MIT Reports to the President 1997-98

LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER

The List Visual Arts Center's (LVAC) mission is to present, through changing exhibitions as well as the publicly sited Permanent Collection and the Student Loan Art Collection, the highest quality, most challenging art and design by professionals practicing in diverse media today and to provide additional educational programs which promote a broader appreciation of the ideas within contemporary visual expression.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

• LVAC staff participated in all-day retreat at Endicott House July 30, 1997 to evaluate program successes and strategies for innovation or improvement.
• LVAC received second consecutive organizational support grant of $15,000 from Massachusetts Cultural Council, the maximum amount awardable to university-affiliated museums.
• LVAC named "Best Gallery" in Boston Magazine's annual Best of Boston awards.
• Mirror Images: Women, Surrrealism and Self-Representation, LVAC's most ambitious exhibition, set attendance records and received unprecedented press coverage including a major (and favorable!) review in The New York Times.
• Katy Kline and Helaine Posner selected by USIA and Fund for Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions to organize a new installation by the artist Ann Hamilton in the American Pavilion at the next Venice Biennale.
• LVAC Advisory Committee met three times; major topics of discussion included new advertising and marketing initiatives, building signage, gala opening of Surrealism exhibition and building educational programs.
• LVAC and Bohen Foundation hosted well-attended publication party and book signing for Francesc Torres in Foundation's New York offices.
• Proposed outdoor signage plan to identify and direct visitors to LVAC presented by contracted graphic design firm Jon Roll Associates; approved by LVAC, Associate Provost for the Arts, LVAC Advisory Committee and returned to Planning Office for implementation.
• Art Acquisition Committee (newly constituted) met twice, to consider Department of Urban Studies and Planning's proposal to commission sculpture of giraffe by Nancy Schoen as memorial to late Prof. Donald Schoen (declined for Permanent Collection and returned to DUSP for their disposition within their own spaces) and proposal for seating sculpture by Mags Harries as latest chapter in ongoing Student Center 1% for Art Commission (approved with suggestions for improved siting).
• Photo archives of collection organized and entered on Registrar's database by intern Taro Nettleton (School of the Museum of Fine Arts); LVAC press archives organized by intern Megan McNamee (Wellesley College).

EXHIBITIONS

The Art of Detection: Surveillance in Society (Hayden and Reference Galleries, October 9 - December 28, 1997). An exhibition of video, photographic and installation work by artists addressing the role of institutional surveillance -- its pervasiveness, our responses to it and the new and sometimes invisible forms watching is afforded by the digital revolution. Catalog with essays by Timothy Druckrey and Jennifer Riddell published.

Recovering Lost Fictions: Caravaggio's `Musicians' (Bakalar Gallery, October 9 - December 28, 1997). A project by contemporary artists Joseph Grigely and Kathleen Gilje exploring the ways we authenticate, value and appreciate works of fine art, using a supposedly "restored" version of the Caravaggio painting The Musicians by painter/art restorer Gilje as a case study. Brochure published mimicking National Gallery of Art monographic studies of single works.

Francesc Torres: The Repository of Absent Flesh (Hayden Gallery, January 16 - March 22, 1998). Stretching the narrative aspect of installation art to its fullest, 20 unusual objects made or found by the artist were arrayed on metal tables throughout the gallery. Visitor movement triggered spotlights on the individual objects and the recorded narration of one of 20 short stories written by the artist in which the particular object figured in the overall construction of a fictional and emotional portrait of the history and warring ideologies of the 20th century. A hardcover book with an introduction by Arthur Danto containing the stories and photos of the objects was published. A second Torres installation, The Fury of the Saints, evoking physical and religious passion and struggle, was on view in the Reference Gallery from January 23 - March 22, 1998. Exhibition supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, Catalan Cultural Organization, Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the LEF Foundation.

The Squeeze Chair Project: Wendy Jacob with Temple Grandin (Bakalar Gallery, January 16 - March 22, 1998). Jacob, an artist who investigates aspects of physicality and touch and Grandin, the well-known autistic designer of humane animal handling apparatus, collaborated on the design of a mechanically operated, domestically upholstered armchair which applies a reassuring overall pressure to the sitter. Also on view were Grandin's designs for her original squeeze machine developed to calm her own autism, as well as her livestock chutes and animal handling devices. (Exhibition originated by the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism and Self-Representation (Hayden, Reference and Bakalar Galleries, April 9 - June 28, 1998). The first exhibition to present the self-portraits or self-representations of three generations of women Surrealist or Surrealist-influenced artists, included nearly 100 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures dating from 1928 to 1997 by 22 artists from north and central America, Europe and Japan. Jointly curated with Whitney Chadwick (art historian and author of the seminal study Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement) who also edited the 200-page, illustrated book containing essays by the curators and four cultural and art historians which was published by MIT Press. Support received from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, The Dorsky Foundation and Herb and Kitty Glantz.

EDUCATION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

• Lecture by Kathy Gilje on the history and biography of Caravaggio through five of his paintings which she has recreated.
• Public conversation between Wendy Jacob and Temple Grandin to overflow crowd in Bakalar Gallery and evening lecture/book signing by Temple Grandin in Rm 10-250 attracted large audience of artists, neurologists and parents of children with autism.
• Jon Roll repeated his popular IAP course on the organization and installation of contemporary art exhibitions.
• Francesc Torres discussed his recent installation work in a well-attended slide talk in Bartos Theater
• In addition to numerous gallery talks and tours to groups and art classes, Mirror Images educational events included an all-day symposium in a full-to-capacity Bartos Theater on April 25th, bringing three artists (Dorothy Cross, Paula Santiago and Rona Pondick) together with two academic 20th century art and cultural historians (Prof. Edward Sullivan, New York University and Prof. Judith Wilson, Yale University); conversations, questions and discussions moderated by Whitney Chadwick.
• A four-evening film and video series organized by Jennifer Riddell accompanied Mirror Images.

COLLECTIONS

Gifts to the collection numbering 27 works were made principally by Prof. Boris Magasanik and alumnus Roger and Joan Sonnabend; highlights include 11 prints and drawings by Boston artist Aaron Fink, together with his large painting Out for a Walk recently installed in the Whitaker Building atrium, as well as works by Bill Thompson, John Hoyland and Terence LaNoue. Thirteen works were purchased, including a color photograph by Uta Barth and prints by Ian McKeever, Louise Bourgeois and Yukinori Yanagi.

STAFF NEWS

• Helaine Posner resigned after seven years as LVAC curator to become Director of Exhibitions at the International Center of Photography in New York.
• After nearly 19 years at MIT and more than a decade as director of the List Center, Katy Kline announced her resignation, to take effect in October, 1998. She will become director of the Bowdoin College Art Museum in Brunswick, ME.
• Jennifer Riddell, Curatorial Fellow, completed the second year of her fellowship sponsored by the College Art Association; she has been appointed Assistant Curator effective July 1, 1998.
• Katy Kline, director, served as juror for the Delaware Art Museum Biennial and the Pew Charitable Trust's Philadelphia Exhibition Initiative. She advised the Tremaine Foundation on the establishment of a new granting program for curatorial projects and continues to serve on the Williams College Museum Advisory Board.
• Sabrina Detmar continues as part-time curatorial assistant, providing support in research, educational programs, exhibition talks and collection tours.

More information about the LVAC can be found at the following URL: http://web.mit.edu/lvac/www

Katy Kline

MIT Reports to the President 1997-98