Ackland Art Museum celebrates Joseph F. McCrindle

Summer Exhibition at Ackland Art Museum celebrates Generosity of Joseph F. McCrindle
Selections from a gift of more than 450 works of art to be on view.

Philanthropist and publisher Joseph F. McCrindle (1923–2008) devoted his life to his passions: literature and art. The founder and editor of the Transatlantic Review, McCrindle amassed a collection of thousands of works of art―including Old Master and 19th- and 20th-century drawings, paintings, prints, and decorative art objects―during his lifetime. His energy for collecting art was matched only by his later generosity in disbursing it. The Ackland Art Museum is fortunate to have received from Joseph F. McCrindle and his Foundation bequests and gifts of more than 450 works of art from his extensive collection.

Opening Friday, June 20, An Eye for the Unexpected: Gifts from the Joseph F. McCrindle Collection brings together a selection of approximately 130 of McCrindle’s prints, drawings, and paintings received by the Ackland. A cross-section of McCrindle’s collection, the works on view are arranged into three thematic sections: Studies; Environments: Landscape and Genre Scenes; and Stories.

Ackland works in An Eye for the Unexpected will be supplemented by loans of five McCrindle gifts received by other North Carolina art museums: the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC-Greensboro, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte.

“Going through McCrindle’s collection is like being taken through a great museum by a connoisseur who passes by the familiar ‘tourist attraction’ art works and instead calls your attention to lesser-known paintings or drawings that are just as deserving of your attention,” said Timothy Riggs, the exhibition’s curator and the Ackland’s curator of collections. “Throughout are styles and subjects that McCrindle gravitated toward, such as dramatic, emotional expression and humorous art.”

In addition to celebrating McCrindle’s gifts to the Ackland, An Eye for the Unexpected is Riggs’ last exhibition as an Ackland curator, as he will retire later this summer. “In thirty years of indefatigable curatorial work, Tim has enriched the cultural and intellectual life of the Ackland and its visitors in ways both visible and invisible, but all lasting and profound,” said Ackland director Emily Kass. “It might be said that Tim Riggs and Joseph McCrindle share an ‘eye for the unexpected,’ and we are very pleased that this culminating exhibition has allowed a valued and respected colleague to engage with the taste and character of a man with whom he clearly feels such an affinity.”

Adjacent to the exhibition will be “Inside McCrindle’s World,” an interactive space where one may experience additional aspects of art collector Joseph McCrindle’s life. Visitors are invited to listen to classical vinyl records that McCrindle might have liked; leaf through issues of The Transatlantic Review, the literary magazine that he founded and published; and use their own “eye for the unexpected” in a hands-on, make-your-own-exhibition area.

The Man

A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, Joseph McCrindle was active as a literary agent for writers including Philip Roth and John McPhee. He founded and edited the Transatlantic Review (1958-1977), a well-known quarterly journal that showcased emerging writers and artists such as William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Iris Murdoch, Joyce Carol Oates, Larry Rivers, Allen Ginsberg,Michael McClure, Lou Reed, and John Updike, among others.

In 1958, McCrindle founded the Henfield Foundation, now known as the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, providing grants to organizations focused on music, art, and social justice. His interest in education led McCrindle to endow scholarships at numerous schools and colleges, including Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Gift

Joseph McCrindle gave two paintings to the Ackland during his lifetime: Corrado Giaquinto’s 18th-century The Lamentation and Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert’s The Good Samaritan of 1631, both of which are included in An Eye for the Unexpected.

Approximately 20 percent of McCrindle’s art collection was listed in his will. Following his death in 2008, the Ackland received paintings, drawings, and McCrindle’s entire collection of 350 prints as bequests. All of the remaining art works in McCrindle’s collection―dozens of paintings and over 2,000 drawings―were passed to the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation.

In 2010, the Foundation invited curators from museums that McCrindle had a relationship with to two round-robin selection sessions held at McCrindle’s New York apartment. Out of this process, the Ackland received an additional 77 drawings and paintings as gifts. Other recipients included the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Morgan Library, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among many others.

“McCrindle’s gifts add high-quality paintings, drawings, and prints to the Ackland’s collection,” said Riggs, “and expand our reach into certain areas, such as early 20th-century British and late 20th-century French prints and drawings, and 18th- and 19th-century landscape paintings and drawings.” Two out-standing examples that will be on view in An Eye for the Unexpected are Pablo Picasso’s 1936 etching and aquatint The Monkey and two 1966-67 etchings by David Hockney.

“We are grateful for and proud to acknowledge Joseph McCrindle’s generosity,” said Kass, “which, laudably, has included funding for cataloguing, conservation, and framing, so that his gifts may be properly documented, preserved, and displayed for generations to come.”

Catalogue

An Eye for the Unexpected is accompanied by a fully-illustrated, 104-page catalogue, with essays by Timothy Riggs; Sara Berkowitz, research assistant; and John Rowe, president and CEO of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation. The publication provides a deeper sense of the man behind the collection, with Rowe contributing a sketch of McCrindle’s life and his wide-ranging philanthropy, and Riggs and Berkowitz drawing attention to recurrent threads in the collection, such as stories, environments, and artists’ studies and sketches. The catalogue is available for purchase at the Ackland Museum Store.

Support

Presentation and publication of An Eye for the Unexpected is made possible by the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, the William Hayes Ackland Trust, and members and friends of the Ackland Art Museum.

Opening Events

ACKLAND ANNUAL LUNCHEON
with Honored Speaker Timothy Riggs, Ackland Curator of Collections
Thursday, June 19, 2014, 11:30 AM
The Carolina Inn, $45 per person. Proceeds benefit the Ackland’s curatorial program. Purchase tickets at the Museum Store or by phone: 919.843.5637

OPENING CELEBRATION
Thursday, June 19, 2014, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Ackland Art Museum, Free
RSVP required: 919.843.5637 or kcwalton@email.unc.edu
More related programs may be found at www.ackland.org.

 

About the Ackland
The Ackland Art Museum is located on the historic campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Ackland’s holdings consist of more than 17,000 works of art, featuring significant collections of European masterworks, twentieth-century and contemporary art, African art, North Carolina pottery, and folk art. In addition, the Ackland has North Carolina’s premier collections of Asian art and works on paper (drawings, prints, and photographs). As an academic unit of the University, the Ackland serves broad local, state, and national constituencies.

Hours and Admission
As of June 1, 2014, the Ackland Art Museum’s hours are Wednesday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 PM. The Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Admission to the Ackland Art Museum is always free, with donations accepted

Location
The Ackland Art Museum is located on South Columbia Street, just south of East Franklin Street, on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Detailed directions are available at www.ackland.org or by calling 919.966.5736.

Parking is available at several nearby municipal and private parking decks, and at meters on Franklin Street. Detailed parking information and a map are available at www.parkonthehill.com.

Media Contact
Emily Bowles, Director of Communications, esbowles@email.unc.edu, 919.843.3675.

Images
Gifts of Joseph F. McCrindle, Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
Robert Pohill Bevan, British, 1865-1925: The Homestead, c. 1910-14; oil on canvas, 2010.4.6.
Odilon Redon, French, 1840-1916: Cain and Abel, 1886; etching, 2010.3.266.
Lodovico Carracci, Italian, 1555-1619: Male Nude, n.d.; red chalk, 2010.4.12.
Corrado Giaquinto, Italian, 1699-c. 1765: The Lamentation; oil on canvas, 2003.12.
Bernard Boutet de Monvel, French, 1881-1949: Joseph McCrindle as a Boy, c. 1930; oil on canvas, 2010.4.9.

Category: Press Releases