scene of Roman street life, Portico of the Palace of Octavia. These works add new dimensions to the galleries where they have been incorporated amongst familiar favorites. Recently acquired works by Henrietta Augusta Granbery and Elizabeth Boott highlight the Museum’s efforts to explore artists and avenues of art history that have sometimes been overlooked. The new installation also showcases the important work carried out by the Chrysler’s conservation team. Newly conserved works by Joshua Johnson; George Inness, Sr.; Charles Bird King; José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza; and others are now on view throughout the American galleries.

Alongside the Chrysler’s masterpieces of American art, loans from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) allow for fascinating juxtapositions. Two paintings of Native American subjects by George Catlin borrowed from the VMFA have been installed together with works from the Chrysler’s collection to explore how artists responded to the complicated and often brutal process of western expansion in the early decades of the nineteenth century. This long-term loan from the VMFA also includes a major sporting work by Thomas Eakins and an important Civil War painting by Winslow Homer.

The history of American art is continually being reconsidered as new discoveries come to light and forgotten artworks and artists gain greater attention. The Chrysler’s work to rehang and reconfigure the permanent collection embodies our ethos that the Museum is “always changing.” By taking new approaches to the collection, we not only learn more about American art, but we also seek to generate new and exciting experiences for our visitors that forge even deeper connections with great works of art.

—Corey Piper, PhD, Brock Curator of American Art

A Refreshing Look at the American CollectionO

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Behind the Art with the Chrysler’s Curators

The Chrysler’s curatorial team brings a breadth of brilliant experiences to the Museum, and they each have fascinating stories to tell. Journey with them through the galleries as they share interesting tales from the collection, talk about their favorite works, and offer a sneak peek of exciting things to come.

When a team of conservation scientists from Washington and Lee University visited the Chrysler, they made an intriguing discovery in the Museum’s collection. Led by Erich Uffelman,

a chemistry professor from the University, their mission was to examine Virgin and Child, a work attributed to a follower of the Dutch Renaissance artist Lucas van Leyden. They had been asked by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to carry out multi-spectral imaging and infrared reflectography analysis of the Chrysler painting to compare the results to those produced of an almost identical

painting in the Dutch museum. Since infrared light penetrates most pigments but is absorbed by carbon-based materials like black chalk, the resulting image revealed the artist’s preparatory sketch underneath the paint layers. The ability to see this invisible underdrawing revealed how the artist first imagined the composition but subsequently made changes during the execution of the work. Some of the same original design elements appeared in the underdrawing of both the Chrysler’s painting and the version in Amsterdam, suggesting that both were by the artist and done at the same time. This new evidence suggests an original composition at the Chrysler Museum rather than a copy by a follower.

—Lloyd DeWitt, PhD, Chief Curator and Irene Leache

Curator of European Art

As the newest member of the Chrysler’s curatorial team, it has been a delight to wander through the Museum’s galleries to familiarize myself with what’s on view and to reflect upon

the stories that are being told about human

creativity. One of the most arresting encounters that I have had with the Chrysler’s collection took place in an Ancient Worlds gallery where Karen LaMonte’s 2009 cast glass Reclining Dress Impression is juxtaposed with a late third-century AD Greco-Roman marble sarcophagus carved with a similarly-reclining figure. I immediately fell in love with this pairing of objects and with their unique relationship and interplay. The intrinsic similarities and obvious differences between the pieces demand your attention, facilitating an instant dialogue between media and technique as well as between the ancient and the contemporary. LaMonte’s piece enlivens the work of a long-dead artisan but also reminds us of time, absence, and loss while the marble sarcophagus situates the glass sculpture within a world of monuments that embody a yearning to be remembered. The pairing of these objects and the stories they convey together underline the range of what one might see and feel when art is encountered in new ways.

