Letters to Artvoice

THE ALBRIGHT-KNOX ART SALE

These are my thoughts regarding the impending sale of the masterpieces from the collection of Buffalo’s gallery, the AKAG, formerly known as the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy.

I’m aware that most decisions made by bureaucrats, politicians and institutions comprise various tradeoffs. What is the AKAG trading off and what is Buffalo gaining in return? Strangely, the evolutionary name changes of the gallery over time might be prophetic. Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, now simply AKAG. Kind of reminds me of Kentucky Fried Chicken—KFC, Burger King—BK, McDonald’s—Mickey D’s, etc. So you get the picture. Basically, we’re trading off a gallery that always, reverently, id sparingly, recapitulated the artistic achievements of humankind from the earliest civilizations to the present. Now I’m told that the “core mission” is, and always was, to display contemporary art. I should believe, as do the board of directors, that the next 30 years would produce a body of artwork to match the last 3,000. I find that reasoning highly misguided if not brazenly arrogant.

As a sculpture student a quarter century ago at Buffalo State College and the University at Buffalo I was a frequent visitor to the marble halls, seeking artistic inspiration. Never did I consider the AKAG to be a “niche gallery.” That is, one devoted to a specific genre of art. Obviously, the modern collection was breathtaking and I worshipped Brancusi, Noguchi, Hepworth, Mondrian and the rest. Nevertheless, what magnificent drapery adorned the Roman poet. I can remember the exquisite Greek male torso, also in marble, which could hold its own with any at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Both of these works, along with the bronze Artemis, I considered my old professors. My 2,000-year-old professors. Maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough, but when was the last time I saw Hiram Powers’ lovely carved bust of Prospertine?

What I have seen are rectangles and circles. I’ve seen blobs and drips. And manifestoes. No work in the old Asian Gallery needed a manifesto or an explanation. All these works lived and breathed, like Artemis and her stag. For many others, and myself, I reckon this sale, sadly, will be reminiscent of another anachronism of history, the old Roman slave market.

David Derner

Buffalo

Recently I’ve felt that the Albright-Knox has been living between two worlds—one a place that remained rooted in what was, the other a place where art moves forward—and that it wasn’t fully present in either. I am delighted that a decision to move onward has been made. It is always sad to lose valued works of art but, for me, that is more than balanced by the new work that will be added to the collection. Work from the past few decades is underrepresented and that contributes to difficulty in understanding and following the trajectory of contemporary art. (This comes from someone whose favorite, can’t-miss-seeing piece at the AKAG is the 2800-2100 B.C. Cycladic Figure of a Woman) It is a shame that Buffalo doesn’t have two art museums- one more traditional and one contemporary. But it doesn’t. And change is exciting.

Donna Fierle

East Aurora

Geoff Kelly’s very searching article (“Going, Going…” Artvoice v5n47) characterizing the Albright-Knox deaccession situation shined a light on the way critical decisions with wide-ranging implications are taken behind closed doors. Along with the “Letters” in the same issue it has opened the matter to public discussion. The numinous sculpture of Artemis and the stag seems to have become the emblem of challenge to the decision. Eloquent as it is, along with other signature objects that “don’t present a comprehensive history of art,” it is deemed outside the “core mission” of the gallery. The idea of the mission of this gallery seems to me to have been tweaked—to suggest that it means dedicating the collection to modern and contemporary works, rather than to actively (and judiciously) acquiring such works for the excellent existing collection. After all, they are part of the same broad enterprise.

Ideally the present deaccession project should be abandoned, or at least be put in abeyance. The six years of strategic planning could serve to create a special exhibit of all the pieces proposed for sale, arranged together in the gallery. They would make a very fine showing, I am sure! In connection with the exhibit, an illustrated catalog could also be produced. Aaron Perrone’s letter said of the African collection designated for outplacement: “Let’s see it!” Right! As for the Chinese works also set to go, although they may not comprise as coherent a collection as that at the Natural History Museum, the Chinese material there—unlike that at Albright-Knox—was not on display when I went to see it four or five years ago. No doubt access for art community professionals could be arranged. But the larger mission of a gallery is to show the objects in such a way as to sustain the intellectual and emotional relation of art to visitors from the local community and from outside. The Albright-Knox, as an institution and a collection, already has an identity as part of Buffalo history, and collections can be rationalized in many different ways—including in the minds of individual visitors.

Just as a coda, let me refer to the falling value of the US dollar which would give an advantage to foreign buyers. Not only would the works be scattered, they might also return to Europe and Asia—from which they originally came and which we always need to be reminded of.

Deborah White

Cambridge, Massachusetts