Art Collections Research Articles

Public art and private wealth: the controversial collaboration between the National Museum in Norway and Fredriksen Family Art Company Ltd

ABSTRACT There has been much discussion in the US and European media about the evolving relationship between wealthy private art collectors and underfunded public art museums. This paper examines the public debate regarding the ten-year loan agreement between the National Museum in Norway and the Fredriksen Family Art Company Limited. The agreement was exposed to harsh criticism from actors within the art world when it became known to the public in June 2019. Based on an analysis of newspaper articles from when this was a hot topic in the public debate, we investigate the dynamics of the debate and seek to understand why it became such a contested issue. This study shows that the Norwegian culture based on egalitarian values and high tax moral, and a long history for the state to subsidize the arts and culture, are important reasons why the collaboration became as controversial as it did.

Nigeria’s Financial Sector Liberalization: An Implicit Cultural Policy for Art Market Development

This study adopted historical research and in-depth interviews with artists, dealers, art writers, and collectors in addressing two overarching questions, which are (1) How have state actions manifested as the impetus and impediments to art market development in Nigeria and (2) To what extent is Bourdieu’s artistic field model applicable to the Nigerian art world? As the boost in artistic production and consumption in Renaissance Italy was attributed to the wealth generated from banking by the Medici, the research also shows that the art market in Nigeria emerged as an upshot of the economic policy of financial deregulation, which manifested as an “implicit” cultural policy. The financial sector liberalization policy was aimed at addressing the economic depression that stemmed from the drastic global fall in crude oil prices in the 1980s. It stimulated the proliferation of banking and other financial services institutions in Nigeria, which engendered intense competition that lured operators into harnessing esthetics for competitive advantages. This bolstered art collection and patronage, underpinning the emergence of the contemporary art market in Nigeria with an auction segment that grew from about $250,000 in 1999 to over $5.5 million in 2017. Paradoxically, the research also revealed that inadequacies resulting from the lack of “explicit” state plans for the cultural sector constitute impediments to the optimization of the market’s potential. As a mark of power, high art and advanced taste have always been associated with elitism. Thus, the research also establishes a high degree of applicability of Bourdieu’s artistic field model in exploring the dynamics of power structures in the Nigerian art world.

Scratching the surface of urban change: Art collectives as public entrepreneurs

This article examines art collectives in Venice that use their artistic and cultural projects to act as public entrepreneurs seeking to improve urban welfare and elicit social change for reasons of societal betterment. These ventures are developed against a backdrop of ongoing socio-economic challenges arising from exploitative tourism in the city. Interviews with some art collective members revealed that: (1) their local rootedness is shaped by issues of gentrification and a search for a city that benefits all; (2) their core values are translated into artistic propositions addressing local demands and institutional voids and (3) their private goals have a public-service background. Our study unveils a unique type of entrepreneur that mediates local demands but has no significant impact at the policy level, thus only scratching the surface of institutional change. This insight contributes to our understanding of artists as public entrepreneurs who, despite their use of activist language channelling public demands, are constrained by the very institutional voids they seek to close.

Kozma Soldatenkov (1818-1901) and his collection in the context of the artistic life of Moscow in the second half of the XIX century

The article examines the role of merchant, philanthropist, and collector Kozma Soldatenkov in the artistic landscape of Moscow during the 1850s-1890s. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of Soldatenkov on the formation of museum and exhibition programs in Moscow. By analyzing his art collection and his activities as a collector, we can gain a deeper understanding of his contribution to the cultural landscape of the city. This research is based on a systematic historical approach that allows us to contextualize Soldatenkov's work within the broader context of art collecting and cultural development. The purpose of the article is to determine the contribution that he made to the development of museum and exhibition practices in Moscow, at a time when there was an increased interest not only in domestic art collecting, but also in addressing theoretical and practical challenges of artistic production. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the absence of works in Russian historiography that summarize the achievements of second-half XIX century Moscow collectors in the field of culture, focusing on Soldatenkov's position as one of the first collectors in Moscow's cultural landscape. This research is relevant due to the growing interest in understanding various aspects of collecting history in the XIXth century. Familiarity with the sources allows us to conclude that the Soldatenkov collection had been well-known to the artistic community for a long time, and its owner was not absent from the main events of cultural life. He invested heavily in the creation of public museum spaces in Moscow, and his collection itself served as a reflection of his cultural and social standing. It was a clear indicator of his support for Russian artists and his desire to strengthen the artistic life in the city.

