This exhibition does just that. Throughout his career El Anatsui has used a multitude of materials, and it is through their use that we can see thoughts emerging and forming. We can see these thoughts are not random or fleeting. Ideas and images of the artist’s life and culture are consistently involved.

On view now are works made with a wide variety of materials and techniques. Wood has been carved, assembled, painted, and burned. Metals and fabrics are brought together and blended. Acrylic paints are applied to Masonite and paper and wood. These paints have been applied in a loose and running style—and in other works he uses a more controlled technique and precise style. There are works of ink on paper that relate to works he made in other mediums. One example of this, titled Omen, is part of a series of drawings from 1980 and 1981 exhibited next to a work of the same title made of ceramic and manganese in 1978.

El Anatsui produced other drawings in the more esoteric method of drypoint and aquatint. These are exhibited next to a wall sculpture woven together with aluminum and copper wire. Very different, both are equally beautiful and demonstrate a mastery of materials.

The depth and breadth of materials in this exhibition is impressive, and all are held together by the steady, focused vision of El Anatsui.

—Kathryn Briggs led the design production team for the El Anatsui exhibition.

Image:
El Anatsui, Omen, 1978, ceramic, H. 15 1⁄2 x W. 21 x D. 16 1⁄2 in., Photo courtesy Museum for African Art / Kelechi Amadi-Obi

A few steps outside the Rembrandt exhibition in East Building is another exhibition, titled Self, Observed. Conceived and organized by our Education Department, this exhibition is a juried college art competition. Over 160 online submissions of original self-portraits in various media were received from all over the country. The jury, made up of college students from the Curatorial Projects class at UNC–Chapel Hill, selected 41 works for display, plus two video entries. Other entries can be viewed on a video screen.

This project is unique for the NCMA in several ways. It is our first juried college art exhibition. I will admit the suspense was thick over the summer as the entries seemed slow to arrive, but as soon as the fall school semester started, the whole thing went viral. The entries poured in.

Another twist is that the jury was made up of college students. The Curatorial Projects students (under the leadership of professor Elin o’Hara Slavick) selected art for the exhibition and wrote label copy. They provided not only enthusiasm and thoughtful perspectives, but also another layer to the outreach programming for which our Education Department is known. That reaching out and taking the Museum experience into different communities creates connections and partnerships that enhance the art experience for us all.

As the designer for this project, my original challenge was to design a room with only 18 works. By the time final entries were received, the challenge was to design a room with so many. The curatorial students wrote what we call “extended” labels, which take up more than the usual amount of wall space. I felt it was important to allow each work to have enough space to be seen on its own and not simply as part of the whole. I believe a good balance was created between the individual self-portraits and the groupings of works.

Self, Observed is an inviting and contemporary companion exhibition to Rembrandt in America. Congratulations to those students whose work was selected. Between these students and Rembrandt, there really are masters among us!

Image above: Mark Wroblewski, I’m Trying to be Serious, 2011, Charcoal, 13” x 19”. Self, Observed is on view on Level B in East Building at the Museum.

Glenn Ligon, Stranger #21, 2005, acrylic, coal dust, silkscreen, gesso. and oil stick on canvas, 96 x 72 in.

When I first heard the title I thought, OK, what is this about? The answer came, 30 contemporary African American artists. My next thought was, OK, contemporary art. I am sure that I, like many others, have my personal favorite periods of art, favorite styles of art, and even favorite artists making art. I will admit that contemporary art is an area about which I am the most unfamiliar.

When I walked through the show, I was intrigued to find names I recognized from ARTnews. This show was full of the contemporary artists I had read about—Nick Cave (ARTnews, November 2010), Wangechi Mutu (ARTnews, February 2011) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (ARTnews, March 2010), to name a few.

Perhaps I should look more closely …

I think it is a wonderful thing how our minds can take an unfamiliar image and in a flash link it to something familiar that we have seen somewhere along the way. This happened over and over as I walked through the installation of 30 Americans.

From afar Glenn Ligon’s Stranger #21 reads as a modernist color-field work reminiscent of the Ellsworth Kelly in West Building. As I got closer to the Ligon, texture came into focus. Move in even closer, and it becomes actual text. One is physically drawn into the message and the words of James Baldwin’s 1953 essay “Stranger in the Village,” which Ligon uses to tell his own story.

