The Panza Collection Finds A Permanent Home
The collection comes from Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, an avid art collector and philanthropist who since the 1980s has sold or donated portions of his collection to designated museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. In Europe, he’s donated or sold works to the Cantonal Museum in Lugano, Switzerland, the Palazzo Ducale in Sassuolo, Italy, and the Villa Panza in Varese, Italy.
When the collection was at the AKAG, it was designed and installed by Dr. Panza along with AKAG director Louis Grachos and Chief Curator Douglas Dreishpoon. The works included “Light and Space” works by Dan Flavin, Joseph Kosuth, and Robert Irwin; paintings by Anne Appleby, Max Cole, Alfonso Fratteggiani Bianchi, Ruth Ann Fredenthal, Timothy Litzmann, David Simpson, Phil Sims, and Winston Roeth; an early wall drawing by Sol LeWitt; and sculptures by Stuart Arends, Robert Therrien, and Anne Truitt
This incredible addition to the Permanent Collection spans a forty-year period from the mid-1960s to the present. It will be installed beginning in 2013 according to Panza’s philosophy of collecting an artist in depth. It significantly enhances the gallery’s holdings of Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Sol LeWitt, Anne Truitt, and Robert Therrien. The works acquired either compliment the works held prior, and in the case of Therrien, the gallery now holds a significant representation of his work.
The installation view pictured above is Robert Therrien's work. If you’d like to learn more about the AKAG, visit their website.
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Comment Options
BuffaloBloviator
What ever happened to that big yellow square that was hanging on one of the walls for years?
Art has sure come along way since then. I saw we have a blue square now.
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PaulBuffalo
I visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) yesterday and their collection now includes Robert Therrien's 'Table and Six Chairs' that was included in an Albright-Knox exhibition some time ago. I'm glad to see that the Albright will now be home to Therrien's folding table and chairs. It's a great addition to the collection and it will be interesting to see where this large piece will be displayed within the gallery.
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eliz
I'm surprised that an actual image from the Panza collection was not included here. Certainly, many beautiful images were made available during the show and ought to have been handy, at least from the website.
This is a bit confusing. The table and chairs were a purchase and are not from Panza.
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fredrico
Wow- just think of the artistic skill it takes to create these pieces - this stuff is awful!
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Perry
I saw the Panza collection...if you want to experience it for yourself, go to your local paint store and look at the paint chip cards. I was a little embarassed when I brought some out-of-town friends to see the show.
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EliGeorge
eliz - Hopefully this image suits you a bit better, but again, the image is not from the Panza Collection, but of an image of one the works by an artist that the gallery already had. The reason why I'm using this image and not an image from the Panza Collection is simply that they are difficult to come across. Why would images of the collection be all over the place? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose in going to see it?
I looked very hard for an image that I thought would fit the post. It was either this one or the work by Therrien. I personally enjoy his table and chairs as well as his folding table and chairs, so I included the image rather than this one by Flavin. Apparently my appreciation is not held by everyone and maybe a more colorful image like this one would better represent some of the items acquired by the AKAG. Again, it was a personal choice, and if it was a poor one, I apologize. I'd much rather have an image of the Panza Collection to include with the post, but I could not readily find one (and I did look really hard). If you have one yourself or know of where I can obtain one (I couldn't even find previews I could blow up to look wonderfully pixelated here), be sure to point it out and I will again change the picture.
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Matthewjohnp
Eli, look in the [deleted] basement.
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eliz
Eli, you can look at as many jpegs as you want and still not even come close, not within a mile, not within a 100 miles, of the actual experience of looking at an artwork. Thank you for changing the image--this, at least, is representative of what Panza is giving (I think, not having reviewed the list).
I have a whole folder of images, which were sent to me because I asked for them, as I am sure would have been the case had you requested. I will email one to Newell as I do not have your address.
Again, thanks for responding to the comment and making the change.
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LivingForge
This news item from Art Daily looks like it might represent the Panza installation at the A-K, but I'm not certain.
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=25118
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sonyactivision
What a great thing for this collector to donate to the A-K. I wonder who else out there has a Gerhard Richter or Vija Celmins that they aren't using anymore...
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Bufago
This isn't a donation, it is a "partial gift" which means it cost the AKAG a bundle the amount of which they refuse to "disclose". Louis has a nack for getting gifts that cost more then thay are worth and selling off the good stuff for as much as he can get to pay for them, it's time to deport this man before he gifts again.
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PaulBuffalo
Bufago, I'm not privileged to your information. Do you have an example of the Albright getting something that costs more than it's worth?
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EricOak
This is overblown news. An anemic collection, the Panza will be forgotten soon. As far as cost--no one knows what any of these things are worth. The contemporary art market is so fickle, so dominated by wheeler-dealers, it's going to take a long time to know what effect the AK's recent blowout sales and purchases will have on the collection's value.
