韦尔斯利的连接伊莎贝拉·斯图尔特·加德纳的新展览“波士顿的阿波罗”

尼基格林:你好,我是妮可绿色和我在这里与我的同事保罗·费舍尔在伊莎贝拉·斯图尔特·加德纳博物馆,我们在展览波士顿的阿波罗,托马斯McKeller和约翰。辛格。萨金特。我认为大多数的人都是美术博物馆,MFA在波士顿的一个亮点是由约翰。辛格。萨金特的壁画。当你看那些美丽的人物和神话人物,毫无痕迹,这些图像的主要主角实际上是由托马斯McKeller体现或表现,因为他作为一个模型对于许多引人注目的人物。保罗·费舍尔:萨金特很好研究。有卷和卷卷萨金特。的一件事,妮可和我面临当我们想写这些东西是几乎没有关于McKeller现在之前,很少的比特。这是典型的许多艺术家的模型,他们没有关注到最后几十年的艺术历史学家研究他们的生活,进入他们的动力学与油漆的画家。保罗·费舍尔:但在这种情况下是一个人特别抹去。尼基的体积是什么我导致了比以往一直对这个人物。他有什么,五个字母的,我们已经能够发现,这给我们一个合理的他的声音。 One of the approaches that both of us took is this idea of his being immersed in history, being immersed in the history of Black Boston. Paul Fisher: And that enabled us to say more than we would otherwise have wanted to say because we didn't want to assume that we knew this person. And we still feel very deferential toward the mystery of somebody who really helped Sargent create some of these very beautiful images that are so important to public art in Boston. NIkki Green: It gives our students a chance to really think more critically about what does it mean to be not just a model, but what does it mean to be a Black citizen of Boston in the early 20th century? Because when you look at the MFA murals, you don't see a Black man. I feel like we're able to rewind a bit. We're able to lift the veil. We're able to see a figure as he were with these drawings. Paul Fisher: I love this section too because it implicitly compares and contrasts this final product, the decorations in the Museum Rotunda, which you can see when you go into the MFA with this private studio drawings. There was a strong distinction between his public art and his private art. And if you ask me, his private art is so much better. Instead of reducing it to a cliche of Greek Mythology or the arts as Greek Mythology, they make us look at these issues that for a long time people didn't want to look at. NIkki Green: My students got a chance I think between reading the scholarship and then seeing the artwork and experiencing the work in the galleries, they actually have a process of what it means to do serious research. They have a better understanding of who writes the history, when is that history of obscured, when do we have a chance to uncover a number of histories? If that's the history of what does it mean to be a black man in Boston in the 19 teens and 1920s what kind of work could you find that's there to understand that he could be at the Hotel Vendome one minute and then at the end of the day transition over to Sergeant's studio. NIkki Green: That alone is a history of labor in Boston, in early Boston, early 20th century Boston. And then we also have this idea, we are so wedded to the idea of an art historical canon and Sargent's right up there in terms of our canon of who makes the greatest works of American art. People around the world appreciate and know John Singer Sargent's work. And we also have this real window into John Singer Sargent in Boston With this very intimate relationship with Thomas McKeller. Paul Fisher: It's so cutting edge. That's the other thing that I would say about this. I mean, last year there was a big show on The Black Model from Monet to Matisse by a wonderful curator from Columbia, whose name is Denise Murrell. Yeah, she's terrific. And I took Wellesley students to that in Paris last spring. It was in Paris at the Orsay, and I took a bunch of Wellesley students there and they were floored by the social content of this. Paul Fisher: Some of them were better versed in art history than others. Nikki's feeling that she ought to have been there as she should. NIkki Green: I should have been as a consultant. Paul Fisher: Absolutely. But, but I think Wellesley students really appreciated this. And so that was a bombshell of an exhibition, as far as I'm concerned. One of the most important that has happened in recent times. And this likewise, is important in the same way. It's really revealing some of the complex racial history and sexual history that underpins some of these sort of glorious icons of art.