Kara Walker’s use of Victorian-silhouette-style cutout paper catches the unsuspecting eye and tells a story not of idyllic Victorian life but of something entirely different. Rashid Johnson creates assemblage works that recall Louise Nevelson’s Black Zag CC, also in West Building. Kehinde Wiley refers to his style as “urban-meets-classical.” His paintings beautifully integrate contemporary figures with images from Velázquez and van Dyck and others. The links in this exhibition are not limited to the past or other styles of art but also to literature and music.

The links move us forward to present-day advertising with the Nike swoosh in Branded Head by Hank Willis Thomas and social media video that can be viewed in the City Block. As I walked through the City Block I saw a video of Nick Cave’s Soundsuits in action. These full-body art pieces are worn by the artist, who twirls and swirls, truly making the art come to life. Many of the movements are similar to those used in the Egungun ceremony dance of the Yoruba people. Yes, there is an Egungun costume in West Building.

I was honestly surprised and delighted by how many different ways I could connect with the art in 30 Americans. There is something about people telling a story. Whether it is my story or their story or someone else’s story, a story told well through art is a beautiful thing.

This post is one of a series on staff perspectives of 30 Americans. Kathryn Briggs works in exhibition design at the NCMA.

These past two weeks we have literally begun the move. The day after the doors closed to the public, we, in the Design Department, took over the Egyptian Gallery to prepare the brand new casework for the trip to the new building as the Registration Department did the same with much of the artwork.

About a year and a half ago we started building cases and bases. These past two weeks they were wrapped, padded and moved. Now they are in their new home awaiting final installation.

This process would not be going so well without a great group of volunteers from the community who are doing a tremendous job for us all. Their excitement is infectious and their energy seems limitless.

To see the new cases in the new building is a great feeling. Everyday it looks more and more like a museum. These mini-mile-markers on the road to completion are telling signs that this place really is a Museum on the Move.

New York fashion week is filled with models. Some of them (like Iman and Christy) rise to the status of supermodel. Here at the Museum, we have our own supermodel.

Back in October of 2006, the idea came about to build a model of the new building. To be used as a tool by our designers and curators, this model would assist in planning the big move of our collection. Many times we construct a foam core model of our changing spaces to plan and design temporary exhibitions. The supermodel (and yes, that’s what we call it) was to be bigger and better, made from real wood for the floor and painted walls-just like the new building. Even at a scale of 1/2 inch to 1 foot this model was going to be big, too big in fact to fit through any of our doors. As a result, we built it in 5 pieces, each on its own wheeled cart. Complete with reflected details of the ceiling coffers and plexiglass windows and doors-this model is just like being there.

Fully assembled, the supermodel is about 9 feet wide and 18 and a half feet long, plus a little more for the outdoor courtyard that was added later. We even made case work on which pictures of sculptures sit and cut out tiny images of all the paintings, too. All in perfect ½ inch scale.

Over the months, and now years, I’ve seen folks from every department use the supermodel in meetings. The curators have spent uncounted hours with the images of artwork in the collections, moving one here, others there. Our designers have spent many hours as well, developing floor plans and elevations of each new gallery.

As a result of all the planning done on and around the supermodel, we are ready to move into the new building. Supermodel sized for now but very close to the real thing.

We have begun the long process of construction of each of these new cases–148 in total. In fact, we are deep into it. The measuring, cutting, building, and painting will be complete by the end of June and the cases will wait for their debut in their new home next spring.

This sleek modern aesthetic of the new building also dictates the color we paint things. Everything is white. But not just any white, it is called Super White. And it is WHITE. Every case, pedestal, wall case, platform, and plinth is painted white.

Our storage area looks like a bank of fresh snow that’s waist deep, but if you look closely you’ll see that every piece is slightly different, built to exacting specifications for each particular work of art. All these cases are much like snow flakes in a blizzard… each one is unique and there are so many in one place!

Kathryn Briggs is the Exhibition Production Assistant. She helps build snowflakes that make up the blizzard of casework in the new gallery building. The storm begins in April 2010.