3 0 W i i I c i I 9 9 J C I T E

40

i

If/// ,'i c |

1 P R ^ ar

•

Contemporary Arts Assottalion (now Iho Contemporary Arts Museum), 302 Polios, MarKie t Komrath, orthilurli, 1949, demolished.

I

hlemt Ho) Taboo: An fikioi'Jion of Piimiim All, 1959, Jermayrie MacAgy, curator. Cull nan Hall, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnel, ludwig Mies von der Rohe with Sloub, Rather £ Howie, architects, 1958.

S E E I N G W A S B E L I E V I N G : I N S T A L L A T I O N S OF J E R M A Y NE M a c A G Y

AND JAMES J 0 H N S 0

SWEENEY L y n n H e r b e r t

ffornonric Agony: from Goyo lo de Arts Aisocialian.

1959, Jeimnyne Mot Agy, curator. Contemporary

C I T E W i o l t i 1 9 9 / 99 1 31

j

fl" 1"

flu' HI'IOK fteri; Pom 1901-1914, I 965 Jamil Johnson Sweeney, curator, Cullinan Hall, The Museum of fine Arts, Houston.

On October 10, I95K, The Museum ol Fine Arts. I louston opened Lud-wig Mies van der Ruhr's Cullinan

I l.ill, a new winj ; situated on the north side of the original building. This wns more than |nst another new wing added on to yet another ambitions and burgeon-ing urban museum, From a curatorial point of view, that da) carried with it all the thrill and anticipation one might experience at the opening ol an Ol) mpic Games, when a state-of-the-art arena opens its doors to the very best athletes tin Id days ol glory. In this ease, it was to be nine years ol glory. |erinayne MacAgy and James Johnson Sweeney, two curators in rlieir prime, were poised to create a series ol unforgettable exhibi-tion installations in thai magnificent hall.

Four years earlier, Nina Cullinan, daughter ol Texaco founder |. S. Cullinan and a prominent patron of the arts, announced her intention to donate the funds for ;i major architectural addition to I he Museum ol Fine Arts m memor) "\ her parents. I ler gift bad two stipula-tions: the addition was to be designed b> an architect of outstanding reputation, and it was to be made available to the Contemporary Arts Association (known today as the Contemporary Arts Mu-seum) tor occasional exhibitions. Both stipulations were honored.

The museum chose Ludwig Mies van der Kobe as its architect, and he designed a hall thai was at once big. bold, and

magnificent as well as a jewel of exquis-ite proportions. Mies brought the majesty of the outdoors inside with a voluminous hall ol 1(1,001) square feet and i l l foot ceilings, a north facade of floor-to-ceiling windows, ami a green Venetian terrazzo floor that seemed to flow directly into the Iront lawn. Edward Mayo, the museum's registrar from 1961 to 1986, has remarked, "There was a certain joy that came from |iist standing in Cullinan Na i l . " ' Architectural histori-an Vincent Scully praised its "noble vol-umes of imthreatened space," and art his-torian Dore Ashton wrote that it was "proportioned so finely that the room irselt is like a work of an , a sculptured concept of voids."2 Such high praise for the architect, in eltect threw down the gauntlet for curators who would come to work in the hall. I low was one to install an exhibition in a hall that itself was a finished masterpiece? Alter a few less than successful fits and starts, Houston Chronicle critic Ann Holmes determined, "The hall is going to demand a more dramatic approach to exhibitions than any museum in these parts has been allowed to consider before." ' Enter Jcr-mayne MacAgy.

MacAgy came to I louston as director of the Contemporary Arts Association in 1955. Previously she had spent 14 years at the the California Palace of the Legion ol I lonor in San f raucisco. serving in positions ranging from curator to acting

| f e

totems fhl Taboo, I9S9.

C I T E 32 W I! I 9 9

Thr« Sponmrdi: Piiaiso, Mita, Chillida, I 1 6 ! . Jomrs Johnton Sweeney, turotor, with Pablo Piioiso's Salheti oround o pool in front ol Cullinon Hall,

i ' ' ' •' 4

-/

Dp* Common Denominotot: Modtm Design, 3500 BX.-I95S A.0., 1958, Jtrmnynt MoiAgy. turaloi, Conltmporoiy Arri Atiociolion.

director. There she became known lor lu*r catholic and unerring eye, her dra-matic installations, and her prescient visum lor the educational role ot exhibi-tions. In I lonsron, MacAgy hit the {•round running with one memorable exhibition alter another.

