Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
The North Entrance of the Museum prior to the start of renovation efforts.
Henry Moore’s Two Piece Reclining Figure, No. 3 has greeted visitors at the Museum’s North Entrance for many years. Last week, Moore’s sculpture moved to a new home on the south side of the building, where it will welcome visitors into the Sculpture Garden. The move involved a lot of planning, and many precautions were in place to move the 2,200-pound bronze sculpture. Follow the sculpture’s journey below:
Just before the Arts of Africa gallery closed for reinstallation in May, the DMA invited the public to a Late Night African Art Sketching Party. Over 100 sketches of visitors’ favorite African artworks were gathered during the party. It was an opportunity to tap into the creativity and perspectives of DMA visitors. Sketching is a fun way to slow down, look closely, and discover something new about an artwork.
Visitors’ drawings are on view on a temporary wall on Level 3 in the Museum. Come for a visit before August 30 to see this installation of sketches and experience the DMA’s African art collection as seen through the eyes of another.
Nicole Stutzman Forbes is the Chair of Learning Initiatives and Dallas Museum of Art League Director of Education at the DMA.
Not only is July National Ice Cream Month, but yesterday ice cream had an entire day dedicated to its wonderfulness. During the Dallas summers, we certainly love cool treats, which has us thinking of cooler weather and a colorful exhibition opening this fall at the DMA, International Pop. So, in honor of this month dedicated to the coolest dessert there is, we’re highlighting Wayne Thiebaud’s Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts. You can see this work at the DMA beginning October 11, 2015.
Wayne Thiebaud, Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts, 1962, oil on canvas, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, NAA–Thomas C. Woods Memorial, © Wayne Thiebaud/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Kimberly Daniell is the Manager of Communications and Public Affairs at the DMA.
Tonight we completed our fourth annual Museum Murder Mystery Game. This year, Victory was found dead just before Late Night began. Visitors searched the galleries for the body and integrated the suspects to determine who did it, with what object, and in which gallery. Below is the news report from their findings.
Museum Murder Solved!
Isabelle Lemonnier Confesses
Edouard Manet, Portrait of Isabelle Lemonnier with a Muff, c. 1879, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, 1978.1
17 JULY – Chaos has reigned for the past few hours here at the Dallas Museum of Art. Following the violent death of Victory, a prominent (and notoriously annoying) member of the collection, staff and visitors conducted an intensive inquiry. Lily Davenport, summer intern and chief investigator, explained that “we interviewed every artwork under suspicion for Victory’s murder, and checked on almost all of the potential weapons on display in the Museum.” In the end, one of those suspects broke down and confessed, under close questioning regarding the timing of her walk home.
Isabelle Lemonnier admitted to strangling Victory with an Etruscan composite necklace in the Indonesian Art Gallery. An unrepentant Isabelle reportedly remarked during her interrogation, “It was easy. I let everyone think I had taken Lady in a Red Hat up to her portrait, when really I just circled around to the third floor, by way of the Barrel Vault. The necklace looked as though it would fit in my muff, so I took it out of its case in the Ancient Mediterranean Gallery and went up to the Indonesian section to wait for Victory. I got her from behind as she came through the door—I doubt she ever even saw me.”
When this reporter asked about her motive, Isabelle cited Victory’s “disruptive and obnoxious” behavior and her own longstanding envy of the other artwork’s vocal self-confidence. Said the killer, “She always acted like she was so much better than me, than all of us. And the self-promotion never really let up. So it was just the icing on the cake when she interrupted Buddha’s meditation session to ask about dealing with envious friends. I knew she was talking about me, and it made me so angry!”
Museum staff did not comment on Isabelle’s eventual fate, as artwork-on-artwork violence is comparatively rare, and little judicial precedent exists. “It’s much more common for human visitors to pose a threat to the art,” said an investigator from the curatorial department who wishes to remain nameless. “I don’t even know where to begin writing this incident report.”
