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The store-front window museum, the City Reliquary, in Brooklyn NYC has expanded its remit into a larger space:
http://cityreliquary.org/aboutus/archives/cat_overview.shtml
This is a good example of a community initiative taking on a greater momentum and an opportunity to watch a museum growing from scratch....
Marcus Moore, School of Visual & Material Culture, Massey Univ.
"Practically everything that [Marcel] Duchamp made has been treasured by someone - the losses are those things he happened not to give away" - Richard Hamilton 1965.
In 1983 Mrs. Betty and Judge Julius Isaacs of New York City bequeath a substantial collection to the National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington - the twin precursor with the Dominion Museum to what is now Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand. This donation consisted of over 200 artworks, publications, and articles. As characterised by Betty Isaacs (born in Tasmania, Australia and a resident of New Zealand between 1896 and 1913) the collection is predominantly an eclectic range of over 80 of her sculptures and 45 amateur paintings by her husband Julius Isaacs. The bequest also contains a small grouping of artworks by the American artist Larry Rivers; and works by two important New Zealand expatriates Frances Hodgkins (NZ/London) and Billy Apple (NZ/London/New York).
There are equally three pieces by Marcel Duchamp which are the most important items in the gifting of this bequest. Two of the works were themselves signed 'gifts' by Duchamp to the Issacs. The entire bequest was accepted on the basis that his articles were included as well as the biographical association Betty Isaacs had with New Zealand. This was a clear sign of the recognition of Duchamp’s significance and the desire to acquire such works for the National collection. Given the comparative small scale of Duchamp's oeuvre and since unique works by him were rarely available or in art market circles, this would prove to be an astute and canny move (Naumann 2003). Such rarity has caused consternation for those wishing to collect works by the artist who has eclipsed the contributions of many other 20th Century figures in the history of contemporary art.
Of the various artefacts by Duchamp in the bequest, the following have been recorded as distinctly separate pieces: BETTY waistcoat (1961, New York) (Fig.1); The Box in a Valise (Edition D 1961, Paris); and The Chess Players (copperplate etching, artist’s proof, 1965, New York). In addition, four 1st edition publications on Marcel Duchamp signed with personal dedications accompany the works.
Fig.1: Esquisse of Duchamp's BETTY waistcoat by M. Moore, 2007
The initial offer of the estate’s collection was sent by L. David Clark (representative executor) to the Secretary of the Art Galleries and Museums Association of New Zealand (AGMANZ) on 13 November 1980. Luit Bieringa, who was the vice-president of AGMANZ and director of the National Art Gallery, does not recollect the broad possible scope of benefactors for the bequest. Bieringa’s opportunity to view objects, works and books in the estate became the opportunity “to not miss out on something unique” making sure that “the sequence from Betty Isaacs and the Judge Julius Isaacs bequest to the National Gallery was a natural one” (pers. comm. 2005).
It was Bieringa who secured the collection for New Zealand. With AGMANZ support, Bieringa entered into a protracted process of disposition and scheduled a meeting with Paul F. Feilzer, the Senior Trust Officer of Chemical Bank Corporation, for February 8 and 9 1981 in New York, when he viewed selected works in the bequest. The collection of artworks and other related items in the Isaacs estate had been appraised by William Doyle Galleries, Inc., New York, who appraised (in U.S. dollars) the Betty Waistcoat at $20,000; the Chess Players at $2,000 and the Box in a Valise at $3,000. The Isaacs' bequest was confirmed via telegram to Luit Bieringa on June 6, 1981 from the Chemical Bank Corporation and the Board of Trustees of the National Art Gallery voted unanimously to approve acquisition on June 11, 1981. Although this approval was passed in June 1981, and Bieringa personally signed the receipt and release of the bequest in New York on November 9, 1981, it took until February 1983 before the works were formally accessioned into the National collection.
Delays are not an uncommon occurrence a propos a peripheral location. The news of obtaining the bequest originally in June 1981 was in fact new news again by the time of its actual arrival in Wellington and its formal acquisition in 1983. The delay was due to the distance the freighted works had to travel across the Pacific Ocean (and also due in part to the large size of the entire bequest). The total freight was comparatively expensive (estimated at $5,700 US dollars), yet approval of the bequest was conditional on National Art Gallery’s meeting associated costs for its climate-controlled freight to New Zealand. The full inventory of the Isaacs' collection was shipped by Day & Meyer, Murray & Young Corp. — Packers, Shippers and Movers of High Grade Household Effects and Art Objects, and departed New York on the Malmros Monsoon on November 23, 1981, arriving in New Zealand on December 18, 1981 through Auckland. The shipment reached its final destination in February 1982. It took another full year for formal acquisition processes to be completed, but, finally these Duchampian gifts had arrived in New Zealand.