At that rime, the i ontemporary Arts Association was housed in a small tem-porary building designed in I'M1' bj MacKie & Kamrath, whose work was strongly influenced by Frank l.loyd Wright. Despite the building's asseruve sloping roof, MacAgy reinvented the space again and again with her dramatic and eclectic flair and her unique reper-toire ol installation devices that included potted plants, beds of gravel and hark, temporary partitions, scrims, theatrical lighting, and pedestals of all shapes and sizes combined in unusual ways.

With such exhibitions as Mark Rotkka 11957), The Trojan Horn:- The Art of the Machine ( I95N), The Common Denominator: Modern Design, ISOO B.C.-19S8 A.D. (1958), and Romantic Ai>tiiiy: irtiin Coyi! to ,lc Kooning I1959), MacAgy transformed the A-Irame building like a skilled theatrical set designer. As Dominique de Meiii l pointed out, "Each of her installations produced an atmospheric miracle, which set the work of an in such a light that it would shine ^nd talk to anyone who would care to look and listen."'4

Totems Not Taboo: An Exhibition of Primitive Art (19591 was MacAgy's first installation in Cullman Hall, and under her direction the hall came alive. Objects

garnered from around the world stood like proud sentries at multiple levels on tall pedestals amid elevated walkways and islands of gravel floating in the hall's green sea ol terra//!). I it up at night, it looked like ,i staged grand finale, with the whole cast of characters present, proudly waiting to take a bow. The exhi-bition was so popular that its closing date was extended. Kene d'l larnoncourt, director ol the Museum ol Modern Art, said it was one of the three most excep tional installations he had ever seen/ liuckmiuister fuller scut MacAgy an enthusiastic telegram in his inimitable prose: "Unable to reach you [by] tele-phone to tell win your lotcm-Not'TaboO occasioned my personally most excitingly important exhibition experience in re-spett to total associative conceptioning and competence ol mounting, cataloging and comprehensive environmental con-siderations and event anticipations which went right out through its walls into the community and the nation and our his-toric times. . . . You celebrate the opening of a new era ol man's enjoyment ol knowledge concerning his whole history around earth."h

In 1959, MacAgy left her post at the Contemporary Arts Museum to teach art history and curate exhibitions for the University of St. Thomas, f rom there she curated three more exhibitions in Cullman Hall. Her installation lor The Lively Arts of the Renaissance (I9M)) suggested a Renaissance garden. In the catalog, MacAgy wrote: " I t is hoped that this installation immediately suggests to the visitor the ambience — rather than a detailed rendering — ol the selling in which the objects existed. We have nut transformed Cullman f la i l into a Renais sauce ANYTI I INC: We have merely put objects intimate to the Renaissance man and woman in a simple installation, which contains some basic elements ol Renaissance architectural design — just enough to put a feeling in the bones of the viewer." Because Cullinan Hall's entire north lace was glass and its ceilings were .?() feet high, the lighting of exhibi-tions was always a problem, but in Emm Cauguin In Corky 11961) MacAgy col-laborated with architect I Inward Uarn-StOne to create a syslcm ot rooms within

the hall with dramatic lighting emanating from the lloor. Ami lor Kene Magritte m America I1961) MacAgy added occasion al boulders (not unlike those found in Magritte's paintings) and used temporary walls and scrims to set the tone.

Each MacAgy installation was

C I T E W i n e H I I B 33

unique, and its understatement belied her though t fu l and demand ing . lpproach . \s -.lie herself exp la ined; " A n exh ib i t

should In- more or less l ike a well-dressed woman — tun clothes fo r the c lo thes ' sake, but for the fur ther i l l um ina t i on o f the lady's d is t ingu ish ing charactenst ies, h i create an au ra , an atmosphere belong-ing personal ly to the objects , rather than merely bu i l d ing an edifiee against wh ich the objects look w e l l , is the pur -pose of the Museum's ins ta l la t ion plans. And yet this is not t o say that the sett ing should not look w e l l , perhaps even hand-some, sometimes elegant, sometimes c o m m a n d i n g , but at a l l t imes subservient act ing w i t h and a lways evok ing the innateness o f the thmgs exh ib i ted , . . , I n use the same insta l la t ion fo r one exh ib i t ion and tor the one immedia te ly f o l l o w i n g was l ike a person wear ing someone else's s lmes . " s

