Art exchanges expand museum collections
NEW YORK —A trove of rarely seen masterpieces awaits visitors to “Durer to de Kooning: 100 Master Drawings from Munich” at the Morgan Library and Museum. Part of a collection exchange with the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, “Master Drawings” includes works by Michelangelo, Leonardo, van Gogh, Picasso and “one of the most remarkable Rubens ever,” William M. Griswold, director of the Morgan, said.
Rendered with pen and brush, Study for the Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma” is the Dutch master Peter Paul Rubens’ largest known drawing at 30 inches by 16 inches and part of what Griswold called “one of Europe’s great historic collections.”
He added, “There has never been an exhibition of treasures from Munich quite like it in this country.”
Unlike a loan of works from one museum to another, which does not guarantee reciprocity, a collection exchange is best described as a barter benefiting both institutions and their audiences.
“They are a win-win for everyone involved,” Griswold said. Not only are they “wonderfully collaborative,” which can aid curatorial research and discovery, but “the general audience would almost certainly not have an opportunity to see the works otherwise.”
The Morgan has a long history of collection exchanges with partners that include the Louvre in Paris, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Heritage and Pushkin Museums in Russia. In 2008 the Morgan sent “100 Master Drawings from the Morgan Library” to Munich to help celebrate the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung’s 250th anniversary. “100 Mas- ter Drawings from Munich” is the quid pro quo.
“Art institutions are cautious about lending large volumes of high-value works from a collection to any single entity in the absence of some sort of exchange that will benefit the lending audience,” Griswold said. This is particularly true of delicate works on paper and vellum, which make up a majority of the Morgan’s collection.
“Exchanges allow us to borrow works that, because of their fragility or value, institutions might otherwise be reluctant to lend,” he said. “If a museum’s mission is to make great works of art accessible to a broad audience, these are important tools to make that happen.”
Jennifer Tonkovich, the organizing curator of “Master Drawings,” spent years collaborating on both exhibitions with her Munich counterparts, a process she called “hugely satisfying.”
“As much as we are exchanging drawings we are exchanging ideas about them,” Tonkovich said. Working on another museum’s collection “provides a great opportunity for scholarship, dialogue and growth” among curators that can yield new insights regarding respective collections, she said.
In preparation for “Master Drawings” she helped track the provenance of a Francis Picabia work from Munich, ensuring it was not a forgery.
Exchanges also provide “a terrific experience” for museum visitors, Tonkovich said. “They give a privileged glimpse into foreign collections and meet the needs of a range of audiences by giving them the opportunity to see superlative examples held by an institution that is often far away.”
Traveling to an institution does not necessarily guarantee access to fine art either.
“Even if you went to Munich you would not see these drawings on view,” because they are delicate, she said.
Ford Bell, president of the American Alliance of Museums, said museums today “are in steep competition for people’s leisure time,” and collection exchanges are one way to attract visitors.
An exchange between the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tenn., was well received, Bell said. In 2009 the Allentown museum lent the Dixon 15th-to 18th-century European paintings. The Dixon sent French impressionist paintings to Allentown.
“We are drawn to the authentic work,” he said. “There is a difference between seeing fine art on a computer screen and standing in front of the original object.”
Collection exchanges can involve as few as two significant works. A collaboration by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., and the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg, France, resulted in “reuniting long separated lovers,” said Susan Talbott, director and chief of the Wadsworth. When the Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius painted his 1613 portraits of Adam and Eve on separate wood panels, “it is clear his intent was they were always meant to be together,” she said, but they were last seen together as a pair “sometime in the early 19th century.”
Eve was acquired by the Strasbourg museum in 1936. The location of Adam remained a mystery until what appeared to be the missing Goltzius surfaced on the French art market in 2003. When the portrait became available in New York, the Wadsworth bought it in 2004 even though it had not been positively identified as the mate the Eve in Strasbourg, Talbott said.
Curators from the two museums collaborated on investigating and authenticating Adam. After two centuries apart, Adam and Eve were reunited in an exhibition shown at the two museums in 2010 and 2011.
“It was a wonderful experience seeing these separated lovers looking at each other once again,” she said. They are again apart in their respective museums.
Both museums are part of French Regional American Museum Exchange, a nonprofit consortium that promotes exchanges between its 26 members in France and North America. “
We all know we have to help each other,” Charlotte Eyerman, the director, said.
“When you do something like Adam and Eve, you invite people to see your permanent collection with new eyes,” she said. “For every museum the permanent collection is its life blood and exchanges can show it in a new light. It is really profound to see works of art together in a different context, and that’s what these swaps provide.”