Revisiting Monumenta, Newport, Rhode Island’s 1974 public sculpture extravaganza

In the summer and autumn of 1974, more than 50 statues of the true names of Modern art, including Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson and Christo, took over the buttoned-up seaside town. Newport, Rhode Island. An event of this magnitude will surely be forever recorded in the annals of art history; So why did this happen? MonumentHas this landmark public sculpture exhibition faded into relative obscurity?

Fifty years later, the exhibit’s co-organizers and the Newport County Preservation Society are working to reaffirm its legacy. On August 17, the Preservation Society hosted a celebratory event at Rosecliff, one of 11 historic properties, to shed light on the exhibit’s story and impact and to announce new initiatives to preserve its legacy. Attendees filled Rosecliff’s opulent oceanfront ballroom to the brim. Monument Pride was like a badge of honor; but that certainly wasn’t how it was received at the start of the show.

“As we were installing these pieces, people were walking by and shouting insults like, ‘I hope you’re not leaving this piece of trash on Ocean Drive,'” says Hugh Davies, director emeritus of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. , referring to Claes Oldenburg Geometric Mouse (1969). co-edited by Davies Monument as part of art history professor Sam Hunter’s doctoral graduate seminar at Princeton University. “For Newport’s traditional and conservative crowd, it was an outrage to have this ‘ugly’ new art brought into Gilded Age properties that were largely from their era. “Many people thought Modern art was a joke.”

But at the same time, public art programs were being encouraged at the federal level as a way to enhance urban spaces; For example, in 1967 Calder La Grande Vitesse Designed for the City Hall plaza in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the work became the first piece of public art to be partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

one year ago MonumentHunter, who has had an illustrious editorial and curatorial career that includes directorship of New York’s Jewish Museum, curated a public art exhibition in Boston. This Modern sculpture exhibition caught the attention of real estate developer Jay Schochet, who wanted to do something similar in Newport. Shochet introduced Hunter to William A. Crimmins, who lived in Newport, was passionate about art, and would ultimately finance most of the expenses. Monument (the project also received an NEA grant). Crimmins also provided crucial contacts to Hunter’s team; most notably with Katherine Warren, co-founder and first president of the Preservation Society and a serious collector of Modern art. When Newport was scheduled to host the America’s Cup sailing yacht competition in 1974, a simultaneous display of Modern art would further revitalize the city and attract legions of tourists.

Demonstration on shoelace

Monument It was made possible by Hunter’s relationships with artists and institutions and Crimmins’ and Warren’s Newport influence. Also crucial was Hunter’s young and scrappy team, which included students in the doctoral graduate seminar like Davies as well as recent Brown graduate Nancy Rosen, whom Hunter had known since her time as an editor for the arts publisher Harry N. Abrams. it worked. As part of the seminar, Davies led the curation. MonumentRosen managed logistics responsibilities such as insurance, shipping and correspondence.

“None of us were paid anything; we were just excited to volunteer,” says Davies, adding that staying with classmates at Crimmins’ house in the months before the exhibition “was the most fun summer ever.” Like Rosen, a curator who now lives in New York City and manages fine art collections and public art programs, including Battery Park City in Manhattan, Davies emphasizes how much this experience shaped his career: “It’s the reason I gravitated towards museum work. rather than teaching, because I loved contact with artists and objects.”

Among Davies’ favorite memories of the project is the return of De Kooning’s sculpture. Oyster DiggerAfter the exhibition, to the artist’s studio on Long Island. Although Davies said he never understood the “reduced” scale of the work, it suddenly clicked when De Kooning came out to greet him. “When she stood next to him, he was exactly her height!” Davies also recalls struggling to fit John Chamberlain’s ultra-light aluminum Vipers Buglossuntil the artist himself appeared and suggested “just drilling a hole” in the bottom.

All the statues inside Monument They were either owned by artists, their galleries, or lent directly by the artists. None of them were for sale. “Frankly, I think most of the Newport community would be happy to pay to have the works removed,” Rosen says, acknowledging that the statues are hard to miss, even though they are located on the Bellevue Avenue lawns of the Elms and Chateau. sur-Mer (where most of the heavy hitters, including at least ten David Smith statues, are displayed for security reasons), Fort Adams, Bowen’s Wharf or other local landmarks. Despite a glowing review New York TimesRosen says most locals are “stunned” and “confused.”

I admire modern art

Although Newport had a long and rich cultural history, by the 1950s its innovations in the visual arts paled in comparison to its musical past, which was largely reinforced by the still-beloved Newport Jazz Festival, founded in 1954. “This is the music of the 20th century, and this is the art of the 20th century,” Davies recalls and adds: Monument‘s main goal was to show “the historical bridge between traditional large-scale outdoor objects and site-specific works.”

Monument‘s most ambitious site-specific work was that of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Ocean Front Project (1974) – the duo’s first enclosed piece of water and public work on the East Coast – covered the bay at King’s Beach with 150,000 square feet of white woven polypropylene floating fabric. “Comes first Surrounding Islands in Miami and Floating Piers “It’s in Italy, but of course no one knows about the Newport study that really started it all.” VogueArt world reporter Dodie Kazanjian, born and raised in Newport. Curated by Kazanjian Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Oceanside, 50 Years LaterContains archival documents gifted to the Newport Museum of Art by the artists’ estate (through December 29).

Inspired by her “wow” moment Monument Kazanjian became the founding director in his youth. Arts and Newport Working closely with local institutions and the tourism board, he helped usher in a new era of contemporary art in Newport. For example, in 2019, Nicolas Party artifacts were installed throughout the Marble House, while last summer Great Elephant Migration He unveiled his herd of 100 life-size elephant statues made by local Indian artisans on Newport’s Cliff Walk.

Monument redux?

As for the possibility of another MonumentThe consensus between Davies and Rosen is that it’s possible, but there’s a lot of local will and probably a less comprehensive program. “It’s a dream and we’ve certainly considered it, but there are a lot of challenges in putting something on this scale together,” says Trudy Coxe, executive director and CEO of the Preservation Society.

Co-organizers say the key to future sequels is Kazanjian and Monument her family, especially Crimmins’ stepdaughter Alyson Baker. Before founding the River Valley Art Collective in the Hudson Valley in 2018, Baker served as executive director of the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City.

“Everything was much more accessible in the 1970s than it is now, but I definitely think you can translate the spirit, purpose and ambition of the project into something that can happen today, and I would love to be a part of that. Citing “the great foundation already laid” by Kazanjian and others, Baker says: The Preservation Society contacted Baker to help restore the only work so far. Monument Still in place: Richard Fleischner Grass MazeA permanent Land art installation on the grounds of Chateau-sur-Mer. The organization is also collaborating directly with the Providence, Rhode Island-based environmental artist to restore the work.

Other Monument Work includes the Monumenta50 Archive, which will add images, oral history and more to the existing archive. archive Which William and Gael Crimmins donated to the local Salve Regina University after the exhibition. All parties agree that the appetite for conservation has increased, given the massive participation and enthusiasm at the anniversary symposium. Monumenthis legacy has never been higher.

“If Newport residents had taken a poll in 1974, the majority would have said, ‘Let’s not do this again,’” says Davies. “I think now people are proud that this event is happening in Newport.”