Art Museum Notes: Plugs, Possibilities and Politics

Since the first of any new year is traditionally a time for taking stock, I spent the months of January and February scoping all four Dallas/Fort Worth art museums, viewing current shows and talking with chief staff members about the emphasis in the coming months. Herewith some findings, forecasts and conclusions:

The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts swung into the new year with two exhibits of note, one very temporary, the other making a semi-extended visit. Contemporary art and/or sculpture fans who missed the Robert Smithson drawings should regret it. The 154 pieces which were in the January/February show were working sketches for the huge outdoor sculptures, known as “Earthworks,” pioneered by Smithson in the 1960s. The show had special regional interest, both because Smithson proposed a couple of aborted area projects (in 1966 in conjunction with the planned D/FW Airport and in 1970 at Cedar Hill, home of Northwood Institute), and because Smithson spent his last living moments soaring above the West Texas plains, surveying the site of his giant “Amarillo Ramp.”

Continuing through June after its January opening will be the Norbert Schimmel Collection of Art from Egypt, Greece and the Ancient Near East, which DMFA director Harry Parker characterizes as “probably the best private collection of ancient art in America.” Dallas is lucky indeed to be chosen one of a very few (three so far) national locations for display of this high caliber collection of over 250 objects from the early cradles of our civilization.

March 19 the DMFA will open the doors to one of its galleries to Dallas artist David McManaway, who will use the space as studio and exhibition area, making his working as much a part of the show as his work. Several of the museum’s 11 o’clock Wednesday lecture series will deal with McManaway’s methods and results (these are free and open to the public) and curator of contemporary art Robert Mur-dock promises that if successful, the tactic will be repeated with other local stars in the coming months.

Other DMFA events on the docket include the Beaux Arts Ball on April 26, which will offer museum patrons a gala opportunity to regale away the night in Art Deco surroundings, while good-deeding it by contributing to the acquisitions fund; “Ars Medica,” the history of medicine in prints, which will run April 27-May 24, its opening timed to the debut of the University of Texas Health-Science Center at Dallas; a bicentennial American paintings show; a selection of masterpieces of primitive art from the Metropolitan in New York; and the projected May 19 opening of the remodeled east wing of the museum, which will house a library, study rooms for the public, a lounge and sculpture court, and new galleries for the primitive and classical art collections.

The Fort Worth Art Museum: A Museum of Contemporary Art (RWAM), reopened last fall with a facelift (nearly a year and a half of construction meant more exhibition, office and library space), a new director, Richard Koshalek, and a new name, which in nine words eliminates the need to expostulate further on its particular specialty.

By installing them before Christmas, FWAM looked right in seasonal style, all decked out in its 10 outdoor Stephen Antonakos neon “sculptures.” The neons met with a varied community reaction. There were some valid criticisms: Antonakos did not fully utilize the variety of surface and unique construction elements of the building, nor were all pieces in scale with the massive surfaces on which they rested. But generally they were well received. The colorful neons were like tea leaves foreshadowing a FWAM year spiced by Koshalek’s personal touch -one of zest and unorthodoxy.

1975 should be the year that Koshalek’s innovative ideas and commitment to expanding the museum’s involvement in the community make their impact on the Texas art scene. For openers, he is broadening the scope of the 36th Tarrant County Annual, March 16-April 27, to include poetry, video and film, and insuring fair and critical selection in all cate-gories by inviting specialists in each field to serve as jurors.

Secondly, Koshalek intensely believes that a museum of contemporary art should house a collection of pieces commissioned by, or at least relating to, that particular institution. In May, when California sculptor Larry Bell brings recent glass constructions, it is expected he will show his first large outdoor piece, created especially for FWAM.

Although usually a dormant period in the art world, this summer things should be hopping as FWAM and the San Francisco Museum of Art launch “Dallas-Fort Worth/San Francisco,” an interchange show. This was done on a moderate scale in 1972 when the Dallas Museum and the pervasively influential Walker each selected three local worthies for an exhibit shown in both cities. If there is one thing Koshalek has assimilated in six months, it is the maxim that, as New York critic Barbara Rose put it, “when Texans do something, they do it big and they do it first class.” The proposed wide-sweeping roster (including dance, video and performance artists) could have substantial results, both in exposing indigenous talent outside the region and in further expanding the museum’s audience at home.