—Carolyn Swan Needell, PhD, Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass

As the Chrysler Museum strives to develop more in-house exhibitions, I’m thrilled to have received a research grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art to begin work on an exhibition

that will explore the connection between Jacob Lawrence and his contemporaries based on the African continent. The core of the project centers on the arts and literary magazine Black Orpheus (1957–67). The exhibition will feature a little-publicized body of work by Lawrence, which he made in Nigeria in 1964, and a larger group of international artists whose works were featured in Black Orpheus. I will spend the month of June in Germany to research the archives of the Nigerian-based publication at Iwalewahaus at the University of Bayreuth. With help from the Iwalewahaus director, curator, and archivists, I will delve into the archives of Black Orpheus and the Mbari Artists & Writers Club, the organization that produced the magazine. I will also examine the Iwalewahaus art collection, which includes numerous works by artists who were either part of the Mbari Artists & Writers Club or featured in an issue of Black Orpheus. After spending

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far left Lucas van Leyden (Netherlandish, ca. 1494–1533), Virgin and Child, ca. 1525–1530

center Karen LaMonte’s Reclining Dress Impression and a marble sarcophagus are on view in Gallery 108.

above Black Orpheus, an arts and literary magazine, was published from 1957–67.

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approximately two weeks in Bayreuth, I will travel to Frankfurt to the Weltkulturen Museum to examine their collection of works by Mbari artists. I will end the trip in Berlin where I will meet with several scholars who have written on the Mbari collective and the history of Modernism within West Africa.

—Kimberli Gant, PhD, McKinnon Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art

While developing Photographs Take Time: Pictures from the Chrysler Collection, I came across a pair of works by the French photographer Eugène Atget. Seeing the pair together

highlights how an artist’s materials dramatically change a work’s meaning. The images are in some respects identical. Printed from the same negative, they show two farmers, one swinging a scythe while the other bundles wheat into neat piles. Atget made the negative around 1900, and one of the pair was printed around then using the albumen process, which produces images in soft sepia tones. The second version was printed after

1956 by the American photographer Berenice Abbott. Abbott befriended Atget while living in Paris. She printed thousands of his negatives in the United States after his death using gelatin silver paper, which produces deep blacks, bright whites, and high contrast. The browns of Atget’s earlier print conjure a living past, which the artist was trying to document before it faded away. The sharp contrasts of Abbott’s print denote the style of a later era when Abbott was working to secure Atget’s reputation as a significant modern artist. See these differences for yourself. Photographs Take Time is on view through August 26.

—Seth Feman, PhD, Curator of Photography and

Curator of Exhibitions

This spring, the Chrysler added a captivating new painting to its American collection: Elizabeth Boott’s Floral Still Life with Roses and Lyre. The 1878 canvas serves as a wistful monument to a

cherished relationship. Boott boldly inscribed the painting with a Latin phrase meaning “Beloved Friend Alice.” The still life was dedicated to Alice

Bartlett, a dear companion during the years the two women spent together as expatriates in Italy, on the occasion of Bartlett’s marriage and departure for Texas. The classical lyre may allude to the ancient Greek poet Sappho, a figure who had been revived by Victorian audiences as an exemplar of feminine romantic love, a type of affection the two women may have shared. Boott belonged to the first class of William Morris Hunt’s groundbreaking fine arts academy for women in Boston and studied with Thomas Couture in France. She established a promising reputation as a painter of floral subjects on both sides of the Atlantic before her career was cut short by her untimely death in Paris in 1888. This work explores a pivotal episode of American art history not previously represented on the walls of the Chrysler. Its acquisition allows us to more fully interpret the important artistic contributions made by American women during the nineteenth century and to illustrate the connections between American artists and Europe that flourished during the same period.

—Corey Piper, PhD, Brock Curator of American Art

“It has been a delight to wander through the Museum’s galleries to familiarize myself with what’s on view and to reflect upon the stories that are being told about human creativity.”

—Carolyn Swan Needell, PhD, Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass

above Artist: Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927), Printed by: Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991), The Reaper, Somme, before 1900

far right Elizabeth Boott (American, 1846–1888), Floral Still Life with Roses and Lyre, 1878

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Four-year-old Madison Gates thinks art is important simply because someone made it. Her sisters, seven-year-old

Abrielle and nine-year-old Leilah, are drawn to art’s beautiful colors and designs and its ability to expose them to different cultures. When the girls visited the Chrysler Museum of Art with their parents, they saw the vibrant colors and designs they love in the European and American art galleries, traveled to 1960s China as they explored The Art of Revolution: Chinese Propaganda Posters from the Collection of Shaomin Li, and jour-neyed back in time in the Ancient Worlds galleries.