Bieringa, delighted by the acquisition of Duchamp’s works, wrote to David Clark, the representative executor of the estate in 1981:
“As a young country New Zealand cannot, apart from its superb indigenous cultural assets, boast of rich assets reflecting the art historical developments of the Western world. As such several of the works contained in the Isaacs Estate, in particular the Duchamp items, will have a significant impact with the art museum collections in New Zealand, whereas their retention in Europe and America will only marginally affect the stature of any significant collection. Given the limited financial resources of our museums the impact of the Isaacs collection will be substantial”.
While the bequest was somewhat serendipitous, Bieringa exhibited a presence of mind in securing a small yet significant collection of Duchampian art and articles for the National Art Gallery, especially at a time contemporaneous to a wider desire in collecting works by Duchamp. The bequest belongs to a limited transfer of his works to international museum collections after the artist’s death. Museums and curators arrived at the significance of Duchamp’s work much later than that of other 1960’s New York based artists, and so a period of institutional interest in Duchamp’s work grew belatedly (Neumann 1999). Within a period in which very few Duchamp works might have actually been purchased or exchanged, the National Art Gallery of New Zealand succeeded in obtaining a small but unique collection.
Bieringa’s enthusiasm for the transaction made in 1983 has not been sustained by the institution that had facilitated the bequest. Indeed, The Box in a Valise, documented on its acquisition, has been shown on two occasions: at the Auckland Art Gallery, for the exhibition ‘Chance and Change’ in 1985, and more recently in 2003 at the Te Papa Museum, in ‘Past Presents’, an exhibition of works focusing on gifts to the collection (Fig.2). The BETTY waistcoat and The Chess Players were also documented upon their acquisition, but Te Papa Museum art catalogue files have not recorded any further movement of these items for exhibition, either within the institution or beyond. In addition, the 80 sculptural works by Betty Isaacs have never had any comprehensive exhibition and remain in their brown cardboard boxes in storage. Duchamp’s works have never formed a collective basis for any exhibition in New Zealand, though such an exhibition is long overdue. Therefore, akin to one of Duchamp’s time based pleasures (from his delayed work on the Large Glass), these three Duchamp works have, as in that figure of speech, gathered dust.
Fig.2: Esquisse of Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise by M. Moore, 2007
So what can be made of the fate of these Duchampian artworks? Firstly, their disappearance into a Museum Collection in a small city in an isolated country at the “bottom” of the South Pacific has effectively meant they were until now lost to Duchamp scholars. This fact starkly reminds us of New Zealand’s peripheral situation vis-à-vis the centres of culture and for which delays are a particular and peculiar circumstance. Yet, delay is also a favoured operation and strategy of Marcel Duchamp and the sequential ‘delays’ to the uptake of Duchamp’s work in the 20th century suggests that the marginal geographical location where these three Duchamp pieces are located is an affirmation of the ubiquity of their maker. These facts only impresses a stronger urge to make some sense out of these works within the cultural context in which they reside, in relation to the wider operations and strategies of Marcel Duchamp’s creativity. Rather than simply celebrate their re-discovery, I would argue the fate of these works actually tallies with aspects of Duchamp’s practice and this approach would stitch the works back into the picture.
It is Duchamp’s ability to resist classification, at variance to other 20th century artists, that spawned a highly mobile legacy across historical periods and across generations of art makers. It is here that register is found with the Isaacs’ bequest: not for the first time material and visual artefacts by Duchamp’s hand slipped across national borders, arriving in a new context. The Isaacs’ bequest is part of a navigation of ‘Duchamp’ beyond the cultural centres within which he had historically operated. Marcel Duchamp’s legacy functions in the New Zealand context, as elsewhere, as an inescapable and indispensable example for local artists, but who have developed their distinctive practices not only as faint echoes of mainstream models but as canny adaptations within the limits of a local situation.
The dedications by Duchamp to the Isaacs (the earliest of which was signed by Duchamp in 1959, and the last in 1967) were made within this period that Duchamp was somewhat of a travelling inscriber: a (supposedly) retired artist, pen in hand, authorizing and laying claim to various reproductions of his work. “The sixties are notably the replica years – replicas of his own work, made by others and signed by Duchamp” (Naumann & Obalk 2000: 15). Here the works in the bequest of the Isaacs offer a vital model to a culture that has historically relied on the reproducibility of art and the beneficiates of ‘friends’ to participate in wider culture (Fig.3). New Zealand’s position in the history of art is necessarily replete with (international) comings and goings: replete with networks formed overseas, of generating acquaintances, friendships and unions to serve as contacts and to sustain lines of communication upon returning. It is befitting that gifts from Duchamp are, in turn, gifts to New Zealand’s National Museum, made under the auspices of friends of this country.
