February 22, 2023
Object Lessons in American Art
Karl Kusserow
Wilmerding Curator of American Art, Princeton University Art Museum
Introducer: Marge D'Amigo / Speaker Karl Kusserow
Minutes of the 20th Meeting of the 81st Year
President John Cotton called the virtual meeting to order at 10:15 AM, and Joan Fleming read the minutes for the previous week. President Cotton introduced the following guests:
Michael Kaplan’s guest: Audrey Cohen
Ralph Widner’s guests: Anton and Alison Lahnston
Christine Danser’s guest: Joyce Felsenfeld
Ferris Olin’s guest: Judith Brodsky
Robert Teweles’s guest: Karen Dandurand
There were 117 unique views on Zoom.
Marge D’Amico introduced the speaker, Karl Kusserow, the John Wilmerding Curator of American Art at the Princeton University Art Museum, whose topic was “Object Lessons in American Art,” the title of his new traveling exhibition. With over 17 years’ experience at the museum, Dr. Kusserow has been actively engaged in the question of what exactly it means when we say “American Art.” The goal is that it become more inclusionary, that it move beyond its traditionally narrow focus on works by Anglo-American white males in order to redress issues of social injustice. Dr. Kusserow has used “Object Lessons,” “the study of material to communicate and embody idea,” in an earlier show entitled “American Art and the Environment”; for this new exhibition, he expands his scope to include issues of race and gender.
The Princeton Art Museum is currently closed for reconstruction, during which time its exhibition space will double in size. This new show has been arranged to travel to three different venues during the reconstruction, returning home for the museum’s reopening in the Fall of 2024.
With the aid of an excellent PowerPoint presentation drawn directly from the exhibition catalogue, Dr. Kusserow gave several examples of how contemporary perspectives can inform the art of the past and challenge the viewer in more thoughtful ways. Regrouping works from different periods, four to six at a time, allows the viewer, through concatenation and juxtaposition, a broader vision and understanding. Similar restructuring will be used in the new museum’s American Pavilion, in keeping with approaches adopted at many other contemporary museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A desire for inclusion is further manifest in the selection of the contributors, who now comprise 50% people of color and 50% women. In addition, the purview of the collection has been broadened to include 18thcentury cultural production beyond the United States.
The power and impact of this new vision is immediately apparent on the cover of the catalogue with the selection of a painting by Jamaican American artist Renée Cox, known for her provocative work that addresses racism and sexism in society. Cox’s reimagining of the painting, “The Signing of the Constitution” by Howard Chandler Christy, consists only of people of color and both men and women, unlike the original painting (and actual convention) that included only white men. Additionally ironic is the replacement of the figure of George Washington by a self-portrait of the artist, herself, and the image of the South Carolina delegate Charles Pickney, the proponent of the “3/5 clause,” assessing the value of a Black man at 3/5 that of a white, now replaced by a Black. Cox’s America can now be seen in all its plurality.
The titles of the new groupings reflect their widened scope, including “God and Mammon,” “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists,” “Gender Trouble,” and “Redress.” An example from “God and Mammon” includes four works about George Washington that demonstrate how our ideas in visual culture change from our position: a portrait by Charles Wilson Peale, painted from life, shows Washington as a distinguished, accessible human; a sculpture by William Rush represents him as more stone-faced, more removed and heroic; a painting by Rembrandt Peale portrays him as a more quasi-godlike figure; and a 19th century image by Luke Dillon focuses on the ruined slave quarters at Washington’s Mt. Vernon home.
In closing, Dr. Kusserow reiterated that ideas about art and culture are continuing to change and that we will continue to reinterpret what we have, working towards an even more inclusionary collection in the future. Lastly, Dr. Kusserow reassured us that Sargent’s portrait of Mrs. Marquand, the mother of the first director of the Princeton Art Museum, will be given pride of place in the Welcome Gallery of the new building.
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha Levin-Rojer
Michael Kaplan’s guest: Audrey Cohen
Ralph Widner’s guests: Anton and Alison Lahnston
Christine Danser’s guest: Joyce Felsenfeld
Ferris Olin’s guest: Judith Brodsky
Robert Teweles’s guest: Karen Dandurand
There were 117 unique views on Zoom.
Marge D’Amico introduced the speaker, Karl Kusserow, the John Wilmerding Curator of American Art at the Princeton University Art Museum, whose topic was “Object Lessons in American Art,” the title of his new traveling exhibition. With over 17 years’ experience at the museum, Dr. Kusserow has been actively engaged in the question of what exactly it means when we say “American Art.” The goal is that it become more inclusionary, that it move beyond its traditionally narrow focus on works by Anglo-American white males in order to redress issues of social injustice. Dr. Kusserow has used “Object Lessons,” “the study of material to communicate and embody idea,” in an earlier show entitled “American Art and the Environment”; for this new exhibition, he expands his scope to include issues of race and gender.
The Princeton Art Museum is currently closed for reconstruction, during which time its exhibition space will double in size. This new show has been arranged to travel to three different venues during the reconstruction, returning home for the museum’s reopening in the Fall of 2024.
With the aid of an excellent PowerPoint presentation drawn directly from the exhibition catalogue, Dr. Kusserow gave several examples of how contemporary perspectives can inform the art of the past and challenge the viewer in more thoughtful ways. Regrouping works from different periods, four to six at a time, allows the viewer, through concatenation and juxtaposition, a broader vision and understanding. Similar restructuring will be used in the new museum’s American Pavilion, in keeping with approaches adopted at many other contemporary museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A desire for inclusion is further manifest in the selection of the contributors, who now comprise 50% people of color and 50% women. In addition, the purview of the collection has been broadened to include 18thcentury cultural production beyond the United States.
The power and impact of this new vision is immediately apparent on the cover of the catalogue with the selection of a painting by Jamaican American artist Renée Cox, known for her provocative work that addresses racism and sexism in society. Cox’s reimagining of the painting, “The Signing of the Constitution” by Howard Chandler Christy, consists only of people of color and both men and women, unlike the original painting (and actual convention) that included only white men. Additionally ironic is the replacement of the figure of George Washington by a self-portrait of the artist, herself, and the image of the South Carolina delegate Charles Pickney, the proponent of the “3/5 clause,” assessing the value of a Black man at 3/5 that of a white, now replaced by a Black. Cox’s America can now be seen in all its plurality.
The titles of the new groupings reflect their widened scope, including “God and Mammon,” “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists,” “Gender Trouble,” and “Redress.” An example from “God and Mammon” includes four works about George Washington that demonstrate how our ideas in visual culture change from our position: a portrait by Charles Wilson Peale, painted from life, shows Washington as a distinguished, accessible human; a sculpture by William Rush represents him as more stone-faced, more removed and heroic; a painting by Rembrandt Peale portrays him as a more quasi-godlike figure; and a 19th century image by Luke Dillon focuses on the ruined slave quarters at Washington’s Mt. Vernon home.
In closing, Dr. Kusserow reiterated that ideas about art and culture are continuing to change and that we will continue to reinterpret what we have, working towards an even more inclusionary collection in the future. Lastly, Dr. Kusserow reassured us that Sargent’s portrait of Mrs. Marquand, the mother of the first director of the Princeton Art Museum, will be given pride of place in the Welcome Gallery of the new building.
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha Levin-Rojer