I began working for the Luther Brady Art Gallery to aid in
its inventory at the end of June. They are conducting an inventory of all their
pieces in order to sort out what needs to be moved to a storage facility in
Ashburn called the Collections and Conservation Resource Center,
now in the process
of being built. Artwork is being moved to Ashburn because space has gotten
limited on campus and the facility will provide a safer environment. In their
current locations, they are not safe from flooding and some works are even at
risk of damaging themselves or another artwork. The pieces that don’t go will
be sorted out into a learning collection, current or pending displays, or sent
to the University Archives instead. You can see what else the GW Archives has
to offer here.
Down in the bowels of the Lisner Auditorium are two storage areas for the art besides what’s in the
Gallery storage areas. They’re full of student and professional works along
with some African Art and Pre-Columbian ceramics. Some of the African Art and
Pre-Columbian works haven’t been on display since the 1970s while others have
occasionally been places on view. The African Art is mix of ancestor totems,
tribal masks and altars, with the masks varying style depending on the culture
that designed it. You can see a similar variety by checking out the Smithsonian Museum of African Art’s collection of African Masks.
The Pre-Columbian ceramics are mostly bowls and dishes but
also included a spoon shaped receptacle for human hearts. If discovering a
ritual heart receptacle wasn’t unexpected enough there are other unique items;
A Korean doll and silk hanging scroll rare evidence of international
“souvenirs” in the collection and a sign of the long international ties of the
University. Another surprise was a chandelier that I couldn’t even get out of
its wrappings without some serious help and a bronze trident that resisted all
efforts to be lifted out of the box. Unintentionally, on the back of a
newspaper photograph of Gen. U.S. Grant, the collection also preserved an
article applauding the biggest whale catch of the season. You certainly don’t
see articles like that today in the US.
So far it’s been a really great experience and I expect it
to continue to bring surprises and hands on challenges. Helping sort through
this extensive collection has been a very enjoyable privilege. We are 64% of
the way through and I can’t wait to see what the next box will disclose.
No comments:
Post a Comment