Fig.3: Duchamp with a chess set made and
presented to him by his friend and fellow artist, Max Ernst
NOTE: This text is a substantially modified extract from a full article that was first published as
'Attracting Dust in New Zealand - Lost and Found: Betty's Waistcoat and Other Duchampian Traces' in tout-fait: the Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal, Nov '07
References
Bieringa, Luit. 2005. Personal Interview. 17 May.
Bieringa, Luit 1981. Letter to David Clark Jr 20 May. Te Papa archive file MU00000-4-23-2.
Daniels, Dieter 2002. ‘Marcel Duchamp: The Most Influential Artist of the 20th Century?,’ Museum Jean Tinguely Basel (ed). Marcel Duchamp. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. 25-28.
Hamilton, Richard 1965. 'Foreword' in NOT SEEN and/or LESS SEEN of/by MARCEL DUCHAMP / RROSE SÉLAVY 1904-64. New York: Cordier & Ekstrom.
Naumann, Francis M. 1999. ‘Proliferation of the Already Made: Copies, Replicas, and Works in Edition, 1960-64’. Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Amsterdam: Ludion Press. 208-254.
Naumann, Francis M. 2003. ‘Duchampiana II: Money Is No Object’, Art in America (March): 67-73.
Naumann, Francis M. & Obalk, Hector (eds). 2000. Affect Marcel – The Selected Correspondence of Marcel Duchamp. London: Thames and Hudson.
World Congress “TOYS AND CULTURE”
Nafplion, Greece, 9-11 July 2008
The International Toy Research Association (ITRA) will hold its Fifth World Congress in conjunction with the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation in Nafplion Greece. The Conference will be held at the Department of Theater Studies, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of the Peloponnese.
The overarching theme of the conference is the relationship between toys and culture. All play media and play instruments are included in the concept of “toys” ranging from playgrounds and playscapes to electronic devices. A broad scope of approaches is encouraged from the technological and social sciences the humanities.
If you would like to present a paper, give a workshop, or organize a seminar, please submit a one page abstract or proposal in English by 1 December 2007. Submissions may be made by post or email to:
Dr. Cleo Gougoulis, 54 Ag. Alexandrou St. , P. Phaleron, 17561 Athens, Greece, Fax: +30-210 9810-509,
email: cleogougoulis@yahoo.gr
OR:
Prof. Despina Karakatsani, 11 Angelou Sikelianou St., 153 43 Athens , Greece Fax:+30 210- 6086-037,
email: despikar@otenet.gr
You may download the full version of this call and learn more details on the conference from ITRA’s website www.toyresearch.org
A UCL Anthropology Workshop, 19th-20th January 2008, sponsored by the Journal of Material Culture
The ‘making’ of the material world has been a long standing concern of the French Anthropology of Techniques (Leroi-Gourhan, Haudricourt, Lemonnier) who views technology as a universal and distinctive category of material activity. Technology ‘is an ongoing and unfinished process through which people, society’ and things ‘weave … the meaningful conditions of everyday life’ (Dobres 2000:4). This workshop aims to discuss the uses, contributions and weaknesses of the French school of Anthropology of Techniques and to explore alternatives and recent theoretical developments. Under a cross-disciplinary perspective, it will consider the dimension of ‘doing’ the everyday material world (de Certeau 1984) through the daily use of technology. It will explore technology and techniques such as techniques of the body (Mauss 1936/1979), technical gestures (Leroi-Gourhan 1945/1993) and techniques of the self (Foucault 1978) in relation to embodied practice, language and cognition. We invite scholars working within anthropology, archaeology and sociology to explore technology as a category in its own right from empirically grounded perspective.
For full details, speakers and registration, click: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/conferences/index.htm
Alan Bradshaw, University of Exeter
Whilst the existence of a Church of Maradona seems bizarre, the cult of retired Argentine footballer, Diego Maradona, continues to grow. Maradona has profited from the marketing opportunities; producing such material relics as a t-shirt which has a picture of a football (described as the bible), a stadium (the church), the fans (the congregation) and finally himself – the God! Another shows Maradona rising majestically for his iconic 'Hand of God' goal with the inscription; 'The Hand of God is the single piece of indisputable evidence proving the existence of God'. In advertisements for his popular TV talk-show, Maradona is shown leaping over the England goalkeeper lifted by angelic wings (see here). The goal has been immortalized by the song La Mano de Dios, (the Hand of God) which, apart from being his show's theme song, is a major hit throughout Latin America. Beyond celebrity status, Maradona is a living case of total iconicity (an Oxford University Union declared him to be the Master Inspirer of Dreams in 1995) and an attraction of adulation ranging from the ironic to the profound. Considering this adulation allows for a demonstration of how football as mass consumer spectacle can be an extraordinary site for mass God-like myth-making and how these mythologies are reproduced through material culture.
