7 - 13 June 2001
Issue No.537
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Plain talk
New York guide books describe the Dahesh Museum as "a jewel box." Situated on Fifth Avenue and 48th Street this is the only Arab museum in the US, the brain child of the leading Lebanese writer Salem Moussa Ach'i better known as Dr Dahesh.
The museum was officially opened in 1995. It covers its running costs by being the beneficiary of a $30 million endowment. With 2,700 19th and 20th century works, most of them firmly academic, and covering anything from bucolic landscapes to set-piece treatments of historical themes, it is, within its chosen specialisation, on par with museums such as the Guggenheim.
I have had the pleasure of visiting the museum on several occasions. A self-appointed classicist, to me the museum was like an oasis in the deserts of modern art. At one point I even gave a lecture to mark the inauguration of a splendid exhibition of Orientalist paintings.
The museum has been in the news these days, not least because its administration is attempting to up the profile of the institution, and is seeking to acquire a more visible location for its collections. Indeed, it made a bid for the former Hartford Gallery of Modern Art in Columbus Circle, engaging in a battle with Donald Trump. The entrepreneur wanted to turn the art gallery into a trade centre. In an unlikely result, it was the Dahesh administration that won the battle. The museum is due to open in 18 months at Columbus Circle.
The move will enable the administration to exhibit a much larger selection of the museum's extensive collections, many of which have been in storage owing to space limitations.
The Dahesh Museum is more than a gallery for the display of painting. Its mission is "to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret European academic art of the 19th and early 20th century." It is the only museum in the US dedicated to this academic tradition. Among the painters represented are W A Bouguereau, Lord Leighton, Jean-Leon Gerome, Edwin Long and Alexandre Cabanel. They were artists who enjoyed enormous reputations during their lifetimes, and whose importance is now being reassessed after a temporary eclipse during the twentieth century.
What characterises the exhibitions mounted by the museum is their thematic focus. They have covered many important aspects of the academic tradition, including the annual exhibitions at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy. One such exhibition, French Oil Sketches and the Academic Tradition, presented 80 superb paintings from the world's finest collection of this kind.
The Dahesh Museum is firmly committed to the tasks of interpreting works and educating the public. It organises lectures and talks by scholars to supply a cultural and historical context for each exhibition. It also arranges scholarly symposia on topics like Orientalism and organises guided-tours for school children of all ages: there are story-telling sessions, musical programmes and even educational packages for school teachers.
Until 29 September an exhibition entitled Telling Stories will be taking place at the Dahesh Museum. It is the first instalment of a two-part exhibition exploring the impact of Graeco-Roman culture on 19th century artists. The first part includes 35 paintings, drawings, lithographs and sculptures selected from the Dahesh collection.
Among the works on show are Antoine Louis Bary's Theseus Combating the Centaur, Henry Pierre Picou's Andromeda Chained to a Rock, Alma Tameda's A Staircase, Bouguereau's The Water Girl, Henri Codet's Sculpture of Cupid and Psyche and many others. It should provide a fascinating introduction to one of the great obsessions of 19th century academic artists, and will, I am sure, be as successful as previous Dahesh exhibitions. If you are lucky enough to be in New York during this period I cannot recommend too highly a trip to this jewel-like collection. You are unlikely to be disappointed -- indeed, it is virtually guaranteed that you will emerge from the show as much of a fan as I have become.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page