Their mother, Angela Gates, values the cultural and educational experience that art provides. “Because art comes in many forms, it is an easy way to teach individuals—no matter their socioeconomic status—about history, the community, and individuals living around them,” Gates said.

“In a city with a rich historical and multicultural background, it is only natural that there is a museum that reflects that environment. Norfolk should have a place like the Chrysler Museum where anyone can learn about the world.”

For eighty-five years, the Chrysler Museum has offered encounters with art that are unique, memorable, and enriching. The remarkable collection; changing exhibitions; free glassblowing demonstrations; and gallery talks, classes, and other special programs foster an appreciation for art and emphasize the pivotal role it plays in our lives. “Art helps people understand the world around them. For some, it is the gateway to expression. For others, art is the vehicle that transports them through history or sends them on a journey around the world. Art can leave a lifelong impact on each person it touches,” said Museum Director Erik H. Neil.

The Chrysler opened its doors as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences in 1933 and was later named in honor of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. after he gifted a significant portion of his collection to the Museum in 1971. However, the Museum’s tradition of bringing art and people together dates back to the late 1800s when Irene Leache and Anna “Annie” Cogswell Wood spearheaded discussion groups, hosted poetry readings, and organized other events to build a solid arts community in Norfolk. After Leache’s death, Wood established the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation. That organization became the catalyst for what is now the Chrysler Museum.

When Museum Member and Docent Donna Bausch moved to Norfolk, she was drawn to the strong art presence in the city. She immediately recognized the Chrysler as an architectural landmark and cultural hub of the region and

didn’t hesitate to become a member. In 2009, she jumped at the chance to join the Chrysler’s team of docents. She enjoys sharing her love of art that she discovered as a child during school field trips to art museums. “I have little doubt that art museums provided a window into the wider world and inspired me to dream big dreams,” Bausch said. She gets the most excited about the Chrysler’s education programs that cater to children, like Saplings, an initiative that invites Virginia Beach first-graders along with their parents and instructors to the Museum, and the Bunny and Perry Morgan Family Day events that offer fun-filled and enriching activities for visitors of all ages.

Many programs at the Chrysler are made possible by the generous support of Museum Members, private donors, and the Corporate Leadership Alliance (CLA), a group of businesses dedicated to supporting the Museum. The Norfolk Southern Foundation has been a supporter of the Chrysler since 1982. “To have a thriving community, we know that arts are an important necessity. We want to support those arts organizations that are providing education to the youth of Hampton Roads,” said Katie Fletcher, Norfolk Southern Foundation’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility.

The Chrysler is proud to be a place that inspires and transforms people’s lives. Children can learn history, math, chemistry, and physics. The Southeastern Virginia chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association brings people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia to the Museum monthly. Art jogs their memory and helps them relive positive moments. Other visitors find that art helps them engage in discussions with diverse groups of people, uncover their similarities, and celebrate their differences.

The impact of art is evident at the Chrysler Museum’s response station where visitors create masterpieces of their own. Some visitors use the paper and colored pencils the Museum provides to describe something interesting they saw at the Museum. Others draw original works, share some of their personal thoughts, or communicate the meaning and importance of art. “Art helps us find our voices and understand the voices of others,” said Anne Corso, the Chrysler’s Director of Education. “Art speaks to the soul. Art helps us to heal, and it tells a story. Art connects us all.”

Tell us why art matters. Share a story, poem, or drawing with us and see what your community thinks at chrysler.org/artmatters. Share your thoughts on social media using #Chrysler85.

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Partnerships with a Purpose

As teenagers explore their newfound freedoms and learn life lessons, they often discover their passion and purpose.

Their burgeoning creativity overflows as they search for ways to express themselves and be on the frontlines of today’s issues. The Chrysler Museum of Art works with teenagers to create programs that provoke thought, enhance social awareness, and provide an outlet for the teens to discover their place in the arts community. Over the years, the Chrysler has partnered with several schools and organizations, including the Governor’s School for the Arts, Breakthrough at Norfolk Academy, and Teens with a Purpose. The results of these partnerships have been astounding.