James Johnson Sweeney came to Hous ton in \1>M) as the th i rd d i rector of The Museum ol I ine A i l s and soon began to generate his o w n f o r m of excite-ment in C u l l m a n I k i l l . A n in ternat iona l l y k n o w n f igure in the ar ts , Sweeney had been associated w i t h the Museum o i M o d e m Ar t almost f r o m the t ime of its open ing in I 1 ' ! 1 ' M\A was the d i rec tor o f the Depar tment o i Paint ing and Sculpture t h e r e f r o m 1945 to ILJ 4 f i . Russell I yncs noted that at M o M A , Sweeney " w a s wide ly k n o w n in the ar t w o r l d not on ly as a cr i t ic and scholar bur as a fiercely met icu lous arranger o f pa int ings and sculpture for exh ib i t i on . ' " ' ' Sweeney went on to serve as the d i rec tor o f the Solomon K. Guggenheim Museum from l l>s2 to l % ( ) , an i l upon his resignat ion there he came to Hous ton .

Cha l leng ing spaces were not new to Sweeney, w h o had bat t led Frank L loyd Wr igh t d u r i n g the bu i l d ing of the Guggenheim. " I have had a l i t t le exper i -ence w i t h d i f f i cu l t bu i ld ings. 1 admire Mies and f ind his hal l i nv i t i ng by c o m -p a r i s o n . " 1 " l o r Sweeney's first show in Cu l l i nan H a l l , Deram: Ik-fore 1915 (1962) , he used the p la t f o rm ami par t i -t ion system that M ies ' s off ice had de-signed for Cu l l i nan Hal l 's opening. I lis dissat isfact ion led h im to try o ther meth ods " I exh ib i t i ng art in the chal lenging ha l l , and , w i t h Three S/iaiitarils; I'ieassti, MmS, Chillida (1962), he debuted a method of ins ta l l ing w o r k s that wo rked magically in Mies's vo luminous space — hanging the paint ings f r o m the ce i l ing. " A s a result, in the dense space o l C u l l i -nan I f a l l , the paint ings appeared to t ran-scend the force ot grav i ty ami f loat free

The Olmci Tradition, 1963, Junes Johnson Sweeney, (Uioloi. Olmec head installed in Itonl oi Cullinan Hall.

in its numinous rolume."'' f l o a t i n g paint ings in Cu l l i nan I laII

became a Sweeney t rademark , as d id spare insta l la t ions w i t h a few met iculous-ly chosen wo rks . These of ten showcased wo rks Sweeney hoped to add to the museum's co l lec t ion , as in Six Master Paintings, Two Classes, One Sculpture ( l l ' f t . l f . Such m i n i m a l instal lat ions took chutzpa, and Sweeney proved to have plenty. For Three Spaniards, Sweeney instal led a pool in hou r of C u l l m a n Ha l l complete w i t h d i v i ng boa rd , 1 he 10-by-I S tour poo l looked "deep as the o c e a n " and Sweeney arranged 1'icasso's bronze lialhers in and a round i t . I J Sweeney was also no to r ious for Ins use o i plants. For each ins ta l la t ion . Sweeney's p lant man w o u l d back up t w o or three t rucks to the museum, un load a round 100 p lants , and move them a round the gal lery for Sweeney, w h o w o u l d then pick only five o r six. A n extravagance, perhaps, but he a lways chose just the r ight ones.

As part of his TJ6.1 exh ib i t i on The Olmec Tradition, Sweeney placed a I d -ton, nine-foot-tall Olmec head on the lawn in f r om ot ( nil man H a l l . This was no easy fear physical ly or po l i t ica l ly . The head was the last o f such 1 a Vcuta-style heads sti l l i)i situ, ani l the Na t iona l

Museum of H is to ry and An th ropo log y in Mex i co C i t y wanted i t . Angry vi l lagers and the rainy season aside, an undaunted Sweeney enlisted the U.S. and Mex i ca n governments , the Mex i can navy, and engineer ing muscle f r om B r o wn & Root to b r ing this nat iona l treasure to the cor-ner of BlSSOnnet ani l M o n t r o s e . ' l The head was brea th tak ing and unforget tab le , ami Sweeney found a way to convey its magni f icence far f r om its o r ig ina l site.