For September, Koshalek has invited Barbara Haskell, currently at the Whitney Museum in New York, to be guest curator for a show of New York and Los Angeles talent including Brice Marden (whose drawings and prints were at FWAM in December), Robert Ryman, Walter di Maria and Richard Tuttle, among others. This is a show I anticipate with both excitement and trepidation; all these artists are heavily conceptual and their art requires dedicated study for adequate appreciation. Koshalek will have his hands full trying to make sense out of this show for an audience heavily populated – if his courting of the metro-masses succeeds -by relatively unsophisticated, albeit eager, recruits. The challenge is tremendous, possibly the largest in Koshalek’s overall plan to take control of and popularize a leaderless, plodding museum dedicated to a kind of art not overwhelmingly supported in this area.

Area residents visiting the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art in Fort Worth in mid-March can view the watercolors of James Madison Alden, the virtually undiscovered artist who recorded pre-settlement Washington and Oregon Territory for the 1854-1860 Northwest Coastal and 49th Parallel Surveys. Opening March 28 is a tremendously significant documentary on the famous 121-year-old King Ranch of South Texas. Photographs in the show were taken between 1939 and 1944 by noted New York photographer Toni Frissell. Ms. Frissell is the only photographer the Klebergs, King’s descendants and owners of the world-renowned ranch, have allowed to record the history and daily life there. The Amon Carter has organized this exhibition and is publishing the catalog, a book by Dallasite and former Time-Life writer Holland McCombs. No cattle ranching or Southwestern history aficionado will want to miss it.

A late spring treat is in store for those who were impressed at the Dallas museum’s Edgar Degas sculpture show a year-and-a-half ago with the way the 19th Century Frenchman captured the horse’s movements in bronze. The work of photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge is due at the ACM in May. Muybridge’s studies were influential not only for Degas, but also for overall development of photography, and for the scientific understanding of human and animal locomotion.

During the second half of the year the ACM will feature another major documentary exhibition. “The Big Bend: The Last Texas Frontier.” Dr. Ron Tyler of the museum’s curatorial staff is authoring the accompanying catalog, which will trace the history of one of the state’s most challenging, colorful and awe-inspiring regions from its early investigation by goldseeking Spaniards through its dedication as a national park. The show will draw upon both historical photographs and the contemporary work of Dallas photographer Bank Langmore.

The Kimbell Art Museum’s special Yuletide/New Year’s offering, the indescribably beautiful “Venetian Drawings from American Collections” enjoyed a fantastic community response before its Feb. 9 closing. Old Master draftsmanship remains a favorite with many people who admire the translucent washes, the bold ink cross-hatching, and the delicate chalk highlights of Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo drawings. Not every work in this show was a masterpiece, but the exhibit as a whole was certainly one of the most luscious ever to grace the walls of a Texas museum.

This spring, two new, splendid pieces of pre-Columbian ceramics will go on view for the first time, representing a small but significant alteration in the basically static Kimbell exhibit.

All in all, 1975 could be a watershed year in many ways for area museums, all with stabilized leadership for the first time in many months. Directors Richard Brown of the Kimbell and Mitchell Wilder of the Carter, aided as they are by excellent staffs, will undoubtedly deliver another year filled with effective programming, solid scholarship and active community participation.

Prediction is always a risky business, even more so in a situation involving imported talent. FWAM’s Koshalek is new (he took over in September), young (32), and very enthusiastic. However, few men excel in all things, and while Koshalek appears to be extremely creative in areas of innovative programming, community outreach and expanding museum services, I can’t help won-dering if the rumbles I hear among long-time FWAM watchers-who tend to substitute “impetuous” for “enthusiastic” – might not forebode trouble. If Koshalek does not overspend the budget, overburden the staff or facilities, or promise more than he can deliver (and unfortunately I’ve detected evidence that he needs to proceed with caution in all three areas), then the area can expect more exciting activity out of FWAM this year than possibly any other museum in the state.

The DMFA’s Parker, on the otherhand, probably has weathered duringhis first year as much of a storm as heis likely to encounter. Assuming thathe learned well any lessons offeredabout the museum trustees and theDallas community, this will mostlikely be the Dallas museum’s year toshine.