This year marked the fifth anniversary of the Chrysler’s partnership with the Governor’s School for the Arts that allows students to present a fashion show and exhibition inspired by a Chrysler exhibition. The 2018 semester-long project was inspired by René Lalique: Enchanted by Glass. Students took several months to choose inspiration pieces, sketch designs, construct wearable creations, and make their artwork runway ready. On a cold February night, 450 people filled Huber Court to see forty-one teens walk the catwalk in their creations while their classmates in the band played for the duration of the performance.

The Museum has also forged a longstanding partnership with Breakthrough at Norfolk Academy. The program pairs a

diverse group of Norfolk middle school students with high school and college students who aspire to careers in education. This unique teen program, titled The Breakthrough Experience, turns the typical Museum tour upside down. Students start their visit by introducing themselves using an object in their possession. After describing the significance of the object, the students move into the galleries, where they jointly select a work of art and create a series of questions and answers about the piece. Each student then presents an interpretation of the work. “The program gives a first-rate experience to our students,

most of whom would not otherwise visit the Museum, let alone have the chance to speak in front of a masterpiece and share an original and personal interpretation of a work of art with their peers. They inevitably rise to the occasion and leave the Museum feeling empowered and inspired,” said Ari Zito, Director of Breakthrough at Norfolk Academy.

The Chrysler’s partnership with Teens with a Purpose has been remarkable and inspiring. The non-profit organization

creates opportunities for youth to positively influence others and participate in various arts and humanities programs that culminate in a public performance or exhibition designed to build self-esteem. This year, the teens created a Black History Month program that celebrated African American artists in the Chrysler’s collection. Using Multiple Modernisms, the teens

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Breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families has been the unwavering goal of ForKids since

its founding in 1988. Serving more than 49,000 people annually, the noble quest of this non-profit organization is to assist and permanently stabilize families in crisis through holistic, wrap-around services. The majority of financial support for operations and programs is raised in a single night at the annual ForKids Children’s Art Auction. For six years, the Chrysler Museum of Art Perry Glass Studio has been a proud participant in the fundraising effort.

Each year, the Glass Studio team creates a glass sculpture or vessel based on a drawing by one of the young beneficiaries of ForKids. Once the drawing is selected, the young artist is invited to help create the glass piece. These one-of-a-kind art objects are made during public demonstrations to packed houses of more than one hundred onlookers.

In February, the Glass Studio team selected a colorful, mosaic-like work as the inspiration for the 2018 auction

piece. After a safety lesson and short training session, the young designer and artist was invited to help with the process. Armed with safety glasses and great pride in her work, the artist helped break the glass to mimic the small pieces of paper used to create her original work. The vibrant green, orange, and brown glass pieces were used

to recreate her design on a white vase. On April 14, the work was shown to

nearly 700 people at the annual auction and was sold for $16,000. Donations garnered in that single evening were tallied at over one million dollars. An incredible anonymous matching contribution that was dedicated to the capital campaign for the construction of two new facilities brought the total

amount raised to over two million dollars. The Chrysler Museum is very pleased to support the important mission of ForKids and is happy to help the organization reach its goals and serve families in the community.

—Robin Rogers, Perry Glass Studio Manager and Program Director

Collaboration for a Cause

presented original performances influenced by the modern and contemporary pieces on view. One student choreographed a modern dance performance inspired by the figurative pieces in the collection while other teens came together for a spoken word performance. Another student found inspiration in Billy Morrow Jackson’s civil rights era work Stars and Bars: American Flag Prison and presented a performance that addressed his views on the underfunding of education and overfunding of prisons, particularly in urban communities.

The opportunity to create original content for a public program was empowering for the students and their families. Teens with a Purpose student member Alisha Burke appreciates the opportunity to learn new things and express herself at the Chrysler. “Working with the Chrysler Museum has been superior! Michael Berlucchi, the Community Engagement Manager, has always been welcoming, loving, and caring. He always allows us teens to put our youth voice first. He gives us the opportunity to make sure the adults are listening to us and know how we feel,” Burke said.

