Hunter Museum of American Art

Just a few days ago, Elise Chang with the Andy Warhol Museum came to look at our Warhol painting of Jimmy Carter.  The Warhol Museum is doing a catalogue raisonne of the artist's paintings.  (A catalogue raisonne is a publication that lists all the works by an artist, sometimes within a certain medium, as is the case here.)  Elise examined the condition of the work, noted any writing on the back of the painting or frame, and read over our files for pertinent information.  In return, I learned more about Warhol and his paintings from the 1970s.

As one of the curators here, I do research on pieces in the Hunter collection on a continuing basis.  For example, I am working on an exhibition about the Impressionist painter Julian Alden Weir, which I hope will culminate in an exhibition in 2013.  We own a touching portrait done by Weir of his younger sister, Helen, whom the family called Nell.  While I still don't know all the details of her life, I have found out quite a bit and I used that to write a label for the gallery.

With our contemporary works, our education curator, Adera Causey, tries to contact each artist to have him or her tell us about the work we've just acquired.  We will use their comments as part of our guide by cell program.  (This is like an accousti guide tour, which you may be familiar with.  You dial in the number on a label and hear more about the work.)  Check out Paul Stankard's comments about his small elegant work in the newly installed glass galleries.

Finally, sometimes we just get lucky and someone contacts us with information on a piece we own.  About a year ago, I got an email from a scholar in Ireland who was researching work done in that country by American artist, Rockwell Kent.  She was able to give me all sorts of details on Kent's painting, Glen, Ireland, in the Hunter collection.  Again, we incorporated that information into the label by the work.

This is one of the things I love about my job; I'm always learning.

Ellen Simak
Chief Curator