Helen Sutherland in Interwar Northumberland: Patronage and Place

From 1928 to 1939 the art collector Helen Sutherland rented Rock Hall, a large manor house partly dating from the 13th century and located near the coast in rural Northumberland. Throughout this period, interspersed with regular returns to London, Rock served, in her words, as a ‘place of refuge and renewal’ for friends, including the painter and poet David Jones, curator and collector Jim Ede and artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson. This, for Sutherland, was a ‘greatly loved landscape of seashore, hills, saints, legends, birds and all the friends who came there’. Such a perception of the relatively unpeopled rural north of England is important, not simply in terms of Sutherland’s experience, but as it speaks to wider interwar contexts of modernism and modernity, rurality and notions of regional and national identity. With a processual and relational understanding of place, I consider the nature and implications of Helen Sutherland’s art collection and her form of collecting, the character of her social and cultural networks and the extent to which patronage itself can contribute to a production of place.

Understanding Diaspora Pasifika (Sāmoan and Tongan) Intergenerational Sense-Making and Meaning-Making through Imageries

This article presents imagery representative of Pasifika (Sāmoan and Tongan) diaspora (nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa/ tu‘a Tonga) intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making. The main author, Ruth (Lute) Faleolo, presents a selection of eleven photographs shared with her by Pasifika knowledge holders across Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and the United States, alongside six personally photographed people/events in Aotearoa. Collectively, these images show important Pasifika meaning-making and sense-making processes that are occurring intergenerationally in tu‘a Tonga/ nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa. These selected images were collected as part of an ongoing larger study of Pasifika migration and mobilities (2013-2023). The second author, Sh’Kinah Tuia‘ana Nauna Faleolo, presents pieces from her art collection (2015): Two Woven Identities and discusses her meaning-making and Indigeneity enfolding these pieces while growing up in Aotearoa. The third author, Lydiah Malia-Lose Faleolo, presents her Identity artwork (2019) and Duality design pieces (2023) that demonstrate her current and continued Indigeneity as a Sāmoan Tongan woman, living and studying in Australia. The fourth author, Nehemiah Thomas Faleolo’s artistic expressions captured in his annotated sketches and sculpture work were selected from a collection he had created in Australia. Nehemiah’s respected artwork and meaning-making, carefully documented by him in 2020 was (posthumously) selected by Faleolo family members, from his private exhibition and collection (Brisbane). Scanned documents and photographs stored on his mobile device have been contributed to this article on his behalf, with permission. For many Pasifika living in Aotearoa, Australia and the United States, the processes of intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making occur in the diaspora contexts of faith, family, community, and education. The imageries presented by Ruth (Lute) Faleolo follow these thematic contexts, with short analyses about the intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making observed per photo. The purpose of her contribution to the discussion is to promote imageries as a way of conveying Pasifika understandings and knowledge. Sh’Kinah Tuia‘ana Nauna Faleolo, Lydiah Malia-Lose and Nehemiah Thomas Faleolo’s contributions present personal accounts of intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making as experienced through their artistic expressions, within nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa/ tu‘a Tonga contexts of Aotearoa and Australia.

Species identification of ivory and bone museum objects using minimally invasive proteomics.

Ivory is a highly prized material in many cultures since it can be carved into intricate designs and have a highly polished surface. Due to its popularity, the animals from which ivory can be sourced are under threat of extinction. Identification of ivory species is not only important for CITES compliance, it can also provide information about the context in which a work was created. Here, we have developed a minimally invasive workflow to remove minimal amounts of material from precious objects and, using high-resolution mass spectrometry-based proteomics, identified the taxonomy of ivory and bone objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection dating from as early as 4000 B.C. We built a proteomic database of underrepresented species based on exemplars from the American Museum of Natural History, and proposed alternative data analysis workflows for samples containing inconsistently preserved organic material. This application demonstrates extensive ivory species identification using proteomics to unlock sequence uncertainties, e.g., Leu/Ile discrimination.

