Two paintings by Emily Carr
Emily Carr is one of Canada’s best-known artists, but the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has held few of her works until now. These two paintings were acquired by the paternal and maternal grandmothers of the brothers Ian and Andrew Burchett, who have donated them to the gallery along with a number of other Canadian paintings from their family’s collection. The works date to two distinct moments of Carr’s career: the earlier, from around 1907, depicts a Nisga’a totem pole reflecting Carr’s long interest in indigenous Canadian communities; the later, an untitled landscape thought to date to the early 1930s, evinces the post-Impressionist influences Carr picked up during her studies in France.
November 24, 2020 at 3:49 pm EST | by Parker Purifoy
Smithsonian continues virtual tours as museums close
(Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Museum of Art)
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the D.C. metro area, the Smithsonian Museums have all temporarily closed. In lieu of opening its doors, many of the museums are instead offering virtual tours of their galleries and exhibits. These virtual tours are free and available at any time on the organization’s website. Those who are interested can explore the National Portrait Gallery’s presidential portrait collection, and the Smithsonian Garden’s varieties of plants, among others.
by Jasmyne Keimig • Dec 14, 2020 at 8:55 am
With the way things are going, it might be a while before we re all able to do this again. Courtesy of SAM/L. Fried
This year has been rough for everyone, and that includes art institutions. With government-mandated closures, reduced capacity, and weary art patrons, museums are collectively looking at a potential loss of close to $30 billion. One survey found 30% of museums are unsure if they ll make it through the pandemic. That could mean no more rainy Sunday afternoons wandering around a museum and overthinking 139-year-old bubbles.
This crisis has also spawned a debate over deaccessioning, the process through which museums sell off pieces in their collections to raise funds. In April, the Association of Art Museum Directors loosened regulations around the practice to allow more financial flexibility. Museums like the Baltimore Museum of Art, Everson Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum
For the record:
11:33 AM, Dec. 11, 2020An earlier version of this post said the Palm Springs Art Museum is in Florida. It is in California.
The deaccessioning of artworks from a museum’s permanent collection is widely and deeply frowned upon. Times critic Christopher Knight called MoLAA’s mass unloading of work by artists from Central and South America, Cuba, Mexico and the United States “a virtual fire sale of art” that was an “unprecedented bulk-removal of works from the museum’s collection.”
MoLAA’s collection consisted of 1,333 objects, so the auction at which 44 of the 59 key works actually sold amounted to a reduction of about 3.3%.