Creating exciting opportunities for teenagers meets an essential part of the Chrysler’s mission to enrich and transform lives. Deirdre Love, Founder and Executive Director of Teens

with a Purpose, values the impact the Chrysler has on teens in the community. “Too often, young people, especially youth from struggling communities, are overlooked, left out, and even locked out of the finest arts experiences. They come to believe that there are only certain places where they belong. I applaud the Chrysler Museum for making it crystal clear that we are all welcomed here,” Love said. The longstanding partnerships with the Governor’s School for the Arts, Breakthrough at Norfolk Academy, and Teens with a Purpose have made the Chrysler Museum a hub of creativity and social engagement for teens, a place that inspires the next generation of leaders, and a Museum that brings art and people together.

—Anne Corso, Director of Education

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page 24 Governor’s School for the Arts Fashion Show

page 25 and above left Teens with a Purpose Black History Month program

above right The Breakthrough Experience with Norfolk Academy

Photos by Eleise Theuer Photography

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Preserving History: Traveling the World with Irene Leache and Annie Wood

Irene Leache and Anna “Annie” Cogswell Wood, two women who laid the foundation for what is now the Chrysler

Museum of Art, set out on a journey throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 1890s. They documented their travels with professionally-produced albumen prints and assembled them in a photo album. On each page, the women included personally annotated descriptions, chronicling their adventurous travels that spanned nearly a decade. The Chrysler Museum of Art is fortunate to have this important nineteenth-century photo album and is grateful for generous support from the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation that will help restore this rare artifact. “The photo album provides a great educational opportunity to look back on how people traveled,” said Vickie Bilisoly, President of the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation. “These women were just remarkable, and the photo album provides an opportunity to highlight just how ahead of their time they were.”

Leache and Wood were intrepid travelers, seeking far-flung and remote places throughout Europe, from Lapland to Sicily. They even ventured unescorted throughout the Middle East. The photo album contains images of the places and people they saw, including Whirling Dervishes in Turkey, camel riders in front of the pyramids, and worshipers in Jerusalem.

Although the images are in fairly good condition for their age, they were mounted into a book whose pages were acidic wood pulp paper. The degradation of these pages makes

it impossible to save the album in its current format. Acids in the paper are also attacking the photographic images themselves. The adhesive that was used to mount the images on each page has become brittle with age and is also causing damage. To preserve a record of this fragile artifact, the Chrysler has captured a digital image of each page, complete with its handwritten captions.

The Chrysler Museum has enlisted the help of Heugh-Edmondson Conservation Services to conserve these historic images that depict a world that no longer exists. Together, the highly-skilled photograph conservators have over sixty years of experience treating all types of photographs. They will carefully detach each image from the acidic paper and then wash the delicate albumen prints to remove the adhesive, stains, and acid residues.

These thin prints will then be reinforced with Japanese tissue paper. After they have been conserved, they will be mounted on archival paper. This treatment will allow us to save this valuable collection of photographs, introducing Museum visitors to a world and people long ago vanished but saved for posterity by the efforts of two remarkable women.

Visit chrysler.org to learn more about Irene Leache, Annie Wood, and their contributions to the Chrysler Museum of Art.

—Mark Lewis, Conservator

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each year, more than 14,000 students and teachers supplement classroom instruction with a guided tour of the Chrysler Museum. Many of the field trips are made possible by generous contributions from our donors. Thanks in large part to support from Nancy and Mal Branch and a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation, every Norfolk Public Schools fourth grader can visit the Museum. Earlier this year, Lisa Smith and Maurice Jones offered a generous contribution to bring eighth-grade art students from Portsmouth Public Schools to the Chrysler. As public schools face funding pressures, the Chrysler is grateful for donors who underwrite transportation costs to make these enriching educational experiences possible.

The Chrysler’s robust education program offers something for all students. Eighth-grade art students from Portsmouth Public Schools enjoyed a customized tour of the McKinnon Galleries for the first time this year. The docents acquainted students with modern and contemporary works that are socially relevant and often challenging.