An Application of Hemp as Fiber Material in Art Applications from Past to Present: A Brief Artist Perspective

Hemp has been a longstanding material choice for textile creations. As far back as early Chinese civilizations humans have been using hemp for items including paper, clothing, rope, and various other household items. As trading moved westward, more civilizations began to pick up on cultivating hemp for textile uses. This was easily done due to the simplistic growing conditions necessary for hemp. Items made from processed hemp have since been found and collected from all over the globe and are now preserved in history and art museums. These items began getting recognition by art communities in more recent years. After World War II fiber art became a recognized art medium instead of its previous classification of utilitarian craftwork. Since then, fiber art has flourished, and it is celebrated in art museums and similar works worldwide. Now, old and new items and textiles utilizing hemp are preserved through art museums and collections.

Documentation and registration of damages and destructions of cultural heritage objects during the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine

The purpose of the study is to highlight the main aspects of accounting and registration of national cultural heritage of Ukraine, to describe the current state of documentation of crimes committed by the russian federation against Ukrainian cultural heritage on the territory of Ukraine, and to outline the prospects for digitisation and creation of an online register of cultural heritage of Ukraine. The methodological approach of the study is based on the use of both general scientific and specific methods of cognition. These include: terminological analysis, systems analysis, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, logical analysis, and visualisation of research results. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the systematisation and analysis of methods for documenting and registering damages and destructions of cultural heritage objects caused by russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, which allows for a deeper understanding and assessment of the scale and consequences of such actions on cultural heritage. Conclusions. The protection and preservation of unique cultural heritage during the war have become priority tasks for cultural institutions across Ukraine. Currently, the documentation of destruction and damage caused by russian occupying forces is particularly critical. Cultural values are always at high risk during armed conflicts. The military actions of the russian federation have led to horrific crimes against cultural heritage, including the destruction and mass exodus of cultural values, the scale of which is shocking. Fully assessing the damage in combat zones and occupied territories remains impossible. Active evidence collection of Russia’s war crimes against Ukrainian culture is ongoing. The situation in the war with Russian occupiers highlights a blatant disregard for international norms and UNESCO conventions concerning the protection of cultural objects and art collections, as well as violations of all established laws and customs of war, which constitute a large-scale military crime

Art Collectors as Angel Investors: A Brazilian Collection

The literature on measuring returns on art investments typically aims to understand the characteristics of art as an investment class and whether investing in art can yield good returns for an investor and their portfolio. This literature places less emphasis on how the risk taken in the creation of art is assumed and borne by the agents who compose this market. Inspired by the publication “Art Collectors as Angel Investors” (2023) by Whitaker and Kräussl, this study examines a real collection of a Brazilian collector to verify whether the investment strategy employed in the purchase and sale of the works in the collection aligns with the definition of an angel investor presented in the reference article.

Relationships. Art-affined physicians, gifted artist patients and the debate on art from a psychiatric context after 1945

In 1945 the artist and art collector J.Dubuffet coined the term Art brut for original works by psychiatric inmates that had been created outside of traditions and art movements. In the following decades these works were at the center of negotiation processes in which not only psychiatrists but also exhibition organizers, gallery owners etc. increasingly became involved. Based on the evaluation of four exemplary pairs of psychiatrists and artist patients (H.Müller-Suur-P.Goesch; M.in der Beeck-E.Spießbach; J.Porret-Forel-A.Corbaz; L.Navratil-R.Limberger), this study explores the field of tension between art and psychiatry after 1945. The results of the subproject "Normal#Crazy Art. Works from aPsychiatric Context between Diagnostics and Aesthetics after 1945" of the German Research Foundation (DFG) research group "Normal#Crazy" (FOR 3031) are based on the evaluation of archival material, estates, interviews with contemporary witnesses and contemporary media. It is shown that different attitudes of the psychiatrists towards "their" artist patients strongly influenced their entry into the art world. In this context, impulses from beyond psychiatry were important in order to expand purely diagnostic views of the works with other approaches. The renewed interest in the individual creativity of patients after 1945 can be understood as areaction to their dehumanization under fascism and National Socialism; however, the focus on the pathologized personality of artist patients could obscure alternative perspectives on their art, just as the disposal of their works by psychiatrists could hinder their dissemination.

