Cooperation Becomes Key to L.A. Scene

Permanent collections may be the stock in trade of art museums, but temporary exhibitions bring in the crowds and the critics, not to mention box-office receipts. Inevitably, that simple fact leads to competition. As long as human beings are more interested in new attractions than familiar cultural resources, museums would seem to be locked into a genteel battle for the attention and support that keep them going.

Or maybe not. One of the most notable new developments on the Los Angeles art scene is a rowing number of exhibitions organized as cooperative ventures instead of as separate endeavors.

This phenomenon amounts to more than just one museum loaning artworks to another. It’s also quite different from the independently organized shows that often pop up in commercial galleries in conjunction with--or in reaction to--major museum exhibitions, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries,” in 1991, or the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum’s “Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art,” in 1995.

What’s new, or at least increasingly frequent, is that museums are forming collegial partnerships to present exhibitions and auxiliary events at two or more venues.

One major collaboration, already underway, is “The Heritage of African Music,” a three-museum survey of Africa’s musical traditions and their influence on world music. “Rhythms of the Soul: African Instruments in the Diaspora,” at the California African-American Museum (to June 11), tracks the lineage of African-based music from the 17th century to the present. Another show, “Music in the Life of Africa,” at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History (to July 16), presents instruments in the context of political life, religion, family and community, work and recreation. Finally, “Music for the Eyes: The Fine Art of African Musical Instruments,” at LACMA West’s Boone Children’s Gallery (to May 14), examines the development, aesthetics and sounds of individual instruments.

Another case in point, coming soon, features contemporary British artist Leon Kossoff’s interpretations of 17th century French painter Nicolas Poussin’s work. Kossoff, who is best known for thickly painted portraits and scenes of daily life, has spent the last five years creating a homage to Poussin, mainly based on works at the National Gallery in London. Graham Beal, the British-born former director of LACMA, became interested in exhibiting Kossoff’s “Poussins” through talks with British art historian Richard Kendall. Beal left Los Angeles last summer to direct the Detroit Institute of Arts, but Victor Carlson, senior curator of prints and drawings at LACMA, took charge of the planned show.

Meanwhile, John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, became aware of Kossoff’s fascination with Poussin. Sensing an opportunity to expand the Getty’s efforts to involve contemporary artists with the museum’s collection, Walsh arranged to loan the Getty’s major Poussin painting, “Landscape With Calm,” to the National Gallery in London, where Kossoff could use it as a reference for additional prints and drawings.

The result of all this international interaction is two local exhibitions. The Getty will present “Poussin Landscapes by Leon Kossoff,” a series of large drawings and etchings after Poussin’s figurative works and landscapes, along with works that inspired them (Jan. 18-April 16). More or less concurrently (Jan. 20-April 2), LACMA will offer a larger exhibition, “Drawn to Painting: Leon Kossoff’s Drawings and Prints After Nicolas Poussin.”

These are but two examples of “a shift from competition to collaboration,” according to Michael S. Roth, associate director of the Getty Research Institute and curator of “Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture.” The highly publicized traveling exhibition will appear in Los Angeles (April 4-July 25), but not at the Getty, as might be expected. Instead, the show will be at the nearby Skirball Cultural Center.

*

Roth began working on the Freud exhibition in 1994-95, when he was a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute. The Getty was interested in presenting the show, but “Freud” isn’t an art show, so it seemed better suited to an institution with a broader exhibition program. Working with the Skirball was “a natural collaboration” because of its mission and “good neighborly relations” with the Getty, he said. Both institutions will host a series of related lectures, films, discussions, concerts and educational classes.