Observing the Cult of El Diego provides an example of religious iconicity and mythology intersecting with material culture and an extreme case of iconic branding (see Holt, 2004). Whilst divine intervention in a soccer game might seem dubious, the association of divinity with Maradona is sustained by numerous phenomena. For football lovers, it takes only a small leap of faith to imagine Maradona as blessed with transcendent and sublime skills. The story of his life as perpetuated through the textile merchandise that his business endorses, his autobiography, his TV show, and the forthcoming feature film of his life, all present Diego using mythical themes resonating with the life of Jesus and other cult figures. Just as Belk & Tambuat (2005) demonstrated how the story of Apple parallels cultic themes (as advanced by Campbell, 1991), the story of Diego presents themes such as humble beginnings, call to adventure, trials, apotheosis and even resurrection.
Significantly, much is made of Maradona's impoverished upbringing. Just as Jesus of Nazareth had impressed elders at an early age, camera crews sought out the young Maradona for his immense football skills. In true fashion, his call to adventure was to join Argentina Juniors and by 15, he played for the senior team. From then on Diego was engaged in a wondrous journey which saw him lift the World Youth Championship in Japan and leave his homeland in the style of cultic figures. His arrival in Napoli seemed miraculous as he quickly transformed the provincial club to European champions. In 1986 he seemed to single handedly win the World Cup for Argentina. His quarter final performance against England, who had recently been at war with Argentina, was his apotheosis; the game where he scored one goal that transcended the rules of football by punching the ball over the goalkeeper and a second which transcended the skill of football by dribbling the ball around several players and finishing with a goal conventionally held to be the greatest of all time. In response to the huge controversy generated by the first goal, he gave the world his iconic quotation; "the goal was scored by the head of Maradona and by the hand of God".
Maradona's life was not without trials: alleged Mafioso connections, viciously brawling whilst playing for Barcelona, cocaine addiction and firing an air gun at paparazzi. His trials peaked in USA World Cup in 1994 when he failed a drugs test and was consequentially banned from football for three years; 'they broke my wings' he protested. Maradona's tendency toward self-mythologising spurred him to characterise himself as victim of conspiracy. In his autobiography (Maradona, 1995) he strongly implies that, threatened by his calls for increased player power, FIFA – the World football governing body - maliciously branded him a cheat. Indeed Diego portrays his life as irreverently challenging corrupt powers, whether FIFA or more recently through his association with Venezuelan President Chavez. Hence Diego encourages his story to be understood as a battle against the notional anti-Christ, with occasional divine intervention allowing him to transcend his trials but ultimately he is sacrificed. As the (fake) priest in the film Hijo de la Novia proclaims about Diego "they idolized him and then crucified him". This leads to the crowning aspect of the Cult of Maradona - his resurrection.
Following retirement, Diego descended into an Elvis-esque spiral. Concerned viewers saw Diego arrested for drug possession and becoming dangerously obese. In 2004, Maradona's life was left in balance after a major heart attack, inspiring global concern and an emotional vigil outside his hospital. Maradona's spectacular recovery seems miraculous and his reappearance as the politically outspoken, all-singing, all-dancing TV star resembles Diego's second coming. I have witnessed the emotions inspired by Maradona - a man who sat in the stadium watching Maradona on his mazy run in 86 broke down in tears as he told me the story of the greatest goal of all time. In Argentina members of the Iglesia Maradoniana refer to the current year as AD 44 - that is 44 years After Diego's birth. For his part, Maradona is regularly at the centre of idolatry, encouraging worship and mythical discourse through his TV show and his lines of merchandise. As he says: "I tried to be happy playing football and make all of you happy. I ask you a favour. I want this love to last forever. I love you very much!"
God-like, he has come to spread love and he expects it back in return and has, along the way, produced the profitable Cult of Diego.
References
Belk, Russell W. and Gulnur Tumbat (2005), 'The Cult of Macintosh'. Consumption, Markets and Culture, 8 (3), 205-18.
Campbell, Joseph (1991). The Power of Myth. New York: Anchor Books.