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PaulBuffalo
EricOak, the entire art market is operated by 'wheeler-dealers'. (Just read Thomas Hoving's account of his tenure at the Metropolitan Museum, 'Making the Mummies Dance: Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art', as one example.)
Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo had already parted with large segments of his collection: MOCA (150 items), the Guggenheim (350 items), the Hirshhorn (39 items). Obviously, other institutions would disagree with your broad-brushing the collection as 'anemic'. Admittedly, the Op-Art period does not grab my attention as other periods do, but Op-Art must be seen in its context of laying the groundwork for more recent forms of contemporary art.
Your complaint about the artists in the Panza collection has similar echoes by dilettantes throughout history. Cezanne, Rodin, Picasso, Monet, Maillol -- these are just a few artists that were branded negatively in their time and yet their contributions are now fully recognized by the world.
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BuffaloBloviator
What ever happened to that big yellow square that was hanging on one of the walls for years?
Art has sure come along way since then. I saw we have a blue square now.
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EricOak
PaulBuffalo, Yes, the entire market is rife with hucksters, but I think the contemporary art market is the most corrupt and pernicious, except maybe for the antiquities market. I've never been implicitly labeled a dilletante before, but I don't mind; I'm more concerned with what I see as a terrible constricting of the art experience by sects of curators, dealers, and directors, and poor management (as seen at the AK).
The canard about these contemporary artists being the Picassos of today is unhelpful; the social and intellectual climate of A. Conger Goodyear's day was deeply more stringent and rule-bound than today. The outrage against Cezanne or Picasso was rooted much more in the violation of social standards of representation that it was in the actual aesthetic representation (tawdry scenes of models, etc). Nobody cares about these things now, but people do recognize impostors and stunt-makers when they see them, and judging from the cliche-riddled dry prose of most museum writing about these pieces, I suspect that even their champions have had to persuade themselves of its lasting human impulse.
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PaulBuffalo
EricOak, I appreciate your thoughtful perspective. (To get a fuller understanding of your view, I wonder if you draw a line at all abstract art. If so, then we'd have no meeting of the minds on our discussion.)
Rodin is an example that, according to many of critics of his era, did violate social standards, altered representation to unacceptable standards of the day, and ventured into lewdness with anatomical details. He broke all the rules and many did consider him a stunt-maker. We all know how he is viewed today.
I share your concern regarding the art experience, but I see little evidence of it being played out in the real world. I've visited most major art museums in the US, Canada and Mexico. I've also spent time in the museums of London and Amsterdam. I don't see hucksterism encroaching on the experience with these exceptions:
1. MOMA -- It has become more of a financial enterprise than a learning experience; 2. The Guggenheim (NYC) -- It is hampered by a whorling structure that makes it difficult to display most art; 3. The Albright - I wonder how limited their vision of contemporary art will become? Although not encyclopedic, their collections used to include representations from many periods and one could form a contextual relationship from one piece to the next. As the shift to contemporary art takes place, will it exclude the art of previous eras? I do think they desperately require more space to better display the works that they do have.
If you have a museum, in addition to the Albright, that serves as an example of the hucksterism you describe, I'd be interested. It was a pleasure to read your comments. Thank you.
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EricOak
Hey PaulBuffalo,
Thanks for the nice comments. I appreciate your insights as well; I think you have much better acquaintance with the ambiance of the museum world than I do. My field is literature, but I do keep apprised of the moods and trends in the art world, and I've tried to cultivate a discerning eye.
I don't draw the line at abstract; in fact, I think most of the AK's abstract collection is strong, and I always take out-of-town visitors to see the Hoffman, Rothko, Frankenthaler, Pollock, and other works that resonate so well at the AK. But, I do find a steep decline in the quality of conception, detail, and execution of much art from the past 25-30 years, and most alarmingly, a penchant for cleverness over meditative thinking.
Sadly for Buffalo, I feel the AK has been an aggressive champion of this kind of staging--the work of Andrea Zittel being the most representative of this heavy-handed stuff. If I have a bias, it is in favor of the human and the timeless and against the facile and the relevant. In the view of the majority of people I know, the Albright-Knox has embraced and, even worse, trumpeted these postmodern cliches, which has made the museum an often ennervating and predictable experience--with exceptions of course.
As far as the hucksterism--I can't speak for all museums, but the ones you've mentioned as being guilty happen to be some of the most important contemporary art museums in the world--including our AK. Those museums give the majority of people their experience of art from their own times; they tend to dictate what our culture summons as its icons of art. And I believe we are getting, on average, a very thin experience--maybe dazzling at first, maybe witty, but not one that lingers in our daydreams or sharpens our appetite for civilized life. Thanks again.
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