The Heroic Years: Paris 1908-1914 11965) .lnil Sam Francis Retrospective [ 1967) were among Sweeney's last instal-lat ions in Cu l l i nan 1 la l l . By then he hai l mastered the ba l l , ac t ivat ing every cubic inch, p lay ing it l ike a v i r tuoso , and l i v i ng up to his o w n cr i ter ia tor a m e x h i b i t i o n : " h shou ld be immediate ly sensuous, superf ic ial ly decorat ive, an i l fundamen-tal ly c r i t i ca l . I want it to hi t you in the eye MiA ho ld you , so you look at the pic-tures, whose selection and arrangement is a cr i t ica l ac t . " 1 ' 1

lames |ohnson Sweeney resigned as fu l l t ime d i rec tor o f the M I A in 1967, ani l Jermayne M a c A g y diei l ,\n unt imely death m \L>hA. by W~\ cons t ruc t ion was t inder way lor the b r o w n Pav i l ion, the next step in Mies's p lan , w h i c h enclosed the no r th end o l C u l l m a n 1 l a l l , changing

ii lorever and m a r k i n g the end of an era. These had been heady days for the visual arts in H o u s t o n . M a c A g y and Sweeney, t w o celebrated pract i t ioners of their c ra f t , hai l put I lous ton on the cu l -tu ra l m a p w i t h one memorab le es lnb i t i on after another. H o w fo r tuna te it was that d u r i n g their br ief t ime in 1 l ous ton , they hai l a p lay ing f ield as magni f icent as Cu l l i nan H a l l .

Today Cu l l i nan Ha l l is in some ways l ike an o l d racehorse that has been put ou t to pasture. It st i l l has a job to do (exh ib i t ions , galas, shop sales, and b lock-buster queues), but its days ot glory w i t h M a c A g y and Sweeney at the he lm are now lbe stuff of legend, a

i l dward Mayo, conversation with the author, September I 7 , l ^ 7 .

2, Stephen |-o\, " Ilu Miiwuni " i I me Arts. Houston: An Architectural History, 1924—1986 — A special Bulletin," Museum ol I inc Arts Hullrim, April 1992, vd. XV, no*. 1-2, p. 95. AN,, Dore A-li ton, "Sweetie) Revisited," Studio, September 194 I, p. I I I .

t. Ann Holmes, " l nllin.lil SflOW Sllorl nil Impact," Itniattm (hnmicle, October 24, \<>5X.

4, Dominique Je Menil, "Jermayne Mat Agy," in ftrmaytu MacAgy: A Ltft Illustrated by on Exhi-

bition (Houston: University ot St, Thomas, Is'hKi, p. in.

5. I I I . IHIT I reed, "A I ire Illustrated," revii w, Houston Pott, November 24, 1968.

(,. Buckminisrct Hullei to Jermayne M.u Any, Feb-III.in Js, 1959, Menil Collection Archives.

T, The I irv/y An- .if (/•<• Renaissani i . exhibition catalog (Houston: Museum "I Pine Art-,. I960).

S. [ermayne MacAgy, ' 4ttifomla Legion of Ittmiir Bulletin, May-June 1953, vd . l l .nos. I U 2, .is quoted in lermayne w.i Igy; l life Illustrated by .m I tbibition, p. 21.

9. Russell I ynes, Good < >U Modern (New Ynrlc Athcneum, 19731, p. 272.

It). Ann Holmes, "Now, Sweeney's Slam on Houston," Houston Chronicle, |anuarv I I . 1961 Sweeney ll.nl known Mies suite 1933, when the) were introduced b) I'hilip |obnson.

11, l-'ox "Museums" p. Lis; Ashron, "Swcencj " p, m i .

12. Rdward Mayo conversation with author, Sep-tember I". I4>'i~. rhe pod was somewhat problem-atic .is the lagged bits ol gravel surrounding it pierced the plastk lining,causing le.iks. Ilu- pool li.nl In be refilled everv da) and was u l i n e j twu ol tliree nines during tin- course ni ihe exhibit ion.

I ' I lie.insb.imp, "James lohnsnn Sweene) .inJ the Museum til Fine Arts, I louston: P'n I-1967," masters thesis, the IInivcrsity *>t tes.is ii Austin, August 1983, p. Ills, rhe Olmec head was returned t<> Mexico in I9n4 and is in the collection ni tin National Museum ol History and Anthropolo gy in Mexico i i >

14. Mine I n i l , l u m i . "A Museum lakes on .1 V is I n . . " x,»- York rimes, March 1. 1953.