There’s a necessary balance between familiarity and novelty. Museums have an intrinsic advantage at existing in the space in-between. Whether a visitor or a staff member, you get to know and care for a permanent collection, where you can see familiar artworks and visit them like old friends. At the same time, you can experience new artworks for the first time through temporary exhibitions, like Survival of the Fittest, which introduce us to future favorites.
One of the best parts of traveling is being lucky enough to experience that same duality in different collections. On a recent trip with Museum director Matt Foss for The Winter Show in New York City, we were lucky enough to stop in at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, where I found a new favorite and saw an old one.
Lando di Pietro, Head of Christ, 1338, wood, Viae Siena
At the Met, we were able to see Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350, an exhibition that explored the dawn of the Italian Renaissance across media in that important city-state. One of the works that was new to me was artist Lando di Pietro’s (Italian, c. 1280–1340) Head of Christ. Mounted in parts, the head is all that remains of the 1338 sculpture after suffering damage during a World War II bombing. When it was damaged, the broken sculpture revealed a parchment in the hollow of Christ’s knee, bearing the date and the name of the artist, in which he commended his soul to God. A second larger parchment was discovered in the sculpture’s head, containing a prayer and the artist’s name and date.
Oskar Kokoschka, Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat, 1909, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 53 5/8 in., Museum of Modern Art
An old friend is Oskar Kokoschka’s (Austrian, 1886–1980) Hans Tietza and Erica Tietze-Conrat, a marriage portrait of two Viennese art historians. Kokoschka painted the couple in separate sittings rather than together. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this work, but one thing that always captures my eye is the couple’s hands. Kokoschka seems to place all his emphasis on their oversized hands which seek one another’s out. His ruddy brushstrokes and electric scrapping away of paint energizes the composition and captures each of the sitter’s personalities. On each viewing, the painting seems to have new energy and reminds me of the joys of looking again.
Oskar Kokoschka, Hans Tietza and Erica Tietze-Conrat, 1909, detail
All these ideas and artworks, old and new, conveyed through parchment pieces or electric brushwork, spark inspiration for ways we can bring the new and the familiar together back here at the Woodson.