The Museum and Norfolk Public Schools partnered to develop a tour that focuses on storytelling. The docents introduce students to Tiffany glass, European Painting, and Contemporary Art and help them uncover the tales behind works from Ancient Egypt, Africa, Greece, and Rome. As they explore the galleries, the students learn the art of storytelling, a skill that fosters creative and analytical thinking, strengthens vocabulary, and allows students to contribute to group discussions. “I learned you can never underestimate what these kids can figure out on their own if you guide them through with good questions. They get it! Having these tours cover so many different kinds of art media is huge for the kids, widening their concept of what art is,” said Suzanne Tofalo, a Chrysler Museum docent.

The generosity of private donors makes these enriching field trips possible, providing meaningful educational experiences that bring the students’ classroom studies to life.

The Chrysler Classroom

“Upper Egypt.”

“Dervishes beginning to dance.”“Drying [macaroni] in the street / Naples.”

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1–22018 Corporate Leadership Alliance LuncheonPhotos: Glenn Bashaw, Images in Light

3–5Highest Heaven Members’ Exhibition Opening PartyPhotos: Charlie Gunter Photography

6–8Governor's School for the Arts Fashion ShowPhotos: Eleise Theuer Photography

9–10Masterpiece Society Spring ProgramPhotos: Eleise Theuer Photography

11–16The Bunny and Perry Morgan Family DayPhotos: Eleise Theuer Photography

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Plan Your Visit

museum hoursTuesday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.Sunday: noon–5 p.m.

glass studio hoursTuesday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.Sunday: noon–5 p.m.Free glass demo at noon Tuesday–Sunday

historic houses hoursSaturday and Sunday noon–5 p.m.Limited Accessibility

jean outland chrysler libraryBarry Arts Building, Room 10034600 Monarch Way, Norfolk757-664-6205Open to the public Tuesday–Thursday 10:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. All other times by appointment only.

general admissionfree and supported by Museum Members!

diningWisteria, the Museum restaurant is open Tuesday–Saturday: 11 a.m.–4 p.m.Sunday: noon–4 p.m.

parkingFree Wheelchair Accessible

information757-664-6200 Chrysler.org

membershipChrysler Magazine is produced for and mailed to Chrysler Museum Members as a benefit of their generous support. To update or verify your membership information call 757-333-6287.

chrysler connections @chryslermuseum

Stay Updated! Subscribe at chrysler.org/email-signup.

Etcetera

2017–2018 board of trustees Thomas L. Stokes, Jr., ChairLelia Graham Webb, Vice-ChairBrother Rutter, SecretaryYvonne T. AllmondDudley AndersonShirley C. BaldwinKathleen BroderickPaul D. FraimEdith G. GrandyVirginia C. HitchJames A. HixonClaus IhlemannLinda H. KaufmanPamela C. KloeppelHarry T. LesterSuzanne MastraccoColin M. McKinnonPeter M. Meredith, Jr.Charlotte M. MinorDeborah H. PainterJ. Douglas PerryBob SasserLisa B. SmithRichard WaitzerJoseph T. WaldoWayne F. WilbanksCheryl Xystros

chrysler magazineMeredith Gray, Director of Communications DeAnne Williams, Content Manager Ed Pollard, Museum PhotographerJane Cleary, Graphics Manager

The Chrysler Museum of Art, all rights reserved © 2018

Photos by Ed Pollard, Chrysler Museum Photographer, unless otherwise noted.

