“Fort Worth's Kimbell, San Diego's Timken share a philosophy - Dallas Morning News” plus 1 more |
| Fort Worth's Kimbell, San Diego's Timken share a philosophy - Dallas Morning News Posted: 25 Nov 2010 09:58 PM PST 12:00 AM CST on Friday, November 26, 2010SAN DIEGO – Call them showcases that celebrate the power of a great eye. The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth is a modestly scaled gem of a museum in which nearly every work in the collection powerfully represents a style, a period and a culture. The Timken Museum of Art, 2,000 miles away in San Diego, applies the same sound philosophy on a smaller scale. In its architecture, the Kimbell is the superachiever of the pair. Designed by Louis Kahn, its home, unveiled in 1972, is widely thought to be one of the great buildings for art built in the 20th century. The museum will become far larger, with the addition of a promising second structure by Renzo Piano, a contemporary giant of museum design. It's scheduled for completion in 2013. The Timken Museum of Art quarters, in San Diego's picturesque Balboa Park, is far smaller and far less iconic. Still, completed in 1965, it's a handsome rectangle in glass and travertine marble designed by San Diego modernist Frank L. Hope. These differences in edifices aside, the two highly regarded institutions share a vital bond: They make each work count. They leave the encyclopedic focus to the likes of the Dallas Museum of Art and the San Diego Museum of Art. As John Wilson, director of the Timken, puts it, his institution and the Kimbell each aspire to be "a small museum of masterpieces, beautifully displayed." Wilson's passion for the connoisseurship, so evident in the Timken's collection, has roots in his long-standing admiration for the Kimbell. He grew up in Fort Worth, where he first encountered the Kimbell during family excursions and did a summer internship there during his grad school days in art history. The Timken and the Kimbell are connected by their histories as well as their shared philosophy. Board members of the Kimbell Art Foundation visited San Diego to see the fledgling Timken before there was a Kahn building. One big reason that the Kimbell's first director, Richard Brown, thought so highly of Kahn's work was his familiarity with the remarkable Salk Institute, located in San Diego's seaside community of La Jolla and completed to international acclaim in 1963. The emissaries of the Kimbell also visited the Frick Collection in New York, a prototype for both museums. While the Frick set a lofty standard, with its great Vermeers, Chardins and luminous examples by other European masters, the Kimbell and the Timken have managed to create stellar collections in a relatively short periods of time. Both collections are modest in size: The Kimbell owns about 350 works, the Timken just 75. Both possess undeniably great paintings, such as Caravaggio's Cardsharps (circa 1594) at the Kimbell and Rembrandt's St. Bartholomew (1657) at the Timken. The important works in both cut across centuries, media and cultures. The Kimbell is equally impressive in second-century Roman sculptures, 14th-century Italian paintings and early 20th-century abstractions. The Timken is compelling, whether the focus is on 15th-century Flemish paintings, 16th-century Russian icons or 19th-century American pictures. Both museums boast multiple masterpieces in European painting. Along with its Caravaggio, the Kimbell has pictures such as Georges de la Tour's The Cheat With the Ace of Clubs (1620s), thematically related to the Caravaggio, and Jean Simeon Chardin's gorgeous image about art-making, Young Student Drawing (circa 1738). The Kimbell's collection may be deeper in European art. It reaches into the 20th century with choice examples by Picasso and Mondrian, while the most modern picture in the Timken collection dates to 1900. But the Timken possesses Dutch, Flemish and French paintings that any museum would covet, including the arresting Death of the Virgin (circa 1460-65) by Petrus Christus and a mesmerizing 1738 landscape by Jean-Baptist-Camille Corot, View of Volterra. The Timken also collects American paintings. Its canvas from the Colonial era, Mrs. Thomas Gage (1771), is a first-rank portrait by John Singleton Copley. Among its other stellar examples is a major seascape by a Luminist painter from Massachusetts, Castine Harbor and Town (1851) by Fitz Hugh Lane. The Kimbell isn't large enough to keep most of its collection on view when a major exhibition is installed, as is the case currently with "Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea." The new building will change that. Eric M. Lee, the Kimbell's director, says the grander scale won't change the focus: "I firmly believe that the Kimbell has done so much that is right. We need to keep the collecting philosophy as it is. Many fear the intimacy of the museum will be lost with the new building. I am determined that it will still feel like a small institution." The Timken's challenge is different: To keep a small gallery of masterpieces relevant without expanding space or amenities. Its home often has been referred to as a jewel box. The existing gallery space at the Kimbell is 20,000 square