Collections off the grid, but in a net: In search for (de)colonial issues of South-Asian paintings

The starting point of this contribution is the observation that paintings and drawings from the Indian-Pakistani cultural area are rarely discussed in the context of decolonization of museums and their holdings. What can be seen in the discourse of media is constituted in public and national interests, but even more in a systematic institutional blindness. Contrary to sculptures, the paintings and drawings were traditionally private property and had no viewing practice in a public sphere. Although I argue that the property changes leading to the entrance of those paintings and drawing into (Western) art collections and academic scholarship are strongly linked to problematic issues of colonial heritage and power imbalance. Further I support that museums do well to consider not only provenance related research but also their exhibition practices as approaches to decolonization.

The inventory of E. F. Gollerbach. From the history of museumification of the Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum

The museification of the former Oranienbaum residence of the Mecklenburg-Strelitskys, nationalized by the decision of the Northern Labor Commune in 1918, is one of the little-studied pages in Russian museology. One of the documentary evidences of this process is the “Brief Inventory of the Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum”, 1920, currently stored in the Archive of the State Hermitage Museum. The compiler of this document was a senior employee of the Department for the Protection, Accounting and Registration of Monuments of Art and Antiquity, Erich Fedorovich Gollerbach (1895–1942), sent at the end of July 1920 to inspect and register art collections concentrated in the only Oranienbaum Palace-museum operating at that time. The involvement of E. F. Gollerbach, an art critic, an enthusiastic bibliophile and collector, who later became the author of the first post-revolutionary guide to the sights of Tsarskoye (Detskoye) Selo, in the work on the accounting of art collections in the Chinese Palace is a little-known fact, probably had episodic significance in his biography. However, the property inventory compiled by him, even in its unfinished version, is of undoubted interest to researchers of the history of the formation of museum business in Oranienbaum. The works of art included in this list belonged to the historical collection of the Oranienbaum palaces, and the authenticity of this collection was preserved until the official accession of the Administration of the Oranienbaum Palaces-Museums to the Peterhof in October 1925. This study, based on the analysis of the inventory of E. F. Gollerbach and the comments left by him, examines the main methods of work of employees of the Department for the Protection of Accounting and Registration of Monuments of Art and Antiquity when they inventory nationalized private collections. In addition, on the basis of the same document, the problem of the possibility of identifying objects of the historical collection of the Oranienbaum palaces-museums in the funds of the State Museum-Reserve “Peterhof ” is actualized.

Музей народного мистецтва в Отрембусах. Значення діяльності Маріана Покропка для вивчення українського мистецтва в Польщі

Activities of the Polish researcher, Doctor habilitatus Marian Pokropek (1932–2023), professor of the University of Warsaw, are well known in European countries and even more widely in the world, in particular, in Asia and the USA. The scientist gained the fame as a professional ethnographer and a tireless collector of folk art already in the 20th century. The heritage of Ukrainian folk craftsmen is preserved in his private Museum of Folk Art in Otrębusy, which was founded in 1996. The museum exhibits include icons on glass, Hutsul tiles, woven and embroidered carpets and rushnyky, etc. among many works. These displays have been presented repeatedly at numerous exhibitions in Poland. The professor organized the exhibition "Ukrainian Folk Art in the Collection of the Museum in Otrębusy. Ukraińska sztuka ludowa w zbiorach Muzeum Sztuki Ludowej w Otrębusach" (22 May 2022) in the first months of the war, after the invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine in February 2022. The scientist also greatly contributed to the study of Ukrainian art in his collection. During the war, this collection located in the territory of Poland is an extremely valuable material for the study of folk art of Ukraine.

Modern Chinese Oil Painting on “Tibetan Themes”

Chinese fine art has undergone a long and painstaking history of the formation of classical writing techniques. However, the globalization processes, which also affected the spheres of artistic activity, influenced the themes of works, techniques and techniques of oil painting in China. Meanwhile, the existential and religious flavor of Tibetan painting, untouched by world trends, has preserved many unique traditional principles of existentialism and worldview concepts that have absorbed the virginity of the spiritual and semantic identity of the people. This phenomenon has attracted a lot of attention from professional artists and collectors of fine art. At the same time, the storehouse of unique Buddhist values and the foundations of the existence of the people of historical Tibet began to attract researchers and artists relatively recently. Namely, since the middle of the last century, eminent masters of the brush have only discovered this “art residence”, instantly capturing the market of connoisseurs of high culture and lovers of painting with their works, gaining their love for Tibetan chronography reflected in modern Chinese oil paintings. The canvases represent the value potential for the historiography of the ancient people, conglomerating the foundations of ontological, ethnic, regional, national and religious traditions of the original style, which determine the semantic value-forming core of Chinese culture. This phenomenon contributes to its continuity and self-identity, despite the influence of Western artists. The development of Chinese oil painting has undergone many collisions, ranging from Westernization, Russification and the consequences of the war with Japan, ending with the discovery of the value potential of the worldview system of the Tibetan people. The recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet allowed China to integrate into its “art workshop” the spiritual and social perspectives of the national identical Tibetan culture, which conquered the art world with its identity. In the process of the formation of oil painting, artists subjected it to nationalization and Sinification, which, through the prism of depicting the realities of Tibetan life, allowed to form an original style of creating works.