creditsinside front cover: Ghada Amer (b. 1963, Egyptian; based in New York), Revolution 2.0, 2011, Embroidery and gel medium on canvas, Collection of Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, New York © Ghada Amer. Photo: Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York. Photo: Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York Page 3: Anonymous, No 909 Bord du Nile et Palmiers (Boulak: A suburb of Cairo along the Nile) from the scrapbook “Memories of Travel in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Book One,” 1892, Albumen print mounted in album, Museum collection, 0.2842 Pages 4–11: Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Double Mona Lisa (Peanut butter and Jelly), from the series After Warhol, 1999, Digital C Print, © Vik Muniz/Galerie Xippas, Paris; Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Marlene Dietrich, from the series Pictures of Diamonds, 2004, Digital C print, © Vik Muniz/Galerie Xippas, Paris; Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961) Valentina, The Fastest, from the series Sugar Children, 1996, Gelatin silver print, © Vik Muniz; Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Action Photo after Hans Namuth, from the series Pictures of Chocolate, 1998, Cibachrome print, © Vik Muniz and the estate of Hans Namuth, VAGA; Vik Muniz (Brazilian, b. 1961), Jerusalem, from the series Postcards from Nowhere, 2015, Digital C print, © Vik Muniz Page 13: Attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680), Bust of the Savior, ca. 1679, marble, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2043 Page 14: George Inness, Sr. (American, 1825–1894), The Old Veteran, 1881, Oil on canvas, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 71.662 Pages 18–21: Lucas van Leyden (Netherlandish, ca. 1494–1533), Virgin and Child, ca. 1525–1530, Oil on panel, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 71.490; Photo of Carolyn Swan Needell, PhD by Claudia Murray Photography; Photo of Kimberli Gant, PhD by Glenn Bashaw; Artist: Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927), Printed by: Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991), The Reaper, Somme, before 1900, Gelatin silver print, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 71.2207.24; Elizabeth Boott (American, 1846–1888), Floral Still Life with Roses and Lyre, 1878, Oil on canvas, Museum purchase, 2018.6Pages 28–29: Anonymous, Untitled (Upper Egypt), from the

scrapbook “Memories of Travel in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Book One,” 1892, Albumen print mounted in album, Museum collection 0.2843; Anonymous, Untitled (Drying Macaroni in the street, Naples), from the scrapbook “Memories of Travel in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Book One,” 1892, Albumen print mounted in album, Museum collection, 0.2808; Anonymous, Untitled (Dervishes beginning to Dance), from the scrapbook “Memories of Travel in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Book One,” 1892, Albumen print mounted in album, Museum collection, 0.2778

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Carolyn Swan Needell, PhD joined the Chrysler in April as the Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass. She is an expert in ancient and modern glass and also holds valuable glassblowing and casting experience.

“Carolyn’s international perspective and deep knowledge of ancient, Islamic, and modern glass will allow the Museum to continue to connect with audiences in innovative and insightful ways,” said Chrysler Museum Director Erik H. Neil.

Swan Needell holds a doctorate from Brown University, master’s degrees from the University of Leicester and University College London, and a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. She holds extensive museum experience with some focus on modern and contemporary art, and she recently completed a fellowship at University College London, Qatar on glass in the medieval Middle East. Swan Needell also has more than a decade of teaching experience in ancient and modern art. “I am excited to use my knowledge of glass—combined with my experience as an educator, art historian, and archaeologist—to bring objects to life in a meaningful, creative way that engages with the public and supports their exploration of the fascinating nature and history of glass,” said Swan Needell.

She is enthusiastic about combining her scholarly experience and practical expertise to further the Chrysler’s mission to enrich and transform people’s lives through art.

Robin Rogers was named the Perry Glass Studio Manager and Program Director in March after serving in the interim role. He joined the Chrysler team as the Glass Studio Assistant Manager and Technician before the Studio’s opening in 2011. “Robin is a talented artist and has long been a highly respected member of the Chrysler team. The Museum and Studio staff admire his leadership,” said Museum Director Erik H. Neil.

An award-winning artist, Rogers specializes in glass sculpting and installation. In January, he and his wife, Julia, were visiting artists at Corning Museum of Glass. He was also recently an instructor at the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School. In 2017, Rogers served as co-chair of the Glass Art Society conference, which was hosted by the Chrysler Museum and the City of Norfolk. “I am looking forward to the bright future of the Glass Studio and the Museum. The Studio is very close to my heart. I have had a hand in every stage of the Studio’s development from creating class structures to directing performances. It is an honor for me to now hold this position,” Rogers said.

Rogers holds a Master of Fine Arts in Glass from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass and Painting from Columbus College of Art and Design.

new hires and promotions

Maegan Douglas, Museum Educator–Wonder Studio & Family Experience

Elise Duncan, Assistant to the Director

Reece Nortum, Assistant Security Manager

Leana Quade, Glass Studio Technician and Instructor

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