April 3, 2009

I visited an amazing place today – a private museum in the horsiest of horsy suburbs that is the home to a collection of the bluest of blue-chip post-WWII art amassed by the richest of rich 1980’s/90’s corporate takeover specialists. I will not mention the name of the place (call it The Manse) or the man (call him Mr. X) because visitors are requested not to write anything about their “experience” at the Manse. Not anything. I, of course, do not intend to give up my first amendment rights but I will make this effort to conceal the specifics because I do not relish the idea of being pursued by lawyers and I hope this will keep me off the google radar, anyway.
Let it be said from the outset; if there were no very very rich men, (and they were pretty much all men until the last 10 years, Isabella Stuart Gardner excepted) there would be no American art museums. Whatever the motives that move them, from pure public-spirited virtue to raging egomania and every shade in-between, their donations of art to public institutions over the past 200 years have formed our national patrimony.
So, what is it about this particular place that sets my teeth on edge? You reach it after driving through about 5 miles of Faux Chateaux territory. And I do mean chateaux; these places look like motels in Dubai. Eventually, you encounter a modernist guardhouse and a Truman Show -friendly guard who opens the gate if your name is on the list. You then enter the most manicured 125 acres you will ever see – the land has been contoured and each tree and bush placed in the most thoughtful possible way. It is beautiful and nothing about it is natural. On the left as you drive is a Richard Serra wall that looks like it has found the place it always wanted to be. Finally, you go over a bridge and into the cobbled courtyard of the white stone, glass and teak modernist Manse. Another Serra, this one one of the torqued ellipses that are scary/oppressive/moving to walk through. Very very impressive.
Visitors must make an appointment to see the Manse; it is open only on Fridays and parties are limited in size to a group small enough to be managed by the two curators who accompany you through the rooms like lovely black-clad highly-educated shepherds. We saw the second show that has been mounted, this one including art from the late 60’s and 70’s, a lot of three-dimensional work that plays with all kinds of materials and a good dollop of photography.
I’m not going to talk about individual pieces because that might cause them to try to discipline me. I will just say that this is all Important Art by Important Artists that has been assembled into an Important Collection. All men except for one terrific Eva Hesse piece. With the exception of a couple of great David Hammons pieces, there is nothing surprising. It all feels like lots and lots of money and I find it strangely cold and, with some exceptions like the aforementoned, largely un-moving. And then there's the part about trying to prohibit visitors from any public discussion of their "experience." That's just plain uber-control freak and I react very badly to it. But maybe that’s just me.