Holt, Douglas B. (2004). How Brands Become Icons - The Principles of Cultural Branding. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Maradona, D. (1995). El Diego: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Footballer. London: Yellow Jersey Press.
The Pasold Research Fund, which owes its existence to the success of the Ladybird brand of children’s wear under the direction of Eric Pasold OBE, opens a new field of textile research in the
2008 PASOLD CONFERENCE
CLOTHING CHILDHOOD, FASHIONING SOCIETY: CHILDREN’S CLOTHING IN BRITAIN IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Thursday 17th-Friday 18th January 2008
The Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ
10am-5:30pm Thursday, 10am-4pm Friday
Until now, studies of contemporary clothing and textiles have focussed on adults and ‘youth’, while studies of children’s wear have concentrated on the Victorian and earlier eras. This is the first conference to examine the twentieth century – a period of unprecedented social, economic and technological change – through the material culture of childhood. What do children’s clothes and textiles, the fortunes of the industriy and companies that produced them, and the childhoods they fashioned say about society in our time?
Contacts:
Conference contact Dr Kaori O’Connor k.o’connor@ucl.ac.uk
Pasold contact: Professor Pat Hudson, Director, Pasold Fund hudsonp@Cardiff.ac.uk
PROGRAMME
Keynote Speaker
Fashion for Whom? Display, Ambiguity and the Performing Child
Professor Daniel Thomas Cook (Rutgers-Camden University, USA)
Author of The Commodification of Childhood
Dr Clare Rose (University of Brighton)
Democratic Design and Edwardian Children’s Clothing
Dr Katrina Honeyman (University of Leeds)
Suits for the Boys: The Leeds Multiple Tailors and the Making of Boy’s Wear 1900-1940.
Dr Mary Clare Martin (University of Greenwich)
Class, Childhood and Clothing: Puritanism, Pleasure and Home Production in
Professional Families, 1900-1975.
Noreen Marshall (V&A Museum of Childhood)
Bargains for the Kiddies: Children’s Clothing from Selfridges Bargain Basement, 1925-1935
Professor Stanley Chapman (University of Nottingham)
Pasolds Limited, 1930-1970: The Strategies of the Leading British Manufacturer of Children’s Wear.
Dr Kaori O’Connor (University College London)
Ladybird and the ‘Golden Age’ of British Childhood
Dr Bramwell Rudd (Formerly with Courtaulds Textiles Plc)
Manufacturing and Distributing Children’s Wear in a Changing Retail Scene, 1970-2000.
Dr Hilary Young (University of Manchester)
Clothes and the Modern Boy and Girl: Fashion Pages in Girl and the
Boy's Own Paper in the 1950s and 1960s
Alison Carter (Hampshire County Council Museums and Archives)
From the Liberty Bodice to the 28AA Bra: Revealing Stories in the Girls’ ‘Underwear Department’, 1908-2000.
Anna Konig (London College of Fashion)
Home-made Children’s Clothing since 1945: From Items of Necessity to Objects of Desire.
Pennie Alfrey (University of Loughborough)
Little Devils Wear Denim: Fabricating Childhood
Hilary Davidson (Museum of London)
The Children's Clothing Collections at the Museum of London
Professor Alison J. Clarke (University of Applied Arts, Vienna)
Brand Values: Clothing the Second-Hand Designer Child in the late 20th Century
Professor Sandy Black (Prof of Fashion & Textiles Design & Technology, London College of Fashion)
Home Knitting for Children: Fashioned with Love
Ann Wise (Warner Textile Archive)
Knitting for Janet and John: 1920-1960
Researching Children’s Clothing & New Directions
The EMAP archive at the London College of Fashion
Textile Museum, Cholet France and their Children’s Clothing Project
Conference fee £25 (£15 student/unwaged) to include lunch both days, drinks and buffet reception Thursday night. Cheques payable to The Pasold Research Fund. Please send with booking form to Professor Pat Hudson, HISAR, Cardiff University, Humanities Building, Colum Road, Cardiff CF10 3EU.
To introduce the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme, a two-day symposium entitled Managing Material Change will be held on the 10th and 11th December 2007, at Jeffrey Hall, Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London.
The symposium will deal with material culture as a physical phenomenon, rooted in the physical environment while acknowledging that change is driven by society as well as the environment. These ideas sit well with the current definition of conservation as the process of 'managing change'.
Programme available by:
Download file
Please contact Debbie Williams for further information about the symposium, registration and participant forms.
Science and Heritage Programme Coordinator
Email: debbie.williams@heritagescience.ac.uk
020 7679 1674