THE SECOND DIMENSION. THE CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION OF THE CARDIAC SURGEON MIKHAIL ALSHIBAYA

The article is dedicated to the famous collector of unofficial Soviet and contemporary Russian art, the renown cardiac surgeon, director of the Dept of coronary and vascular surgery of the A.N. Bakulev National Medical Research Centre for Cardiovascular Surgery, Moscow, Mikhail Alshibaya, and to the artworks from his collection. The article provides some details of the collector’s biography, the history of launching and compiling of his collection, its appending, wih some unique cases of acquisition of items, and the collector’s reflections on art, collecting and life. An attempt follows to analyse the collection of the material, included in 2014 into the permanent display of the «Other Art» museum at the premises of the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow. The artworks, chosen for display, presented the collection as a one whole unity. This exhibit is an attempt to present the history of Russian art of the last 80 years on the example of the artworks, accumulated by a private person, and in many cases, incidentally. The collector’s comments, recorded for the article, disclose some mysteries of acquisition of the artworks, and the «exhumation», as he likes calling it, of forgotten artists. To save these artists and their work from oblivion is the main topic of activity of Mikhail Alshibaya, who is a collector-researcher at its full.

ФОЛЬКЛОР ТВЕРСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ: ИСТОРИЯ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ (ПРЕДВАРИТЕЛЬНЫЕ ЗАМЕЧАНИЯ)

Folklore of Tver region which represents the all-Russian tradition, has always been under researchers’ attention. This article presents an overview of the activities of folklorists on Tver land, focusing on the intensity and scale of this work, which began in the XVIIIth century. In the XIX-th century, records of Tver folklore were included in the collections of all-Russian folk art. The work on the fixation of folklore heritage reached its peak in the 1960s-1990s. The article provides an overview of the expeditionary activity in Tver region, outlines the prospects for further study of the traditional culture of the region, which can be expressed primarily in the compilation of a set of Tver folklore.

Overthrowing Reality: Photo-Poems in 1980s German Democratic Republic Samizdat

In the 1980s, the youngest generation of artists to have been raised in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) experimented collaboratively to produce work in intermedial genres, with particular focus on synthesizing poetry and such visual arts as photography and printmaking. Drawing on the rich collection of East German samizdat artists’ books in the Getty Research Institute (GRI), this article examines diverse approaches to design integrating photography and poetry that emerged from within this vibrant community, including artistic practices of dialogue across consecutive pages (Wolfgang Henne and Marion Wenzel), montaged works (the artist’s trio of the Günther-Jahn-Bach Editionen), and handwritten poems combined with found photographs, drawing, and overpainting (Inge Müller and Christine Schlegel). The intermedial focus and the limited print-run editions, which—because of a legal loophole—allowed for modest circulation of these largely uncensored materials, enabled artists to speak about controversial issues such as the environment, the legal system, transgenerational feminist solidarities, or accountability for Germany’s Nazi past.

Lalvani, Haresh – coding, shaping, making – Experiments in form and form-making

The new monograph of Haresh Lalvani Coding, Shaping, Making. Experiments in Form and Form-Making (2023) is a fest for both vision and mind of designers, architects, computer and art specialists, as well as professionals with broad interest in morphological studies in mathematics and natural sciences. The subtitle points out to his pioneering experiments in form and space - from the computer’s screen to the outstanding pieces of art and architecture, visible in numerous exhibitions and permanent design or art collections worldwide.

Art museum collections in the light of social media : typology of the possibilities of presenting art collections on social media in the Czech Republic

Art museum collections in the light of social media : typology of the possibilities of presenting art collections on social media in the Czech Republic