Having now returned from 6 weeks away from home, I've had lots of questions about what exactly I was doing for the "Returning Home" exhibition of the Gitter-Yelen Collection in Japan. As with much of what I do, there is no really short answer, but I will try to summarize the highlights below.
For the past eight years or so, I have had the privilege of serving as the Consulting Curator for the Gitter-Yelen Collection, visiting the collection once or twice a year to assist with all aspects of management of the collection as well as provide support for various educational programs the Gitter-Yelen Foundation generously sponsors. Being the only paid staff, I end up doing a little bit of everything, and so, when the opportunity came for this major exhibition of the collection in Japan, the same principle held.
Once the groundwork for the exhibition had been laid, it was off to New Orleans preparing condition reports on the 107 works in the exhibition, packing them inside their boxes, labeling everything, and performing touch-up repairs of boxes, hanging strings, and such, as necessary.
For the past eight years or so, I have had the privilege of serving as the Consulting Curator for the Gitter-Yelen Collection, visiting the collection once or twice a year to assist with all aspects of management of the collection as well as provide support for various educational programs the Gitter-Yelen Foundation generously sponsors. Being the only paid staff, I end up doing a little bit of everything, and so, when the opportunity came for this major exhibition of the collection in Japan, the same principle held.
Once the groundwork for the exhibition had been laid, it was off to New Orleans preparing condition reports on the 107 works in the exhibition, packing them inside their boxes, labeling everything, and performing touch-up repairs of boxes, hanging strings, and such, as necessary.
After supervising and assisting the art packers to wrap and crate all the scroll boxes and screens, I packed up my things again, this time to hop into the climate controlled air ride FedEx Custom critical truck that was to take us to Chicago for the flight to Tokyo. Luckily, the thunderstorms and torrential downpours had rained themselves out the week before and we had clear weather, albeit still hot, for loading the truck.
As courier, I accompanied the shipment on each leg of its journey from New Orleans by truck to Chicago, by plane to Narita, by truck to Tokyo, then again to Nagoya a week later. After conducting the condition reports as the crates were opened up in Nagoya, came the part I really enjoy, installing the exhibition. In this case, the curators at the first venue, the Matsuzakaya Museum of Art in Nagoya, had prepared a tentative floor plan, but we realized as things went up on the walls that some rearranging would be necessary. I find the process of installation like a big puzzle, especially when working within an already predefined space and I always love the challenge of a good puzzle. For me, no matter how much I try to plan everything out on paper ahead of time, it always looks different when the works are up on the walls. I was most fortunate to be working with the fabulous Tanabe Masako-san, curator of the Chiba City Museum of Art, and some very dedicated staff from Nihon Tsuun (aka Nittsu) and I must say I think we were all quite pleased with the results.
A great many thanks are in order to all the wonderful staff at NHK Promotions, the Matsuzakaya Museum of Art curatorial and tech staff, and the Nittsu art handling staff, as well as Masterpiece Int'l on the US side. The show is still up until October 17th in Nagoya for those who are nearby!
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