Museum Acquisitions
Museum acquisition is a curiously complex process, which happens a bit differently every time. The curator’s role can be quite large or very slight depending on the circumstances. Sometimes it’s a matter of finding a painting; sometimes of working with a potential donor; and sometimes of just standing aside and letting powerful forces do their work. Inevitably, it’s a complex, demanding, and thoroughly political enterprise, which requires a good deal of dialogue and partnership with the museum’s director, trustees, and other members of the staff and local community. It’s also a process that’s very dependent on practical realities, and in fact often everything falls through. Given a certain set of resources, you try to do the best you can under the circumstances, and naturally the results vary a good deal in their outcome. Indeed, the obvious variations of artistic style and even quality in this list, are a large part of what make it interesting. I’ve had the good fortune over my career to study with and work with some very gifted connoisseurs, including Ted Stebbins, Ted Pillsbury, Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Jack Lane and Marc Wilson. They certainly deserve a word of thanks here. For me, compiling this list provided a trip down memory lane and stirred up a hornet’s nest of recollections.