Unusual as they are, these collaborations aren’t exactly unprecedented. Jay Belloli, director of gallery programs at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, may have inadvertently kick-started the trend last spring with “Radical Past: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974,” which probed a chapter of local history in exhibitions and concerts at the Armory, Art Center College of Design, the Norton Simon Museum, the New Pasadena Gallery and the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

Then, over the summer, the Getty Museum, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens and the Mark Taper Forum teamed up to produce a tribute to 18th century British actress Sarah Siddons. Getty paintings conservator Mark Leonard sparked the project when he saw a portrait of Siddons at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and suggested exhibiting it in Los Angeles, alongside the Huntington’s superior version by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Getty published a book about the project, but the Huntington provided essential scholarship, key artworks and a secondary exhibition, while the Taper produced a new play on Siddons.

“It was the happiest of collaborations because it was catalyzed by works of art,” Leonard said. What’s more, he added, the project evolved naturally because it encouraged the principal participants to develop ideas in areas of their expertise and interest.

Conversations with museum curators and administrators suggest that collaboration is here to stay. “If we think of our audience as the city and all the people who come to Los Angeles, rather than as a group of members, there’s no point in being competitive,” Roth said. “The audience is so huge for intelligent, creative exhibitions, it doesn’t matter if they appear at LACMA or the Skirball or MOCA. There’s plenty of room for more programs that help people learn about art and cultural issues.”

*

Collaboration became a buzzword in museum circles several years ago when reduced public and private support of the arts sparked talks about trying to make the best of a bad situation. Financial concerns haven’t faded away, but today’s collaborations seem to be inspired by dreams of pooling talent, realizing bigger and better projects and building a larger, more diverse audience, as well as by the bottom line.

The Getty is a desirable partner because of its wealth, of course, but it generally joins forces with institutions that have a stake in a project--be it a big, splashy exhibition at a major museum or a program at a community center such as Self-Help Graphics in East Los Angeles, the Social and Public Arts Resources Center in Venice or the Watts Labor Community Action Committee in South-Central Los Angeles.

The idea is to build upon strengths and develop mutually beneficial projects, Roth said. “When you call someone not because you think you should, but because you are looking for the best person in town to do the job, it can be very liberating.”

A former professor at Scripps College in Claremont, Roth said that in taking on collaborative, multidisciplinary ventures, museums are assuming a public role once played by universities. “People expect to be stimulated and provoked but also to really enjoy themselves at museums,” he said. “That’s where the action is.”

Even so, collaboration is multifaceted and it happens for many different reasons, said Stephanie Barron, the L.A. County Museum of Art’s senior curator of 20th century art and vice president of education and public programs. Relatively small institutions often form teams to develop ideas that are too ambitious to do alone. Still other partnerships are designed for funders who favor projects combining the efforts of museums and libraries or including a strong educational component, she said.

“The National Endowment for the Humanities loves collaborations,” Barron said, and museums naturally respond to the incentive. “The Heritage of African Music,” for example, was funded by an NEH grant. “That project was conceived as three topics at three institutions with three audiences. The NEH loves that.”

The urge to collaborate also has taken root inside individual museums, she said, pointing to “The American Century” at the Whitney Museum of American Art and “MOMA 2000” at the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York, and LACMA’s upcoming millennial exhibition, “Made in California,” among other ambitious projects involving several departments of a single institution. The new methodology is being used to reinstall permanent collections as well, with the goal of putting art in context and providing a more meaningful experience for visitors, she said.

All these changes break down traditional boundaries, and--to some degree--parallel the ongoing revolution in information technology, Barron said. Just as the World Wide Web encourages participation from everyone and occupies no particular space, museums are developing new, relatively fluid models of teamwork.

“In traditional museums, the most powerful department had the most real estate,” she said. “Now it has become much more entrepreneurial.”

*

“POUSSIN LANDSCAPES BY LEON KOSSOFF,” J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center. Dates: Jan. 18-April 16. Prices: admission free, but $5 fee for required parking reservations. Phone: (310) 440-7300. * “DRAWN TO PAINTING: LEON KOSSOFF’S DRAWINGS AND PRINTS AFTER NICHOLAS POUSSIN,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. Dates: Jan. 20-April 2. Prices: adults $7, students and seniors $5, children over 5 years $1. Phone: (323) 857-6000.