Modern and Contemporary Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art / A Conversation with Matthew McLendon

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

Recently ARTDISTRICTS spoke with Matthew McLendon, the new associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. In his interview, McLendon acquainted readers with this valuable collection, which includes important works by Marcel Duchamp.

By Raisa Clavijo

Raisa Clavijo - The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is very well known for its extensive and prized collection of Old Masters. Its collection of modern and contemporary art is not regularly on view in the museum’s permanent exhibition halls and is not very well known. I would like you to provide details about this collection. How extensive is it? What artists does it include? How was it assembled?

Matthew McLendon - The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art has a long history of involvement with Modern and Contemporary art. We have an extensive modern and contemporary collection from the 1850s on, which has continued to grow throughout the years through both acquisition and gift. Gallery 21 is devoted entirely to 19th and early 20th century work from the Permanent Collection. It includes pieces by artists such as Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Robert Henri, Eugène Boudin, and Rosa Bonheur.

Chick Austin, The Museum’s first director, is a key figure in American museum history, having raised critical awareness of artists such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. He was also instrumental in bringing modern and contemporary art works to The Ringling Museum.

For much of the Ringling’s history, The Museum has had curators specifically focused on “modern” or “20th century” art. In my new role as Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art for The Ringling Museum of Art, I plan on building on their efforts and have a wide latitude to present new works. I oversee all works from 1850 forward, including exhibitions of works from this period.

Since joining The Ringling Museum of Art in February I have surveyed our modern and contemporary art inventory. Interestingly, I found we have a substantial collection comprising roughly 4,000 works of art from 1850 forward. To give you context, that’s nearly a third of the Museum’s entire art collection. So, contrary to popular belief, The Ringling has a Modern and Contemporary voice. My charge is to broaden awareness of our modern and contemporary collection, as well as showcase these, and new, works that will have visitors coming back to The Ringling Museum of Art time after time.

Dr. Matthew McLendon, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. All images are courtesy of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

RC- Is there an acquisition program at the museum specifically focused on increasing its modern and contemporary art collection?

MM- It’s an exciting time to be at The Ringling Museum of Art and leading the modern and contemporary program during a significant expansion in exhibition and program offerings. At this time, there is not a specific program devoted to acquiring Modern and Contemporary work, but that’s not to say that we are not acquiring works. The bigger picture is that we’re broadening our emphasis on our permanent collections and working closely with artists to profile their work at The Ringling Museum of Art.

The Museum is about to embark on construction of a Skyspace by James Turrell, which will be a permanent installation. We are excited to be adding such a significant work by this renowned artist to our collection. When finished, it will be the only Skyspace in Florida and one of only two public Skyspaces on the East Coast.

RC- Which works within the collection do you consider the most significant?

MM- We have a small, but important collection of works by Marcel Duchamp.  Everyday I am learning more and more about the Museum’s collection.

RC- Could you provide more details on this section of the collection?

MM- Yes, the Marcel Duchamp works are gifts from the Mary Sisler Foundation and include several of the 1964 life-time editions of earlier readymades such as Trébuchet (Trap), 50 cc air de Paris, and Pliant de voyage (Traveller’s Folding Item).

The collection also includes some of his early paintings like Portrait of Yvonne Duchamp-Villon from 1907. It shows Duchamp painting in a loose, impressionistic style that many would not associate with this revolutionary artist. Several of these paintings are quite awkward and not at all that successful from an aesthetic point of view. They are however important not for the skill they demonstrate, but rather as historical documents adding to our knowledge of the evolution of this great artist.
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RC- Does the Ringling Museum plan to design permanent halls devoted to the exhibition of its modern and contemporary art collection?

MM- In mid-June, The Museum will open two more galleries in our Searing Wing, which will become a permanent home for works from our Modern and Contemporary collection.

As I mentioned earlier, in early June we will begin construction on our James Turrell Skyspace, which we anticipate completing by mid-December.

RC- Tell me about the temporary exhibitions program that is being designed to show this collection to the public. Will these exhibitions travel to other museums inside and outside of the United States?

MM- We are currently evaluating the temporary exhibition programs and will share details as they are announced. Yes, I think it is very important that The Ringling Museum of Art partner with other institutions. Collaboration is an excellent way to maximize resources - both material and intellectual. The Ringling Museum of Art has regularly loaned works to exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and I certainly see that continuing. The Museum has truly fulfilled the Ringlings’ dream for a world-class museum that draws people from all over the world to Sarasota.

RC- What professional experience do you have in the curatorship of contemporary art? What does this opportunity signify for your professional career?

MM- Before coming to The Ringling Museum of Art, I was at The Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida.  There I was involved with a number of contemporary projects, including installations by New York artists Gandalf Gaván and Orly Genger, as well assisting with the L.C. Armstrong Paradise Triptychs exhibition.  One of the most gratifying projects I worked on at The Cornell was Andy Warhol Personalities. A focus show, it explored the Polaroid studies of celebrities and socialites that Warhol used for his sought-after portraits in the late 1970s to mid-1980s.  These exhibitions were in addition to a number of exhibitions I curated that dealt with art from earlier periods.

I completed my graduate work in London at The Courtauld Institute, and while there I was fortunate to work at Tate Britain. In 2002, I was responsible for the public programming supporting the Turner Prize, one of the most important contemporary art prizes. This certainly raised my awareness of how a diverse audience interacts with oftentimes intellectually difficult work.

I did my doctoral dissertation study on the manifestos of the Italian Futurists. While the focus was on the early-20th-century avant-garde, I approached them through the lens of post-modern theory. So I am very comfortable with the theoretical and philosophical issues at play in contemporary art, as well as grounded in the history of the 20th century - with which much contemporary art either explicitly or implicitly challenges.

My position at The Ringling Museum of Art presents every curator’s dream, a tabula rasa on which to build a dynamic exhibitions program. While modern and contemporary art have long been exhibited at The Ringling, I plan to infuse a more consistent presence in the exhibition profile.

I am also looking forward to working on the Turrell project, which is a great honor. With the addition of the Skyspace to The Ringling, we are continuing the bold vision, first of Mr. Ringling and then of Chick Austin, into the 21st century. The Ringling Museum of Art also gives me an opportunity to work closely with a group of very gifted colleagues across departments. We all work very closely with one another at The Museum and this has already proven very rewarding.

Yves Tanguy, The New Nomads (Les Nouveaux Nomades), 1935, Gift of the Estate of Kay Sage Tanguy, 1964.

RC- Could you provide the readers with some advance details about the exhibition program for the coming months?

MM- In mid-June, The Ringling Museum of Art will unveil an installation entitled “20th century Abstraction from the Ringling Collection.” Composed entirely of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art’s permanent collection, the gallery provides a glimpse at this watershed moment in the history of Western art featuring pieces by artists such as Vassily Kandinsky, Yves Tanguy and Frank Stella among others.

In 2011, The Museum will be opening an exhibition that will look at several artists who incorporate elements of hip-hop culture and street art into their work. I am really excited about this exhibition and hope that it will bring in a younger, more ethnically-diverse demographic to The Ringling Museum of Art.

RC- It was a pleasure speaking with you. Thanks for your time.

Raisa Clavijo is a curator and art critic. She is currently editor of ARTPULSE and ARTDISTRICTS magazines.