older work. When it comes to collecting,
though, if you don’t specialize in terms of
the art you collect, you can get spread a
little thin. We have bought the odd work
from earlier periods of Pre-War art, but
that’s the exception. Our collecting has
been driven by how best to put cohesive
groups of work together in the context of
running a successful museum program. I
jokingly say that I’m a frustrated museum
director or curator. No one’s ever going
to hire me or appoint me for those jobs,
but I am in a position where I can appoint
myself. I can do it without some of the
constraints that museum directors or
curators normally operate under.
Q: You mentioned Anselm Kiefer. You have
an exhibition of his works in Massachusetts
at the Mass MoCA campus. I think it’s
really wonderful that your organization is
committed to inter-organizational
collaboration. How did the collaboration
with Mass MoCA come about?
A: We got to know Mass MoCA through
Jock Reynolds, who was the director of
the Yale Museum of Art. We had acquired
some monumental works of Anselm Kiefer,
and we weren’t sure what to do with them,
at least in the short term. We reached out
to Jock, who introduced us to Joe
Thompson, the director of Mass MoCA.
We ended up doing a substantial Kiefer
exhibition at Mass MoCA. It was a very
successful show. It looked great, and it was
very well received. I then asked Joe if he
would be interested in doing something
more permanent. He said “Be my guest.
We have a few buildings that we still need
to develop. Take your pick.” We found a
building that worked for us and came up
with a plan to develop it. We designed the
installation collaboratively with Anselm
and his studio. He came to Mass MoCA
to survey everything and make sure he
was happy with it. That exhibition space
opened four or five years ago. It was all
somewhat serendipitous through that
initial introduction by Jock Reynolds.
Q: You must have had some dealings with
other artists. Do you think you can
separate the art from the artist? Do you
think art should be judged based on
whether someone is a wonderful human
being or not?
A: That’s a really interesting question. We
could have a whole conversation on that.
A lot of artists, historically, were quite awful
people when judged by today’s standards.
There are also artists who are alive today
who probably haven’t adjusted too well to
current sensibilities. But if you mean are
there any artists in the collection that we
don’t like, no one springs to mind. I have
met a couple of artists who I have taken an
instant dislike to, but funnily enough, we
don’t own any of their work.
Q: Do you find the artists you work with to
be interesting people?
A: Absolutely. Artists really put themselves
out there, and because of that I think
they’re very vulnerable in some ways.
In order to overcome that vulnerability,
artists have to develop a thick skin, to not
always being appreciated - or even being
reviled. For that reason, they can sometimes
appear egocentric. I think that you
have to make allowances for that. Artists
are very individualistic. They’re not your
typical “boy or girl next door”, but I think
that’s fine. It makes them interesting, and
also wonderful people to talk to and be
around. In my experience, artists are very
stimulating company.
Q: Agreed. I would like to ask you the
obvious question for VERMONT Magazine
readers: How did you end up in Vermont?
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