Lily Davenport is the Summer Intern for Adult Programming at the DMA
This week, teens have been experimenting and creating through group and solo challenges during our Urban Armor: Cosplay Challenge Camp. Each challenge allows this group to learn new concepts and construction techniques to use in their final costume design which they showcased this afternoon in the Museum galleries. Inspired by last year’s Zombie Camp, this year’s group was visited daily by experts from various professions that they may want to pursue like film and fashion. One of the returning campers from last year, a student at Booker T. Washington, said “this (the Urban Armor camp) is the only camp that I sign up for every year because it’s so awesome. I love it.”
So if you’re in the DMA galleries this afternoon, don’t be surprised if you run into a superhero or two.
Have you ever wondered what museum curators do to relax and unwind at the end of their day? For Olivier Meslay, the DMA’s Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, one of his favorite things is to look through online versions of auction house and gallery catalogs. What seems like a bit of a “busman’s holiday” worked to our advantage a few months ago.
Cover of Audap & Mirabaud’s catalog for November 21, 2014, auction
It all started on a stormy night early last November when he clicked on the website for the Parisian auction house Audap & Mirabaud. On their homepage was the lovely self-portrait by Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier (1787-1877), a lesser-known French painter, sculptor, and engraver who had exhibited at the Salon between 1817 and 1838.
The painting that caught Olivier’s attention is signed and dated 1833, and Carpentier exhibited it at the Salon the following year. For some time, the DMA had been seeking to purchase a large-scale 19th-century Salon portrait, and this one fit the bill. It was to be auctioned in Paris on November 21, and, as it happened, Olivier would be in France on the day of the sale, but not in Paris. Luckily, he had plans to be in the glorious city a few days beforehand and found an occasion to examine the painting.
Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier, Self-portrait of the artist and his family in his studio, 1833, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mrs. John B. O’Hara Fund, 2014.38.FA
It was as impressive as he had hoped, and so he registered to bid. The only remaining problem was that at the precise time of the sale he was to be at a conference in a city four hours away. About mid-morning on November 21, he discreetly slipped out of his meeting for a few minutes to bid by telephone on the artwork. To our great fortune, he was the high bidder. All of his maneuverings were worthwhile.
When he returned to Paris a few days later, to his great surprise, he learned from an agent with Audap & Mirabaud that a small, fully realized preliminary drawing of the portrait had become available. He bought it on the spot.
(left) Study for Self-portrait of the artist and his family in his studio, c. 1833, pencil on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Olivier Meslay, 2015.20.FA; (right) Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier, Self-portrait of the artist and his family in his studio, 1833, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mrs. John B. O’Hara Fund, 2014.38.FA
Another exciting aspect of these purchases is that it presented us with an opportunity to learn about Carpentier’s life. One of the most immediate revelations happened shortly after the painting arrived at the DMA. Much to our surprise, we discovered a small slip of paper affixed to the back of the frame. On the very old sheet were handwritten details (in French, of course) about Carpentier; his wife, Adèle; and daughter Clémence.
Slip of paper affixed to upper rail of the back of the frame with details of the artist’s immediate family and descendants.
As our research about Carpentier progressed, we unearthed some very intriguing discoveries. While he was quite active in the Society des Beaux-Arts, advocating for various artistic mutual aid societies, he was also an accomplished theoretician and technician of encaustic painting. The ancient process of adding pigment to melted beeswax, which dates back to antiquity, fascinated Carpentier throughout his lifetime and culminated in his authoring a detailed treatise about the technique that artists still consult today.
Cover of Notes sur la peinture: a la cire cautérisée procédé encaustique by Paul Carpentier
Most interestingly, we discovered that one of his closest friends was Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), the French artist and photographer recognized for inventing the eponymous process of photography. As a testament to their mutual admiration, Carpentier made a painting and bust of his good friend, but more importantly, in 1855 he wrote a monograph about Daguerre that to this day remains the single greatest firsthand contemporary account on the birth of photography.