feet and will add 16,500 when the Piano building opens. The Timken has 7,500 for display. The Timken is also something of a jewel box as an institution when compared to the Kimbell. It last acquired a new work in 2005, while the Kimbell continues to make significant acquisitions regularly, including its highly publicized youthful painting by Michelangelo in 2009. Their financial resources are starkly different, too. The endowment of the Putnam Foundation, which oversees the Timken, is $20 million. By comparison, the portfolio or endowment of the Kimbell Foundation stands at $400 million. Michael Quick, a former curator of American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art who is highly familiar with both institutions, admires them for "a belief in the principle of old-fashioned connoisseurship, of a museum collection based on quality." Quick, who wrote some of the Timken's most recent permanent collection catalog, says he feels the Kimbell has a distinct advantage over its smaller counterpart in an era when museumgoers expect alluring temporary exhibitions. (The addition of a second building further acknowledges that cultural reality.) "People don't come to museums as much to see permanent collections anymore," says Quick, who now runs an art consulting business in Southern California. "I have to wonder: Is there a place for a museum focused on its collection in the 21st century?" Wilson clearly believes there is. His regard for the Kimbell has fed his conviction that an even smaller museum of masterpieces, like the Timken, is something contemporary viewers still want, even in an era when marketing matters to a museum's survival as much as its masterpieces. Robert L. Pincus is an art critic and author based in San Diego who also teaches at the University of San Diego. Plan your life Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth. 817-332-8451. www.kimbell art.org. Timken Museum of Art, 1500 El Prado, San Diego, Calif. 619-239-5548. www.timkenmuseum.org. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Philosophy Lite: Christian religion one of love, responsibility - Victoria Advocate Posted: 26 Nov 2010 12:32 PM PST By Raymond Smith Morality is defined as a system of ideas concerning right and wrong conduct. Ethics has much the same definition. Every society needs a code of conduct in order to maintain stability in that country. Throughout history, nations have utilized a "Natural Law," that is, a system of laws that is universal in its application to human behavior. It is a naturally knowable moral law and is applicable to all human beings everywhere. It is not God's law, but there are many common aspects. The first codified set of laws was Hammurabi's Law. Hammurabi was one of the greatest kings of Babylon. His reign was known as the golden age of Babylon, and he ruled probably between 1850 and 1750 B.C. His law covered farming, family matters, trade, slaves and human relations. God's commandments were given in 1491 B.C. God's law exhibits a wisdom from above. Its application to any society will bring that society to its highest stability and morality. John Adams said "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Today, we can see the vindication of that statement. The ACLU and other atheistic organizations have made a mockery of our system of justice and have influenced society to the point that many laws are being ignored. The American people have been conditioned to overlook some of the laws that in Hammurabi's day would have incurred the death penalty. Our excessive doting on the idea of freedom in America has led to license instead. Our prisons are full of inmates who had no father or who had a bad family life, and our cities are full of young men who will soon be in prison because of that problem. We look the other way because we don't think those problems will affect us, but far too often they do. Those who advocate this license should look to the social chaos they have brought about and rethink their stand; but they would likely ignore those statistics to continue their selfish lifestyle. Atheist Aleister Crowley's dictum was, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." The Christian religion is one of love and responsibility. Children growing up in such an atmosphere will be prepared to be disciplined, law-abiding citizens. God's law brings out the best in people, but it is a law that requires discipline and adherence to principle. Some say you cannot legislate morality, but this is a specious argument, for we certainly legislate against theft, murder and extortion. Several organizations are fighting for the American family, but their voices largely go unheeded. It seems that Congress is not interested in the issues of divorce, unmarried couples, gays, pornography, and fatherhood - mainly sexual issues. What could possibly affect change for the better? Only a return to God's all-wise laws. Pray that a mighty revival will sweep the land and Christians would elect Christian leaders. Raymond F. Smith is a deacon at Fellowship Bible Church in Victoria and president of Strong Families of Victoria. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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