Knowing more about Carpentier, and turning back to his self-portrait, we see that in it he brought together people and things that held an important place in his life. While we discovered valuable information about the painting and artist, we also learned that we all gain when our Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs relaxes at the end of a busy day by surfing the Web. Visit the newly conserved painting in the DMA’s Level 2 European Art Galleries, included in free general admission, today!
Martha MacLeod is the Assistant to the Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curatorial Administrative Assistant for the European and American Art Department at the DMA.
For the fourth year in a row, we have heard rumors that at our next Late Night on Friday, July 18, another mysterious murder will take place at the DMA! It seems like July is an unlucky month for works of art in our collection.
Last year, over two thousand visitors participated in our Museum Murder Mystery Game during Late Night! If you were one of those super sleuths, you found out that it was Emma in a Purple Dress who killed Queen Semiramis in the Chinese galleries with the Bird macaroni knife from the American galleries.
And while Emma in a Purple Dress was brought to justice, we will need your help to once again uncover the dastardly goings on at the DMA.
It will be up to our visitors to solve this fourth Museum Murder Mystery by figuring out who the murderer is, the weapon he or she used, and the room where the murder took place.
For one night only, the seven works suspected of the murder will come to life and answer your questions. Without revealing who the suspects are, as they are innocent until proven guilty, these photos will give you a clue to their identities.
In addition to the Museum Murder Mystery Game, there will be a lot more mysterious and fun things to do during the Late Night; be sure to check out the full schedule of events.
Stacey Lizotte is Head of Adult Programming and Multimedia Services at the DMA.
There’s a lot to see in the DMA’s collection, so this summer we made it easy for you to view a selection of our highlights. From ancient to contemporary, from paintings to masks to sculptures, our #DMAfaves will have you exploring every floor of the Museum. Grab a #DMAfaves self-guided tour at the Visitor Services Desk and hunt for our twelve #DMAfaves throughout the DMA.
Earn Friends points by checking in each time you find one of our #DMAfaves in the galleries. In addition to points, you’ll also receive a fact about every piece of art you find. Not familiar with our Friends program? Find out more here.
Earn the #DMAfaves Friends badge by finding all twelve!
We want to know your favorite pieces in our collection too! Take photos of your own faves, tag them with #DMAfaves, and post them to social media. We’ll share your pictures on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts all summer long.
Paige Weaver is Marketing Manager at the DMA.
Mrs. International 1989 contestants visit the DMA.
I was searching the archives for a fun photo to share and decided on the above. Unfortunately, like many photos in the archives, it was essentially unidentified, because in this case, I discovered that the photo was misidentified.
The caption on the back of the photo reads “Mrs. America #18 1980.” I tried to find some additional context by using the The Dallas Morning News archives, something along the lines of ‘Mrs. America contestants visit museum,’ or even ‘Mrs. America pageant held in Dallas,’ but there was nothing. A search for the history of the Mrs. America pageant showed that it was held in Las Vegas, so a visit to the DMA seemed highly unlikely. Then, with both the pageant and date now in question, I took a closer look at the titles on the sashes, and searched for “Mrs. Texas International.”
I was now fairly certain that the women in the photo were contestants in the Mrs. International pageant, which was also licensed as Mrs. USA, but I still didn’t have a date. I started to search the states visible on the sashes of the Mrs. International pageant participants in hopes of identifying one of them to determine the date. Luckily for me, the Mrs. Ohio website came through and included past winners with photos. I was able to identify Mrs. Ohio as 1989 winner Ruth Coffman, thus providing the date for the photo.
In addition to an amusing image, this became a fun way to demonstrate just one of the many types of things I do in the DMA Archives.
Hillary Bober is the Archivist for the Dallas Museum of Art.
This fourth of July we are celebrating the stars and stripes in the DMA collection. The DMA is open tomorrow, July 4th, and the entire weekend, so come explore the collection for free!
Kimberly Daniell is the Manager of Communications and Public Affairs